Any big change of tempo is emphatic and will catch the attention. You may

scarcely be conscious that a passenger train is moving when it is flying over

the rails at ninety miles an hour, but if it slows down very suddenly to a

ten-mile gait your attention will be drawn to it very decidedly. You may forget

that you are listening to music as you dine, but let the orchestra either

increase or diminish its tempo in a very marked degree and your attention will

be arrested at once.

 

This same principle will procure emphasis in a speech. If you have a point that

you want to bring home to your audience forcefully, make a sudden and great

change of tempo, and they will be powerless to keep from paying attention to

that point. Recently the present writer saw a play in which these lines were

spoken:

 

"I don't want you to forget what I said. I want you to remember it the longest

day you--I don't care if you've got six guns." The part up to the dash was

delivered in a very slow tempo, the remainder was named out at lightning speed,

as the character who was spoken to drew a revolver. The effect was so emphatic

that the lines are remembered six months afterwards, while most of the play has

faded from memory. The student who has powers of observation will see this

principle applied by all our best actors in their efforts to get emphasis where

emphasis is due. But remember that the emotion in the matter must warrant the

intensity in the manner, or the effect will be ridiculous. Too many public

speakers are impressive over nothing.