Philosophy of Eurhythmics. Components of Eurhythmics

As stated in the historical section, the body is considered to be the primary instrument. It is the body that feels rhythm and hears pitch and reacts through movement. Jaques- Dalcroze promoted the idea that every musician should strive to be sensitive and expressive, and to express music through creative and purposeful movement (Pennington, 1925, p. 9). The goal of eurhythmics is to internalize all the elements of music through kinesthetic activities, allowing the learner to experience music physically and joyfully and to perform the music artfully and thoughtfully.

Robert Abramson (1980) describes a flow of learning through the Dalcroze approach that seeks to clarify the philosophy. In this flow of learning, improvisation and performance appear at the height of musical development. Improvisation is a technique that requires the musician to create music in the moment based on a developed toolkit of musical styles and techniques. When composition is the goal, we propose that students in Dalcroze classes approach composition through improvisation. The following flow of learning allows improvisation to become the experimental period prior to composition. A comparison of the Abramson and Butke-Frego models is shown in Figure 17.1.

Figure 17.1. A comparison of activity flow between Abramson and Butke-Frego

While participants in a eurhythmics class do not experience all these actions in one lesson or rehearsal, they are moving through various levels based on the musical maturity of the student and the goal of the lesson. In the second half of this chapter, we will present lesson plans and activities that prepare the student toward improvisation and composition.

Mead (1994) brings the philosophy of this approach together with four premises: 1) eurhythmics awakens the physical, aural, and visual images of music and the mind; 2) rhythmic solfege (sight-singing and aural skills), improvisation, and purposeful movement combine to improve expressivity and enhance intellectual understanding; 3) music may be experienced through speech, gesture, and movement. These can likewise be experienced in time, space, and energy; and 4) as humans, we learn best when learning through multiple senses. Music, then, should be taught through tactile, kinesthetic, aural, and visual senses.

Components of Eurhythmics. Music educators and music therapists often identify this approach as eurhythmics, which encompasses the four components of eurhythmics (rhythmic and purposeful movement); rhythmic solfege (pitch and inner hearing), improvisation (physical and musical creativity), and plastique animee (artistically representing music through movement). The related components are often taught as an integrated lesson, complementing the facets of each, but the components can also be taught independently.

Eurhythmies. The first is rhythmic movement, or eurhythmics itself. The term eurhythmics comes from the Greek “eu” meaning good, and “rhythmy,” meaning rhythm, proportion, and symmetry. All elements of music, including pulse, beat, rhythm, meter, phrasing, dynamics, and form, can be taught through kinesthetic experiences, both through space and within space. Seitz (2005) speaks to the connections between musicality and movement and states that musical expressivity resides in the physical characteristics of the body and entails physical and social interactions with others (p. 420). In a eurhythmics class, the teacher leads the session using a hand drum, piano, or recorded music and students react physically to the elements of the music. Participants work individually, in pairs, or in small groups to physicalize what they hear. The lesson/rehearsal often flips, with students creating the movement and the teacher accompanying what is being physically created.

Rhythmic Solfege. Jaques-Dalcroze believed that students must learn nuanced listening skills and develop “inner hearing.” Musicians should be able to hear with their eyes and sing with their ears. Music notation then becomes meaningful when realized in real performance or in the imagination. Solfege is often taught using the fixed-do approach, based on the French system. In the United States, United Kingdom, and Hungary, the naming of the pitches has evolved into a movable-do approach. Students develop sensitivity to pitches, the relationship of pitch to each other, and to the tonal framework. What makes rhythmic solfege unique is that it is combined with rhythm and movement, both locomotor and non-locomotor.

Improvisation. Improvisation skills are developed sequentially and used in many settings. A teacher might improvise at the piano while students react to the sound and create movement, react spontaneously to verbal instructions, or change in musical character. Conversely, a student might improvise movement while another student accompanies with a drum, at the piano, or vocally. Students soon develop skills to be able to improvise musically and expressively on their own instruments. According to Mead (1994), these joyful and spontaneous performance activities are designed to communicate musical intent and to improve response time.

Plastique animee. Sometimes referred to as plastique, it is often seen as a culminating experience or performance in a eurhythmics class. Plastique animee is defined as the artistic and creative embodiment of the music through individual or group movement (Butke & Frego, 2016). The students are provided with the basic musical elements and are asked to spontaneously create an interactive composition with the music. In essence, in a plastique experience, the students are asked to be the music. While the music may be improvised, it is often recorded music that highlights the focused skill set presented in the lesson/ rehearsal.