The American Union SpeakerPhilbrick, John D. (John Dudley)
General
The American Union Speaker
Philbrick, John D. (John Dudley)
Recitations
After the rehearsal, the pupil should have time to practice by himself and
apply and confirm the instruction received from his teacher. It must be
impressed upon his mind that if he would attain excellence he must
practice, practice, practice. He must be made to understand that the
repetition of a piece three or four times is no adequate preparation, and
that it is necessary to go over with it twenty, thirty, or fifty times, if
he would excel, and take a high rank.
When the declamation takes place, excepting on public occasions, the
criticisms ought to be made immediately after the performance of each
speaker. The faults of the diffident should be mildly criticized. It is
very important to call attention to points of special excellence in any
performance. It should be remembered that judicious commendation is a most
powerful stimulant to exertion.
The most difficult task in teaching declamation is to develop that
indescribable fervor, that unaffected earnestness of manner which always
captivates the hearers, and wins the highest marks at an exhibition for
prizes. There will always be one speaker in a school who excels all the
rest in this quality. The teacher should point out the peculiar excellence
of this speaker, and show wherein it differs from loudness of voice, and
violence of actions and affected passion. Let it be remembered that the
perfection of declamation consists in delivering the piece as though it
were real speaking. The speaker must "put himself in imagination, so
completely into the situation of him whom he personages, and adopt for the
moment, so perfectly, all the sentiments and views of that character, as to
express himself exactly as such a person would have done, in the supposed
situation." Give the speaker every other quality--let his enunciation, his
modulation of voice, and his action be faultless, and yet without
earnestness, real earnestness,--not the semblance of it, not boisterous
vociferation, not convulsive gesticulation, but genuine emotion felt in the
heart, carrying the conviction to the hearers that the sentiments uttered
are real, the spontaneous, irrepressible outpouring of the thought and
feeling of the speaker,--without this sovereign, crowning quality, he
cannot be said to speak with eloquence. To bring out and develop this
highest quality of delivery, requires the highest skill in the teacher.
Unless the teacher possesses some degree of this quality himself he cannot
develop it in his pupils.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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