a monotonous continuation of the same radical pitch, and formal returns of similar progressions. For notwithstanding the pitch is necessarily limited to the variety afforded by the rise and fall of a single tone, yet the different phrases of melody, and their practicable interchanges, furnish sequences of dissimilar passages, quite sufficient to prevent a recognition of identity in the succession. The ear of a skilful speaker should be always on the watch, against the too frequent repetition of the same phrases: and there is variety enough in their several forms, to afford an easy exemption from this cause of monotony. The principles that govern the successions of pitch in the melody of speech, are similar to those of the arrangement of varied accent and quantity, in the rythmus of well adjusted prose. Excellence in each is the work of a delicate, educated, and discerning ear: and its habitual and almost involuntary judgment, is not less effective in one instance, by securing the beauties of a varied intonation, than in the other, by rejecting the prosodial measures of acknowledged verse.

If the foregoing description of the successions of pitch in plain narrative, is correct, we may, upon strict etymology, call the sum of those successions the Diatonic Melody of speech. For in the first place, the vanish of each separate concrete rises through the space of a tone; and secondly, the changes of radical pitch are made through the same interval. We learn then, that the melody is made, partly in the concrete, and partly in the discrete scale. The radical and vanish of each syllable is strictly concrete: the transition from one syllable to. another is strictly discrete. The reader may however, in the last diagram, merely notice, for it is a matter of no great practical importance, that transitions of the different phrases, give a different extent to the distances between any one radical, and the close of the preceding vanish. Thus in the rising ditone and tritone, there is apparently, no discrete interval between them. In the monotone there is a discrete second. In the falling ditone and tritone, two discrete tones, or the interval of a third. But these, and similar differences, produce, if we may except the case of the two discrete tones, no perceptible effect

in the melody since in the case of the rising ditone, where the voices of two syllables would seem to join, the full abruptness of the radical, makes a plain distinction between itself and the feebleness of the vanish.

The uses of the concrete and the radical pitch, above described, point out two essential distinctions between the melody of speech and that of song. And first: song generally employs the protracted radical and protracted vanish, on all its syllables; whereas speech always employs the equable concrete. Secondly in the melody of speech, the radical pitch proceeds by proximate degrees, or changes of a single tone or second. The melody of song proceeds variously both by proximate degrees, and by skips of wider intervals of the scale.

In treating hereafter of the nature of emphasis, and of interrogative sentences, the occasions and manner of using wider radical changes in speech, will be shown. The melody of simple narrative or inexpressive speech, now before us, always moves by proximate degrees.

We proceed to analyze the intonation, applied to the three final syllables of a sentence; and which, from its position and peculiar nature, I have contradistinguished as the Melody of the Cadence.

When the eight tones of the musical diatonic scale are uttered, both ascending and descending, by a repetition of the word cordova, the appropriation of syllables will be thus; cor-do-va cor-do-va cor-do: and desending, cor-do cor-do-va cor-do-va. By thus sol-faing, if I may so speak, on these syllables, the last repetition of the word in the descent, is allotted to the three lower notes of the scale: the final syllable making a full close on its key-note. In this experiment, the intonation is supposed to be made by the prolonged note of song; as it would certainly be so made, by a person familiar with the scale. But while descending, if these three notes of song be changed to equable concretes of speech, the effect on the ear will be identical with that of the same word, properly uttered at a full period of discourse. From this, and other trials, it may be

learned, that the melody of the cadence is always made on the three closing notes of the downward scale.

But the most remarkable effect of the cadence lies in another point. Nearly all the radical sounds of the current melody are represented in the several diagrams, as terminating in a rising vanish; yet we shall learn hereafter, that the purposes of variety often require the use of a downward concrete. Now, another purpose of this downward movement is, to bring the current to a close; and with this intention, the last constituent or lowest concrete of the cadence is made by the feeble downward vanish of a tone. This falling, so easily distinguishable from the rising vanish, assists in producing the repose at the end of a sentence and constitutes, in connection with the series of three descending radicals, the essential characteristic of the cadence.

:

It was stated above, that each syllable of the current melody has a radical and vanishing tone appropriated to it. The parts of the cadence are not always so apportioned. Let us, for the sake of reference, designate the constituent concretes of the cadence, by their numeral positions.

In the First form of the cadence, the first, the second, and third constituent has each a corresponding syllable, with a downward vanish on the last. From the rising vanish on two of its constituents, let us call it, the Rising Triad.

Sweet

is

the breath

of

morn.

The Second form has a similar appropriation of concretes to syllables; with a downward vanish on each constituent. Let this be called, the Falling Triad; or, as it denotes the most complete close, the Full Cadence.

The

air was fanned by un-number'd plumes.

In the Third, the first and second concretes, or a concrete that occupies the conjoined intervals of the first and second, is allotted to a single syllable. From the first and second tones being here set to one syllable, call this, the First Duad.

With

tur-ret crest and sleek en-am--el'd neck.

In the Fourth, the second and third coalesce on one syllable. From the second and third tones being set to one syllable, call this, the Second Duad.

The mean

ing, not the name,

I call.

In the Fifth, the three constituents are appropriated to one long syllable. As this is the least impressive form of the close, call it, the Feeble Cadence.

In the Sixth form, which should properly be called a False Cadence, the second constituent is omitted, as in the following

notation.

Of wiles, more in- -ex- -pert, I boast

not.

This takes place when the ultimate and penult syllables of a sentence are each so short, that giving either the length of two conjoined concretes, would deform pronunciation.

In this last example, the cadence should be made by a successive descent of three tones, on the words I boast not. Should a reader, by unskilful management, neglect to set the syllable boast, the radical pitch of a tone below I, he will be unable to complete the cadence, by a downward prolongation of the short syllable not, through the interval of two tones, as shown in the fourth form of the cadence. But a full close cannot be made without the third constituent, or an extension of the second, by a downward vanish through its place; and as the syllable not, on account of its short time, is incapable of this last condition, the second constituent must be omitted, and a defective cadence made by a skip to the last place of the triad.

From this account of the cadence, we have learned that its construction involves the consideration of the time of syllables. The first or triad form may be used under any condition of quantity; but if the three, or even the second and third syllables should be short, and not admit of prolongation, it is the only one available. The same remark may be made on the second form. When the penult is long, the third form may be used; and the fourth and fifth each requires a long quantity in the final syllable.

Of the six forms of the cadence, all except the last make natural and agreeable closes; but the first and second, which proceed by an equal number of concretes and syllables, are of the easiest execution. The third, fourth, and fifth, each conjoining the intervals of two and three concretes respectively on a single syllable, require unusual facility in the management of Quantity. Skill in commanding the time of utterance, will enable an accomplished reader to perform with equal ease and elegance, these three varieties of cadence; and to give a faultless close, however unexpectedly he may meet with a period in discourse: while the ordinary reader frequently fails in the melody of his cadence, from being limited to the use of its triad form. For should his current melody be so continued, that a monotone or rising ditone reaches to the penult syllable, his cadence will necessarily be awkward or false, either from the last syllable being short, or from his being unable to manage his time and