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Mistaken
Identities:
Francois
Delsarte (1811-71)
The confusion between the names “Dalcroze” and “Delsarte” is
understandable. Not only do the names sound similar, but the men themselves have
much in common. Both were European, spoke French, were inspired by the ancient
Greeks, used Greek robes or togas in their classes, influenced modern dance, and
created educational frameworks involving movement. However, to simplify: one
relates movement to music, while the other relates movement to speech.
Francois
Delsarte created a system integrating speech, movement, and gesture.
Jaques-Dalcroze was undoubtedly influenced by Delsarte’s philosophy, and may
have taken classes in the system. Biographer
Irwin Spector wrote of Jaques-Dalcroze’s student days in Geneva, 1883:
“In
addition to his formal work he attended sessions of Francois Delsarte, an
influential vocal teacher who could capture, even enthrall, his listeners with
his small but exquisite voice and excellent elocution. He coached numerous
actors in the art of suiting word to gesture, and none could rival him in
declamation. Among those who came to Delsarte’s classes were Saint-Saens and
Gounod. (Delsarte also happened to be the uncle of Bizet.)”
1
However, it seems impossible that these classes were taught by Delsarte himself,
as he died in 1871 (when Jaques-Dalcroze was six years old).
Delsarte was
trained as an actor and singer. (Interestingly, Jaques-Dalcroze also studied
acting along with music.) As a young man, he was a tenor with the Opera Comique,
but his singing career was curtailed by vocal damage. He worked as a successful
vocal coach for singers and actors (teaching luminaries such as Jenny Lind), but
his true legacy is his study and work with gesture.
Delsarte was
interested in enhancing performance through pose and gesture, governed by
natural laws of the body and its movement. To that end, he carefully studied and
recorded aspects of human gesture in everyday life. Eventually, Delsarte
recorded thousands of gestures, each identified with specific descriptions of
their time, motion, space and meaning.
His system
describes three major zones in the body: the head, housing the intellect; the
trunk, carrying emotion; and the limbs, zone of the physical domain. Further
subdivisions were identified toward defining and refining subtleties of gesture.
The Delsarte method developed control, grace, poise and carriage, not for their
own sake, but in order to enhance physical expression of emotions in connection
with speech and thought. Later, “gymnastic” elements were added to develop
strength, coordination, and flexibility.
Followers
of Delsarte danced or recited poetry while performing related gestures. Like
Jaques-Dalcroze, however, Delsarte created work that did not end where it began,
and he, too, had a significant influence on modern dance and related fields. In
fact, his emphasis on the natural beauty of the healthy human body likely
influenced Jaques-Dalcroze’s work, as well.
Frederick Matthias Alexander, known for his “Alexander
Technique,” studied the Delsarte system and even taught it in his early
career. Isadora Duncan and Ted Shawn
studied his method, and went on to create natural dance movement arising from,
and thus expressing, human emotion. The connection is perhaps most evident in
Duncan’s use of words, thoughts and feelings as preparatory motivation for
specific movements.
The Greek
Revival in European and American art of the time is manifested in Delsarte’s
work, and later that of Jaques-Dalcroze and Duncan. It appears in their shared
philosophical tenets of perfection and control of the body; the idea of
integrating mind, body and spirit; the importance of the natural; and even in
the Greek robes or togas that were so ubiquitous in the period.
Although the
Delsarte system is not based on music, classes did include music to accompany
gesture. According to an 1897 book based on Delsarte’s system: “Music,
to secure perfect unison in action, is a great help in Delsarte exercises… The
transitions [between gestures] should each be made, of course, during one bar of
music, and the gesture sustained during a bar.” 2
So
while it’s understandable to confuse the names “Dalcroze” and “Delsarte,”
it’s a good idea to make their differences and similarities understandable to
those who have them mixed up. In that endeavor, I hope this has helped.
1. Irwin Spector, Rhythm
and Life: The Work of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon
Press, 1990), p. 10.
2. Author Unknown, Pastimes at
Home and School: A Practical Manual of Delsarte Exercises and Elocution
(Chicago: W.B. Conkey Co., 1897), p. 3.
Illustrations
These illustrations are examples
taken from Pastimes at Home and School, cited above. The book is one of
many that were devoted to “Child Culture,” which involved training in voice
and gesture with memorized recitations. These were said to be designed for
“proper training and development of children,” but one wonders to what
degree these precious, memorized “entertainments” in America were simply for
the pleasure of adult audiences in parlors and drawing rooms. While many such
books do not cite Delsarte specifically, the influence is obvious. (If
interested, you can find such books from antiquarian book sources or Ebay.
Titles will include words such as “Speaker,” “Recitations,” and
“Entertainments.”)
 
 
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