Mme. Géraldy returned to France, bearing with her the hope that her efforts have not been altogether unsuccessful in making the great work of her father's life better known to Americans, better understood and appreciated by them.
Part Seventh.
Addenda.
Trueness in Singing.
Notes of a Lecture by Delsarte, Taken by His Pupil A. Giraudet, of The National Academy of Music, Paris.
By a most reasonable deduction derived from his admirable principles, Delsarte reckoned three modes or degrees of correct singing:
- Absolute trueness;
- Temperate trueness;
- Passional trueness.
Absolute trueness is that adopted by theorists, who divide the gamut into five notes and two semi-notes; the note into nine commas, or shades of tone; the chromatic semi-tone into five, and the diatonic semi-tone into four.
Thus from C to C# they count five shades of tone; whereas from C to Db they count but four. Likewise, from D to Db they count five shades of tone, and from D to C# but four.
The difference of a comma between the D flat and the C sharp, seemingly a very slight difference, is, nevertheless, most important in singing, as we shall see later on. But performers, to simplify our musical system, have divided this comma into two, making synonymous notes of D flat and C sharp; that is to say, notes having the same sound. The note is, therefore, practically divided into two semitones of four commas and a half. This is what is known as moderation or temperate trueness.