A FEW HINTS BY MR. BYRON BROWN.

Shannon News, 30 October 1923, Page 4

A FEW HINTS BY MR. BYRON BROWN.

Mr. Byron Brown, of Otaki, gave the following useful hints whib on a' visit to Cambridge : The art of elocution is the medium whereby we convey to an audience the writings of poets and story tellers of all ages. To do this 'effectively, we mus,t speak our language clearly, intelligently, and naturally, giving stress to the writer's meanings, so that the story may be well told. AH human emotions must be expressed by what we <• call "word colour," and this word-colour is produced by modulating effect. Words spoken in a monotone never reacli the heart or play upon the emotions of an audience, and the reciter who speaks words in one level voice will never get anywhere elocutionary art. The voice is capable of giving to 'every word' l its colour, and if we fail in this, it is not* for the want of voice, but our failure to cultivate it. Many people can speak with good diction and use pronunciation quite correctly, but if they say, '' The lark springs from his lowly nest, all radiating joy," and do not g"et the joy into their voice, the whole line fails of its purpose, btress and inflection play a very important part in conveying meanings. A wrong stress can make a phase mean the very opposite of its' intent, and a, wrong in : fl'cction can make a poet's lines flat and unintelligent. Most of the com' petitors at Cambridge seemed to think it was necessary to speak each word with an even stress of expression, and a measured style of cadence; with the result that the important words were lost in the prominence of words that were of little moment; to the. poet's meaning. For instance, this is how some of. the verse was delivered: —

WHEN children AEE playing ALON-u ON THE green, IN comes THE playmate THAT never WAS seen: ■ WHEN children AEE happy AND lonely AND good, .; ■ THE friend OF THE children comes OUT OF THE wood.

Of course this is a slight exaggeration, but it is the effect that was conveyed to me. Now, if they had passed over the words typed in capitals, and stressed those, in small type, it would have, made a much more intelligent reading of the verse, and be'en more natural. The children would not stress these unimportant, words in ordinary conversation. Then why do it when reciting to an audience? I don't say that tire "words in capitals were more stressed than the others, but by their being equally stressed, it left, the important words so smothered up that meanings were.lost and wrong interpretations given of the poet's intent. xO bring out into prominence the preposition and conjunction, is to produce a picture with everything in the foreground and nothing in perspective. The verb is the prominent word in the line, because it denotes action; next in importance come nouns and adjectives. This is not an absolute rule, but it is a good .guide to proper stress, uoou taste will dictate slight, alterations at times.

Now we cohie to inflection —a very important item in, intelligent reading and reciting. 'lnflection is a gradual sliding . upwards or downwards of the ends of words at punctuation marks, as distinct from modulation or alteration of pitch. By inflection one conveys the completion or the suspension of the sense. Never drop the voice at a comma, seldom at a semi-colon, and never until the sense is fully complete. To explain what I mean, let the reader expres3 s the word "indeed" in a tone of surprise, and he will get the rising inflection. Now speak the same word in a tone of derision, and the falling inflection .comes naturally. Cambridge competitors gave that falling inflection many more times wrong, than right. In fact it seemed to me that the correct rising inflection was more the result of accident than good intent. I cannot do better than give here instances of continued rising inflections from the great poet himself. This passage is a continued rising at every pause right up to trio note of exclamation: —

But were I Brutus, And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue In every wound of Caesar, that should move ' The stones of Eonie to rise and mutiny!

Here is an instance M'here every pause, including the notes of interrogation, are rising inflections, and no oue can make sense out of it ly even one falling inflection: —

"Hath not a Jew eyes'? hath not a J'ew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the . r -arae food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heated by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? if you tickle us do we not laugh? if you poison us do we not die; and if you wrong us shall we not revenge?" Let the reader study this long passage, and see if he can make sense out of it by taking falling inflections, ;:t any, or some of the punctuation marks. If lie can, or thinks he can, then let him ever .retire from Jthe elocutionary platform and never face a judge again. Have you ever heard the average Anglican priest read the Litany? "By thine agony and bloody sweat;' by thy Cross and Passion; by thy Procious Death and Burial," etc., etc. All the pauses are semi-colons, and at every one the inflection is, rising. The s'ense is not complete until the congregation responds with "Good Lord deliver us!" Yet the average priest drops his voice at every pause, and instead of an intelligent beautiful continuity of a sublime passage we have to listen to a monotonous drawl without' any chango of key. lam sure the Cambridge vicar, by the way he speaks, doesn't take a lot of falling inflections when ho reads the Church Litany. To take a rising inflection is just a lilting up of the end of the word where the pause comes; not a stress of the "indeed!" with surprise. The falling whole wojd, but just as you would say

inflection is just a dropping down of gracefully and effectively, it is good to lift the preceding word a little above its fellows. I dwell on this rising and falling inflection part of elocution because it is, perhaps, the most important of its fundamental rules, and does more to make or mar a recitation, than anything. MODULATION.

I was asked by several competitors, what is modulation? They did not seem to understand when they found on their paper, "modulation lacking," or "nd modulating effect" Modulation is pitch, tone, or word colour, ana yet sometimes above and beyond any of these. What shading is to a "painting, change of key to music, or tints to a rainbow, so is modulation to elocution. It' is at once so subtle, so exquisite, and so effective, that it is hard to give a plain difinition. It is the wonderful capabilities of tone production which the voice acquires by cultivation. It is not beyond the powers of anyone, because all can cultivate voice-tone if they will take the trouble. A voice no sweeter than a policeman's 'rattle can be cultivated to produce the finest 1 emotion. Melba .was not given hor voice. She produced it b" hard and constant work. Shakespeare, says: '' 'Tis in ourselves Ave are thus or ,thus; our bodies are our gardens, to which our wills are gardeners." Again he says: " 'Tis not in our stars wc are underlings, 'tis in ourselves." It is this modulating effect that adapts the intonation to the subject matter, that appeals to the feelings rather than the. understanding; it is that; quality in elocution that can produce tears, sympa- ' thy, 'sensitive pulsations, joy, gladness, and every kind of human emotion. Without it, all elocution is flat, stale and unprofitable. These are the fundamentals of elocutionary art. 'There are many other things worthy of study, but these will come as the student advances. Verse music is important, but I fear mo, this article is already too long. One thing to remember, in preserving the music and the lilt of metre, is to employ what the ancient poet called the caesura pause. This is a "cut" as near the j middle of the line as possible without' spoiling the sense. Do not break up I the line into little pieces and produce jerky reading, but phrase it into finely- | measured groups of words without breaking the sense, and as Shakespeare says in Hamlet's advice to the players, '' You must acquire and beget' a temperance, that may give it smoothness." Another poet says, "Smooth be the verse and easy be the strain.'' I would suggest a study of scene 11., act 111. of Hamlet. Here the great bard gives an excellent lesson on eiocution. Shakespeare was an actor, and it offended him "to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-patcd fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings: who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb show and noise: I would have such a fellow whipped for ' o'crdoing Termagant." Let the com-! potitors who gave me a lot of mean- . ingless gestures read tho scene, and hear what Shakespeare has to say about it. .