How did lecturers magnify their voice in the days before amplification?
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Accepted answer
From my knowledge as a theatre historian and speech coach, I would say, it is probably a combination of:
- Projection and enunciation. Not only speaking loudly, but speaking clearly and probably a bit slower than we are used to. Actor training at the time fell more under the rubric of "elocution" than what we would consider "Acting."
- Acoustics: most lecture circuit halls will be designed to hear lectures. I would NOT talk to the floorboards. In my practical experience in theatre, that only muffles or swallows your words.
- I don't know that exact lecture tour, but I would check to find out what sizes of audiences he was speaking to. It may not have been as large as we expect today.
For comparison, Broadway shows were almost completely unmixed until the 1980s, and actors had to speak to an audience of hundreds or thousands without amplification.
Upvote:9
- Project with a full lung Filling your lungs forces the air out more effortlessly and with more volume
- The Amphitheater The Amphitheater was designed to create a natural amplification of voices on stage. The audience seating is a series of staggered parabolas with the stage as the focal point, and the material dampens the sound you don't want (audience chatter) and rebounds the sounds you do (the voice from the stage).
- The mask many stage masks included acoustic amplification effects in them, they were hidden megaphones in a way.
- Practice Demosthenes was famous for practicing his orations on the sea shore with pebbles in his mouth.
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