Saillant System: In Harmony With Nature Principle 2

The natural process through which those engaged in the operatic idiom use the minimum amount of effort to realize the maximum results:

Ausstrahlung
Breathing Coordination
The Expressive Body
The Golden Mean
The Intuitive Gesture Vocabulary
Tonus and The Neutral Face

Thomas Carlyle, one of the most important social commentators of the 19th century, “contrasts the singing of the damaged Statue of Memnon (in Thebes) with the natural talent found in many of his contemporary artists. He explains that the statue sang in harmony with nature and produced a much softer beauty than “the fierce clashing of cymbals, and shouting of multitudes” that Carlyle saw in the art (specifically literature) around him.

Carlyle also connects the singing of the Statue of Memnon with light, since the statue would sing only with the coming of the sun. By being in touch with light, art can use the beauty of nature to its own purposes, since “the meek, silent Light can mould, create and purify all Nature.”

Thanks to Olivia Harding ’12, English 60J, Brown University, 2009