l the ammunition had been used up before the real battle began, and no
one was in the least affected by the firing during the rest of the
engagement.

We have said that the use of pause determines the use of all other
elements of the vocabulary. This is particularly true of the _change of
pitch_ which immediately follows pause. We pause before a new idea to
get possession of it; in that pause we measure the idea, and the pitch
of the voice changes to accord with that measure. Every change of
thought causes a change of pitch, but the degree and direction of change
in pitch of the voice depends upon the degree and direction of change in
thought values. In the pause the mind takes time to value the new
thought, and tells the voice what change it must make. Robert Browning
affords the best material for a study in change of pitch, because of his
sudden and long parentheses, which can be handled lucidly by a voice
only after it has mastered this element of the vocal vocabulary. _Abt
Vogler_ offers the voice an excellent opportunity for exercise in change
of pitch. I print the first stanza and first line of the second stanza
of this poem for your use.

Would that the structure brave, the manifold music I build,
Bidding my organ obey, calling its keys to their work,
Claiming each slave of the sound, at a touch, as when Solomon willed
Armies of angels that soar, legions of demons that lurk,
Man, brute, reptile, fly--alien of end and of aim,
Adverse, each from the other heaven-high, hell-deep removed,
Should rush into sight at once as he named the ineffable Name,
And pile him a palace straight, to pleasure the princess he loved!

Would it might tarry like his, the beautiful building of mine--

Remember, you are to confine your consideration to the one point,
_change of pitch_, not the change of pitch within a word, which is
inflection and belongs to another chapter, but to the broad changes of
pitch from word to word, phrase to phrase, sentence to sentence,
following the intricate changes of the thought.

I leave you to blaze a trail through this forest of ideas. You must find
the main road, and then trace the by-paths which lead away from that
main road, and in this case, fortunately, come back to it again--which
does not always happen in Mr. Browning's "woody tracts of thought." To
employ a better figure for vocal purposes, you must cut off the stream,
the voice, and trace the be