EXAMPLES IN PITCH (46)

High Pitch.

Note.—­Be careful to distinguish pitch from power in the following exercise.  Speaking in the open air, at the very top of the voice, is an exercise admirably adapted to strengthen the voice and give it compass, and should be frequently practiced.

1.  Charge’!  Chester” charge’!  On’!  Stanley, on’!

2.  A horse’! a horse’! my kingdom’ for a horse’!

3.  Jump far out’, boy’ into the wave’! 
   Jump’, or I fire’!

4.  Run’! run’! run for your lives!

5.  Fire’! fire’! fire’!  Ring the bell’!

6.  Gentlemen may cry peace’! peace’! but there is no peace!

7.  Rouse’ ye Romans! rouse’ ye slaves’! 
   Have ye brave sons’?  Look in the next fierce brawl
   To see them die’.  Have ye fair daughters’?  Look
   To see them live, torn from your arms’, distained’,
   Dishonored’, and if ye dare call for justice’,
   Be answered by the lash’!

Medium Pitch. (47)

Note.—­This is the pitch in which we converse.  To strengthen it, we should read or speak in it as loud as possible, without rising to a higher key.  To do this requires long-continued practice.

1.  Under a spreading chestnut tree,
     The village smithy stands’;
   The smith, a mighty man is he,
     With large and sinewy hands’;
   And the muscles of his brawny arms
     Are strong as iron bands.

2.  There is something in the thunder’s voice that makes me tremble like a child.  I have tried to conquer’ this unmanly weakness’.  I have called pride’ to my aid’; I have sought for moral courage in the lessons of philosophy’, but it avails me nothing’.  At the first moaning of the distant cloud, my heart shrinks and dies within me.

3.  He taught the scholars the Rule of Three’,
     Reading, and writing, and history’, too’;
   He took the little ones on his knee’,
   For a kind old heart in his breast had he’,
     And the wants of the littlest child he knew’. 
   “Learn while you’re young’,” he often said’,
     “There is much to enjoy down here below’;
   Life for the living’, and rest for the dead’,”
     Said the jolly old pedagogue’ long ago’.

Low Pitch. (48)

1.  O, proper stuff! 
   This is the very painting of your fear: 
   This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said,
   Led you to Duncan.  O, these flaws and starts,
   Impostors to true fear, would well become
   A woman’s story at a winter’s fire. 
   Authorized by her grandam.