A very little of final stress will give a decided coloring to the delivery. The student should be careful, therefore, not to overdo it. To illustrate: a speaker is urging the colonists to abandon the idea of war, claiming that they are weak, and so on. Patrick Henry rises and says, “Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.” On the word “not,” the speaker is plainly pushing aside the argument of his opponent. When he utters “liberty,” we note again the insistent idea. He tells us by his stress, Other revolutions may have failed through lack of numbers, but the gentleman forgets that ours will be a struggle for liberty. Again, in “we,” “invincible,” and “any,” we plainly discern the idea of overcoming opposition. Now, it must be clear that while it is only on the five words italicized we note the insistence, yet the whole statement is strongly tinged by it.
There is a third form of stress commonly called “Median.” This is a combination of the final and radical, and manifests a combination of the objective and subjective states. There are other combinations and forms of stress, but they are rarely heard and need not be dwelt upon here.
Attention needs to be directed to the fact that stress sometimes extends through several words and gives a characteristic color to an entire phrase or sentence. For instance, we note that the swell continues from the opening word to “despised,” in the following speech of Cassio, who is opposing Iago’s plan. Note further the same effect on phrases italicized:
I will rather sue to be despised, than to deceive so good a commander, with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet an officer. Drunk! and speak parrot? and squabble? swagger? swear? and discourse fustian with one’s own shadow? O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee—devil!—Othello, Act ii., Sc. 3.
Observe how the force increases up to “Lord” and dies away to the end in the following:
O, sing unto the Lord a new song.
It may be well to remark here that there are certain writers who hold that the study of stress is misleading, or at best useless. To these answer is made that music uses these stresses very much in the sense in which they are used here. The attack necessary for pure singing or instrumental tone is our radical (normal) stress. The “staccato” and “sforzando” are more intense forms of this stress. The “crescendo,” “diminuendo,” and “swell” are respectively equivalent to “final,” prolonged “radical,” and “median” stresses.
It may be well to call attention to a very general confusion of ideas in the use of the word “low.” It is applied to force and pitch indiscriminately, to the loss of an important distinction. Low pitch is the result of low tension, while soft force is diminished mental energy. High pitch may accompany soft force, and loud force may be simultaneous with low pitch. It is because low pitch has generally accompanied soft force that the confusion has arisen.
EXAMPLES ILLUSTRATING THE USE OF RADICAL STRESS.
Are you ready? Go!