Samuel Silas Curry
Encyclopedia
Samuel Silas Curry was an American professor of elocution
and vocal expression. He is the namesake of Curry College
in Milton, Massachusetts
.
and Daniel Boone
. Growing up on a frontier farm, he learned what it meant to work hard and gained a love of the natural world which would influence his later work. He was a teenager during the tumultuous years of the American Civil War
, and experienced hardships when his family's farm was alternately appropriated by both the Union and Confederate armies.
With no school nearby, his early education was received at home. He would work outdoors all day and study at night, reading late into the evenings by the light of the fireplace. His parents encouraged his learning, and shared with him their love of history and literature. As a young man, he left the farm to attend East Tennessee Wesleyan University (later Grant University), where he proved to be an outstanding scholar, graduating in 1872 with the school's highest honors.
He continued his studies at Boston University
, where he concentrated on literature, oratory, and theology. At B.U.'s School of Oratory he studied with Dr. Lewis B. Monroe and Alexander Graham Bell
, then a professor of physiology at the school. In 1878 he graduated with both a diploma in oratory and a Master of Arts degree, and went on to earn his PhD. in 1880. In that same year he also received a diploma from Guilmette's School of Vocal Physiology in Boston.
Over the next few years he sought advice from many vocal specialists both at home and abroad. In the States he studied with Lewis B. Monroe, Alexander Melville Bell, and Steele MacKaye
; he also spent two summers in Europe studying with Emil Behnke, Lennox Brown, Francesco Lamperti
, and the famed François Joseph-Pierre Regnier, head of France's National School of Acting. After this extensive study, he had both re-gained his voice and acquired a thorough knowledge of elocution pedagogy. But instead of returning to the pulpit, he chose to become an educator himself. His travels had caused him to realize that he fundamentally disagreed with the prevalent methods of teaching elocution. He was known to say that he “had essayed the systems of forty different teachers, and found them all lacking in different degrees.” This realization led him to embark on his life's work—the establishment of a new method for teaching vocal expression.
In 1882 he married Anna Baright, a well-known teacher of elocution and the founder of the School of Expression in Boston. In 1883 he was appointed Snow Professor of Oratory at Boston University, and in 1884 he became the Davis Professor of Elocution at the Newton Theological Seminary. In 1888 he left Boston University to become the Head of the School of Expression, later renamed Curry College in his honor. He taught at the School for the remainder of his career. From 1891-1894 he was also an instructor at Harvard University
, and from 1892-1902 he taught at the Divinity School at Yale
. Throughout his life, he traveled widely in order to teach courses at many different institutions, including the University of Washington
, the University of Minnesota
, the University of Chicago
, and the Teacher's College at Columbia University
. He also edited the journal Expression, a quarterly review. Samuel and Anna had six children, including the well-known mathematician Haskell Curry
.
Samuel Silas Curry died on December 24, 1921.
or public speaking
)
emphasized individuality, intellectual engagement, spontaneity, creativity, and rigorous technical training. He developed a system that centered on the idea that all expression comes from within, and that vocal intonation, posture, and gesture cannot be dictated, but must happen naturally as a reaction to genuinely felt emotion. This was in contrast to many elocutionists of his day, who favored mechanistic methods that were rule-based, artificial, and imitative.
Curry’s rejection of the imitative method is evident in his writing:
He rejected not only the methods, but also the nomenclature of his field. He felt that the word “elocution” denoted artificiality, and preferred the word “expression” instead. Thus he changed the name of his school, originally the “School of Elocution and Expression,” to simply the “School of Expression.”
But though Curry disapproved of the mechanistic method, he did not entirely abandon these techniques, nor did he wholeheartedly embrace the so-called natural method. Instead, he found a middle ground between the two. His program at the School of Expression encompassed both the psychological and the technical aspects of expression. Students read literature and poetry to stimulate their minds and awaken their emotions, but they also obtained more traditional vocal and physical training, engaging in rigorous technical exercises.
Curry was an influential teacher, and many of his students went on to become teachers themselves. Among them were Horace G. Rahskopf, Sara Stinchfield Hawk, Lee Emerson Bassett, Azubah Latham, and Gertrude Johnson
.
Elocution
Elocution is the study of formal speaking in pronunciation, grammar, style, and tone.-History:In Western classical rhetoric, elocution was one of the five core disciplines of pronunciation, which was the art of delivering speeches. Orators were trained not only on proper diction, but on the proper...
and vocal expression. He is the namesake of Curry College
Curry College
Curry College is a private liberal arts-based institution in Milton, Massachusetts that started as the School of Elocution in 1879.-History:...
in Milton, Massachusetts
Milton, Massachusetts
Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and part of the Greater Boston area. The population was 27,003 at the 2010 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and architect Buckminster Fuller. Milton also has the highest percentage of...
.
Early life and education
Born on a small farm in Chatata, Tennessee, he was the son of James Campbell Curry and Nancy Young Curry, and shared kinship with famed frontiersmen Davy CrockettDavy Crockett
David "Davy" Crockett was a celebrated 19th century American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier and politician. He is commonly referred to in popular culture by the epithet "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S...
and Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...
. Growing up on a frontier farm, he learned what it meant to work hard and gained a love of the natural world which would influence his later work. He was a teenager during the tumultuous years of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, and experienced hardships when his family's farm was alternately appropriated by both the Union and Confederate armies.
With no school nearby, his early education was received at home. He would work outdoors all day and study at night, reading late into the evenings by the light of the fireplace. His parents encouraged his learning, and shared with him their love of history and literature. As a young man, he left the farm to attend East Tennessee Wesleyan University (later Grant University), where he proved to be an outstanding scholar, graduating in 1872 with the school's highest honors.
He continued his studies at Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, where he concentrated on literature, oratory, and theology. At B.U.'s School of Oratory he studied with Dr. Lewis B. Monroe and Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
, then a professor of physiology at the school. In 1878 he graduated with both a diploma in oratory and a Master of Arts degree, and went on to earn his PhD. in 1880. In that same year he also received a diploma from Guilmette's School of Vocal Physiology in Boston.
Career and later life
He was planning to enter the ministry, when a sudden loss of voice forced him to embark on a new path. He said of this incident:One Sunday morning I stood before an audience in the middle of an address, unable to speak a word. The horror of those moments has never been blotted from my memory. The failure was a climax of several years of misuse of my voice, though during that time I had sought help from every available source. I determined to search still more diligently to find the causes of my condition.
Over the next few years he sought advice from many vocal specialists both at home and abroad. In the States he studied with Lewis B. Monroe, Alexander Melville Bell, and Steele MacKaye
Steele MacKaye
James Morrison Steele MacKaye was an American playwright, actor, theater manager and inventor. Having acted, written, directed and produced numerous and popular plays and theatrical spectaculars of the day, he became one of the most famous actors and theater producers of his...
; he also spent two summers in Europe studying with Emil Behnke, Lennox Brown, Francesco Lamperti
Francesco Lamperti
Francesco Lamperti was an Italian singing teacher.A native of Savona, Lamperti attended the Milan Conservatory where, beginning in 1850, he taught for a quarter of a century. He was director at the Teatro Filodrammatico in Lodi. In 1875 he left the school and began to teach as a private tutor...
, and the famed François Joseph-Pierre Regnier, head of France's National School of Acting. After this extensive study, he had both re-gained his voice and acquired a thorough knowledge of elocution pedagogy. But instead of returning to the pulpit, he chose to become an educator himself. His travels had caused him to realize that he fundamentally disagreed with the prevalent methods of teaching elocution. He was known to say that he “had essayed the systems of forty different teachers, and found them all lacking in different degrees.” This realization led him to embark on his life's work—the establishment of a new method for teaching vocal expression.
In 1882 he married Anna Baright, a well-known teacher of elocution and the founder of the School of Expression in Boston. In 1883 he was appointed Snow Professor of Oratory at Boston University, and in 1884 he became the Davis Professor of Elocution at the Newton Theological Seminary. In 1888 he left Boston University to become the Head of the School of Expression, later renamed Curry College in his honor. He taught at the School for the remainder of his career. From 1891-1894 he was also an instructor at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and from 1892-1902 he taught at the Divinity School at Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
. Throughout his life, he traveled widely in order to teach courses at many different institutions, including the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
, the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
, the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, and the Teacher's College at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. He also edited the journal Expression, a quarterly review. Samuel and Anna had six children, including the well-known mathematician Haskell Curry
Haskell Curry
Haskell Brooks Curry was an American mathematician and logician. Curry is best known for his work in combinatory logic; while the initial concept of combinatory logic was based on a single paper by Moses Schönfinkel, much of the development was done by Curry. Curry is also known for Curry's...
.
Samuel Silas Curry died on December 24, 1921.
The Curry Method
Curry’s method of teaching elocution (or what today we would call speechSpeech
Speech is the human faculty of speaking.It may also refer to:* Public speaking, the process of speaking to a group of people* Manner of articulation, how the body parts involved in making speech are manipulated...
or public speaking
Public speaking
Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners...
)
emphasized individuality, intellectual engagement, spontaneity, creativity, and rigorous technical training. He developed a system that centered on the idea that all expression comes from within, and that vocal intonation, posture, and gesture cannot be dictated, but must happen naturally as a reaction to genuinely felt emotion. This was in contrast to many elocutionists of his day, who favored mechanistic methods that were rule-based, artificial, and imitative.
Curry’s rejection of the imitative method is evident in his writing:
Action cannot be improved by one human being prescribing a gesture for another. This is the way to destroy all natural and expressive action. Action is personal and must always result from inner activity. It must obey the law from within outward. It must be the effect of an inner condition or experience. It cannot be brought about by laying down rules as to what gestures should be made with a certain class of ideas.
He rejected not only the methods, but also the nomenclature of his field. He felt that the word “elocution” denoted artificiality, and preferred the word “expression” instead. Thus he changed the name of his school, originally the “School of Elocution and Expression,” to simply the “School of Expression.”
But though Curry disapproved of the mechanistic method, he did not entirely abandon these techniques, nor did he wholeheartedly embrace the so-called natural method. Instead, he found a middle ground between the two. His program at the School of Expression encompassed both the psychological and the technical aspects of expression. Students read literature and poetry to stimulate their minds and awaken their emotions, but they also obtained more traditional vocal and physical training, engaging in rigorous technical exercises.
Curry was an influential teacher, and many of his students went on to become teachers themselves. Among them were Horace G. Rahskopf, Sara Stinchfield Hawk, Lee Emerson Bassett, Azubah Latham, and Gertrude Johnson
Gertrude Johnson
Gertrude Emily Johnson OBE was an Australian coloratura soprano and founder of the National Theatre in Melbourne.- Early life :...
.
Major publications
- Province of Expression: A Search for Principles Underlying Adequate Methods of Developing Dramatic and Oratoric Delivery (1891)
- Lessons in Vocal Expression: Processes of Thinking in the Modulation of the Voice (1895)
- Imagination and Dramatic Instinct: Some Practical Steps for Their Development (1896)
- Vocal and Literary Interpretation of the Bible (1903)
- Foundations of Expression: Studies and Problems for Developing the Voice, Body, and Mind in Reading and Speaking (1907)
- Browning and the Dramatic Monologue: Nature and Interpretation of an Overlooked Form of Literature (1908)
- Mind and Voice: Principles and Methods in Vocal Training (1910)
- Little Classics for Vocal Expression (1912)
- Spoken English (1913)
- The Smile (1915)
- How to Add Ten Years to Your Life (1915)
Further reading
- Curry, Haskell B. “Memories of S.S. Curry.” Today's Speech 7.4 (1959): 7-8.
- “Curry, Samuel Silas”. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, vol 14. New York: James T. White & Co., 1910.
- “Curry, Samuel Silas”. Who Was Who in America, vol. 1. Chicago: A.N. Marquis Co., 1943.