change of tempo.

 

8. As a rule, excitement, joy, or intense anger take a fast tempo, while sorrow,

and sentiments of great dignity or solemnity tend to a slow tempo. Try to

deliver Lincoln's Gettysburg speech (page 50), in a fast tempo, or Patrick

Henry's speech (page 110), in a slow tempo, and note how ridiculous the effect

will be.

 

Practise the following selections, noting carefully where the tempo may be

changed to advantage. Experiment, making numerous changes. Which one do you like

best?

 

_DEDICATION OF GETTYSBURG CEMETERY_

 

Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a

new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men

are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that

nation--or any nation so conceived and so dedicated--can long endure.

 

We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion

of it as the final resting-place of those who have given their lives that that

nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

 

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot

hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have