A French system of teaching sight-singing. It was based on the figure-notation proposed by Rousseau in 1742 but with later modifications introduced by Pierre Galin, Aimé Paris and his sister Nanine, and her husband Emile Chevé. The central feature of the method is a notation of numerals from 1 to 7, with 1 representing the major tonic. Allowing a compass of three octaves for vocal music, the lower and upper octaves respectively are marked by the insertion of dots below or above the numerals (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7). Key is shown by a simple statement at the beginning of a piece, for example ‘F = 1: ton fa’. Accidental sharps are marked with an oblique stroke through the numeral from left to right, flats by a stroke in the opposite direction; rests are shown as zeros (ex.1). Where several numerals share a bar or part of a bar, they share its value equally. Smaller note values are shown by the use of horizontal lines, somewhat similar to the tails of grouped quavers or semiquavers, placed above notes that share beats or parts of beats. Longer notes have their continuation indicated by large dots, which share the value of the bar in the same way as the notes themselves. Pupils employ the sol-fa syllables do, ré, mi, fa, sol, la and si when singing exercises, not the numbers themselves. Accuracy of intonation is encouraged by the use of points d’appui (preparatory notes to be thought of, not sung) before attacking more demanding intervals; these are indicated by smaller numerals (e.g. 1 3 5 15 65 43 21 7).
The method was planned as an approach to standard notation, not as an alternative notation in its own right. Pupils are introduced to staff notation by means of the ‘méloplaste’, a vacant staff on which notes and intervals are pointed out with a baton. Note lengths are familiarized by means of a series of rhythmic note names which, when spoken aloud, pattern the effect of the notes concerned (ex.2).
All these devices were first made widely known in Méthode élémentaire de musique vocale (1844), published jointly by Chevé and his wife. In spite of considerable opposition from professional musicians in France, the method gained wide popularity there during the second half of the 19th century, largely through the vigorous propaganda of Emile Chevé. It was employed in many schools, teacher-training colleges and in the Ecole Polytechnique, as well as in the army and navy by 1875. By that time it had also been adopted in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Russia. Also introduced at that time into a few English private schools by Andrade, the method had its formal introduction to the professional musician in Britain when George Bullen read a paper on the subject to the members of the Musical Association in 1878.
G.W. Bullen: ‘The Galin-Paris-Chevé Method of Teaching Considered as a Basis of Musical Education’, PMA, iv (1877–8), 68–93
M. Chevais: ‘L’enseignement musical à l’école’, EMDC, II/vi (1931), 3631–83
BERNARR RAINBOW