Connecticut western news., 1886-10-06
VOICE BUILDING.
in the Art of
 Training the Vocal Organ.

Training q the Vocal Organ. The Professional Voice of the Clergy
 man, Lawyer and Actor.
 Mrs. Florence James Adams has studied the art of voice building, both in this country and abroad. She is deeply interested in the subject, and an ardent believer in the future possibilities of the voice.
 ''First of all," she explained, '7you must know in the new method of voice building the conversational voice is trained by the vocal scale. There are three registers in the speaking voice upper, middle and lower. Every voice has range of at least seven notes. The lower register is merely used in conver- sation, of course. Its province is to ex- press anger and the harsher passions. The middle register is usually the weakest of the three. This is, however, ,he normal voice. The upper register, with its shrlll, decisive tones, is the mental. The lower one is called the vital. It is deep and passionate. The normal is, of course. the happy medium. The evenly balanced man whose heart does not outrun his head, speaks in this voice. Excitable people drift into one extreme or the other. In the voice. as in things, repose brings grace. The range matters little in the conversational voice. Though it were limited to three notes, a wise succession of tone would make it effective. It is the slur, the careless, meaningless rise and fall that ruins the speaking voice.
 'tAre not our English cousins good speakers 2'
 ''They say, you know" Mrs. Adams replied, "that the rising infection is the best spur to conversation. The falling infection is dogmatic, decisive, and cuts off all discussion. The young English man says, T-ah love you-ah,' with the rising infection. He leaves the subject poised in the middle voice. Naturally the young woman can't leave it hanging there like Mohammed's coffin. You see, the matter has already drifted into de- lightful explanatory discussion. The young American, however, says I love you with falling inf ,ction. That ends the matter. The young wo- man can call or pass out-that's all. But there is ever so much to be said on the other side."
 Do the Americans speak through the nose ?"
 Educated Americans No. The Americans have good speaking voice as usual thing, though it tends, perhaps to sharpness. The voice, you know, is the truest test of character. It is all most unfailing. One can disguise the face, the eyes, the manner, but rarely thinks of speaking out of the usual voice, One can tell the intellectual man, the inn moral man, by his voice more readily than in any other way. The professional voice is another strange thing. One can tell a lawyer the moment he opens his mouth. He speaks in hard, didactic tone with downward infection. His voice is low, but decisive. Usually when lawyer wants to get great effect he assumes stage whisper. Of course there are ever so many characteristics"
 "What of the clergym ans professional al voice?"
 ''Well, from his calling one would ex- pect him to have middle-register voice, full of heart and sympathy, but as a usual thing the head tones predominate in the pulpit. The idea of one preach ing charity and benevolence in head tones strikes me as very ridiculous. The voice and thought are out of harmony. It reminds one of boatman looking one way and rowing steadily in the other direction. Of course most clergymen are hard students given to brain work and this accounts for their voices Now and then you hear a clergyman who speaks in the low, broad tones of the normal voice. He may speak the veriest nonsense, but he is called magnetic. Every evangelist I ever heard uses this voice. Moody, Sam Jones, Talmage and preachers of that kind all do. There is a heart quality in it that has wonderful, effect. Again, it gives one an impress sion of self-contained strength. A speaker can never use all the middle volce, and one feels that there is always reserve awaiting call. Dr. John Hall, of New York, is one of the best illustrations of what I am saying. He understands that emphasis depends on the tone, not on the force."
 ''As to the stage9"
 "There, of course, the voice is all i'm portant. One can always pick out the young actor. He has awakened to the realization of the fact that he has q voice. He runs up and down the scale, ending his sentences now in ono voice and now in another. It is merely mat | ter of vocal imitation. The thoughtful voice is always poised. That is the reason women especially of the flippant sort have flexible, sliding voices, that run the | scale in few sentences"