One method to excel them all: on the Holy Trinity as a scientific principle and criterion in François Delsarte's 'course in applied aesthetics' (1839-1870)

Résumé 0

This dissertation examines the extant writings and lecture transcripts of François Alexandre Nicolas Chéri Delsarte (1811-1871) in an attempt to rediscover and reconstruct his system of applied aesthetics. Delsarte developed his “Course in Applied Aesthetics” in the 1830s in Paris, and taught it for over thirty years, but he died without publishing his research. Previous scholarship on Delsarte has mainly focused on the practical application of his teachings, but without a complete understanding of the underlying theory being applied. In contrast, my research focuses on elucidating the theoretical foundation of Delsarte’s aesthetic system from a scientific, philosophical, and musicological perspective. By doing so, I show that the scope of Delsarte’s research was far greater and more ambitious than the so-called “System of Expression” for which he is remembered today, but that what he hoped to discover was a universal method of training in the arts and sciences – a perfect, unified system of knowledge – now known as consilience. Ultimately, the aim of this project is to re-establish Delsarte’s aesthetic system on sound epistemological and methodological foundations, to show that the system is based on both medieval Aristotelian-Scholasticism and nineteenth-century French Spiritualist Realism, that the “Delsarte system” is actually a musical system par excellence, and that the system played a much more significant role in the history of French Romantic musical aesthetics and the evolution of nineteenth-century opera more generally than has hitherto been assumed. In chapter one, I reconstruct Delsarte’s epistemological and methodological systems, which are based on the principles of Aristotelian-Scholasticism in accordance with the tenets of Roman Catholic doctrine, in order to show that not only is the system anti-Cartesian and anti-materialist, but that Delsarte’s aesthetic theory cannot be understood within the modern or post-modern ideological confines. In order to reconstruct the system, I follow Delsarte’s own instructions on how to unlock his theorem by clarifying the terms and relations of the three divine persons of the Holy Trinity according to the theology of the circumincession and processional relations from Roman Catholic doctrine. What my analysis reveals is that Delsarte’s system is an aesthetic translation of medieval Aristotelian-Scholasticism, which begins in sense perception with the sounding of the overtones series, whence it ascends beyond the three hierarchies and nine choirs of angels (intelligences) to the Holy Trinity, which thereby serves as the scientific first principle and criterion of the system. In chapter two, I trace the philosophical transition in early nineteenth-century France from Cartesian dualism to spiritualist-realist Trinitarianism in the anthropological writings of Pierre Maine de Biran (1766-1824), whose ideas were kept alive in Paris in the 1830s and 40s by his successor, Théodore Simon Jouffroy (1796-1842). By doing so, I show that Delsarte’s system was not merely a nostalgic return to medieval Scholasticism, but that, by incorporating both Biran’s and Jouffroy’s ideas, his theory was based on the most advanced philosophical and scientific thinking of his day. I show that the shift away from Cartesian dualism and scientific materialism in early nineteenth-century France towards a Biranian theory of vitalism – one that remained subordinate to the mechanical laws of nature – not only coincided with Delsarte’s own religious conversion in the 1830s from rationalist atheism to Roman Catholicism, but that the shift towards Biranian anthropology allowed Delsarte to develop an aesthetic theory whereby the Holy Trinity could validly serve as a first principle and criterion of his system and thereby unify medieval and modern scientific methodologies. In chapter three, I partially reconstruct Delsarte’s musical system from manuscript sources and historical documents, a system which is shown to be based on the principles of ancient music, and thereby includes a diatonic, enharmonic, and chromatic genus – the latter of which is shown to be derived from the generation of the overtone series. By analysing ancient treatises on aesthetics and music against Delsarte’s extant writings, I show that what constituted the study of music as a science of perception in antiquity is what constitutes the science of aesthetics for Delsarte in the nineteenth century. By applying Delsarte’s criterion to descriptions in his extant writings, I show that not only does the Ninth Chord criterion form a system of interlocking triads, now primarily identified with the music of Wagner and Liszt, but it also forms a system of tonal pairings evocative of Robert Bailey’s theory of tonal pairings which he based on an analysis of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Also, by reconstructing Delsarte’s chromatic genus according to his criterion of the Ninth Chord, which is based on the overtone series, I show how his musical system brings together the major and minor modes into a balanced “atonal” system, suggesting that Delsarte would have viewed the modes not as culturally constructed by the human mind, but as a natural occurring phenomenon in nature. In chapter four, I present evidence which shows that Delsarte’s teachings influenced Wagner’s aesthetic theory, and that Wagner’s early writings appear to be based on Delsarte’s aesthetic system, putting forth the argument that Wagner most likely attended Delsarte’s course during his first sojourn in Paris between 1839 and 1842. I demonstrate that Wagner had to know who Delsarte was as both a teacher of aesthetics and a celebrated interpreter of Gluck’s repertoire. In terms of evidence, I show that a drawing from Wagner’s manuscript for Opera and Drama is a partial sketch of Delsarte’s Chart of Man from his aesthetic system, and that Delsarte’s tripartite system functions as the underlying theoretical structure of Wagner’s major aesthetic treatise. Finally, in the conclusion, I consider Delsarte’s aesthetic system to be scientific not only in the medieval Aristotelian-Scholastic sense of the term, and that the Holy Trinity can validly serve as a first principle and criterion of a scientific system, but that Delsarte’s system is also scientific according to the methods of nineteenth-century science – that, had he completed his research, Delsarte may very well have succeeded in establishing aesthetics as a positive science.