Slike strani
PDF
ePub

EXAMPLES FOR VOCAL PRACTICE.

Airy, fairy Lilian,

Flitting, fairy Lilian,

When I ask her if she love me,

Claps her tiny hands above me,
Laughing all she can ;

She'll not tell me if she love me,

Cruel little Lilian.-Tennyson.

Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats,
Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,
Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,
Pointing tails and pricking whiskers,
Families by tens and dozens,

Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives,

Followed the Piper for their lives.—Browning.

Now clear, pure, hard, bright, and one by one, like to hailstones,
Short words fall from his lips fast as the first of a shower,—
Now in twofold column, Spondee, Iamb, and Trochée,
Unbroke, firm-set, advance, retreat, trampling along,—

Now with a sprightlier springiness, bounding in triplicate syllables,
Dance the elastic Dactylics in musical cadences on;

Now, their voluminous coil intertangling like huge anacondas, Roll overwhelmingly onward the sesquipedalian words.-Stacy.

Fight, gentlemen of England! fight, bold yeomen!
Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head:
Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood;
Amaze the welkin with your broken staves.
A thousand hearts are great within my bosom.
Advance our standards, set upon our foes!
Our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George,
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!

Upon them! Victory sits on our helms.-Shakespeare

In the following examples study the pantomimic as well as the vocal expression, giving especial attention to the attitudes of the head. (See Lessons XXV. and XXVII.)

Girl! nimble with thy feet, not with thy hands,
Curl'd minion, dancer, coiner of sweet words!
Fight! let me hear thy hateful voice no more!

-Matthew Arnold.

Then Rustum raised his head; his dreadful eyes
Glared, and he shook on high his menacing spear
And shouted: "Rustum!"-Matthew Arnold.

I did hear him groan:

Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans
Mark him, and write his speeches in their books,
Alas! it cried, "Give me some drink, Titinius!"
As a sick girl.-Shakespeare.

So you beg for a story, my darlings,

My brown-eyed Leopold,

And you, Alice, with face like morning,
And curling locks of gold.

Then come, if you will, and listen-
Stand close beside my knee-
To a tale of the Southern city,
Proud Charleston by the sea.

-M. A. P. Stansbury.

Hail to thee, blithe spirit!-bird thou never wert-
That from heaven, or near it, pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

-Shelley, "The Skylark."

LESSON XXVII.

Attitudes of the Head.-Continued.

V.-The Head Inclined (Fig. 12)

Indicates ease, trustfulness, familiarity, or indifference. When the head is inclined toward a person or object it indicates affectionate or trustful attention. When the head inclines in the opposite direction from the object at which the speaker is looking, it indicates distrust, or criticism. When the eye also is turned away, the expression is of great indifference, inattention.

FIG. 12.

As a bearing, the head may sway from side to side, in which case it indicates self-esteem, indifference to others, egotism, or merely an easy-going nature, according to the degree of the movement. The head inclined habitually to one side is indicative of a sentimental nature, apt to be indiscriminately trustful. Very great inclination denotes a degree of mental weakness. Usually, this attitude is an affectation.

VI.-The Head Advanced (Fig. 13)

indicates eagerness, curiosity, and sometimes threatening. This also may be a bearing.

VII.-The Head Drawn Back (Fig. 14)

indicates surprise, suspicion, harsh moods of the mind, like hatred, fear, anger or disgust. As a bearing it denotes characteristics of a like unpleasant nature.

[blocks in formation]

VIII.-The Head Hing (Fig. 15)

indicates shame, despair, or bodily weakness. The hang of the head differs from the bow in that all the muscles of the neck relax and the head drops lifelessly forward, while in the bow the neck yields but a very little at the most. As a bearing this would indicate weakness as of a very old man, an invalid, or an imbecile.

IX.-The Head Thrown Back (Fig. 16)

indicates prostration, agony either of mind or of body. We seldom have use for so extreme an attitude as this,

but quite often make a similar movement to express disgust or weariness, throwing back the head as if seeking to rest it on an imaginary pillow or on the shoulder.

[blocks in formation]

Be angry when you will, it shall have scope;
Do what you will, dishonor shall be humor.
O Cassius, you are yokèd with a lamb,

That carries anger as the flint bears fire. V.

-Shakespeare.

Here is a beautiful example of the indifferent inclination and action of the head in the first two lines, changing to the affectionate bearing as the anger of Brutus gradually melts.

Who is it leans from the belfry with face upturned to the sky,
Clings to a column and measures the dizzy height with his eye? VI.
-Stansbury.

How like a fawning publican he looks. V., VII.
-Shakespeare.

Here Shylock's expression is a mixture of suspicion and jealousy, and the attitude of the head should cor

« PrejšnjaNaprej »