rHE EURHYTHMIGS 
 
 OF JAQUES-DALCROZE 
 
Sidney Cox Library of Music & Dana. 
 
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 Cornell University 
 
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3 1924 086 787 144 
 
 
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THE EURHYTHMICS 
 
 OF JAQUES-DALCROZE 
 

Emile Jaques-Dalcroze. 
 
THE EURHYTHMICS 
 
 OF JAQUES-DALCROZE 
 
 Introduction by %T^ 
 
 Professor M. E. Sadler, LL.D. (Columbia) 
 
 Vice-Chancellor of the Univenity of Leeds , 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 SMALL MAYNARD AND COMPANY 
 1913 
 
Ila? yap 6 ^/oy rov avOpebirov evpvOfiias re /ecu 
 evap/AOcrTias SeiTcu. 
 
 RHYTHMISCHE Gymnastik " is the name by 
 which the Dalcroze method is known in Ger- 
 many, 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 " Eurhythmies " 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 re- 
 discovery 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. 
 
 5 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Note : John W. Harvey .... -5 
 
 The Educational significance of Hellerau : Prof. M. E. 
 
 Sadler " 
 
 Rhythm as a Factor in Edu- \ 
 
 I Emile Jaques-Dalcroze . 15 
 cation : > 
 
 I Translated by P. & E. Ingham 
 From Lectures and Addresses : / 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 % . 
 
 Movements for the Semibreve 
 
 Beating % in Canon without Expression 
 
 Beating I in Canon with Expression . 
 
 The Air Bath 
 
 The College : Entrance Hall 
 
 The College : Classrooms 
 
 <se ) 
 
 The College : Interiors 
 The Hostel : Interiors 
 The Hostel : General View 
 Dresden from Hellerau 
 A Plastic Exercise 
 A Plastic Exercise 
 
 Between pages 36 and 37 
 
 44 „ 45 
 
 4 8 ,. 49 
 
 52 
 
 53 
 
 Facing page 55 
 
 . • Page 57 
 
 Facing page 59 
 
 . ,, „ 60 
 
 . ,. „ 64 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL SIG- 
 NIFICANCE OF HELLERAU 
 
 AT Hellerau two things make an ineffaceable im- 
 pression upon the mind — the exquisite beauty 
 of movement, of gesture and of grouping seen in the 
 exercises ; and the nearness of a great force, fundamen- 
 tal 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 endea- 
 voured 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 w ork" of th e scho o ls. In Greek litera- 
 ture, 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 per- 
 sonalities. When there came to Humboldt the unex- 
 pected 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 
 elite 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 
 
 II 
 
inspiration because, apart from their intellectual signifi- 
 cance 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 train- 
 ing 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 organiza- 
 tion had rooted itself, but his educational ideal, to which 
 
 12 
 
he attached far greater importance than to administrative 
 regulation, was ignored. 
 
 In later years, though such Neo-Hellenism as Hum- 
 boldt'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 
 
 13 
 
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 exer- 
 cises, have been conclusively proved. And in the pos- 
 sibility 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. 
 
 14 
 
The College. 
 
RHYTHM AS A FACTOR 
 IN EDUCATION 
 
 FROM THE FRENCH OF E. JAQUES-DALCROZE » 
 
 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 excep- 
 tional 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 instru- 
 mental 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 ^^ "wTEn^cTiaracter 
 or so as^ to^give^^p^ 5 ^^ ^^''^nTTSienerToffflving 
 
 1 First published in Le Rhythme (Bile) of December, 1909. 
 
 15 
 
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 ex- 
 periencing 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 compose r's 
 expression withou t-^he power of feeling it, and have no 
 other sensibility than that oflirlelrn^^rsTno 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 some- 
 thing 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, feedings 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 
 16 
 
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 simul- 
 taneously, 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 inde- 
 pendent 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 move- 
 ment. This is based in earliest childhood on the autoH 
 matic 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 seemsy 
 
 b 17 
 
but on the contrary very complicated. And this because 
 most children have no instinct for time, ior 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 eurhythmies. 
 
 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 
 18 
 
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 myjpersonal 
 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 eurhythmies 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 
 
 19 
 
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 move- 
 ments allows the personality free play, giving it char- 
 acter, 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 
 20 
 
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 inti- 
 mate 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, pro- 
 duce 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 them- 
 
 21 
 
selves 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 ex- 
 pressed 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 com- 
 plete 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 
 
 22 
 
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 beT 
 tween 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, ani- 
 mate 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 emo- 
 tion 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 char- 
 acteristics 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 expres- 
 sive movements of the human body. 
 
 To compose the music which the Greeks appear to 
 have realized, and for which Goethe and Schiller hoped, 
 
 23 
 
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 intel- 
 lectual 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 pro- 
 fanation 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 ex- 
 pression, 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 de- 
 mand 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 elemen- 
 tary notions of balance, moved with deplorable heavi- 
 24 
 
ness ; 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 ques- 
 tion 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. 
 
 25 
 
FROM THE LECTURES OF 
 EMILE JAQUES- 
 
 DALCROZE 
 
 (Lecture at Leipzig, December to, 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 re- 
 26 
 
sponsive, 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. 
 
 (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 elemen- 
 tary 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 
 hi time, or even to beat time, to walk in time, or to 
 graduate the strength and rapidity of their move- 
 ments. 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 
 
 27 
 
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 ner- 
 vous 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 gym- 
 nastics 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 
 28 
 
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 teach- 
 ing ; 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 him- 
 self, 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 pre- 
 
 29 
 
pare 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 our- 
 selves ; thus shall we help the growth of a more beauti- 
 ful humanity. 
 
 I like joy, for it is life. I preach joy, for it alone gives 
 the power of creating useful and lasting work. Amuse- 
 ment, 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 naturalpowers, 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 feel- 
 ings, but also between the various kinds of feelings 
 which dwell in us. 
 
 30 
 
THE JAQUES-DALCROZE 
 METHOD 
 
 I. GROWTH * 
 
 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 Conser- 
 vatoire of Music. His musical education was continued 
 in Paris under L60 Delibes and in Vienna under Bruck- 
 ner 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 Pro- 
 fessor of Harmony at the Geneva Conservatoire. 
 
 The wider experience which the new sphere of work 
 brought was to a certain extent a disappointment, for 
 
 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. 
 
 31 
 
with it came clear evidence of what had before only been 
 suspected, namely, that the education of future pro- 
 fessional 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, with- 
 out consideration of what was to be expressed, to pro- 
 duce 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, tech- 
 nically 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 
 32 
 
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 special- 
 ized 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 some- 
 thing 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 express- 
 ing 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. 
 
 c 33 
 
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, includ- 
 
 5 7 9 11 
 
 ing such forms as, , , ., 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, Fraulein Nina Gorter. The Con- 
 servatoire authorities, however, were not sympathetic, 
 and it became necessary to form a volunteer experi- 
 mental 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 demon- 
 stration 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 special- 
 ized 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, pro- 
 34 
 
perly used, might be of enormous value in the educa- 
 tion 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 Claparede, 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 
 
 " It is true that I first devised my method as a musi- 
 cian for musicians. But the further I carried my experi- 
 ments, 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 indi- 
 vidual 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 char- 
 acter is formed, and his powers of expression developed." 
 
 In 1906 was held the first training-course for tea- 
 chers ; how the method has since grown can be realized 
 by noting that a fortnight was then considered a suffi- 
 cient 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 
 
 1 Address to students, Dresden, 1911 (Der Rhythmus, vol. i, p. 33). 
 
 35 
 
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 l 
 
 The method naturally falls into three divisions — 
 (a) Rhythmic gymnastics proper. 
 (&) 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 devel- 
 opment of faculty in the individual, it will be dealt with 
 in detail. 
 
 (6) 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 j naturally uses his own 
 methods of ear-training, which are extremely success- 
 ful, but he does not lay stress on them ; he does, how- 
 
 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. 
 
 36 
 
Beating 
 
Movements for the Semibreve. 
 
ever, 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. 
 
 (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 pre- 
 paring for the teaching diploma in Eurhythmies. 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 gym- 
 nastics 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 ob- 
 served, later it may be varied in many ingenious ways, 
 
 37 
 
for instance in what is known as plastic counterpoint, 
 where the actual notes played are represented by move- 
 ments 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 
 
 2 12 5 7 9 
 
 for all tempi from . to , and ineludes a a a- 
 
 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 
 
 38 
 
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, how- 
 ever, 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 
 
 39 
 
the beat preceding the one in which the change is to be 
 made, very rapid mental and physical response is neces- 
 sary, especially if the music be at all quick. Exercises 
 of this class soon give the power of rapid muscular inner- 
 vation 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 group- 
 ing 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. 
 
 Simple music is played to which the 
 
 MOVEMENTS ., , . fx. xx. t. 
 
 to indicate pupils march. As they grasp the beat 
 tempi US *k e y mark it by an accented step; when 
 this becomes easy, the corresponding arm 
 movements are added, and the strong beat, at this 
 stage always the first, is marked by full contraction of 
 the arm muscles. Practice is given until at hopp the 
 pupil can stop suddenly, discontinue accenting with 
 one or both arms or with one or both feet, substitute 
 an arm movement for a foot movement, insert an extra 
 accent either with arm or foot, or do any similar thing 
 previously agreed on. By repeated practice of, such 
 exercises complete automatic control of the limbs is 
 obtained and the ground prepared for more advanced 
 work. It is at this stage that the simple movements 
 to indicate times and notes are learnt ; they may be 
 40 
 
likened to the alphabet of the method, the elementary 
 exercises as a whole being its accidence, the more ad- 
 vanced stages, including plastic expression, its syntax. 
 
 training This group of exercises is a natural 
 
 in metre extension of those preceding. 
 
 The pupil learns a series of movements which together 
 form a rhythm, first practising them singly, then in 
 groups, the signal for the change being always the word 
 hopp. By means of such exercises the component 
 movements required in the physical expression of a 
 rhythm can be learnt, first individually, then in series, 
 until the complete rhythm can be expressed and the 
 use of hopp be dropped, each change of movement becom- 
 ing itself the signal for the next. 
 
 Again, the pupil learns to realize * a rhythm played 
 on the piano or indicated by the movements of another 
 person. This is something quite apart from mere imita- 
 tion ; trained by previous exercises, the pupil first forms 
 clear mental images of the movements corresponding 
 to the rhythm in question and then gives physical ex- 
 pression to those images. In other words, he does not 
 reproduce until he has understood ; in fact, without 
 understanding, correct reproduction of a lengthy series 
 of such movements is impossible. In the same way, an 
 individual cannot easily remember and repeat a succes- 
 sion of words which he does not understand, but can 
 repeat without difficulty a long series of words of which 
 he understands the sense. Indeed, the importance of 
 many of these exercises becomes clearer when the way 
 
 1 Realize is used in rhythmic gymnastics in the sense express by 
 movements of the body. 
 
 41 
 
in which children are taught to read and write is remem- 
 bered. 
 
 Oral and visual images of letters and words are im- 
 pressed on the child by reading aloud, and in this way 
 the young brain easily masters the difficult work of 
 reading and writing. The Jaques-Dalcroze method 
 proceeds in exactly the same manner as regards the 
 elements of music. 
 
 When we have once realized this point, we are bound 
 to wonder why music teaching has not always been based 
 on this elementary and unfailing form. What would 
 be said to teachers who tried to teach children to read 
 and write without letting them spell and read aloud ? 
 But this is what has often been done in the teaching of 
 music, and if children generally show but little pleasure 
 and interest in their first music lessons, the fault does 
 not lie with them but with our wrong method of making 
 the elements clear to them. 
 
 As a matter of fact we generally do not make the 
 latter clear to them, and fail in the most important duty 
 of the educator and teacher, namely, that of making the 
 child really experience what he is to learn. 
 
 A rhythm in music consists of a regu- 
 ment L of" larly recurring series of accented sounds, 
 
 mental unaccented sounds, and rests, expressed 
 response , , . . , r 
 
 m rhythmic gymnastics by movements 
 
 and inhibitions of movements. Individuals who 
 are rhythmically uncertain generally have a mus- 
 cular system which is irregularly responsive to mental 
 stimuli ; the response may be too rapid or too slow ; in 
 either case impulse or inhibition falls at the wrong mo- 
 42 
 
ment, the change of movement is not made to time, 
 and the physical expression of the rhythm is blurted. 
 
 Although feeling for rhythm is more or less latent 
 in us all and can be developed, few have it naturally 
 perfect. The method has many exercises which are of 
 use in this connexion. By means of these the pupil is 
 taught how to arrest movement suddenly or slowly, to 
 move alternately forwards or backwards, to spring at a 
 given signal, to lie down or stand up in the exact time 
 of a bar of music — in each case with a minimum of mus- 
 cular effort and without for a moment losing the feeling 
 for each time-unit of the music. 
 
 Physical movements repeatedly per- 
 
 MENTAL , , , ,. . . 
 
 hearing. formed create corresponding images in 
 t°on ENTRA " the brain ; the stronger the feeling for 
 the movement, i.e., the more the pupil 
 concentrates while making that movement, the clearer 
 will be the corresponding mental image, and the more 
 fully will the sense for metre and rhythm be developed. 
 
 We might say that these movement images store up 
 the innervations which bring about the actual movement. 
 They are for the body and its movements what formulae 
 are for the mathematician. 
 
 Developed out of many movements they become 
 a complete symbol for the rhythm expressed by the series 
 of movements in question. Thus the pupil who knows 
 how to march in time to a given rhythm has only to 
 close his eyes and recall a clear image of the correspond- 
 ing movements to experience the rhythm as clearly as 
 if he were expressing it by marching. He simply con- 
 tinues to perform the movements mentally. If, how- 
 
 43 
 
ever, his movements when actually realizing the rhythm 
 are weak or confused, the corresponding mental images 
 will be vague or incorrect, whilst movements which are 
 dynamically clear guarantee the accuracy of the corre- 
 sponding mental images and nerve-impulses. 
 
 In practice the exercise consists in first mastering 
 a rhythm played, marching and beating time in the usual 
 manner, then at hopp discontinuing all movement, either 
 for a number of bars previously agreed upon or until 
 the signal to resume is given by a second hopp. In this 
 exercise the teacher ceases to play at the first hopp. 
 
 The exercises of this group are de- 
 
 ANALYSIS AND 
 
 divisioniof signed to teach how to subdivide units 
 time values Q f ^ me ^ Q p ar t s f var ying number. 
 
 At hopp the crotchet must be divided into quavers, 
 triplets, semiquavers, etc., as may have been previously 
 arranged, or instead of hopp the teacher may call three, 
 four, etc., to indicate the subdivision which is to be ex- 
 pressed by the corresponding number of steps. Apart 
 from their direct object, the exercises of this group are 
 of value for the training which they give in poise ; they 
 might be classed equally well with the group under 
 Development of Mental Response. 
 
 Here, too, belong exercises in the realization of syn- 
 copation in which, as the note is represented by the usual 
 step, it comes off the beat, the latter being indicated 
 
 by a knee-bend which, in quick time, becomes a mere 
 
 1 8 I 
 
 suggestion of movement or is omitted, e.g., | £J*J J J* I 
 
 These exercises in syncopation are perhaps some of 
 the most difficult in the method, as they demand an 
 
 44 
 
Beating % in canon without expression. 
 
Beating % in canon with expression. 
 
extraordinary control of inhibition. Individuals] of 
 musical ability often find them difficult at first, and 
 their easy performance may be taken as evidence of a 
 developed Reeling for rhythm. As a rule children find 
 these exercises easier than do adults. 
 
 REALIZATION ^ ^^ ^ 1S t0 eX P reSS ^ 
 
 of time rhythmic movements and without hesi- 
 and rhythm tation rhythms pe rceived by the ear. The 
 
 exactness of such expression will be in proportion 
 to the number of movements of which the pupil has 
 acquired automatic control. There is not time to analyse 
 the music heard ; the body must realize before the mind 
 has a clear impression of the movement image, just as 
 in reading, words are understood and pronounced with- 
 out a clear mental image of them being formed. 
 
 When the realization of a rhythm heard has become 
 relatively easy, the pupil is taught to concentrate, by 
 listening to, and forming a mental image of, a fresh 
 rhythm while still performing the old one. In this 
 manner he obtains facility in rendering automatic, 
 groups of movements rhythmically arranged, and in 
 keeping the mind free to take a fresh impression which 
 in its turn can be rendered automatic. 
 
 Here again the process is analagous to that of read- 
 ing, in which, while we are grasping the meaning of a 
 sentence, the eye is already dealing with the next, pre- 
 paring it in turn for comprehension. 
 
 develop- Characteristic exercises of this group are : 
 
 ment of beating the same time with both arms but 
 independent. ° . ... 
 
 control of m canon, beating two different tempi with 
 
 the limbs fa e arms while the feet march to one or 
 
 45 
 
other or perhaps march to yet a third time, e.g., the 
 
 arms . and 4 , the feet >. There are, also, exercises 
 
 in the analysis of a given time unit into various fractions 
 
 simultaneously, e.g., in a g bar one arm may beat three 
 
 to the bar, the other arm two, while the feet march 
 six. 
 
 These exercises are a physical prepara- 
 
 DOUBLE OR . . , 
 
 triple de- tion for what is known in music as the 
 ot L rhythms development of a theme. While the com- 
 posers of fugues always use a double or 
 quadruple development, the method introduces an 
 entirely fresh element — the triple development, exercises 
 in which are difficult but extremely valuable. 
 
 In plastic counterpoint the arms realize 
 plastic the theme, i.e., make as many movements 
 
 COUNTER- 
 
 point and as there are notes, whilst the feet mark 
 rhythms th e counterpoint in crotchets, quavers, trip- 
 lets or semiquavers. 
 
 A compound rhythm may be realized by the arms 
 taking one rhythm, the feet another ; or the rhythms 
 of a three part canon may be expressed by simultaneous 
 singing, beating with the arms and marching. 
 
 These exercises correspond in the sphere of physical 
 expression to the technical exercises of instrumental 
 work, for they teach the pupil to express simultaneously 
 impressions of the most varying nature. 
 46 
 
The exercises already dealt with have all 
 OFMirecuLARthe general purpose of developing feeling for 
 effort. rhythm by giving training in the physical 
 accent. expression of rhythms. Those in this last 
 expression § rou P aUT1 a * facility in making crescendos 
 and decrescendos of innervation, in passing 
 from one shade of expression to another, in co-ordinating 
 movements, not only to the rhythm of the music played, 
 but also to its feeling ; they allow free play to indivi- 
 duality, to temperament, and give opportunity for that 
 free self-expression for which the preceding exercises 
 have provided facility. 
 
 Percy B. Ingham. 
 
 47 
 
LESSONS AT HELLERAU 
 
 MONSIEUR JAQUES-DALCROZE'S lessons are 
 full of vitality and entertainment, combined 
 with the serious work in hand. No slacking is possible. 
 He will perhaps open a rhythmic gymnastic lesson by 
 playing a vigorous theme of one or two bars in a rhythm 
 such as the following : — 
 
 ? wm\mmm*m m m 
 
 c 
 
 which, as soon as it is grasped by the pupils, they begin 
 to realize? that is, to mark the tempo with the arms, 
 and to move the feet according to the notes. A note 
 which contains more than one beat — for instance, the 
 minim in the first bar — is shown by taking one step 
 forward for the first beat and by a slight bend of the 
 knee for the second beat. The next two crochets are 
 represented by one step for each. A step is also taken 
 for each quaver, but twice as quickly; for the dotted 
 crochet, a step and a slight spring before the last quaver 
 — all this while the arms are beating a steady four. After 
 a short practice of these two bars, the master^will glide 
 into yet another rhythm, the pupils still realizing the 
 first one, but at the same time listening and mentally 
 registering the one being played, so as to be ready on the 
 instant at the word of command, which is hopp, to 
 change to the new rhythm. We will suppose it to be 
 as follows | J J J"j |. This, it will be noticed, is in j[ 
 
 1 See note, page 41. 
 48 
 
m 
 
 IB 
 
 OQ 
 
 u 
 < 
 
 _c 
 H 
 
13 
 
 X 
 
 V 
 
 o 
 
 c 
 
 IS 
 
 c 
 
 o 
 
 V 
 
 -C 
 
 H 
 
time. The pupils become accustomed to dropping 
 frequently into various times with the greatest ease. 
 The three bars would then be realized consecutively, 
 and this process will continue until perhaps there are 
 six bars in all. These must all be so clear in the minds 
 of the pupils, that at the word of command, one bar, or 
 two bars, can be omitted on the instant, or be realized 
 twice as quickly, or twice as slowly ; or what is still 
 more complicated, the arms can beat the time twice as 
 slowly and the feet mark the notes twice as quickly. 
 It seems incredibly difficult to do at first, but the same 
 training of thinking to time occurs in every lesson, in 
 improvisation and solfege, as well as in the rhythmic 
 gymnastic lessons, and so the invaluable habits of con- 
 centrated thinking, of quick and definite action, and 
 of control of mind over body, become established. 
 
 Each lesson is varied to a remarkable degree ; in fact, 
 Monsieur Jaques-Dalcroze seldom repeats himself. Every 
 day he has new ideas, consisting of new movements, or 
 of new uses for old ones, so that there is never a dull 
 moment. It must be understood, however, that the 
 alphabet and grammar of the movements remain the 
 same, it is the combinations of them that are limitless. 
 The music is, of course, always improvised. 
 
 A word should be said on the subject of feeling two 
 different rhythms at the same time. Every teacher 
 knows the difficulty children have in playing three notes 
 against four on the piano. The Hellerau children can 
 with ease beat four with one arm and three with the 
 other, or beat three with the arms and two or four 
 with the feet, or vice versa. And this is not learnt in 
 
 d 49 
 
any mechanical way ; the power for feeling two rhythms 
 simultaneously is developed. Advanced pupils can 
 realize three rhythms at the same time. They will 
 perhaps mark one with the arms, another with the feet, 
 and sing yet a third. 
 
 Another part of the work is to teach the pupils to 
 express the type of music that is being played ; this is 
 technically known as " Plastic expression." The alpha- 
 bet of this consists of twenty gestures with the arms, 
 which can be done in many various combinations and 
 in various positions, and by means of these any kind of 
 emotion can be expressed. Perhaps the music will 
 begin by being solemn and grand, becoming even tragic, 
 and gradually the tones and melody will rise to cheer- 
 fulness, the rhythm will become more animated and 
 the tone swell out again until a perfect ecstasy of joy is 
 reached — and all the while the figures of the pupils are 
 harmonising absolutely with the music, trained as they 
 are to listen accurately to every note, every accent, 
 every change of key and, above all, every rhythm. To 
 the watcher such an exercise is effective and striking 
 in the highest degree. 
 
 Realizing syncopated passages is a fine exercise for 
 developing independence of movement in the arms and 
 feet, as the feet move in between the beats of the arms. 
 Let any one try to realize a simple measure in syncopa- 
 tion. For instance, take a bar of J time | J* 1 J J J* |- 
 
 The first beat of the arms and the first step will come 
 together, the second beat of the arms will come half- 
 way between the second and third steps, the third beat 
 59 
 
half-way between the third and fourth steps, and the 
 fourth beat half-way between the fourth and fifth steps, 
 and this should be done with no contraction of muscle 
 or appearance of effort. 
 
 Other exercises consist of beating various times in 
 canon, that is, one arm beginning one beat later than 
 the other ; of beating different times with each arm, 
 perhaps seven with one arm and three with the other ; 
 of marching to one rhythm and beating time to another ; 
 of simple marching and at the word of command taking 
 one step backward, and then forward again ; of marching 
 the counterpoint of a rhythm. For instance, if the 
 rhythm played be | f <=J • J J | the counterpoint in 
 
 crochets would be I ^ r J J r r J |, or if it is to 
 
 be in quavers it would be | | *1 J* J~J S~J 1 » 1 J* J~J j. 
 The counterpoint can be filled in with triplets, semi- 
 quavers, or with notes of any other value. 
 
 Another good exercise is to take a simple rhythm 
 and at the word of command realize it twice or three 
 times as quickly or as slowly, the arms still beating in 
 the first tempo. A simple example will make this 
 clear. I | J J J | twice as quickly would become 
 
 The pupils are often asked to listen to what is played 
 and then to realize it. It may be a series of four bars, 
 each one in a different tempo, and all times are employed, 
 
 including ?, L ? and others which are somewhat ex- 
 ceptional. And so on ad infinitum. 
 
 From these suggestions something of the endless 
 
 51 
 
variety of exercises that may be devised can probably 
 now be imagined. 
 
 As soon as movements become automatic they 
 are used as units for building up more elaborate move- 
 ments, and no time is wasted in doing merely mechanical 
 exercises. In every detail of the method the brain is 
 called into constant activity, and, lest any one should 
 think that it would be easy for one pupil to copy another 
 in doing the exercises, it should be stated that, if such 
 a thing were attempted, it would end in the pupil becoming 
 hopelessly confused, for if the mind once loses hold of 
 the work in process it is very difficult to pick it up again. 
 The solfege lessons are chiefly for ear-training and 
 practical harmony. In the elementary classes it is 
 shown how scales and chords are formed, and where 
 the tones and semitones occur. The pupils soon become 
 able to tell, when three consecutive notes from any 
 scale are played, what degrees of the scale they are, or 
 may be. Scales are sung always beginning on C for 
 every key and always to a rhythm. Here, again, the 
 pupils have to think to time, for in the second scale, 
 which would be that of F, if the flat scales were being 
 sung, they have to remember that they are starting on 
 the fifth note of the scale, and that the interval between 
 the third and fourth notes of the scale is a semitone ; 
 that the third and fourth degrees in the key of F are A 
 and B, and therefore the B has to be flattened in this 
 scale, the other notes remaining the same. The whole 
 cycle of scales is sung in this manner, each one com- 
 mencing on C, or on C flat when necessary. The pupils 
 are also practised in listening to a scale played and then 
 
 52 
 
Class Rooms. 
 
an 
 
 JH 
 "3 
 U 
 
 _c 
 
saying in which key it is, judging it by the fall of the 
 semitones. 
 
 Chords are sung analytically and in chorus, with 
 their resolutions when needed, and this is followed by 
 practice in hearing and naming chords. 
 
 Sight singing and transposition are by no means 
 neglected, and there is practice in singing intervals, in 
 singing a piece once or twice through and then from 
 memory, or in another key, which is not so easy to do 
 when the fixed Do is used. And always, whatever is 
 being done, the pupils have to be prepared for the word 
 hopp, to make any change which has been previously 
 agreed on, e.g., to sing on the instant in a key a semitone 
 lower, or to sing in thought only until the next hopp, 
 when they sing aloud again. In these exercises, as in 
 those of the rhythmic gymnastics, there is no end of the 
 variety of combination possible. There is also oppor- 
 tunity for practice in conducting, and very interesting 
 it is, in a children's class, to note with what assurance 
 a small girl of perhaps seven or eight will beat time for 
 the others to sing one of their songs, and also to note 
 the various renderings each conductor will obtain of 
 the same piece. 
 
 The improvisation on the piano is perhaps the most 
 difficult part of the system to master. It may not be 
 realized by all people that every one can be taught to play 
 original music. There are cases in which the pupil is 
 not naturally musical, and has had no previous know- 
 ledge of piano playing, but has learnt to improvise 
 sufficiently well to give a good lesson in rhythmic gym- 
 nastics, which means no small degree of ability. This 
 
 53 
 
training is begun by making use of the simplest, i.e., 
 the common, chords, and when these are known in every 
 key, including those on the dominant, the pupil is ex- 
 pected to improvise a short piece of eight bars, the chief 
 feature to be attended to being the rhythm, which has 
 to be definite and played without hesitation. When 
 perfect familiarity is obtained with the common chord 
 of each key and with that of its dominant, another 
 chord is learnt, that on the sub-dominant. With these 
 three chords alone quite charming little pieces can be 
 played, and gradually in this manner the pupil has at 
 his command passing notes, appoggiaturas, cadences, 
 and an unlimited number of chords and sequences. 
 Then come the rules for modulating from one key to 
 another, and equal facility in all keys is insisted on. 
 Monsieur Jaques-Dalcroze's pupils learn to improvise 
 with definite thought and meaning, nothing unrhythmical 
 is ever allowed, nor any aimless meandering over the 
 keyboard. For these lessons the pupils are divided 
 into small groups of not more than six in each, and 
 twice a week these groups are taken altogether by 
 Monsieur Jaques-Dalcroze. 
 
 All branches of the work demand perfect concentra- 
 tion of thought and attention, and such invaluable 
 mental training cannot be too highly prized, for it is 
 fundamental to success in work of any kind, whatever 
 it may be. 
 
 Ethel Ingham. 
 
 54 
 
The Hostel : Interiors. 
 
LIFE AT HELLERAU 
 
 OURELY never before has the world held better 
 ^ opportunities for studying and loving the beautiful 
 and true. One need be but a few days in Hellerau in 
 order to see some of the many advantages which a stay 
 there has to offer. For young men and women searching 
 for a profession in life ; for those fresh from school while 
 waiting to discover their natural bent ; for adults who 
 seek a change from their ordinary surroundings and who 
 wish to improve in culture and in health ; for musicians 
 and students in art, for teachers of dancing, and for 
 children of all ages, a course of study at the College in 
 Hellerau contains advantages and opportunities which 
 seem to exist in no other educational institution. 
 
 For the convenience of young girls there is a hall 
 of residence, which will accommodate about forty-six 
 students, the head of which is a cultured English lady 
 of wide experience. There are also many small houses 
 on adjoining land, in which the male students and those 
 who are older can live. These may, and as a rule do, 
 come to the Hostel for meals. 
 
 The home life in the Hostel is a cheerful one. The 
 bedrooms are bright, containing just the necessary furni- 
 ture, which of course includes a piano. There is a large 
 and charmingly furnished room opening from the hall, 
 known as the Diele, which serves as a general sitting-room 
 for the students. The dining-room is equally delightful, 
 and can be quickly converted into a ball-room for im- 
 promptu dances, or adapted for other entertainments. 
 
 55 
 
There is also a library ; and throughout the whole house 
 the same good taste is displayed. Leading from the 
 dining-room is a large terrace, with steps down into an 
 attractive garden. 
 
 The day commences with the sounding of a gong at 
 seven o'clock ; the house is immediately alive, and some 
 are off to the College for a Swedish gymnastic lesson 
 before breakfast, others breakfast at half-past seven and 
 have their lesson later. There is always a half hour of 
 ordinary gymnastics to begin with. Then there will be 
 a lesson in Solfege, one in Rhythmic Gymnastics, and one 
 in Improvisation, each lasting for fifty minutes, with an 
 interval of ten minutes between each lesson. 
 
 Dinner, which is at a quarter-past one, is followed by 
 an hour for rest ; and at three the energetic people 
 begin practising. The afternoons are usually free, except 
 twice a week, when there are lessons in " Plastic " and 
 dancing from four till six, before which tea is served, or 
 there may be extra lessons in rhythmic gymnastics for 
 small groups of pupils who need further help, and stu- 
 dents may obtain the use of a room for private practice 
 together. In the afternoons, too, there is time and oppor- 
 tunity for any other extra study or lessons which are 
 not included in the ordinary course, such as violin, solo 
 singing, drawing or painting. Most of the students soon 
 acquire wide interests, if they do not have them when 
 they first come. Free afternoons may be spent in visit- 
 ing the galleries and shops of Dresden. Whenever 
 there is anything especially good in the way of a concert, 
 or an opera or a classical play, there is always a party 
 of enthusiasts going into town for it. The opera in Dres- 
 
 56 
 
 • 1 
 
57 
 
den, as in other parts of Germany, fortunately begins 
 and ends early. Late hours are not encouraged at the 
 Hostel — indeed, everybody is glad to retire early, for the 
 work is absorbing and demands plenty of energy, especi- 
 ally if the full teachers' course be taken, with the hope 
 of a diploma at the end of two years. 
 
 Supper is served at a quarter-past seven, and on two 
 evenings a week those who wish to join the orchestral 
 or choral societies have the pleasure of meeting together 
 and practising under the direction of Monsieur Jaques- 
 Dalcroze. 
 
 An atmosphere of enthusiasm and good-will per- 
 meates the social life. No community of the kind could 
 have a more delightful spirit of unity than that which 
 pervades the Jaques-Dalcroze School. All students are 
 keen and anxious to live as full a life as possible, every 
 one will willingly and unselfishly take time and trouble 
 to help others who know less than themselves. The 
 College has a unity born of kindred interests, and every 
 one glows with admiration and esteem for the genius at 
 the head, and for his wonderful method, whilst he himself 
 simply radiates good-will and enthusiasm, and works 
 harder than any one else in the place. He makes a point 
 of knowing each one of his pupils personally, and remark- 
 ably quick he is in summing up the various temperaments 
 and characters of those with whom he comes into contact. 
 The moral and mental tone of the College is pure and 
 beautiful, indeed it could not well be otherwise, for the 
 work in itself is an inspiration. A change is often ob- 
 servable in pupils after they have been but a few weeks 
 in residence, a change which tells of more alertness of 
 
 58 
 
mind, of more animated purpose, and even of higher 
 ideals and aims in life. 
 
 There are opportunities for the practice of many 
 languages, for it is a cosmopolitan centre. Nearly all 
 European nationalities are represented, but as yet the 
 number of English people is not large. This, however, 
 will not long remain so, for the Jaques-Dalcroze method 
 needs only to be known in order to be as widely appre- 
 ciated in Great Britain and the United States as it is 
 on the Continent. 
 
 The lessons are given in German, though occasionally 
 French is used to make clear anything that is not quite 
 understood in the former tongue. English people who 
 do not know either of these languages need not look 
 upon this as an obstacle, for one quickly arrives at 
 understanding sufficiently well to gain the benefit 
 from the lessons, and there is always some one in the 
 classes who will interpret when necessary, 
 
 The College itself is a fine example of the value of 
 simplicity and space in architecture. Both without 
 and within, the block of buildings is impressive, this 
 effect being gained by an extreme simplicity of decora- 
 tion. The most modern methods of heating and ventilat- 
 ing are provided, and there are large sun and air baths. 
 
 Completed in the spring of this year, and with accom- 
 modation for five hundred students, the settlement stands 
 on high ground about four miles from Dresden, in an 
 open, bracing, healthy spot, with charming walks in all 
 directions. The views are extensive ; to the south lie 
 the Erzgebirge, to the south-east Saxon Switzerland, and, 
 in a dip of the nearer hills, Dresden. 
 
 Ethel Ingham. 
 
 59 
 
THE VALUE OF 
 EURHYTHMICS TO ART 
 
 ONE of the most marked tendencies of modern 
 aesthetic theory is to break down the barriers 
 that convention has erected between the various arts. 
 The truth is coming to be realized that the essential 
 factor of poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture and 
 music is really of the same quality, and that one art 
 does not differ from another in anything but the method 
 of its expression and the conditions connected with 
 that method. 
 
 This common basis to the arts is more easily admitted 
 than defined, but one important element in it — perhaps 
 the only element that can be given a name — is rhythm. 
 Rhythm of bodily movement, the dance, is the earliest 
 form of artistic expression known. It is accompanied 
 in nearly every case with rude music, the object being 
 to emphasize the beat and rhythmic movement with 
 sound. The quickness with which children respond to 
 simple repetition of beat, translating the rhythm of the 
 music into movement, is merely recurrence of historical 
 development. 
 
 Words with the music soon follow, and from these 
 beginnings — probably war-songs or religious chants — 
 come song-poems and ultimately poetry as we know it 
 to-day. The still more modern development of prose- 
 writing, in the stylistic sense, is merely a step further. 
 
 The development on the other side follows a some- 
 60 
 
8 
 
 (3 
 
what similar line. The rhythm of the dancing figure 
 is reproduced in rude sculpture and bas-relief, and then 
 in painting. 
 
 So we have, as it were, a scale of the arts, with music 
 at its centre and prose-writing and painting at its two 
 extremes. From end to end of the scale runs the unifying 
 desire for rhythm. 1 
 
 To speak of the rhythm of painting may seem fanci- 
 ful, but I think that is only lack of familiarity. The 
 expression is used here with no intention of metaphor. 
 Great pictures have a very marked and real rhythm, of 
 colour, of line, of feeling. The best prose- writing has 
 equally a distinct rhythm. 
 
 There was never an age in the history of art when 
 rhythm played a more important part than it does to-day. 
 The teaching of M. Dalcroze at Hellerau is a brilliant 
 expression of the modern desire for rhythm in its most 
 fundamental form — that of bodily movement. Its nature 
 and origin have been described elsewhere ; it is for me 
 to try and suggest the possibilities of its influence on 
 every other art, and on the whole of life. 
 
 Let it be clearly understood from the first that the 
 rhythmic training at Hellerau has an importance far 
 deeper and more extended than is contained in its imme- 
 
 1 For valuable help in these ideas I am indebted to Mr. J. W. 
 Harvey. I should like to quote verbatim one or two remarks of his 
 on the subject, taken from a recent letter : " Human motion gives 
 the convergence of time (inner sense) and space (outer sense), the 
 spirit and the body. Time, which we are in our inner selves, is more 
 dissociable from us than space, which only our bodies have ; the one 
 ' (time) can be interpreted emotionally and directly by a time-sense ; the 
 other (space) symbolically, by a space-sense, which is sight." 
 
 61 
 
diate artistic beauty, its excellence as a purely musical 
 training, or its value to physical development. This 
 is not a denial of its importance in these three respects. 
 The beauty of the classes is amazing ; the actor, as 
 well as the designer of stage-effects, will come to thank 
 M. Dalcroze for the greatest contribution to their art 
 that any age can show. He has recreated the human 
 body as a decorative unit. He has shown how men, 
 women and children can group themselves and can be 
 grouped in designs as lovely as any painted design, with 
 the added charm of movement. He has taught indi- 
 viduals their own power of gracious motion and attitude. 
 Musically and physically the results are equally wonderful. 
 But the training is more than a mere musical education ; 
 it is also emphatically more than gymnastics. 
 
 Perhaps in the stress laid on individuality may be 
 seen most easily the possibilities of the system. Per- 
 sonal effort is looked for in every pupil. Just as the 
 learner of music must have the " opportunity of express- 
 ing his own musical impressions with the technical 
 means which are taught him," *• so the pupil at Hellerau 
 must come to improvise from the rhythmic sense innate 
 in him, rhythms of his own.* 
 
 1 Cf. supra, p. 28. 
 
 2 A good example of the fertility and variety of the individual 
 effort obtained at Hellerau was seen at the Auffiihrung given on 
 December 11, 1911. Two pupils undertook to realize a Prelude of 
 Chopin, their choice falling by chance on the same Prelude. But hardly 
 a movement of the two interpretations was the same. The first girl 
 lay on the ground the whole time, her head on her arm, expressing 
 in gentle movements of head, hands and feet, her idea of the music. 
 At one point near the end, with the rising passion of the music, she 
 raised herself on to her knees ; then sank down again to her full length. 
 
 62 
 
To take a joy in the beauty of the body, to train 
 his mind to move graciously and harmoniously both 
 in itself and in relation to those around him, finally, to 
 make his whole life rhythmic — such an ideal is not 
 only possible but almost inevitable to the pupil at 
 Hellerau. The keenness which possesses the whole 
 College, the delight of every one in their work, their 
 comradeship, their lack of self -consciousness, their 
 clean sense of the beauty of natural form, promises a 
 new and more harmonious race, almost a realization of 
 Rousseau's ideal, and with it an era of truly rhythmic 
 artistic production. 
 
 That the soil is ready for the new seed may be shown 
 by a moment's consideration of what I consider to be a 
 parallel development in painting. There is in Munich 
 a group of artists who call themselves Der Blaue Reiter. 
 They are led by a Russian, Wassily Kandinsky, and 
 a German, Franz Marc, and it is of Kandinsky's art that 
 I propose to speak. Kandinsky is that rare combination, 
 an artist who can express himself in both words and 
 paint. His book — Uber das Geistige in der Kunst 1 — 
 is an interesting and subtle piece of aesthetic philosophy. 
 His painting is a realization of the attempt to paint 
 music. He has isolated the emotion caused by line and 
 
 The second performer stood upright until the very end. At the most 
 intense moment her arms were stretched above her head ; at the close 
 of the music she was bowed to the ground, in an attitude expressive 
 of the utmost grief. In such widely different ways did the same piece 
 of music speak to the individualities of these two girls. 
 
 1 Uber das Geistige in der Kunst. Piper Verlag, Miinchen, 3 Marks. 
 See also vol. i. of der Blaue Reiter. Piper Verlag, 10 Marks. 
 
 63 
 
colour &om the external association of idea. All form 
 in the ordinary representative sense is eliminated. But 
 form there is in the deeper sense, the shapes and rhythms 
 of the innerer Notwendigkeit, and with it, haunting, 
 harmonious colour. To revert to a former metaphor, 
 painting has been brought into the centre of the scale. 
 As Kandinsky says in his book : " Shades of colour, 
 like shades of sound, are of a much subtler nature, cause 
 much subtler vibrations of the spirit than can ever be 
 given by words." It is to achieve this finer utterance, 
 to establish a surer and more expressive connexion 
 between spirit and spirit, that Kandinsky is striving. 
 His pictures are visions, beautiful abstractions of colour 
 and line which he has lived himself, deep down in his 
 inmost soul. He is intensely individual, as are all true 
 mystics ; at the same time the spirit of his work is 
 universal. 
 
 In this, then, as in so much else, Kandinsky and 
 Dalcroze are advancing side by side. They are leading 
 the way to the truest art, and ultimately to the truest 
 life of all, which is a synthesis of the collective arts and 
 emotions of all nations, which is, at the same time, based 
 on individuality, because it represents the inner being 
 of each one of its devotees. 
 
 Michael T. H. Sadler. 
 
 Printed by Butler <S- Tanner, Frame and London. 
 6 4 
 
I**-.,.