Methods and aids in nzusic educatioiiEURHYTHMICS:
THE JAQUES-DALCROZE METHOD
by
Frank MARTIN
President, Foundation Jaques-Dalcroze Institute, Geneva, SwitzerlandIt is not an easy task to give a brief account of the Jaques-Dalcroze
method of rhythmic gymnastics or to answer in a few words questions
about what it is or what it does. The fact is that none of the convenient
general labels such as teaching procedure, art, or discipline can be
applied to it. While Dalcroze’s eurhythmics cannot claim to be a
teaching method, it is also not an art in itself, like music or dancing;
nor is it properly speaking a discipline. By the express intention of the
inventor himself, it is in opposition to the general trend of almost all
forms of contemporary art. In our ultra-specialist age, all disciplines
tend to be analytical rather than synthetical and thus achieve practical
and immediately applicable results with much greater ease and speed.
This attitude did not of course mean that Jaques-Dalcroze was in any
way against the pursuit of immediate results, which are essential in any
type of study; he simply felt an imperious need, both for himself and
for his pupils (because he was a born teacher) of something that would
simultaneously bring into play all, or as many as possible, of the human
faculties.
Before going any further, I should like to give a very brief account
of the first eurhythmics lesson, as related by Charles Faller, organist,
conductor and director of the Chaux-de-Fonds Conservatoire in
Switzerland :
‘It was my good fortune to take part in the very first lesson in
eurhythmics ever given. The date was June 1903, the place the stage
of the great hall of the Geneva Conservatory, and the pupils the
children’s sol-fa class with which Jaques-Dalcroze began his teaching
career. One day when we arrived for a lesson “Monsieur Jaques” told
us to leave our desks and gather round the piano. Rather to our bewil-
derment he then made us march, run, and jump and finally said:
“there is something worth finding in that, and I am going to look for
it”. During the holidays he worked out his first system of eurhythmics