The Art of Rendering

Front Cover
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009 - 262 pages
This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1912. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... THIRTEENTH STEP IN RENDERING. VOLUME OF VOICE. Volume of Voice comes from volume of thought and feeling. It has to do with noble emotions: sublimity, reverence, adoration, grandeur, poetic fervor, patriotic sentiment, when uttered with a deep under-current of feeling. Unlike the Conversational and the Dramatic Styles which deal with the commonplace, Volume of Voice is used in exalted, dignified expressions, therefore is used in the Oratorical Style. Oratory comes from "orare," ( to speak in a pleading manner. ) The emotional element makes it truly eloquent. "Oratory is the flowering, the culminating of all the graces of expression, the flowering of the virtues. Oratory may be compared to the discoursing of grand music, to an organ with a thousand stops, moving the profoundest of human emotions." Oratory requires a knowledge of expression of body and the arts of voice, gesture, and mastery of the same, beside, a soul well stored with burning thoughts and feelings. The expression must be simplicity itself, suggesting and awakening thought and feeling in the subtlest, simplest manner, concealing all effort. Oratory requires concentrated energy and skill such as is used by the singer who renders grand and noble music with few but dignified outward movements. "The highest art is to conceal art." It has been said of Orators: -- Cicero, --a conflagration. Demosthenes, -- a hurricane. Saint Paul, -- a god of eloquence. Clay, --fiery, magnetic. Spurgeon, -- voice fine, magnetic. Webster, -- while perspiration ran down his face; his body was in comparative quietude-- his eyes burned, yet repose seemed the normal condition. Lacardaire, -- voice at first feeble-- clear, massive, susceptible of force and passion, grew more fervent, deepened and strengthened to a wonderful d...

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