The philosophy of the human voice: embracing its physiological history; together with a system of principles, by which criticism in the art of elocution may be rendered intelligible, and instruction, definite and comprehensive. To which is added a brief analysis of song and recitative ... / By James Rush, M.D.

  • Rush, James, 1786-1869.
Date:
1833
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The philosophy of the human voice: embracing its physiological history; together with a system of principles, by which criticism in the art of elocution may be rendered intelligible, and instruction, definite and comprehensive. To which is added a brief analysis of song and recitative ... / By James Rush, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Swift to the Lock a thousand sprites repair, A thousand wings, by turns, blow back the hair; And thrice they twitch’d the diamond in her ear; Thrice she looked back, and thrice the foe drew near. Besides the differences arising from singleness of sound, and diphthongal combination, the tonics exhibit a variety in ¢ime, both when uttered separately, and in syllabic association. ‘Two general divisions may be made; 7 a a-we, a-rt, a-n, a-le, ee-l, 7-sle, o-ur, 00-ze may be called long tonics, and e-rr, e-nd, 2-n, short. It is not to be understood that the latter may not, by designed effort, be made as long as the former: they have their place in this arrangement, from their usual time in English syllables. In the prolongation of 7-n, it changes nearly, if not entirely, into ee-l. When the long tonics are combined with other elements into syllables, their time is of every distinguish- able degree, from a momentary impulse, to the longest pas- sionate utterance of an interjection, as: from o-tt to a-we— from ou-t to h-ow—from a-t to a-h !—a-te to h-ay—p-ea-t to ee-1—f-o0-t to 00-ze—c-a-rt to p-a-rdon—k-?-te to I. The time of the short-tonics, in combination, has much less variety. But however short any of the tonics may be, they do in their minimum duration still pass through the concrete move- ment, as will be fairly proved hereafter. All the elements, except the abrupt atonics #, p, ¢, havea variety in duration. The vocality of the subtonics affords the means of their time, and its prolongation is next in importance to that of the tonics, for the purposes of vivid and graceful ex- pression. If it is asked, why I have designated the diphthongs as ele- mentary, each of which may be resolved into greater simpli- city ; it may be answered, that the diphthongs, though com- pounded of two successive sounds, are inseparable in utterance: and regarding elements as simple efforts of the voice, these diphthongs may be ranked among them. I can not pronounce the radical of a diphthong without giving also its vanish. The radical may indeed be indefinitely sustained ; but it can be ter- minated only by a glide through its second sound, which, how-