Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-05-10
CULTURE OF THE VOICE
Exercises Which, If Practiced, Will Greatly
Improve It.
Voice Indicates the Character-Ameri-
can Women, ms a Rule, Do Not
Possess Sweet Voices.
From the New York Herald.

From the New York Herald.
Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle and low; an excellent thing in wo-
Not excellent alone, but rare, as stroll
through crowded shopping district Of a
great city will quickly convince one. You
will hear one woman after another lifting
a high. shrill voice above the city's din,
to express admiration or condemnation of
the goods displayed; and 1t is not until she
suddenly steps into a quieter place that
she becomes aware of her high pitched,
piercing voice. Although she will then low
er the pitch materially. the long period of
screaming has sharpened her tone. and it
unconsciously maintains shriller key than
Is quite natural 1t is like talking to
deaf man for a length of time, and then at
tempting to come back to natural CONVEX
satfon with man not SO afflicted. Your
companion will look and listen curiously
for while. and finally, exclaim: why
are you screaming SO? I'm not deaf" Go
into a restaurant that is frequented by the
shopping woman If you will be convinced
OF this fact An Interested student Of hui
man nature is there able to follow as
many conversations as his intelligence can
simultaneously comprehend.
That the voice is an index Of character
We are informed by the old Jesuit father,
Athanasius Kircher. who writes that
strong and hoarse voice signifies that its
possessor Is avaricious, pusillanimous; In
solent In prosperity, cowardly In misfor-
tune; and Tacitus tells us that such was
Caligula. A voice that Is grave at first and
terminates in falsetto, Is, according to
Father kircher. possessed by a man who
is sad and irritable; the sharp. feeble and
broken voice Is the index of an effeminate
nature; sharp and strong tone belongs
to the man who loves pleasure, while the
grave sonorous and heavy voice is owned
by the individual who is enterprising, bold
fitted great things.
Voice Indications.
To a delicate and trained ear the voice
indicates many things regarding tempera-
ment, character and moral qualities. Gre
try says: "a man can conceal himself in
his conversation, but has not yet learned
to disguise his intonation." And the voice,
even to the casual listener. expresses the
emotion with which the speaker is agttated.
Fear ard languor lower the voice; astonish-
ment cuts 1t off; admiration prolongs it;
hope renders 1t sonorous and equal; anger
makes 1t hoarse and uninterrupted; desire
hastens the words and causes the phrases
to begin with long EXPLANATIONS; holiness
renders speech concise and leaves some
thing for thought to supply. Plato drew
his conclusions as to the character of men
largely from the sound of their voice, for
he would eXclaim upon being presented to
strangers, Speak that 1 may know your
The possibilities of the voice are so great
that we can scarcely understand how wo-
men of culture have neglected its training
for so long: Sarah Bernhard demonstrates
these possibilities IN a marked degree. She
moves her great audiences largely by the
wonderful modulations Of her soft, deep
voice. The story of her admission to the
Conservative at Paris has often been told
how she needed to read but two lines Of
Les DeIx Pigeons" to be stopped by Au-
Der. the president, and told that she would
be admitted. In her early appearances on
. TDnvi oIfy %
ridicule the tall and angular form. which
made no attempt to hide its leanness. But
they were restrained by the wonderful pow
er of that voice which has since moved all
the world
The speaking voice is as capable of cul-
ture and improvement the singing voice.
We can all learn to speak properly and
with pleasing information. And the few SIM
pie rules here given may be of use to the
seeker after perfection in this direction.
The correct, or orotund voice. should pos
sess five qualiies-fullness, clearness,
strength. smoothness and ringing quality.
And the terms are technically described
thus:
Fulness-Grave, hollow volume, which ap-
proaches toward hoarseness.
Characterization from nasal murmur
and aspiration.
Strength Satisfactory loudness or audi
bility.
harshness.
The correct speaking voice, like the cor
rect singing voice, presupposes correct
breathing. In producer g all sounds the
human voice makes use of two modes of
breathing The first, continuous stream
of air throughout the whole time Of ex-
piration is employed in ordinary breath
Ing, in painting, signing. groaning and
sreezing; while the second. which is an
issue of breath by short, iterated jets.
serves us for laughter, crying and speech.
Coughing is produced either by a series
of short, abrupt efforts, or by one con-
tinued impulse which yields up the whole
breath. 1t is this latter process which may
be utilized in an exercise that will produce
To Train the Voice.
The second cough just mentioned, is
nothing more nor less than an abrupt ut
terance of one of the short tonics of the
voice, followed by mere atomic, or tone
less, breathing of "h" until the expiration
the latter half OF the operation must be
omitted. Practice only the abrupt utter
ance of the tone. and you will produce a
sound like the voice of gaping, hollow and
ringing.
After some time has been spent in this
exercise you will be able to accomplish 1t
with great facility and with clearness and
smoothness of voice. Now go one step
further, and slide upward and downward
through the concrete scale When this
has become easy go on to syllable combi-
nations in place of single tones. Practice
but little at first, and with great precau-
ton, since this forcing out of the breath
to the seeming exhaustion of the lungs Is
apt to produce giddiness.
When you have gone thus far success
n