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KEY.

The KEY, otherwise called pitch, is the predominating tone of reading or speaking.

Accurately speaking, there are as many keys as there are half tones and even quarter tones of the voice; any one of which may be made at pleasure, the predominating tone of reading or speaking.

For convenience, and for practice, KEY is commonly divided into low key, middle key, and high key.

1. LOW KEY.

The Low Key should generally be used in expressing deep solemnity, awe, amazement, horror, despair, melancholy, and deep grief.

The exceedingly low key of these and similar states of feeling, is one of those universal facts which necessarily becomes a law of vocal expression, and consequently an indispensable rule of Elocution. Any passage strongly marked by the language of one of these emotions, becomes utterly inexpressive without its appropriate deep notes; and yet this fault is one of the most prevalent in reading, especially with the youth.

Examples.

"DEEP SOLEMNITY, AND AWE.”

[Effusive and Expulsive orotund.]

CATO, IN SOLILOQUY.-Addison.

It must be so ;-Plato, thou reasonest well!
Else, whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire
This longing after immortality?

Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror,
Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us :

"T is Heaven itself that points out an hereafter,
And intimates Eternity to man.

Eternity!-thou pleasing,—dreadful thought!
Through what variety of untried being,

Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!
The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before me;

But shadows, clouds, and darkness, rest upon it.

"HORROR AND DESPAIR."
[Aspirated Quality.]

THE PESTILENCE.-Porteous.

At dead of night,

In sullen silence stalks forth PESTILENCE:
CONTAGION, close behind, taints all her steps
With poisonous dew: no smiting hand is seen,
No sound is heard; but soon her secret path
Is marked with desolation: heaps on heaps
Promiscuous drop. No friend, no refuge, near:
All, all is false and treacherous around,

All that they touch, or taste, or breathe, is Death!

"DEEP GRIEF."

[Effusive and Expulsive orotund.]

AFFLICTION AND DESOLATION.-Young.

In every varied posture, place, and hour,
How widowed every thought of every joy!
Thought, busy thought! too busy for my peace!
Through the dark postern of time long elapsed,
Led softly, by the stillness of the night,

Led like a murderer, (and such it proves!)

Strays, (wretched rover !) o'er the pleasing past:

In quest of wretchedness perversely strays,

And finds all desert now.

2. MIDDLE KEY.

The Middle Key should generally be used in common conversation, in the delivery of a literary or scientific essay, a doctrinal sermon, a plain practical oration on any subject limited to purposes of mere utility, and demanding the action of reason and judgment.

Examples.

"LITERARY ESSAY."

[Declamatory style, Expulsive orotund.]
PURE LOVE.

Raleigh's cheerfulness, during his last days, was so great, and his fearlessness of death so marked, that the Dean of Westminster who attended

him, wondering at his deportment, reprehended the lightness of his manner. But Raleigh gave God thanks that he had never feared death; for it was but an opinion and an imagination; and, as for the manner of death, he had rather die so than in a burning fever; that some might have made shows outwardly; but he felt the joy within.

"EARNEST PRACTICAL ORATION."

[Declamatory style, Expulsive orotund.]
LOVE OF COUNTRY.-Sidney Smith.

Whence does this love of our country, this universal passion, proceed? Why does the eye ever dwell with fondness upon the scenes of infant life? Why do we breathe with greater joy the breath of our youth? Why are not other soils as grateful, and other heavens as gay? Why does the soul of man ever cling to that earth where it first knew pleasure and pain, and, under the rough discipline of the passions, was roused to the dignity of moral life? Is it only that our country contains our kindred and our friends? And is it nothing but a name for our social affections?

It cannot be this; the most friendless of human beings, has a country which he admires and extols, and which he would, in the same circumstances, prefer to all others under heaven. Tempt him with the fairest face of nature, place him by living waters under shadowy trees of Lebanon, open to his view all the gorgeous allurements of the sunniest climates, he will love the rocks and dèserts of his childhood better than all these, and thou canst not bribe his soul to forget the land of his nativity.

3. HIGH KEY.

The High Key should generally be used in expressing brisk, gay, and joyous emotions; also the extremes of pain, grief, and fear, which from their preternaturally exciting power, cause the peculiar shrill, convulsive cries and shrieks which express these passions.

This key of voice, though seldom used in ordinary reading, ought to be practiced thoroughly, as it tends to give strength, scope, and command to the voice, and as it is frequently employed in public speaking. Almost every one can speak in a high key, while but few can do it without a shrill, unpleasant tone. It should not be forgotten, either, that it is not he who speaks the loudest who can be heard the furthest. A scientific observer remarks, "It is a curious fact in the history of sound, that the loudest noises always perish on the spot where they are produced, whereas musical notes will be heard at a great distance."

Examples.

"BRISK, JOYOUS STYLE."

[Expulsive Orotund.]

FROM THE HYMN OF THE STARS.—Bryant.

Away, away! through the wide, wide sky,-
The fair blue fields that before us lie,—

Each sun with the worlds that round him roll,
Each planet, poised on her turning pole,

With her isles of green, and her clouds of white,
And her waters that lie like fluid light!

For the source of glory uncovers his face,
And the brightness o'erflows unbounded space;
And we drink, as we go, the luminous tides
In our ruddy air and our blooming sides:
Lo! yonder the living splendors play!
Away! on our joyous path away!

Away, away!-In our blossoming bowers,
In the soft air wrapping these spheres of ours,
In the seas and fountains that shine with morn,
See, Love is brooding, and Life is born;
And breathing myriads are breaking from night,
To rejoice like us, in motion and light!

.“ GAY, BRISK."
[Pure Tone.]
SPRING.-Bryant.

Is this a time to be gloomy and sad,

When our mother Nature laughs around;

When even the deep blue heavens look glad,

And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground?

The clouds are at play, in the azure space,

And their shadows at play on the bright green vale,

And here they stretch to the frolic chase,
And there they roll on the easy gale.

And look at the broad-faced sun how he smiles
On the dewy earth that smiles on his ray,
On the leaping waters and gay young isles,—
Ay, look, and he'll smile thy gloom away.

TRANSITION IN KEY.

Examples.

"FROM HORROR TO TRANQUILLITY."

[From Very Low to Middle Key.] STANZAS FROM A RUSSIAN POET.-Bowring.

Very Low.

How frightful the grave! how deserted and drear!

With the howls of the storm-wind, the creaks of the bier,
And the white bones all clattering together!

Middle Key.

How peaceful the grave! its quiet how deep:
Its zephyrs breathe calmly; and soft is its sleep;
And flowrets perfume it with ether.

"FROM RAPTURE TO GRIEF."

[From Very High to Low Key.]
Very High.

Ring joyous chords !-ring out again!
A swifter still and a wilder strain!
And bring fresh wreaths!-we will banish all
Save the free in heart from our festive hall.
On through the maze of the fleet dance, on!

Low Key.

But where are the young and the lovely?-gone!
Where are the brows with the red rose crowned,
And the floating forms with the bright zone bound?

And the waving locks and the flying feet,

That still should be where the mirthful meet ?

They are gone!—they are fled, they are parted all:
Alas! the forsaken hall!

MONOTONE.

The Monotone, though perhaps not coming under the head of Key, will be far better understood if treated here, than elsewhere.

The Monotone is speaking without change of key: that

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