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X. § 112.] EFFECT OF TEMPERAMENT. 207 |
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of sustained chords in three or four parts, without accompaniment, and then, after noticing the effect, to let them repeat the phrase while the parts are at the same time played on the pianoforte. The sour character of the concords of the accompanying instrument will be at once decisively manifested. Voices are able to sing perfect intervals, and their clear transparent concords contrast with the duller substitutes provided by the pianoforte in a way obvious to every moderately sensitive ear.
112. Since the voice is endowed with the power of producing all possible shades of pitch within its compass, and thus of singing absolutely pure intervals, it is clear that we ought to make the most of this great gift, and, especially in the case of those persons who are to be public singers, allow during the season of preparation contact with the purest examples of intonation only. Unfortunately the practice of most singing-masters is the very reverse of this. The pupil is systematically accompanied, during vocal practice, on the pianoforte, and thus accustomed to habitual familiarity with intervals which are never strictly in tune. No one can doubt the tendency of such constant association to impair the sensitiveness to minute differences of pitch on which delicacy of musical perception depends. Evil communications are not less corrupting to good |
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