the subject. The actual benefits, however, arising from the practical applications of Dr. Rush's system are equally felt in the exactness of intelligence which it imparts, regarding all the expressive uses of the voice, and the force, freedom, and brilliancy of effect which it gives to the action of the Vocal organs, whether in the utterance of expressive emotion, or of distinctive meaning addressed to the understanding, by the process of unimpassioned articulation. The methods of practical training, founded on the theory and the suggestions of Dr. Rush, are attended by a permanent salutary influence of the highest value. They produce a free and powerful exertion of the organs of respiration, a buoyancy of animal life, an exhilaration of spirits, and an energetic activity of the whole corporeal frame, all highly conducive to the well-being of the juvenile pupil, not less than to his attainment of a spirited, effective, and graceful elocution. The correspondent benefits conferred on adults, by a vigorous course of vocal gymnastics, are of perhaps still higher moment for the immediate purposes of life and usefulness. The sedentary habits of students and professional men render them liable not only to organic disability of utterance, and to injury of the lungs, but to numerous faults of habit, in their modes of exerting the organs of speech, faults which impair or counteract the intended effect of all their efforts in the form of public reading or speaking. The daily practice of vocal exercises is the only effectual means of invigorating the organic system, or correcting faults of habit in utterance, and the surest means, at the same time, of fortifying the inward frame against the exhausting effects of professional exertion, when either pursued too long in succession or practised at too distant intervals, both serious evils, and nearly equal in the amount of injury which they occasion. -- The compiler of the present work could enumerate many cases in which voice and health, equally impaired, have been restored in a few months, or even weeks, of vocal training, and still more in which new and brilliant powers of expression have been elicited in individuals who have commenced practice with little hope of success and with little previous ground for such hope,-confirmed wrong habits of utterance, debilitated organs, and sinking health having all united their depressing and nearly ruinous influence on the whole man. ORTHOPHONY. CHAPTER I. RESPIRATION, OR EXERCISES IN BREATHING. Gymnastic and calisthenic exercises are invaluable aids to the culture and development of the voice, and should be sedulously practised, when opportunity renders them accessible. But even a slight degree of physical exercise, in any form adapted to the expansion of the chest, and to the freedom and force of the circulation, will serve to impart energy and glow to the muscular apparatus of voice, and clearness to its sound. There is, therefore, a great advantage in introducing some preliminary muscular actions, as an immediate preparation for vocal exercise. These actions may be selected from the system of preparatory movements taught at gymnastic establishments; or they may be made to consist in regulated walking, with a view to the acquisition of a firm, easy, and graceful carriage of the body, with appropriate motion of the arms and limbs, in the systematic drill in gesture, in its various forms, for the purpose of obtaining a free, forcible, and effective use of the arm, as a natural accompaniment to speech, or in the practice of attitude and action combined, in the most vivid style of lyric and dramatic recitation, so as to attain a perfect control over the whole corporeal frame, for the purposes of visible expression. Some preliminary exercises, such as the preceding, having been performed, and a sufficient period for rest and tranquil breathing having elapsed, the next stage of preparatory action may be as in the following directions: 1. Attitude of the Body, and Position of the Organs. Place yourself in a perfectly erect but easy posture; the weight of the body resting on one foot; the feet at a moderate distance, the one in advance of the other;1 the arms akimbo; the fingers pressing on the abdominal muscles, in front, and the thumbs on the dorsal muscles, on each side of the spine; the chest freely expanded and fully projected; the shoulders held backward and downward, the head perfectly vertical. 2. Exercises in Deep Breathing. Having thus complied with the preliminary conditions of a free and unembarrassed action of the organs, draw in and give out the breath very fully, and very slowly, about a dozen times in succession. Let the breathing be deep and tranquil, but such as to cause the chest to rise fully and fall freely, and at every effort fill the lowest air cells of the lungs. 3. Exercise in " Effusive" or Tranquil Breathing. Draw in a very full breath, and send it forth in a prolonged sound of the letter h. In the act of inspiration, take in as much breath as you can contain. In that of expiration, retain all you can, and give out as little as possible, merely sufficient to keep the sound of h audible. But keep 1 The habit of keeping the chest open and erect is indispensable to the production of a full, round tone of voice. But it is of still higher value, as one of the main sources of health, animation, and activity. The effect on the student of the preceding exercises in breathing is usually soon perceptible in an obvious enlargement of the chest, and habitually erect attitude, an enlivened style of movement, a great accession of general bodily vigor, an exhilarated state of feeling, and an augmented activity of mind. To persons whose habits are studious and sedentary, and especially to females, the vigorous exercise of the organs of respiration and of voice is in every point of view an invaluable discipline. |