THE SPEAKING VOICE AND PRONUNCIATION
A generation ago the speaking voice was even less understood than the
singing voice. That the two were intimately connected was but half
surmised. Only an occasional person recognized what is now generally
conceded, that a good way to improve the speaking voice is to
cultivate the singing voice.
In 1887 I published a paper in the _Independent Practitioner_ defining
the singing voice and the speaking voice as identical, and contending
that the training for each should be the same so far as tone formation
is involved, a conclusion at which I had arrived several years before.
Subsequent experience has only served to confirm this opinion.
The past has produced many good speakers, among them Henry Clay,
Daniel Webster, Edwin Booth, Wm. Charles Macready, and Edward Everett.
Of the last Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: "It is with delight that one
who remembers Edward Everett in his robes of rhetorical splendor,
recalls his full blown, high colored, double flowered periods; the
rich, resonant, grave, far-reaching music of his speech, with just
enough of the nasal vibration to give the vocal sounding-board its
proper value in the harmonies of utterance." These examples of correct
vocalization, however, were exceptions to the general rule; they
happened to speak well, but the physiologic action of the vocal organs
which produced such results in those individual cases was not
understood, and hence the pupil ambitious to imitate them and develop
the best of which his voice was capable had no rule by which to
proceed. Few could speak with ease, still fewer could be heard by a
large assembly, and sore throats seemed to be the rule.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SINGING AND SPEAKING
In singing the flow of tone is unbroken between the words, but in
speaking it is interrupted. In singing tone is sustained and changed
from one pitch to another by definite intervals over a wide compass
that includes notes not attempted in speech. In speaking tone is
unsustained, not defined in pitch, is limited to a narrow compass, and
the length of the tones is not governed by the measure of music.
Notwithstanding these differences, singing and speaking tones are
produced by the vocal organs in the same way, are focused precisely
alike, have the same resonance, and are delivered in the same manner.
It has been said that speech differs from song as walking from
dancing. Speech may be called the prose, and song the poetry of
vocalization.
During the past decade the knowledge of the speaking voice has been
greatly broadened, and the art of cultivating tone has made progress.
The identity of the singing and speaking voice is becoming more fully
recognized, and methods are being used to develop the latter similar
to those in use for the training of the former. As Dr. Morell
Mackenzie says: "Singing is a help to good speaking, as the greater
includes the less."
The recognition of this truth cannot fail to be a great aid to the
progress of singing in the public schools, since every enlargement of
exercises common to both speaking and singing helps to solidarity and
_esprit de corps_ in teaching and in learning.
An accurate sense of pitch, melody, harmony, and rhythm is necessary
to the singer, but the orator may, by cultivation, develop a speaking
voice of musical quality without being able to distinguish _Old
Hundred_ from _The Last Rose of Summer_.
PRONUNCIATION
It is a matter of common observation that American singers, although
they may be painstaking in their French and German, are indifferent,
even to carelessness, in the clear and finished enunciation of their
native tongue. Mr. W.J. Henderson, in his recent work, _The Art of the
Singer_, says: "The typical American singer cannot sing his own
language so that an audience can understand him; nine-tenths of the
songs we hear are songs without words." Happily this condition is
gradually yielding to a better one, stimulated in part by the examples
of visiting singers and actors. In story-telling songs and in
oratorio, slovenly delivery is reprehensible, but when the words of a
song are the lyric flight of a true poet, a careless utterance becomes
intolerable.
Beauty of tone is not everything; the singing of mere sounds, however
lovely, is but a tickling of the ear. The shortcoming of the Italian
school of singing, as of composition, has been too exclusive devotion
to sensuous beauty of tone as an end in itself. The singer must never
forget that his mission is to =vitalize text with tone=. The songs of
Schubert, Schumann, Franz, Brahms, Grieg, Strauss, and Wolf, as well
as the Wagnerian drama, are significant in their inseparable union of
text and music. The singer is therefore an interpreter, not of music
alone, but of text made potent by music.
Pronunciation, moreover, concerns not only the listener, but the
singer and speaker, for pure tone and pure pronunciation cannot be
divorced, one cannot exist without the other. In his interesting work,
_The Singing of the Future_, Mr. Ffrangcon-Davies insists that, "the
quickest way to fine tone is through fine pronunciation."
We cannot think except in words, nor voice our thought without speech.
Vocal utterance is thought articulate. Therefore, instead of prolonged
attention to tone itself, training should be concentrated upon the
uttered word. The student should aim "to sing a word rather than a
tone." Correct pronunciation and beautiful tone are so interdependent
as to be inseparable.
The singer and speaker require all sounds in their purity. To seek to
develop the voice along the narrow limits of any single vowel or
syllable, as for instance the syllable _ah_, is harmful. Not only is
this vowel sound, as Lilli Lehmann says, "the most difficult," but the
proper pronunciation of all words within the whole range of the voice
is thereby impeded. Diction and tone work should therefore go hand in
hand. "The way in which vowel melts into vowel and consonants float
into their places largely determines the character of the tone
itself." Without finished pronunciation speech and song of emotional
power are impossible. Gounod, the composer, says, "Pronunciation
creates eloquence." Mr. Forbes-Robertson, the English master of
dramatic diction, speaking for his own profession says: "The trouble
with contemporary stage elocution springs from the actor's very desire
to act well. In his effort to be natural he mumbles his words as too
many people do in everyday life. Much of this can be corrected by
constantly bearing in mind the true value of vowels, the percussive
value of consonants, and the importance of keeping up the voice until
the last word is spoken. There must be, so to speak, plenty of wind in
the bellows. The great thing is to have the sound come from the front
of the mouth.... The actor must learn to breathe deeply from the
diaphragm and to take his breath at the proper time. Too often the
last word is not held up, and that is very often the important
word.... Schools for acting are valuable, ... but, after all, the
actors, like other folk, must be taught how to speak as children in
the home, at school, and in society."
In pronunciation the words should seem to be formed by the upper lip
and to come out through it. By this method it will be found easy to
pronounce distinctly. The words will thus be formed outside the mouth
and be readily heard, as is a person talking in front of, instead of
behind, a screen. A single, intelligent trial will be sufficient to
show the correctness of the statement. Thinking of the upper lip as
the fashioner of the words makes speaking easy and singing a delight.
To smile while talking gives to the words a flat, silly sound, hence
the corners of the mouth should be kept well forward.
THE SINGER'S SCALE OF VOWEL SOUNDS
[Illustration:
1 n_ee_
2 n_i_t
3 n_e_t
4 n_a_y
5 n_ai_r
6 n_a_t
7 n_i_gh
8 N_a_h
7' n_o_t
6' n_a_w
5' n_e_r
4' n_u_t
3' n_o_
2' n_oo_k
1' n_oo_.]
It may fasten this in mind to remember that at one end of the vowel
scale is--_me_, at the other--_you_.
The teeth and lips are most closed at the extremes of this scale, and
gradually open toward _ah_, with which vowel they are widest apart.
In the series 1-8 the tongue is highest in the centre for _ee_ and
gradually descends until it lies flat in the mouth for _ah_.
The _upper_ pharynx is most closed in 1, most open in 8, and closes
more and more in the descending series 7'-1'.
The _lower_ pharynx gradually opens in the descending series 7'-1'.
The researches of Helmholtz, Koenig, Willis, Wheatstone, Appunn, Bell,
and others have shown that each vowel sound has its own characteristic
pitch. The Scale of Vowel Sounds given above corresponds closely to
the order of resonance pitch from the highest _ee_ to the lowest _oo_.
In the natural resonance of the vowels _ee_ is highest in the head,
_ah_ is midway in the scale, and _oo_ is lowest in resonance.
LIP POSITION
Figure 2 shows the best position of the lips to give the sound of
_ee_. Hold the under jaw without stiffness and as far from the upper
teeth as is consistent with delivery of the pure sound of this vowel.
Figure 3 shows the best position of the lips to produce the vowel
_oo_.
Figure 4 shows the position of the lips for the vowel sound of long
_o_. The opening of the lips should be made as round as is the letter
_o_. When preparing the lips to give the sound of _o_, the inclination
is strong to drop the lower jaw; in practice, to develop action of the
lips, the under jaw would better be held quite immovable. It will be
found possible to produce all of the vowel sounds without any change
except in the form of the opening of the lips. The vowel sound of _i_
is an exception; for as a compound of _ah_ and _ee_, the extremes of
the vowel scale, it requires two distinct positions for its utterance
with a movement of transition between; it is not, therefore, a good
vowel for initial practice.
[Illustration: FIGURE 2.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 3.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 4.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 5.]
Figure 5 shows that the sound _aw_ is produced from _o_ by raising the
edge of the upper lip outward and upward, and flattening the raised
portion laterally.
Figure 6 shows the position for producing _ah_. It differs from the
position assumed for _aw_ in that the opening of the lips is larger,
the upper lip is raised higher, the flat portion is wider, and the
under lip is a little relaxed. The form of the opening to produce _aw_
is oval; the form for _ah_ is more nearly square.
[Illustration: FIGURE 6.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 7.]
Figure 7 shows the under jaw relaxed, as it should be in practice, to
enlarge the throat and give roundness and largeness to the tone. The
use of the word _hung_ will accomplish this end.
The vowel sounds illustrated above are embodied in a series of vocal
exercises to be found in Chapter VIII on _Placing the Voice_.