Lines 25 to 28. Movement, slow; pitch, middle; change to suggestive quality on wind, blossom, lusty.
Lines 29 to 36. Movement, moderate; pitch, middle; suggestive quality on foamy, silvery, golden, brimming.
Lines 37 to 40. Movement, slow; pitch, low; suggestive quality on steal, slide, move, happy.
Lines 41, 42. Movement, pitch, quality, all varied on words slip, slide, gloom, glance.
Lines 43, 44. Movement, quick; pitch, high; suggestive quality on dance, shallows.
Lines 45 to 48. Movement, slow; pitch, low; quality, very slightly aspirate; suggestive quality on murmur, linger, loiter.
Lines 49 to 52. Movement, moderate; pitch, middle; suggestive quality on brimming.
This analysis is very imperfect, as it is impossible in words to explain it. What modulation requires is, as a popular author says, "genius and sense" on your part, and you will be enabled to do as here is imperfectly suggested. You will do well to select some pieces, and analyze them, as here suggested. In Longfellow's launch of the ship, in his poem "Building of the Ship," picture the whole scene in imagination, the size and kind of ship, the number of the crowd, &c.
The following pieces are marked so that you may get a general idea of what is required for emotional expression in each. No marking can give you particulars of what is necessary, as the modulation of voice or variety in emotional expression—the light and shadow in the coloring of your word-picture—must depend upon your artistic "sense and genius." Imagine your picture, understand the meaning of every word and suggest its meaning in tone, concentrate yourself in the thought and feeling of the piece, and let your voice be governed by that, and you will not go far wrong if you have faithfully practised what has been recommended in the previous pages of this book.
1. Pure quality, gentle force, slow movement, middle pitch, median stress.