VOICE PRODUCTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19762, 8 October 1927, Page 20

VOICE PRODUCTION.

PROMINENT ELOCUTIONIST. A meeting of the League of Fcnwomen was held in its rooms in the Unity Buildings yesterday afternoon, the president, Mrs. Stuart Boyd, presiding. A brief address was given by Mr. Alexander Watson, the well-known elocutionist, who said that very few people really knew what was meant by elocution. It was too often associated with recitation. A proper elocution teacher shpuld teach only voice production for speech and clear enunciation. The teaching of expression had been employed in the teaching of elocution for years past, but in doing this the teachers implanted in their pupils their own form of expression, with the result that the students' rendering was not sincere. Another fault in connection with teaching was that both students and teachers were apt to connect elocution with the stage. An actor was an impersonator, appealing to the physical eye, and a reciter was a narrator, appealing to the mental eye. In conclusion, Mr. Watson said that elocution should be applied to ordinary conversation and not only to platform speaking. He had noticed the cockney accent, creeping into the speech of young New Zealanders during the last few years, but, generally speaking, he considered New Zealand people were to be congratulated on the purity of their English enunciation. " I