The unspoiled ear and taste instinctively feel
something unfinished, and are disturbed if it be not followed by a
return to the key chord. Where the faculties are dormant or petrified,
its significance will be unobserved.
The story is told of a young lady whose musical education had been
utterly hollow and false, but who, having been overwhelmed with flattery
for her voice and her singing, was deluded into a belief that she was
destined to shine as a star on the operatic stage. She consulted the
famous basso, Karl Formes, who good-naturedly had her sing for him. He
perceived at once that she possessed neither striking talent nor
adequate training.
As a supreme test he struck on the piano a chord of the dominant
seventh, and asked the young aspirant for dramatic glory what she
thought it meant. Presuming it to be incumbent upon a prospective prima
donna to have uppermost in her mind the grand passion, she replied, in a
sentimental tone, "Love!" Promptly Karl Formes sounded the solution to
the chord.
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