Force refers to the strength or power of the voice, and is divided into forms and degrees. Very particular attention should be given to the subject of force, since that expression, which is so very important in elocution, is almost altogether dependent on some one or other modification of this attribute of the voice. It may truly be considered the light and shade of a proper intonation. Force may be applied to sentences or even to single words, for the purpose of energetic expression.
The degrees of force are Gentle, Moderate, and Heavy.
GENTLE FORCE.
The Gentle Force is used in expressing tenderness, love, secrecy, caution, etc., and the lungs must be kept thoroughly inflated, especially in reverberating sounds.
1.
"Heard you that strain of music light,
Borne gently on the breeze of night,—
So soft and low as scarce to seem
More than the magic of a dream?
Morpheus caught the liquid swell,—
Its echo broke his drowsy spell.
Hark! now it rises sweetly clear,
Prolonged upon the raptured ear;—
Sinking now, the quivering note
Seems scarcely on the air to float;
It falls—'tis mute,—nor swells again;—
Oh! what wert thou, melodious strain?"
Mrs. J. H. Abbot.
2.
Was it the chime of a tiny bell,
That came so sweet to my dreaming ear,
Like the silvery tones of a fairy's shell,
That he winds on the beach so mellow and clear,
When the winds and the waves lie together asleep,
And the moon and the fairy are watching the deep,
She dispensing her silvery light,
And he his notes as silvery quite,
While the boatman listens and ships his oar,
To catch the music that comes from the shore?—
Hark! the notes on my ear that play,
Are set to words: as they float, they say,
"Passing away! passing away!"
Pierpont.