Dalcroze Today An Education through and into Music

by Bachmann, Marie-Laure; Parlett, David; Stewart, Ruth; Dobbs, Jack P. B.

• ISBN13: 9780198164005
• ISBN10: 0198164009
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-12-16
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

This is an English translation of La Rhythmique Jaques-Dalcroze by Marie-Laure Bachmann, first published in Switzerland in 1984. The book was commissioned by the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva and is the first to give a comprehensive account of the work and ideas of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze,1865-1950, educational pioneer, musician, and creative artist. With its detailed and copious references to archive material the book gives us a fascinating insight into the inception and development of Jaques-Dalcroze's work, from the end of the last century up to the present day. It traces his growing ideas on the use of movement and of improvisation in theprocess of music learning, and the application of these ideas to the vital experiencing of musical material, both for children and adults. Dalcroze's work begins with the primacy of individual response, the right of all to develop their individual minds through interpretative gesture; this, amongother outcomes, enables a process of stringent self-monitoring in the development of the musical ear. The experience of overt physical response, which may involve the whole body, is seen to take precedence in the learning process, unequivocally and at all ages, over information gathering and problemsolving. The principles of Jaques-Dalcroze are salutary and more relevant now than ever before. Indeed, many areas of musical activity would by enriched by an understanding application of his ideas, for example pre-instrumental learning, the training of young instrumentalists, performing, music therapy, andof course, the whole domain of music education.

Table of Contents

PART I
Introduction	3	(24)
Three conversation pieces over the wall of Time	4	(5)
Historical overview	9	(9)
Aims and thesis of the present work	18	(9)
Initiations	27	(50)
Time---space---energy	27	(5)
Initial exercises	32	(10)
Three cases analysed	35	(7)
The Dalcroze Teacher	42	(5)
A series of choices	44	(3)
Pupils in rhythmics	47	(10)
The instructor's standpoint	54	(3)
The period of instruction	57	(20)
Long-term projects	61	(5)
Medium-term projects	66	(3)
Short-term schemes	69	(8)
PART II
Eurhythmics: Ends and Means	77	(59)
Returning to sources	77	(12)
Gaps in music education	78	(4)
Defects in musical performance	82	(3)
Inequality in motor aptitudes	85	(4)
Piano improvisation, the primary tool of the Eurhythmics lesson	89	(26)
Some objections and misunderstandings	96	(1)
Music, rhythm, sound	97	(5)
Rights of priority	102	(5)
Learning to improvise	107	(8)
Musical 'prompts'	115	(15)
Exercises governed by 'musical prompts'	121	(1)
Dynamics, timing, flexibility	121	(3)
Melody and harmony	124	(1)
Rhythm and metre	125	(1)
Timbres and visual signals	126	(4)
The educational value of Eurhythmics	130	(6)
Assimilation and accommodation	131	(5)
The Grammar of Eurhythmics	136	(91)
The grammar of movement	139	(2)
Rhythm and metre	141	(86)
Muscular flexibility	143	(4)
Muscular tension and release	147	(6)
Respiration	153	(2)
Gestural points of departure and arrival	155	(1)
Incitation of movement and nervous releases of energy	156	(7)
The study of gestures and gesture sequences	163	(8)
Study of positions and attitudes of the body	171	(5)
Walking, and the 'grace-notes' of walking	176	(7)
Points of support and resistance	183	(11)
Making use of space	194	(16)
Actions and feelings	210	(17)
PART III
Eurhythmics and Children	227	(128)
Eurhythmics in schools	227	(4)
Infant-school age	231	(45)
Primary-school level	276	(16)
Ages 7 to 9	292	(33)
Ages 9 and upwards	325	(30)
By Way of Conclusion: From Adolescence to Early Maturity, as Recollected by an Adult	355	(6)
Appendix: Professional Courses in Dalcroze Eurhythmics	361	(2)
References	363	(6)
Index	369