Studies and Problems for Developing the Reading and Speaking By S. S. Curry, Ph.D., Litt.D. President of the School of Expression, Author of "The Province of Boston The Expression Company Pierce Building, Copley Square A WORD ON THE POINT OF VIEW The Muse of Eloquence and the Muse of Liberty, it has been said, are twin sisters. A free people must be a race of speakers. The perversion or neglect of oratory has always been accompanied by the degradation of freedom. The importance of speaking to a true national life, and to the forwarding of all reforms, can hardly be overestimated; but it is no less necessary to the development of the individual. Expression is the manifestation of life, and speaking in some form is vitally necessary for the assimilation of truth and the awakening to a consciousness of personal power. Since the invention of printing, the written word has been overestimated in education, and living speech has been greatly neglected. Recent discoveries of the necessity of developing the motor centres have revived interest in the living voice. With this revival of interest the inadequacy of modern elocutionary methods has come to be realized. Such methods have been based usually upon imitation and artificial or mechanical analysis, and consist of mere rules founded upon phraseology, the modulations of the voice being governed by rules of grammar or rhetoric instead of by the laws of thought. Neither the nature nor functions of the voice modulations have been recognized. An able college graduate, and head of an educational institution, once acknowledged to me that he had never thought of a voice modulation as having a distinct meaning of its own with power to change even the meaning of a phrase. This book outlines the results of some earnest endeavors to study anew the problem of developing the voice and body and improving reading and speaking. The attempt has been made to find psychological causes, not only of the expressive modulations of the voice, but of the conditions of mind and body required for its right training and correct use. The usual view is that every defect in the use of the voice is associated with some local constriction, and that for every abnormal habit or action some exercise to restore the specific part can always be found. While this is true, it is but a half truth. Every abnormal action or condition has its cause in the mind. Hence technical training must always be united with work for the removal of the causes of faults, and for the awakening of the primary actions and conditions. This enables the student to become himself conscious of right modes of expression, develops him without imitation or mechanical rules, and produces no artificial results. Even when the right technical exercise is prescribed for a fault in reading or speaking it is often ineffective on account of wrong or mechanical practice on the part of the student, or a lack of attention on the part of teacher or student to the real psychological causes of the abnormal conditions. In seeking for such exercises as are safe for classes, for private study, or where specific technical exercises cannot be given individually by a teacher, and such as require primary mental action or at least apply practically and naturally the results of technical training, what are here called problems have been found most helpful. Technical exercises, to accomplish any good result, must be carefully prescribed by the teacher and practised under his direction so that the exact part may be made to act in just the right way. In large classes and with young students this is well-nigh impossible. These exercises stimulate the primary mental actions, cause the normal response of voice, and furnish an introduction or practical addition to technical exercises; they prevent artificial results, stimulate normal growth, are more interesting, cause more complete self study, and are safer for practice alone. To accomplish these ends, what are called in this book problems have been found most helpful. One who will systematically practise these inductive studies will be led step by step to the right use of his voice, and to a conscious command of its expressive modulations. Such practice has its difficulties. It requires care, perseverance, self study, a harmonious use of thinking and feeling, insight into what is fundamental rather than accidental, exercise of the imagination to hold a situation, and of the sympathetic instinct to yield breathing, voice, and body to its dominion. Students and teachers, especially those who have been accustomed to mechanical or imitative methods, will at first consider such a method impractical. But patient, persevering practice for a few lessons will be followed by such an awakening of interest, such a realization of the true nature of expression, and such satisfactory results, that there is little danger of a return to artificial methods. Such training with careful study of himself on the part of the student, especially if directed by a true teacher possessing insight, will accomplish surprising results. The student should regard no problem as trivial, but should practise it faithfully and the lesson will solve for him difficulties not seen at the time. Teachers will of course, according to the earnestness of students and opportunities for practice, add technical exercises at certain points complementary to these problems. For information regarding additional exercises or explanation, the author's other works should be consulted. For example: "The Province of Expression," "Lessons in Vocal Expression," "Imagination and Dramatic Instinct," "Vocal and Literary Interpretation of the Bible," and especially the books on the training of voice and body soon to be published. The student is urged not to accept passively the superficial views of delivery so prevalent at the present time, but to study himself anew, to take the problems in their order and work upon them with a receptive and teachable spirit until he masters this most difficult but most important phase of education. School of Expression, Copley Square, Boston. S. S. C. |