Psycho Vox; or, The Emerson System of Voice CultureEmerson, Charles Wesley
Science
Psycho Vox; or, The Emerson System of Voice Culture
Emerson, Charles Wesley
Voice
Modern research shows that the mind affects all parts of the body,—the
brain most immediately. I would not be understood, however, to imply
that the brain thinks, or that any part of the body thinks; but that the
soul uses the body in this world as a medium through which to manifest
its thoughts, emotions, and purposes. One of nature’s laws is
expression. What is inmost shall be outermost. What is spoken in secret
“shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.” This law is never supplanted,
never circumscribed, it always was, is, and ever will be constant in its
action.
The mind expresses its degree of development through the vocal
mechanism. As the individual rises in development, more thought is
expressed in his voice. The voice of a baby has little mind in it; it
reports little more than physical sensations. If its physical sensations
are agreeable, the “coo” tells it more clearly than words could. As the
mind continues to develop, one power after another manifests itself in
the voice until we hear thought, affection, and choice speaking in
unmistakable tones.
The voice is educated through inducing right states of mind while using
it. Mont Blanc rises shoulder to shoulder with other mountains; then,
towering above them, its brow pierces the clouds. One speaking while
inspired with a sense of its sublimity need not be told not to speak on
a high pitch, for he will feel no impulse so to do. Education means to
draw out; therefore all true education is from within. If there ever was
an age of the world in which this needed to be said, it is to-day.
Materialism has spread all over the civilized world, influencing men in
religion and in education. I admit that man is influenced by
environment, but it must be remembered that man is not confined to
material environment alone, his immediate environment is Spirit. Man
learns not only from without, but from within; not through sense merely,
but through soul.
Singing is heart speaking to heart; inward life speaking to inward life.
The power of moving the feelings is the power by which the world is
governed. A person may possess reason, but reason must speak in the form
of feeling before it becomes effective in influencing others.
Elementally considered, the singing and the speaking voices are one.
Good teaching for the one is good teaching for the other. The first step
in educating the voice is to teach the pupil to think in sounds. The
voice is capable of expressing every mental activity—intellectual as
well as emotional. The voice rarely fails to reveal the lower order of
feelings, as physical pleasure or pain; it can also reveal the higher
realm of feelings,—benevolence, love of truth for its own sake, love of
good, sympathy with all conscious being, hope, faith, and all spiritual
perceptions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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