The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-03-06
The Cultivation Of the Voice.
[FrOm Harper's Bazaar.


Every one may not be blessed by nature
with pleasant voice; but almost every one
can by endeavor attain something like IT.
the inspiration, the respiration, the modula-
ton, the pitch. Some may be condemned
even In the cradle to the tones which make
you wish to clap your hands to your ears;
but vast number, II taken In time, can be
made, to say the very least, not unpleasant.
II not exactly delightful. 1t needs early
training and constant care TO bring about
the metamorphosls. From the beginning the
child should be allowed to produce no rau
eous tones. to indulge In no thick enuncla
tion, to utter no sloyenly slur Of sound; the
within the child's hearing. IL at no other
time, should open their OwR most hute-like
stop, and should speak with slow gentleness
and precision not precise enough for affecr
tation, but quite enough so Tor thorough dis
tinctness and accuracy, and for every sound
to be given Its full value. A servant OF rude
tones should never be allowed about a child,
nor any one else OF disagreeable habit OF
voice. Even the nightingales and canaries
are taught by another bird Of perfect throat;
and If the bird learns thus by naturally TAX
ing the sound 1t hears, the child will do the
same. A child once attuned by the hearing
and nelghborhood Of sweet voices to take an
agreeable pitch, and while the tone-produc-
| ing organs are still flexible. can be corrected
In any deviation from purity and pleasant
ness, till the deviation becomes all but I'm
| possible. This certainly Is not achieved by
| a simple effort; IL Is to be done only by un-
| remlttlng observation and unceasing corTec-
| tion. A harsh tone should be modified upon
| the spot, a coarse cry abandoned, a sharp
| one sOftened modulations should be taught,
giving the speaker gamut on which TO play
| and prevent monotony, for we all know
| how uncomfortable Is either reading or speak
| ing In Que dull unyarying drone. 1t Is often
desirable, especially In the case Of children
/ who have had throat troubles and recurring
i catarrhal colds, TO have them taught enun-
/ Citations by a professional elocutionist; tnat
is the producing and managing OF tone.
| There Is no young voice that cannot Dc
| improved by advice and training at the hands
| of one capable Of giving both; this Is emil
| nently true during the tirst dozen years OF
i life but ID Is true also. until close upon the
i thirtieth year. In the matter OF singing
/ voices, baritones have made for themselves
tenor voices by slow determination and prac-
/ tice; sopranos have closed q lower and open
| ed higher register; and IL such miraculous
| work as that has been done with the delicate
| and difficult singing voice, surely all that can
| be required of the speaking voice Is possible
| every day, and all that Is required Is much
| less than anything Of this sort. Many of the
| great orators of antiquity are known to have
| overcome serious defects OF speech, either In
| delivery of the voice, as In Tully's case, or
In articulation, as In the case Of DemOsthens,
and that when they were no longer children.