PREFACE Most of the excellent books on Voice Culture which have been published deal with the subject from the viewpoint of the singer. Our aim is to improve the speaking voice; therefore the emphasis is put on that side of the matter. In all the discussions and exercises relating to articulation work, the necessity for the right mental attitude of the speaker toward his audience has been stressed. The obligation to make himself heard, and a real sympathy with the audience, should be felt by everyone, whether he is speaking in a large hall, a schoolroom or a drawing-room; and the majority of teachers recognize the importance of combining this feeling of responsibility with the mechanical drills. The foundation for the work outlined here is built, mainly, upon the technical courses at Emerson College of Oratory in Boston; and the writer's experience in platform reading and teaching in grade work, as well as in teachers' college classes, has proved the value of the practice involved. This book has been written in response to the request of many teachers in the public schools for a definite outline of work to develop the correct use of the voice and distinct articulation. It shows the logical order of the drills used every day in the Public Speaking classroom at the Rhode Island College of Education. Its simplicity makes it prac tical as a textbook for use in the grammar grades, as well as in high schools and colleges. The poems chosen to illustrate the exercises are peculiarly fitted for drill upon the points one wishes to emphasize in each case. Many of them express strong emotion and are intended to arouse feeling in the speaker, a measure which helps to develop the desired quality and strength in the voice. While some of them are better for adults, most of them are appropriate for use in the four upper grades in school. Many would do for any one of these grades; but where a classification is advisable, their order helps,—the simpler ones for the fifth and sixth grades coming first in each group. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Grateful acknowledgment for permission to use copyrighted poems is due to the following publishers and authors whose material is so essential to the proper practice and illustration of the principles and methods set forth in this book: Charles Scribner's Sons: "One, Two, Three," by H. C. Bunner; "The Night Wind," "Little Blue Pigeon," "Rock-a-By-Lady," and "Little Boy Blue," by Eugene Field. Edwin Markham: "Lincoln, the Man of the People" and "France in Battle Flame." G. P. Putnam's Sons: "Each in His Own Tongue," by William H. Carruth. Bobbs-Merrill Company: "The Brook," by James Whitcomb Riley. Dodge Publishing Company: "How Did You Die?" by Edmund Vance Cooke. Barse and Hopkins: "Young Fellow, My Lad," from "Rhymes of a Red Cross Man," by Robert W. Service. A. P. Watt and Son, London, and Doubleday, Page and Company, New York: "If," by Rudyard Kipling. Reilly and Lee Company: "The Silver Stripes," by Edgar A. Guest. Rand, McNally Company: "A Lullaby," from "The Spirit of Democracy," by G. R. Glasgow. Frederick A. Stokes Company: "Slave and Emperor," from "The New Morning," by Alfred Noyes. Hilda Morris: "The Little Towns." The Macmillan Company: "Belgium, the Bar-Lass," from "Poems of the Great War," by Madame Duclaux (A. Mary F. Robinson). Harper and Brothers: "The Knights," from "The Heart of New England," by Abby Farwell Brown. |