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MODULATION.

PITCH, TONES, ETC.

Pitch is the degree of the elevation of sound.

The word Tones, in its most comprehensive sense, denotes the whole range of perfect sounds, which are produced either by man, the inferior animals, or musical instruments; but, in elocution,

Tones consist in the various sounds of the voice, in its ascent from a low to a high pitch, or in its descent from a high to a low one.

Modulation denotes the variations of the tones in their ascending and descending progression from one note to another.

Tones express emotions considered singly; Modulation is the variation of the voice in successive tones.

The different degrees of pitch in music are denoted by what is called the Scale.

The distance between any two points or places in the scale is called an Interval.

A Note consists in a sound produced at any point or place in the scale, considered without reference either to its rise or fall.

A Tone consists in the rise or fall of the voice from one point in the scale to another, except the spaces between the third and fourth, and seventh and eighth places, which are occupied by semitones.

A Semitone consists in the rise or fall of the voice through a space in the scale half as great as that taken up by a tone.

The succession of the seven sounds of any one series, to which the octave, or eighth sound, is generally added, is called the Natural or Diatonic Scale. It consists of five tones and two semitones, the latter being the intervals between its third and fourth, and its seventh and eighth degrees. The scale then contains these several kinds of intervals, - a semitone, a second or whole tone, a third, a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and an octave.

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The first, third, and fifth notes of the diatonic scale, to which the octave, as a kind of according repetition of the first, is usually added,

differ from the rest in being more agreeable to the ear when heard in combination and immediate succession.

The voice may move concretely through the different intervals, or notes may be made at these degrees by the omission of the concrete. The former of these conditions are called concrete, and the latter, discrete intervals; one being, figuratively, a rising or falling stream of voice, and the other a voiceless space.

The first sound of the scale, relative to its rising series, is called the Key note.

The pitch, on which a syllable or word begins, in comparison with the pitch where it terminates, or of other succeeding syllables, is called the Radical Pitch, in order to distinguish it from the place or pitch at which the voice arrives by its respective concrete or discrete movements; this last-named point in the scale being denominated relatively, either its Concrete or Discrete Pitch.

MELODY OF SPEECH.

Melody is a series of simple sounds, emanating from the voice, or an instrument, so varied in pitch as to produce a pleasing effect upon the ear. The series of graphic notes by which these sounds are represented is also called melody.

Melody (applied to speech in the same general sense as in the technical language of music) is a term used to designate the effect produced on the ear, by the successive notes of the voice.

Melody is distinguished from harmony by not necessarily including a combination of parts. Harmony, in music, signifies a union of melodies, a succession of combined sounds, moving at consonant intervals, according to the laws of modulation.

Intonation is the act of sounding the notes of a melody. When each note is produced in its proper degree of pitch, the intonation is true.

"One of the most important means of expressive intonation consists in the extended time of syllabic utterance" (i. e., long quantity). — Dr. Rush.

Illustrations of Long Quantity in the Expression of

Didactic Thought.

"In a valiant suffering for others, not in a slothful making others suffer for us, did nobleness ever lie. The chief of men is he who stands in the van of men; fronting the peril which frightens back all others; which, if it be not vanquished, will devour the others. Every noble crown is, and on Earth forever will be, a crown of thorns. In modern, as in ancient and all societies, the Aristoc

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racy, they that assume the functions of an Aristocracy, doing them or not, have taken the post of honor, which is the post of difficulty, the post of danger — of death.”—Carlyle.

"The graves of the best of men, of the noblest martyrs, are like the graves of the Herrnhuters (the Moravian brethren) — level, and undistinguishable from the universal earth; and, if the earth could give up her secrets, our whole globe would appear a Westminster Abbey laid flat. Ah! what a multitude of tears, what myriads of bloody drops have been shed in secrecy about the three corner-trees of earth-the tree of life, the tree of knowledge, and the tree of freedom, shed, but never reckoned! It is only great periods of calamity that reveal to us our great men, as comets are revealed by total eclipses of the sun. Not merely upon the field of battle, but also upon the consecrated soil of virtue, and upon the classic ground of truth, thousand of nameless heroes must fall and struggle to build up the footstool from which history surveys the one hero, whose name is embalmed, bleeding—conquering—and resplendent."— Richter.

"Think not the distant stars are cold; say not the forces of the universe are against thee; believe not that the course of things below is a relentless fate; for thou canst see the stars, thou canst use the forces; in right, thy will is unconquerable, and by it thou art the maker and the lord of destiny. In thy living consciousness the universe itself has living being, and thou in that art greater than the universe. Anoint thine eyes with holy thought, that the gross and fleshly scales may fall from off them. Then like Gehazi in the mountain, at the prayer of Elijah, thou Power for thy good is round about thee; thou shalt discern that thou art embosomed in Protection- that thou art compassed by the fiery energies of Heaven, that thou art girded and guarded by the Presence and Majesty of God."—Giles.

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"This spirit shall return to Him

Who gave its heavenly spark;

Yet think not, Sun, it shall be dim
When thou thyself art dark!

No! it shall live again, and shine

shalt behold that

In bliss unknown to beams of thine,

By Him recalled to breath,

Who captive led captivity,

Who robbed the grave of Victory,

And took the sting from Death!

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"Our thoughts are boundless, though our frames are frail,
Our souls immortal, though our limbs decay;
Though darkened in this poor life by a veil
Of suffering, dying matter, we shall play
In truth's eternal sunbeams; on the way
To heaven's high capitol our cars shall roll;
The temple of the Power whom all obey,

This is the mark we tend to, for the soul
Can take no lower flight, and seek no meaner goal."
PROMETHEUS. - Percival.

"Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,

As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low-vaulted past!

Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,

Till thou at length art free,

Leaving thy outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!"

THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS.

"All grows sweet in Thee,

Since Thou didst gather us in One, and bring

This fading flower of our humanity

To perfect blossoming.

- Holmes.

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All comes to bloom! this wild

Green outward world of ours, that still must wear
The furrow on its brow, by print of care
And toil struck deep; this world by Sin made sad,-
Hath felt Thy foot upon its sod, and smiled, –
The desert place is glad!"

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THE RECONCILER. - Miss Greenwell.

"Live and love,

Doing both nobly, because lowlily;

Live and work, strongly-because patiently!
And for the deed of death, trust it to God,

That it be well done, unrepented of,

And not to loss. And thence with constant prayers
Fasten your souls so high, that constantly
The smile of your heroic cheer may float
Above all, floods of earthly agonies,

Purification being the joy of pain!"

THE DRAMA OF EXILE. -Mrs. Browning.

"We cannot say the morning sun fulfils
Ingloriously its course; nor, that the clear
Strong stars, without significance, insphere
Our habitation. We meantime, our ills
Heap up against this good; and lift a cry
Against this work-day world, this ill-spread feast,
As if ourselves were better certainly

That what we come to. Maker and High-Priest,
I ask Thee not my joys to multiply,—

Only to make me worthier of the least."

ADEQUACY. - Ibid.

MELODY OF SPEECH, Continued.

Diatonic Melody is the progression of pitch through the interval of a whole tone.

Semitonic or Chromatic Melody is the progression of pitch through the interval of a semitone.

Words may be considered under three aspects: as representatives of simple thought; as indicative of an enforcing of thought; and as expressive of passion. The progress of the voice in speaking is called Melody. For plain narrative or simple thought we use the Diatonic Melody; in giving utterance to complaint, pity, tender supplication, &c., the Chromatic Melody.

Illustrations of the Use of Diatonic Melody.

"In that great social organ, which collectively, we call literature, there may be distinguished two separate offices that may blend and often do So, but capable severally of a severe insulation, and naturally fitted for reciprocal repulsion. There is, first, the literature

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