United States or Saint Martin ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Monsieur Due was very indignant at this sans-gene, and apologized for Delsarte's want of courtesy; but the Prince did not mind, and occupied himself with looking at Delsarte's old poetry-books and albums. Finally Delsarte entered and graciously received his royal visitor.
There is real feeling, grandeur and even something of the picturesque in these works as much as could be with the means at their disposal. It is only right that we should pay tribute to Delsarte's memory. He was a pioneer who, during his whole life, proclaimed the value of immortal works, which the world despised. That is no slight merit.
I said to myself, "... no one could 'sentir un oranger' in this room; one could only smell Delsarte's bad tobacco." He begged me to sing something else. "Will you accompany Gounod's 'Medje' for me?" I asked him. "No," he replied. "I will listen; you must accompany yourself. There are certain songs that cannot be accompanied by any one but the singer. This is one of them!
One of the theories which may be said to have justified itself in practice in a different field is that upon which is based Delsarte's famous art of expression. It has schooled some of the finest actors in the world, and raised others from mediocrity to distinction.
I have tried it and have seen the effect. But I am letting you into all Delsarte's most innermost secrets. PARIS, July, 1865. DEAR M., You must forgive me if I have not written lately; but we have been on a visit to the Duke and Duchess de Persigny for the past week. I did not have time to do more than dress for driving and drive, dress for afternoon tea, dress for dinner, and dine.
Delsarte squirmed with agony as he heard the French language, and murmured to himself that he had lived in vain. What had served all his art, his profound diagnosis of voice-inflections, his diagrams on the wall, the art of enunciation, and so forth? He realized, for the first time, what his graceful language could become del bocca Americana! Delsarte's idea of evening-dress was worthy of notice.
These diagrams are crayon-drawings of life-sized faces depicting every emotion that the human face is capable of expressing, such as love, sorrow, murder, terror, joy, surprise, etc. It is Delsarte's way, when he wants you to express one of these emotions in your voice, to point with a soiled forefinger to the picture in question which he expects you to imitate.
The Prince was most affable and listened to Delsarte's fantastic theories, pretending to be interested in the explanation of the cartoons, and began to discuss the art of teaching, which exasperated Delsarte to the verge of impoliteness. Prince Oscar offered to sing a Swedish song, a very simple peasant song, which he sang very well, I thought.
Prince Oscar, Monsieur Due, the Swedish secretary, Mademoiselle W , and I went at the appointed time, mounted Delsarte's tiresome stairs, and waited patiently in his salon while he finished a lesson.
"That is true," he would answer, "but in those days the harpsichord had little depth of tone." It would have been easy to answer that the accompaniment was written for the orchestra and not for the harpsichord. Delsarte's execution, on account of the insufficiency of his vocal powers, was often entirely different from what the author intended.
Word Of The Day