THE FIFTH READER. VOCAL GYMNASTICS. BY S. W. MASON, ELIOT SCHOOL, BOSTON. VOCAL gymnastics is the art of training the vocal organs so as to develop their powers, and enable them to act with ease, precision, and effect. All who would be good readers should practise systematically and persistently, such vocal exercises as will give them complete control of all the muscles of articulation, increase the power and elasticity of the voice, rendering it smooth, pure, and melodious. Such exercises rightly taken will not only give power and purity to the voice, but will also promote the general health. Physical culture and vocal exercises are so intimately connected that in the proper development of one, the other must be necessarily improved; indeed, no vocal exercises can be correctly practised without first securing the proper position and carriage of the body. ix It is of the first importance that pupils acquire the habit of sitting correctly. At the command, One: insist that the pupils as sume the following posi tion: 1. Sit erect as far back in the seat as possible. 2. Body square to the front. 3. Feet resting on the floor, one slightly in advance and forming with each other an angle of sixty degrees. 4. Knees bent nearly at right angles. Fig. 1. 5. Chest fully expanded. 6. Hands resting gently on the edge of the seat. Fig. 2. 7. Shoulders level. 8. Head erect. 9. Chin slightly slightly de pressed. 10. Eyes directly to the front. 11. Incline the body slightly forward, bringing the ear, shoulder, elbow, and hip in a straight line, as in Fig. 1. At the command, Two: Stand; still facing to the right. See Fig. 3. At the command, Four: Left face, standing in the correct position, viz. : 1. Heels in a line and touching each other. 2. Feet turned equally outward, forming with each other an angle of sixty degrees. 3. Knees straight. 4. Body erect and square to the front. 5. Arms hanging easily at the side. 6. Elbows near the body. Fig. 3. 7. Shoulders square and at equal height. 8. Head erect. 9. Eyes looking direct ly to the front. 10. Chin slightly depressed. 11. Body inclined forward, bringing ear, shoulder, hip, knee, and ankle, in a vertical line. See Fig. 4. Every change in position should be made with military precision and promptness. Pupils in position, as in Fig. 4, with lungs fully in flated, are now ready to practise the following VOCAL EXERCISES. 1. Sound the syllable hō. Make the tone prolonged, smooth, uniform, and musical, Let the pitch be With this same pitch give the principal vowel sounds with h prefixed. Give the vowel sounds with quick, sharp, percussive tone. ā, ä, â, ă, ē, ĕ, ī, ì, ō, ô, ŏ, ũ, ŭ, û, oi, ou. Give all the vowel sounds with one continuous breath, letting one sound glide smoothly into the next. Do not permit pupils to replenish their breath during this exercise. Each one should stop as his breath is exhausted. Begin with lungs fully inflated. ā, ä, â, ă, ē, ě, ī, Ĭ, ō, ô, ŏ, ũ, ŭ, û, oi, ou. Give vowel sounds with radical stress, impulse on first part of tone. Thus: ā, ä, â, ǎ, ē, ě, í, Ĭ, ô, ô, o, u, u, û, oi, ou. Terminal stress: impulse on the last part of the Thus: tone. á, é, é, í, í, ô, ô, 8, í, ú, á, oi, ou. á, á ä, â, ă, ẽ, ĕ, Median stress: commence with soft tone, and grad ually increase to middle of sound, and then as gradually diminish. Thus: ā, ä, â, ǎ, ē, ě, ī, Ĭ, ō, ô, ŏ, ū, ù, û, oi, ou. Compound stress: impulse on the initial and final points of the sound, passing slightly over middle part. Thus: >< ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>< X ā, ä, â, ă, ẽ, ě, I, I, ō, ô, ŏ, ū, ŭ, û, oi, ou. Thorough stress: the initial, middle, and final por tions of the sound equally loud and full. Thus: = = ā, ā, ā, ā ē, ĕ, ī, Ĭ, ō, ỗ, 8, ũ, ŭ, û, oi, ou. â, Tremulous stress. Thus : ā, ä, â, ǎ, ē, ě, I, I, ō, ô, ŏ, ũ, ŭ, û, oi, oụ |