a similar timbre of voice and register may sing the same song correctly in
time, rhythm, and phrasing, and yet only one of them may produce that
sympathetic quality necessary to awaken not only the intellectual but the
affective side of the mind of the hearers. Undoubtedly the effects produced
upon the mind by dramatic song largely depend upon circumstances and
surroundings, also upon the association of ideas. Thus I was never more
stirred emotionally by the human voice than upon hearing a mad Frenchman
sing at my request the Marseillaise. Previously, when talking to him his
eyes had lacked lustre and his physiognomy was expressionless; but when
this broad-chested, six foot, burly, black-bearded maniac rolled out in a
magnificent full-chested baritone voice the song that has stirred the
emotions and passions of millions to their deepest depth, and aroused in
some hope, in others despair, as he made the building ring with "Aux armes,
citoyens, formez vos bataillons" I felt an emotional thrill down the spine
and a gulp in the throat, while the heart and respirations for an instant
stayed in their rhythmical course. Not only was I stirred by the effect of
the sounds heard, but by the change in the personality of the singer. It
awakened in my mind the scenes in the French Revolution so vividly
described by Carlyle. The man's facial expression and whole personality
suddenly appeared changed; he planted his foot firmly forward on the
ground, striking the attitude of a man carrying a musket, a flag, or a
pike; his eyes gleamed with fire and the lack-lustre expression had changed
to one of delirious excitement. A pike in his hand and a red cap on his
head would have completed the picture of a _sans culotte_. Dramatic song
therefore that does not evoke an emotional response is _vox et præterea
nihil_.