The citizen
king recognized the royalty of art. And it may be noted that Delsarte
would not have appeared on this occasion, except on the condition that
no remuneration should be offered to him for the exercise of his
talents.
Malibran, whose kind word in the courtyard of the Conservatoire had
revived Delsarte's fainting hopes, attended his early course of
lectures. I have already mentioned Rachel and Macready as his pupils. I
now recall the names of Sontag, of the gifted Madeleine Brohan, of
Carvalho, Barbot, Pasca (who owed everything to Delsarte), and Pajol. He
was the instructor in pulpit oratory of Pere Lacordaire, Pere
Hyacinthe, and the present abbe of Notre Dame.
Notwithstanding the labor exacted by his great specialty, he has done
much good work in various other directions. Among his mechanical
inventions are a sonotype, a tuning instrument by means of which any one
can tune a piano accurately, an improved level, theodolite and sextant,
a scale for measuring the differences in the solidity of fluids, etc.
Of the conscientiousness with which he works, it may be mentioned that
he devoted five years to the study of anatomy and physiology, to obtain
a perfect knowledge of all the muscles, their uses and capabilities,--a
knowledge of which he has utilized with remarkable success.
It is now time to give some idea of his system, which can be done most
satisfactorily, perhaps, through the medium of an article which appeared
in the _Gazette Musicale_, from the authoritative pen of A.
Pages:
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496