The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze | Page 8

His musical education
was continued in Paris under Léo Delibes and in Vienna under
Bruckner and Fuchs. For a short period his studies were interrupted by
an engagement as musical director of a small theatre in Algiers--an
opportunity which he used for study of the peculiar rhythms of Arab
popular music, which he found unusually interesting and stimulating.
Returning to Geneva, he earned, by a life of varied activities as teacher,
writer and composer, a standing which in 1892 brought him the
appointment of Professor of Harmony at the Geneva Conservatoire.
The wider experience which the new sphere of work brought was to a
certain extent a disappointment, for with it came clear evidence of what
had before only been suspected, namely, that the education of future
professional musicians was in many ways radically wrong, in that the

training of individual faculties was made the chief object, without
consideration of whether or no these faculties stood in any close
relation to the inner consciousness of the student. In other words, the
aim of the training was to form means of expression, without
consideration of what was to be expressed, to produce a highly trained
instrument, without thought of the art whose servant it was to be, to
take as primary object a thing of secondary importance, indeed only of
importance at all when consequent on something which the usual
training entirely neglected. The students were taught to play
instruments, to sing songs, but without any thought of such work
becoming a means of self expression and so it was found that pupils,
technically far advanced, after many years of study were unable to deal
with the simplest problems in rhythm and that their sense for pitch,
relative or absolute, was most defective; that, while able to read
accurately or to play pieces memorized, they, had not the slightest
power of giving musical expression to their simplest thoughts or
feelings, in fact were like people who possess the vocabulary of a
language and are able to read what others have written, yet are unable
to put their own simple thoughts and impressions into words. The
analogy here is the simplest use of everyday language; from this to the
art of the essayist or poet is far; so in music--one who has mastered
notes, chords and rhythms can give musical expression to simple
thoughts and feelings, while to become a composer he must traverse a
road that only natural talent can render easy.
Jaques-Dalcroze took the view that technique should be nothing but a
means to art, that the aim of musical education should be, not the
production of pianists, violinists, singers, but of musically developed
human beings, and that therefore the student should not begin by
specializing on any instrument, but by developing his musical faculties,
thus producing a basis for specialized study. This training could only be
obtained by awakening the sense, natural though often latent, for the
ultimate bases of music, namely, tone and rhythm. As the sense for tone
could only be developed through the ear, he now gave special attention
to vocal work, and noticed that when the students themselves beat time
to their singing, the work became much more real, that the pupils had a
feeling of being physically in unison with the music, indeed the feeling

of producing something complete and beautiful. Following up this hint,
"Gesture Songs" were written, which, it was found, were performed
with surprising ease.
Up to this point movement had only been used as an accompaniment to
music, not as a means of expressing it; the next step was to give the
body a training so refined and so detailed as to make it sensitive to
every rhythmic impulse and able to lose itself in any music. This
co-ordination of movement and music is the essence of the
Jaques-Dalcroze method, and differentiates it from all other methods of
similar aim.
So far only arm movements had been employed, and those merely the
conventional ones of the conductor. The next step was to devise a series
of arm movements, providing a means of clearly marking all tempi
from two beats in the bar to twelve beats in the bar, including such
forms as 5/4 7/4 9/4 11/4, and a system of movements of the body and
lower limbs to represent time values from any number of notes to the
beat up to whole notes of twelve beats to the note. From the first the
work aroused keen interest among the students and their parents, and
the master was given enthusiastic help by them in all his experiments;
above all he was loyally aided by his assistant, Fräulein Nina Gorter.
The Conservatoire authorities, however, were not sympathetic, and it
became necessary to form a volunteer-experimental class, which
worked outside official hours and buildings.
The