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[Illustration: Emile Jaques-Dalcroze.]
THE EURHYTHMICS
OF JAQUES-DALCROZE
Introduction by
Professor M. E. Sadler, LL.D. (Columbia)
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds
BOSTON
SMALL MAYNARD AND COMPANY
1915
Printed in Great Britain
{_Pas gar ho bios tou anthropou eurythmias te kai
euarmostias deitai._}
"Rhythmische Gymnastik" is the name by which the Dalcroze method is
known in Germany, but whether or not the German words are adequate,
their literal translation into English certainly gives too narrow an
idea of the scope of the system to any one unacquainted with it.
Rhythmical "gymnastics," in the natural meaning of the word, is a part
of the Dalcroze training, and a not unimportant part, but it is only one
application of a much wider principle; and accordingly, where the term
occurs in the following pages, it must be understood simply as denoting
a particular mode of physical drill. But for the principle itself and
the total method embodying it, another name is needed, and the term
"Eurhythmics" has been here coined for the purpose. The originality of
the Dalcroze method, the fact that it is a discovery, gives it a right
to a name of its own: it is because it is in a sense also the
rediscovery of an old secret that a name has been chosen of such plain
reference and derivation. Plato, in the words quoted above, has said
that the whole of a man's life stands in need of a right rhythm: and it
is natural to see some kinship between this Platonic attitude and the
claim of Dalcroze that his discovery is not a mere refinement of
dancing, nor an improved method of music-teaching, but a principle that
must have effect upon every part of life.
JOHN W. HARVEY.
CONTENTS
NOTE: John W. Harvey 5
THE EDUCATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF
HELLERAU: Prof. M. E. Sadler 11
RHYTHM AS A FACTOR IN EDUCATION:} Emile Jaques-Dalcroze 15
FROM LECTURES AND ADDRESSES: } Translated by P. & E. Ingham 26
THE METHOD: GROWTH AND PRACTICE: Percy B. Ingham 31
LESSONS AT HELLERAU: Ethel Ingham 48
LIFE AT HELLERAU: Ethel Ingham 55
THE VALUE OF EURHYTHMICS TO ART: M. T. H. Sadler. 60
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Emile Jaques-Dalcroze _Frontispiece_
The College: from the East _Facing page_ 15
The College: Front 26
The College: General View from the South-East 31
Beating 4/4 }
Movements for the Semibreve}
_Between pages_ 36 _and_ 37
Beating 5/4 in Canon without Expression}
Beating 5/4 in Canon with Expression }
" " 44 " 45
The Air Bath }
The College: Entrance Hall}
" " 48 " 49
The College: Classrooms}
The College: Interiors }
" " 52 " 53
The Hostel: Interiors _Facing page_ 55
The Hostel: General View _page_ 57
Dresden from Hellerau _Facing page_ 59
A Plastic Exercise " " 60
A Plastic Exercise " " 64
THE EDUCATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF HELLERAU
At Hellerau two things make an ineffaceable impression upon the
mind--the exquisite beauty of movement, of gesture and of grouping seen
in the exercises; and the nearness of a great force, fundamental to the
arts and expressing itself in the rhythm to which they attain.
Jaques-Dalcroze has re-opened a door which has long been closed. He has
rediscovered one of the secrets of Greek education.
A hundred years ago Wilhelm von Humboldt endeavoured to make Greek
ideals the paramount influence in the higher schools of Germany. He and
a group of friends had long felt indignant at the utilitarianism and
shallowness of the work of the schools. In Greek literature, Greek
philosophy and Greek art would be found a means of kindling new life in
education and of giving it the power of building up strong and
independent personalities. When there came to Humboldt the unexpected
opportunity of reforming the secondary schools of Prussia, he so
remodelled the course of study as to secure for Greek thought and
letters a place which, if not central and determinative, would at least
bring the élite of the younger generation in some measure under their
influence. But his administrative orders failed to impart to the schools
the spirit of ancient Greece. To Humboldt and his friends Greek studies
had been an inspiration because, apart from their intellectual
significance and literary form, those studies had been the channel of an
artistic impulse and had been entered into as art. But this artistic
power was not felt by the greater number of those who undertook, in
obedience to the new regulations, the duty of teaching Greek in the
schools. What was left in Greek studies after this failure of artistic
insight was often no more than another form of purely intellectual
discipline. A new subject had been added to the curriculum, but new life
had not been brought into the schools. The very name, Gymnasium, which
denoted their Hellenic purpose, seemed ironical. They were not Greek in
spirit and they ignored the training of the body. Thus what Wilhelm von
Humboldt had chiefly aimed at accomplishing, he failed to do. It was not
the power of Greek art that he brought into the schools but, in most
cases, merely the philological study of a second dead language. The
cause of his failure was that he had not discovered the educational
method which could effectually secure his purpose. He had assumed that,
in order to introduce the Greek spirit into education, it was sufficient
to insist upon the linguistic and literary study of Greek.
In time, attempts were made to remedy what was defective in Humboldt's
plan by insisting upon physical exercises as an obligatory part of
education in the higher schools. But the physical exercises thus
introduced, though salutary in themselves, were divorced from the
artistic influences of the Greek gymnastic. Humboldt's chief aim had
been forgotten. His system of organization had rooted itself, but his
educational ideal, to which he attached far greater importance than to
administrative regulation, was ignored.
In later years, though such Neo-Hellenism as Humboldt's had long gone
out of fashion, the weakness of the higher schools on the side of
artistic training was recognized. But a corrective for this was sought
in instruction about art, not (except so far as a little teaching of
drawing went) in the practice of an art. An attempt was made to
cultivate aesthetic appreciation by lessons which imparted knowledge but
did not attempt to train the power of artistic production--an aim which
was regarded as unrealizable, except in vocal music, and of course
through literary composition, in a secondary school. Thus Humboldt's
original purpose has been almost wholly unachieved. The schools,
admirably organized on the intellectual side and, within certain limits,
increasingly efficient in their physical training, are, as a rule,
lacking in the influence of art, as indeed in most cases are the
corresponding schools in other countries. The spring of artistic
training has not been touched. The divorce between intellectual
discipline and artistic influence (except indeed so far as the latter is
operative through the study of literature, through a little drawing, and
through vocal music) is complete. This defect is felt even more keenly
in Germany than in England, because in the German schools the
intellectual pressure is more severe, and the schools do less for the
cultivation of those interests which lie outside the limits of regular
class-room work.
Wilhelm von Humboldt gave little direct attention to the work of the
elementary schools. His chief concern was with higher education. But in
the elementary schools also, except in so far as they gave much care to
vocal music, the course of training failed to make use of the educative
power of art. A conviction that there is an error has led in Germany, as
in England and America, to an increased attention to drawing and to
attempts to interest children in good pictures. But there is still
(except in the case of vocal music and a little drawing) an unbridged
gap between the intellectual and the artistic work of the schools.
Jaques-Dalcroze's experience suggests the possibility of a much closer
combination of these two elements, both in elementary and in secondary
education. His teaching requires from the pupils a sustained and careful
attention, is in short a severe (though not exhausting) intellectual
exercise; while at the same time it trains the sense of form and rhythm,
the capacity to analyse musical structure, and the power of expressing
rhythm through harmonious movement. It is thus a synthesis of
educational influence, artistic and intellectual. Its educational value
for young children, its applicability to their needs, the pleasure which
they take in the exercises, have been conclusively proved. And in the
possibility of this widely extended use of the method lies perhaps the
chief, though far indeed from the only, educational significance of what
is now being done at Hellerau.
M. E. SADLER.
[Illustration: The College.]
RHYTHM AS A FACTOR IN EDUCATION
FROM THE FRENCH OF E. JAQUES-DALCROZE[1]
[1] First published in _Le Rhythme_ (Bâle) of December, 1909.
It is barely a hundred years since music ceased to be an aristocratic
art cultivated by a few privileged individuals and became instead a
subject of instruction for almost everybody without regard to talent or
exceptional ability. Schools of Music, formerly frequented only by born
musicians, gifted from birth with unusual powers of perception for sound
and rhythm, to-day receive all who are fond of music, however little
Nature may have endowed them with the necessary capacity for musical
expression and realization. The number of solo players, both pianists
and violinists, is constantly increasing, instrumental technique is
being developed to an extraordinary degree, but everywhere, too, the
question is being asked whether the quality of instrumental players is
equal to their quantity, and whether the acquirement of extraordinary
technique is likely to help musical progress when this technique is not
joined to musical powers, if not of the first rank, at least normal.
Of ten certificated pianists of to-day, at the most one, if indeed one,
is capable of recognizing one key from another, of improvising four bars
with character or so as to give pleasure to the listener, of giving
expression to a composition without the help of the more or less
numerous annotations with which present day composers have to burden
their work, of experiencing any feeling whatever when they listen to, or
perform, the composition of another. The solo players of older days were
without exception complete musicians, able to improvise and compose,
artists driven irresistibly towards art by a noble thirst for aesthetic
expression, whereas most young people who devote themselves nowadays to
solo playing have the gifts neither of hearing nor of expression, are
content to imitate the composer's expression without the power of
feeling it, and have no other sensibility than that of the fingers, no
other motor faculty than an automatism painfully acquired. Solo playing
of the present day has specialized in a finger technique which takes no
account of the faculty of mental expression. It is no longer a means, it
has become an end.
As a rule, writing is only taught to children who have reached a
thinking age, and we do not think of initiating them into the art of
elocution until they have got something to say, until their powers of
comprehension, analysis and feeling begin to show themselves. All modern
educationalists are agreed that the first step in a child's education
should be to teach him to know himself, to accustom him to life and to
awaken in him sensations, feelings and emotions, before giving him the
power of describing them. Likewise, in modern methods of teaching to
draw, the pupil is taught to see objects before painting them. In music,
unfortunately, the same rule does not hold. Young people are taught to
play the compositions of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt,
before their minds and ears can grasp these works, before they have
developed the faculty of being moved by them.
There are two physical agents by means of which we appreciate music.
These two agents are the ear as regards sound, and the whole nervous
system as regards rhythm. Experience has shown me that the training of
these two agents cannot easily be carried out simultaneously. A child
finds it difficult to appreciate at the same time a succession of notes
forming a melody and the rhythm which animates them.
Before teaching the relation which exists between sound and movement, it
is wise to undertake the independent study of each of these two
elements. Tone is evidently secondary, since it has not its origin and
model in ourselves, whereas movement is instinctive in man and therefore
primary. Therefore I begin the study of music by careful and
experimental teaching of movement. This is based in earliest childhood
on the automatic exercise of marching, for marching is the natural model
of time measure.
By means of various accentuations with the foot, I teach the different
time measures. Pauses (of varying lengths) in the marching teach the
children to distinguish durations of sound; movements to time with the
arms and the head preserve order in the succession of the time measures
and analyse the bars and pauses.
All this, no doubt, seems very simple, and so I thought when beginning
my experiments. Unfortunately, the latter have shown me that it is not
so simple as it seems, but on the contrary very complicated. And this
because most children have no instinct for time, for time values, for
accentuation, for physical balance; because the motor faculties are not
the same in all individuals, and because a number of obstacles impede
the exact and rapid physical realization of mental conceptions. One
child is always behind the beat when marching, another always ahead;
another takes unequal steps, another on the contrary lacks balance. All
these faults, if not corrected in the first years, will reappear later
in the musical technique of the individual.
Unsteady time when singing or playing, confusion in playing, inability
to follow when accompanying, accentuating too roughly or with lack of
precision, all these faults have their origin in the child's muscular
and nervous control, in lack of co-ordination between the mind which
conceives, the brain which orders, the nerve which transmits and the
muscle which executes. And still more, the power of phrasing and shading
music with feeling depends equally upon the training of the
nerve-centres, upon the co-ordination of the muscular system, upon rapid
communication between brain and limbs--in a word, upon the health of the
whole organism; and it is by trying to discover the individual cause of
each musical defect, and to find a means of correcting it, that I have
gradually built up my method of eurhythmics.
This method is entirely based upon experiments many times repeated, and
not one of the exercises has been adopted until it has been applied
under different forms and under different conditions and its usefulness
definitely proved. Many people have a completely false idea of my
system, and consider it is a simple variant on the methods of physical
training at present in fashion, whose inventors have undoubtedly
rendered great service to humanity.
I cannot help smiling when I read in certain papers, over names which
carry weight, articles in which my method is compared to other gymnastic
systems. The fact is, my book is simply a register of the different
exercises which I have invented, and says nothing of my ideas in
general, for it is written for those who have learnt to interpret my
meaning under my personal tuition at Geneva and Hellerau.
Quite naturally, half the critics who have done me the honour of
discussing the book, have only glanced through it and looked at the
photographs. Not one of them has undergone the special training upon
which I lay stress and without which I deny absolutely that any one has
the right to pass a definite judgment on my meaning; for one does not
learn to ride by reading a book on horsemanship, and eurhythmics are
above all a matter of personal experience.
The object of the method is, in the first instance, to create by the
help of rhythm a rapid and regular current of communication between
brain and body; and what differentiates my physical exercises from those
of present-day methods of muscular development is that each of them is
conceived in the form which can most quickly establish in the brain the
image of the movement studied.
It is a question of eliminating in every muscular movement, by the help
of will, the untimely intervention of muscles useless for the movement
in question, and thus developing attention, consciousness and
will-power. Next must be created an automatic technique for all those
muscular movements which do not need the help of the consciousness, so
that the latter may be reserved for those forms of expression which are
purely intelligent. Thanks to the co-ordination of the nerve-centres, to
the formation and development of the greatest possible number of motor
habits, my method assures the freest possible play to subconscious
expression. The creation in the organism of a rapid and easy means of
communication between thought and its means of expression by movements
allows the personality free play, giving it character, strength and life
to an extraordinary degree.
Neurasthenia is often nothing else than intellectual confusion produced
by the inability of the nervous system to obtain from the muscular
system regular obedience to the order from the brain. Training the nerve
centres, establishing order in the organism, is the only remedy for
intellectual perversion produced by lack of will power and by the
incomplete subjection of body to mind. Unable to obtain physical
realization of its ideas, the brain amuses itself in forming images
without hope of realizing them, drops the real for the unreal, and
substitutes vain and vague speculation for the free and healthy union of
mind and body.
The first result of a thorough rhythmic training is that the pupil sees
clearly in himself what he really is, and obtains from his powers all
the advantage possible. This result seems to me one which should attract
the attention of all educationalists and assure to education by and for
rhythm an important place in general culture.
But, as an artist, I wish to add, that the second result of this
education ought to be to put the completely developed faculties of the
individual at the service of art and to give the latter the most subtle
and complete of interpreters--the human body. For the body can become a
marvellous instrument of beauty and harmony when it vibrates in tune
with artistic imagination and collaborates with creative thought. It is
not enough that, thanks to special exercises, students of music should
have corrected their faults and be no longer in danger of spoiling their
musical interpretations by their lack of physical skill and harmonious
movements; it is necessary in addition that the music which lives within
them--artists will understand me--should obtain free and complete
development, and that the rhythms which inspire their personality should
enter into intimate communion with those which animate the works to be
interpreted.
The education of the nervous system must be of such a nature that the
suggested rhythms of a work of art induce in the individual analogous
vibrations, produce a powerful reaction in him and change naturally into
rhythms of expression. In simpler language, the body must become capable
of responding to artistic rhythms and of realizing them quite naturally
without fear of exaggeration.
This faculty of emotion, indispensable to the artist, was formerly
natural to almost all beginners in music, for hardly any but
pre-destined artists devoted themselves to the art; but, if this is no
longer the case, it is possible at least to awaken dulled faculties, to
develop and co-ordinate them, and it is the duty of every musical
educationalist to deter from instrumental technique every individual who
is still without musical feeling.
The experimental study of rhythm should form a part of every
well-organized musical education, and this study will be useful not only
to musicians, but to music itself. It is quite certain that, if since
Beethoven's time harmony has developed, if each generation has created
fresh groupings of sounds, it is not the same regarding rhythmic forms,
which remain much as they were.
I shall be told that the means of expression are of no importance so
long as the artist is able to show his meaning, that a sincere emotion
can be clearly expressed even with old-fashioned rhythms, and that to
try and create new rhythms is mere technical work, and to enforce such
upon the composers of to-morrow is simply depriving them of their
character. This is all true, and I myself have a horror of seeking new
means of expression within the limits of hard and fast rules, for
expression ought to be a spontaneous manifestation. But I assert that
experiments in rhythm, and the complete study of movements simple and
combined, ought to create a fresh mentality, that artists thus trained
will find inevitably and spontaneously new rhythmic forms to express
their feelings, and that in consequence their characters will be able
to develop more completely and with greater strength. It is a fact that
very young children taught by my method invent quite naturally physical
rhythms such as would have occurred to very few professional musicians,
and that my most advanced pupils find monotonous many contemporary works
the rhythmic poverty of which shocks neither public nor critics.
I will terminate this short sketch of my system by pointing out the
intimate relations which exist between movements in time and movements
in space, between rhythms in sound and rhythm in the body, between Music
and Plastic Expression.
Gestures and attitudes of the body complete, animate and enliven any
rhythmic music written simply and naturally without special regard to
tone, and, just as in painting there exist side by side a school of the
nude and a school of landscape, so in music there may be developed, side
by side, plastic music and music pure and simple. In the school of
landscape painting emotion is created entirely by combinations of moving
light and by the rhythms thus caused. In the school of the nude, which
pictures the many shades of expression of the human body, the artist
tries to show the human soul as expressed by physical forms, enlivened
by the emotions of the moment, and at the same time the characteristics
suitable to the individual and his race, such as they appear through
momentary physical modifications.
In the same way, plastic music will picture human feelings expressed by
gesture and will model its sound forms on those of rhythms derived
directly from expressive movements of the human body.
To compose the music which the Greeks appear to have realized, and for
which Goethe and Schiller hoped, musicians must have acquired experience
of physical movements; this, however, is certainly not the case to-day,
for music has become beyond all others an intellectual art. While
awaiting this transformation, present generations can apply education by
and for rhythm to the interpretation of plastic stage music such as
Richard Wagner has imagined. At the present day this music is not
interpreted at all, for dramatic singers, stage managers and conductors
do not understand the relation existing between gesture and music, and
the absolute ignorance regarding plastic expression which characterizes
the lyric actors of our day is a real profanation of scenic musical art.
Not only are singers allowed to walk and gesticulate on the stage
without paying any attention to the time, but also no shade of
expression, dynamic or motor, of the orchestra--crescendo, decrescendo,
accelerando, rallentando--finds in their gestures adequate realization.
By this I mean the kind of wholly instinctive transformation of sound
movements into bodily movements such as my method teaches.
Authors, poets, musicians and painters cannot demand from the
interpreters of their works knowledge of the relations between movements
in time and in space, for this knowledge can only be developed by
special studies. No doubt a few poets and painters have an inborn
knowledge of the rhythms of space; for instance, Hugo von Hofmannsthal,
the stage mounter of "Electra" at the Vienna Opera, who constructed a
huge staircase, on which, however, the actors, having little
acquaintance with the most elementary notions of balance, moved with
deplorable heaviness; or again, the aesthetician Adolphe Appia, whose
remarkable work _Music and Stage Mounting_ ought to be the guide of all
stage managers. But the majority of composers write their plastic music
without knowing whether it is capable of being practically realized,
without personal experience of the laws of weight, force and bodily
movement.
My hope is, that sincere artists desirous of perfection and seeking
progress will study seriously the grave question which I raise. For my
own part, relying on many experiments, and full of confidence in ideas
carefully thought out, I have devoted my life to the teaching of rhythm,
being fully satisfied that, thanks to it, man will regain his natural
powers of expression, and at the same time his full motor faculties, and
that art has everything to hope from new generations brought up in the
cult of harmony, of physical and mental health, of order, beauty and
truth.
FROM THE LECTURES OF EMILE JAQUES-DALCROZE
(LECTURE AT LEIPZIG, DECEMBER 10, 1911)
The objection is often raised that under my system the technique of an
instrument is acquired too late. But this objection has no foundation in
fact. A child who begins rhythmic gymnastics as I would have it in its
fifth or sixth year and a year later ear-training, can certainly have
piano lessons when eight years old, and I can state from experience that
the finger technique of the child will then develop much more quickly,
for the musical faculties in general will have been far better
developed, more thoroughly trained and become more part of the child's
life owing to the preliminary training.
* * * * *
Lessons in rhythmic gymnastics help children in their other lessons, for
they develop the powers of observation, of analyzing, of understanding
and of memory, thus making them more orderly and precise.
* * * * *
The effect of rhythmic training on the time-table and life of a school
is like that of a hot water heating system which spreads an equal warmth
through all parts of a building. Teachers of other subjects will find
that such training provides them with pupils more responsive, more
elastic and of more character than they otherwise would be. Therefore,
the study of rhythm, as well as education by means of rhythm, ought to
be most closely connected with school life.
[Illustration: The College.]
* * * * *
(ADDRESS TO THE DRESDEN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION, MAY 28, 1912)
From many years' experience of music teaching I have gradually produced
a method which gives a child musical experiences instead of musical
knowledge.
I expect much from education in rhythm in elementary schools, provided
it be given regularly, completely and sufficiently. The exercises should
be begun at the age of six, with half an hour's lesson three times a
week, but these lessons can quite well be taken from playtime. By the
age of twelve two lessons a week are sufficient. This training will not
only develop the feeling for beauty and form by accustoming the eye to
distinguish beautiful movements and lines from those that are ugly, but
also render the children susceptible to musical impressions.
There are always children who are not able to sing in time, or even to
beat time, to walk in time, or to graduate the strength and rapidity of
their movements. Such children are unrhythmic, and it will generally be
noticed that these children are stiff and awkward, often also
over-excitable. This lack of rhythm is almost like a disease. It is
caused by the lack of balance between the mental and physical powers,
which results from insufficient co-ordination between the mental
picture of a movement and its performance by the body, and these nervous
troubles are just as much the cause as the result of such lack of
harmony. In some cases the brain gives clear and definite impulses, but
the limbs, in themselves healthy, can do nothing because the nervous
system is in confusion. In other cases the limbs have lost the power to
carry out orders sent by the brain, and the undischarged nerve-impulses
disturb the whole nervous system. In other cases again, muscles and
nerves are healthy, but insufficient training in rhythm impedes the
formation of lasting rhythmic images in the brain. To repeat, the causes
of this lack of rhythm all lie in the important but insufficiently
recognized psycho-physiological sphere of the co-ordination of brain,
nerve-paths and muscles.
The objection is sometimes made that rhythmic gymnastics cause
nerve-strain in children. This is not the case. Several brain
specialists have told me that they have effected satisfactory cures with
rhythmic gymnastic exercises.
Rhythm is infinite, therefore the possibilities for physical
representations of rhythm are infinite.
* * * * *
(ADDRESS TO STUDENTS, _der Rhythmus_, Vol. I, p. 41, _et seq._)
I consider it unpardonable that in teaching the piano the whole
attention should be given to the imitative faculties, and that the
pupil should have no opportunity whatever of expressing his own musical
impressions with the technical means which are taught him.
Whether the teacher himself be a genius is of little importance,
provided he is able to help others to develop their own talents.
One can create nothing of lasting value without self-knowledge. The only
living art is that which grows out of one's own experiences. It is just
the same with teaching; it is quite impossible to develop others until
one has proved one's own powers in every direction, until one has learnt
to conquer oneself, to make oneself better, to suppress bad tendencies,
to strengthen good ones, and, in the place of the primitive being, to
make one more complete who, having consciously formed himself, knows his
powers. Only in proportion as one develops oneself is one able to help
others to develop.
I consider that one does not require to be a genius in order to teach
others, but that one certainly does require strong conviction,
enthusiasm, persistence and joy in life. All these qualities are equally
derived from the control and knowledge of self.
We must, from youth upwards, learn that we are masters of our fate, that
heredity is powerless if we realize that we can conquer it, that our
future depends upon the victory which we gain over ourselves. However
weak the individual may be, his help is required to prepare a way for a
better future. Life and growth are one and the same, and it is our duty
by the example of our lives to develop those who come after us. Let us
therefore assume the responsibility which Nature puts upon us, and
consider it our duty to regenerate ourselves; thus shall we help the
growth of a more beautiful humanity.
I like joy, for it is life. I preach joy, for it alone gives the power
of creating useful and lasting work. Amusement, an excitement which
stimulates the nerves instead of uplifting the spirit, is not necessary
in the life of the artist. Of course one must often let oneself go, and
I should be the last to defend a so-called moral discipline, or a
pedantic rule of monastic severity. For a healthy, active person the joy
of the daily struggle and of work performed with enthusiasm should be
sufficient to beautify life, drive away fatigue and illuminate present
and future. This condition of joy is brought about in us by the feeling
of freedom and responsibility, by the clear perception of the creative
power in us, by the balance of our natural powers, by the harmonious
rhythm between intention and deed. It depends upon our creative
faculties, both natural and acquired, and becomes greater as these grow.
The power of understanding ourselves certainly gives us a sense of
freedom, for it opens a rapid correspondence, not only between
imagination and power of performance, between apperception and feelings,
but also between the various kinds of feelings which dwell in us.
[Illustration: The College.]
THE JAQUES-DALCROZE METHOD
I. GROWTH[1]
[1] For much of the material of this chapter the writer
is indebted to Herr Karl Storck, of Berlin, to whose
book _E. Jaques-Dalcroze, seine Stellung und Aufgabe in
unserer Zeit_, Stuttgart, 1912, Greiner & Pfeiffer, the
reader is directed.
Emile Jaques-Dalcroze was born in Vienna on July 6, 1865, of mixed
parentage, his father being a Swiss from St. Croix in the Jura (hence
the artist name Dalcroze), his mother of German extraction. At the age
of eight his parents brought him to Geneva, where in due course he
became a student at the Conservatoire of Music. His musical education
was continued in Paris under Léo Delibes and in Vienna under Bruckner
and Fuchs. For a short period his studies were interrupted by an
engagement as musical director of a small theatre in Algiers--an
opportunity which he used for study of the peculiar rhythms of Arab
popular music, which he found unusually interesting and stimulating.
Returning to Geneva, he earned, by a life of varied activities as
teacher, writer and composer, a standing which in 1892 brought him the
appointment of Professor of Harmony at the Geneva Conservatoire.
The wider experience which the new sphere of work brought was to a
certain extent a disappointment, for with it came clear evidence of what
had before only been suspected, namely, that the education of future
professional musicians was in many ways radically wrong, in that the
training of individual faculties was made the chief object, without
consideration of whether or no these faculties stood in any close
relation to the inner consciousness of the student. In other words, the
aim of the training was to form means of expression, without
consideration of what was to be expressed, to produce a highly trained
instrument, without thought of the art whose servant it was to be, to
take as primary object a thing of secondary importance, indeed only of
importance at all when consequent on something which the usual training
entirely neglected. The students were taught to play instruments, to
sing songs, but without any thought of such work becoming a means of
self expression and so it was found that pupils, technically far
advanced, after many years of study were unable to deal with the
simplest problems in rhythm and that their sense for pitch, relative or
absolute, was most defective; that, while able to read accurately or to
play pieces memorized, they, had not the slightest power of giving
musical expression to their simplest thoughts or feelings, in fact were
like people who possess the vocabulary of a language and are able to
read what others have written, yet are unable to put their own simple
thoughts and impressions into words. The analogy here is the simplest
use of everyday language; from this to the art of the essayist or poet
is far; so in music--one who has mastered notes, chords and rhythms can
give musical expression to simple thoughts and feelings, while to become
a composer he must traverse a road that only natural talent can render
easy.
Jaques-Dalcroze took the view that technique should be nothing but a
means to art, that the aim of musical education should be, not the
production of pianists, violinists, singers, but of musically developed
human beings, and that therefore the student should not begin by
specializing on any instrument, but by developing his musical faculties,
thus producing a basis for specialized study. This training could only
be obtained by awakening the sense, natural though often latent, for the
ultimate bases of music, namely, _tone_ and _rhythm_. As the sense for
tone could only be developed through the ear, he now gave special
attention to vocal work, and noticed that when the students themselves
beat time to their singing, the work became much more real, that the
pupils had a feeling of being physically in unison with the music,
indeed the feeling of producing something complete and beautiful.
Following up this hint, "Gesture Songs" were written, which, it was
found, were performed with surprising ease.
Up to this point movement had only been used as an accompaniment to
music, not as a means of expressing it; the next step was to give the
body a training so refined and so detailed as to make it sensitive to
every rhythmic impulse and able to lose itself in any music. This
co-ordination of movement and music is the essence of the
Jaques-Dalcroze method, and differentiates it from all other methods of
similar aim.
So far only arm movements had been employed, and those merely the
conventional ones of the conductor. The next step was to devise a series
of arm movements, providing a means of clearly marking all tempi from
two beats in the bar to twelve beats in the bar, including such forms as
5/4 7/4 9/4 11/4, and a system of movements of the body and
lower limbs to represent time values from any number of notes to the
beat up to whole notes of twelve beats to the note. From the first the
work aroused keen interest among the students and their parents, and the
master was given enthusiastic help by them in all his experiments; above
all he was loyally aided by his assistant, Fräulein Nina Gorter. The
Conservatoire authorities, however, were not sympathetic, and it became
necessary to form a volunteer-experimental class, which worked outside
official hours and buildings.
The first public recognition of the method was at the Music Festival in
Solothurn in 1905, where a demonstration was given which made a
striking impression on those present. The value of the method for the
elementary education of musicians was immediately recognized and some
slight idea obtained of the part it might play in general elementary
education. It has been made clear that the method had its origin in the
attempt to give life and reality to musical education, to give a
foundational development on which specialized music study could be
based, and that it had grown naturally and gradually as the result of
observation and experiment. Now it began to be apparent that something
still greater than the original aim had been achieved, that the system
evolved was one which, properly used, might be of enormous value in the
education of children. With characteristic energy Jaques-Dalcroze,
inspired by the new idea, took up the study of psychology, in which he
was helped by his friend, the psychologist Claparède, who early saw the
value which the new ideas might have in educational practice. The change
of outlook which now took place in the master's mind can best be made
clear by a translation of his own words.[1]
[1] Address to students, Dresden, 1911 (_Der Rhythmus_,
vol. i, p. 33).
"It is true that I first devised my method as a
musician for musicians. But the further I carried my
experiments, the more I noticed that, while a method
intended to develop the sense for rhythm, and indeed
based on such development, is of great importance in
the education of a musician, its chief value lies in
the fact that it trains the powers of apperception and
of expression in the individual and renders easier the
externalization of natural emotions. Experience teaches
me that a man is not ready for the specialized study of
an art until his character is formed, and his powers of
expression developed."
In 1906 was held the first training-course for teachers; how the method
has since grown can be realized by noting that a fortnight was then
considered a sufficient period of training, whilst now the teachers'
course at Hellerau requires from one to three years' steady work. In the
years 1907-9 the short teachers' courses were repeated; in the latter
year the first diploma was granted, experience having shown the need of
this, for already individuals in all parts of the world, after but a few
days' training, in some cases after merely being spectators at lessons,
were advertising themselves as teachers of the method. In 1910
Jaques-Dalcroze was invited by the brothers Wolf and Harald Dohrn to
come to Dresden, where, in the garden suburb of Hellerau, they have
built him a College for Rhythmic Training, a true Palace of Rhythm.
II. PRACTICE[1]
[1] In the preparation of this chapter free use has
been made of the writings of M. Jaques-Dalcroze and of
Dr. Wolf Dohrn, Director of the College of Music and
Rhythm, Hellerau, Dresden.
The method naturally falls into three divisions--
(_a_) Rhythmic gymnastics proper.
(_b_) Ear training.
(_c_) Improvisation (practical harmony).
(_a_) Is essentially the Jaques-Dalcroze method--that which is
fundamentally new. As it is this part of the method which is likely to
prove of great value in all systems of education, not merely as a
preparation for the study of music, but as a means to the utmost
development of faculty in the individual, it will be dealt with in
detail.
(_b_) Is of the greatest importance as an adjunct to rhythmic
gymnastics, since it is through the ear that rhythm-impressions are most
often and most easily obtained. Jaques-Dalcroze naturally uses his own
methods of ear-training, which are extremely successful, but he does not
lay stress on them; he does, however, emphasize the need of such
training, whatever the method, as shall give the pupil an accurate sense
of pitch, both absolute and relative, and a feeling for tonality. The
more these are possessed the greater the use which can be made of
rhythmic gymnastics.
[Illustration: Beating 4/4.]
[Illustration: Movements for the Semibreve.]
(_c_) This is not required in the _pupil_, however valuable it may be as
an additional means of self-expression; it is, however, absolutely
necessary for the successful _teacher_ of rhythmic gymnastics, who must
be able to express, on some instrument--most conveniently the
piano--whatever rhythms, simple or compound, he may wish to use in the
training of his pupils. This subject, therefore, naturally forms an
important part of the normal course at the Hellerau College, since this
course is planned to meet the needs of students preparing for the
teaching diploma in Eurhythmics. Here, too, Jaques-Dalcroze has his own
system, with which he obtains results often remarkable, but, as in the
case of the ear-training, this is a detail not peculiar to the method as
a whole.
To repeat: the essentials are that the teacher have the power of free
expression on some musical instrument, the pupil that of hearing
correctly.
* * * * *
The system of exercises known as rhythmic gymnastics is based upon two
ideas, (i) _time_ is shown by movements of the arms, (ii) _time-values_,
i.e., note-duration, by movements of the feet and body. In the early
stages of the training this principle is clearly observed; later it may
be varied in many ingenious ways, for instance in what is known as
plastic counterpoint, where the actual notes played are represented by
movements of the arms, while the counterpoint in crotchets, quavers or
semiquavers, is given by the feet.
The system of beating time with the arms provides for all tempi from
2/4 to 12/4 and includes 5/4 7/4 9/4.
In the series of movements to represent note-values the crotchet is
taken as the unit; this is represented by a step; higher values, from
the minim to the whole note of twelve beats, are represented by a step
with one foot and a movement or movements with the other foot or with
the body, but without progression, e.g., a minim by one step and a knee
bend, a dotted minim by a step and two movements without progression, a
whole note of twelve beats by a step and eleven movements. Thus for
each note in the music there is one step, one progression in space,
while at the same time the note, if of greater length than a crotchet,
is analysed into crotchets.
Notes of shorter duration than the crotchet, i.e., quavers, triplets,
etc., are expressed also by steps which become quicker in proportion to
their frequency.
When the movements corresponding to the notes from the crotchet to the
whole note of twelve beats have, with all their details, become a habit,
the pupil need only make them mentally, contenting himself with one step
forward. This step will have the exact length of the whole note, which
will be mentally analysed into its various elements. Although these
elements are not individually performed by the body, their images and
the innervations suggested by those images take the place of the
movements.
The process is similar to that of the child learning to read; at first
it reads aloud, then to itself, still, however, moving its lips, i.e.,
still making all the innervations necessary for the pronunciation of the
words. Only after much practice does the process become sufficiently
automatic for these lip and tongue innervations to be dropped. Indeed,
many adults show traces of them when they read. To what degree our power
to read is based upon such innervations is shown by the fact that old
people, as their inhibitory powers become weaker, often revert to making
these lip movements. From this we may conclude that such innervations,
although they do not find their natural expression, still exist and
have effect, i.e., they are necessary. The Jaques-Dalcroze method aims
at nothing more or less than the training of rhythmic innervations.
The whole training aims at developing the power of rapid physical
reaction to mental impressions. These latter are more commonly obtained
through the ear, chiefly from the music played; naturally, however, the
teacher needs at times to give commands during an exercise. For this
purpose he invariably uses the word _hopp_, a word chosen for its clear
incisiveness.
Before each exercise it is clearly stated what the word is to represent
in that particular case, e.g., omit one beat, omit one bar, beat time
twice as fast with the arms, etc.; often the word will be used in series
in an exercise, each _hopp_ meaning some additional change. As the
command generally falls on the second half of the beat preceding the one
in which the change is to be made, very rapid mental and physical
response is necessary, especially if the music be at all quick.
Exercises of this class soon give the power of rapid muscular
innervation and inhibition, and are of extraordinary value in education,
quite apart from their purely rhythmic side.
We will now consider the exercises in some detail, taking, as a matter
of convenience, the order and grouping generally adopted at
demonstrations of the method. In actual practice such strict grouping is
neither possible nor necessary; the actual form which the lessons take
will depend upon the genius of teacher and pupils, the possibilities of
variety being infinite.
[Sidenote: =MOVEMENTS TO INDICATE VARIOUS TEMPI=]