UDC:78.071.1 Жак-Далкроз E.
37.015:781.15(475)
COBISS.SR-ID 274387212
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Received:Oct 03, 2018
Reviewed:Dec 14, 2018
Accepted:Jan 06, 2019
#4
Movement Interpretation of Music in Eurhythmics:
Approach to Movement Interpretation in
Music Education in Poland
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Citation: Galikowska-Gajewska, Anna. 2019. "Movement Interpretation of Music in Eurhythmics: Approach to Movement Interpretation in Music Education in Poland". Accelerando: Belgrade Journal of Music and Dance 4:4.
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Abstract
In this article the main topic is related to the movement interpretation of music which is founded on the artistic version of the Dalcroze method. The essence of movement interpretation is a synthesis of music and movement designed in space. This perfect form of music materializing in the movement of the human body is a clear and interesting offer of becoming acquainted with music and refers to the contemporary indicators of contemplation of art. The discussed issues will be presented in the historical context, particularly emphasizing the formation and the development of Eurhythmics during Dalcroze's stay in Hellerau and the spread of it throughout the world, as well as the consecutive approach to movement interpretation with the emphasis on Polish approach to movement interpretation and its application in music education system. In addition, also in the context of personal experiences of the author, connected with creating of movement interpretations presented by children and adolescences on the stage. The author analyzes the process of creating movement interpretations of music, shows its subsequent stages, leading to the final - visualization of music on the stage in movement and space. Therefore, the author emphasizes the role of movement interpretation in popularizing music, indicating that the movement interpretations of music offer a perfect way of perception of a music work, which leads both the performers and the recipients to the world of music. Keywords: rhythms of space, plastic music, natural rhythm, Music, Plastic Expression, Eurhythmics, music expression
Introduction
The Dalcroze method of teaching music is based on the assumption of comprehensive human development in numerous spheres. Movement being the basis of the Rhythmics leads to harmonious progress of the whole human organism. Emil Jaques – Dalcroze refers to the famous definition by Plato "(…) rhythm is the order of movement" (Dalcroze 1992, 9), but he adds that "muscles were made for movement, and rhythm is movement" (Ibidem, 17). Dalcroze, born in Vienna in 1865 to a Swiss family, made movement the basis of his creative system of teaching music. All its components: rhythmics, solfege, and improvisation lead to the artistic version of the Dalcroze method, which is founded on movement interpretations of music. This perfect form of music materialising in the movement of the human body, planned for the space of the stage, is the subject of this article. The discussed issues will be presented in the context of personal experiences of the author, connected with creating of movement interpretations of music presented on the stage. It also refers to the author's completed and published work of art: a DVD, book and photo album, published as a combined work under the title The sound in movement interpretation of a music piece: Debussy, Cage, Penderecki, Szalonek, Dobrowolski, Olczak, Kaiser (Galikowska-Gajewska 2012). Historical aspect |
 Picture 1Émile Jaques-Dalcroze source: gutenberg.org
The words that are always worth being reminded to our contemporaries, the words that never lose their value – the artistic credo of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze: "I dream about such system of teaching music in which the human body will be playing a direct role between the sound and the thought, it will simply become an instrument of expressing our sensations." (Brzozowska-Kuczkiewicz 1991,13).
Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (picture 1) discovered that the human body can express and convey content which is not told by words but communicated by means of movement. He affirmed that specifically "body, a perfect instrument for movement expression, should be trained by special artistic studies, with the object of stimulating temperament, overcoming neural resistance, creating correlation between imagination and centers of realization, developing, disciplining and harmonizing statement means" (Gerhardt – Punicka 1963, 79). He observed also that the properly prepared and taught human body is capable of expressing all nuances of music. The Dalcroze teaching of movement helps to attain full ease, expressiveness, and ability to experience and sense the music with one's own body. Expressiveness of music, its full emotional load, was reflected by the aesthetic and natural movement of the performers. In his search for natural and spontaneous form of movement expressing music, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze reached for the legacy of the Greek culture, whose noble ideas of education and shaping people's hearts, bodies, and minds, became an unattainable ideal for many generations of creators. He had been studying the construction of Greek sculptures from which he extracted twenty gestures, subsequently applied to plastique animée. Simultaneously, Dalcroze was trying to find a kind of movement that was not movement for movement's sake. This movement should be subjected to music and follow it to cause "(…) the body to become music" as he used used to say (Martin 1975, 117). Dalcroze discovered also that body movement can be used to express a music piece. This became the basis of his education. Dalcroze created a method consisting of three, related to each other, links: eurhythmics with plastique animée, solfége and improvisation. Rhythmics
Rhythmics is the basis of the method: "It is a form of musical education, based in the first place on listening and teaching of movement […]" (Porte 1975, 117). "Rhythmics teaches the concept of rhythm, structure, and musical expression by movement" (dalcrozeusa.org). As John R. Stevenson writes: "In rhythmics the body movement is the dominant experience […]" (Stevenson).
Movement interpretation of music is an integral part of eurhythmics, initially called by its creator: the plastique animée. A definition, the term and the notion of plastique animée was introduced by Emile Jaques-Dalcroze himself. It is currently included in the Polish curricula under the name of "Technique and movement expression" or "Exercises in movement expression" (Dalcroze 1992, 63-84). Plastique animée, called nowadays the movement expression, is a crucial element of movement interpretation of music, which builds the artistic dimension of the Eurhythmics Method. The essence of the movement interpretation of music is a close relation between music and movement. It is specified by the Eurhythmics creator, Émile Jaques Dalcroze: "The aim of eurhythmics is to express the meaning of music by body movement (…)" (Ibidem, 63). Music, emotionally affecting a human being, is a stimulus for imaginative creations. It occurs as movement interpretation of a piece, animated picture of music, where movement composed in space is a tool of music visualization. In the first movement interpretations the Eurhythmics creator revives 20 gestures. Hence, he went to Hellerau, just north of Dresden, and it was where two innovators, two men with their broader views and their revolutionary ideas about theatrical perfomance, began their collaboration. It was in 1906 when Emil Jaques–Dalcroze met the scenographer Adolphe Appia, the creator of the system of Eurhythmics met the creator of the revolution in stage lightining brought by electricity, the man with the broader view on music education met the man with the broader scenographic philosophy. According to Dalcroze: [...] authors, poets, musicians and painters cannot demand 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 elementary notions of balance, moved with deplorable heaviness [Pg. 25]; 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. (Dalcroze 1909, 25.)
Eventually their collaboration flourished in the city of Hellerau, "the bright meadow", a "garden city" (it was called a German "Garden city" as been dedicated to the humanization of modern industrial practices), and there the Euthythmics was born.
Eurhythmics
According to John W. Harvey:
[...]the term Eurhythmics 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 rediscovery 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. (Dalcroze 1915, 5.)
Therefore, Hellerau became a European center for teaching and performing according to the guidelines of the Eurythmics Method at the Dalcroze Institute or Festival Theater (1910-11) in Hellerau, founded by German brothers Dohrn to Jaques-Dalcroze (see picture 2). "It was there, in Hellerau, where the two men came to meet and to plan for the possibilities offered by the projected Hellerau festivals" (Beacham, 1985). It was there where vigorous performances of eurhythmics put on by Dalcroze, radically simple sets designed by Appia and dramatically lit by Georgian painter and stage designer Alexandar von Salzmann could be seen. It was there where Jaques–Dalcroze staged Gluck's opera "Orpheus and Eurydice", the second act in 1911 and the entire work in 1912. At the first public school "Festival" in the summer of 1911, the students performed scenes from "Orpheus", as well as improvisation and group exercises before 500 journalists and more than 4,000 people in an audience.
Picture 2
At the second "Festival" a year later they performed a full performance of "Orpheus and Eurydice", before an audience of over than 5,000, that included viewers such as G. B. Show, Oskar Kokoschka, Max Reinhardt, Reiner Maria Rilke, and Gerhart Hauptmann, among many other European intellectuals. Janina Mieczyńska-Lewkowska, student of Dalcroze, said when describing this event: "It was an amazing show. In one time and place resounded music conducted by Dalcroze, the music that was made visible by choreography, and by a great team of performers who, following the example of ancient Greek players, wore tunics; movement and lights were closely related to each other" (Mieczyńska-Lewakowska 1993, 43).
This happened in the first purpose-built shool of eurhythmy, where the German Reform architect Heinrich Tessenow (1876-1950) created a totally novel interior performance space: the celling and walls were lined with white waxed sheets of cloth, behind which thousands of bullbs produced a diffuse, indefinite light, so that the interior was suffused with light emanating from the surfaces of the ceiling and walls of the space itself; it was the space in which there was no division between stage and audience, freely combining stage elements and rows of audience seating, without any permanent fittings, neither the stage nor the curtain, and featuring a retractable orchestra pit, which all was the novelty developing from that time until today. The audience and performers were supposed to merge into spiritual and sensory unity. It is in the Institute in Hellerau that Dalcroze point out the importance of filling the gap between the intellectual and the artistic work of the schools: "His 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." (Dalcroze 1915, 11). It is worth to mention in this context that both Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe had connections with Dalcroze Institute in the Garden City of Hellerau immediately before the First World War. Dalcroze menaged to make Hellerau, then a surburb of Dresden, a center for European modernism. Unfortunatelly, the onset of wars cut off the institute's activities prematurely. In the summer of 1914, Dalcroze and Appia went to Switzerland and never came back to Hellerau. Fortunatelly enough, it happened "[...] not before many seeds had been sown, including the foundation of the Dalcroze Society in Britain […]" (docomomo.uk). Experiments with new types of school continued in Hellerau, and Dalcroze's pupils spread his teaching through Dresden and all over Europe, and furthermore, throughout the world. Polish approach to movement interpretation
The simple yet clear way of presenting music in movement and in space developed by Dalcroze as movement interpretations have evolved and changed, along with changes in people and in music. The essence of this art form, however, remains constant, perfectly expressed by Friedrich Schiller: "When the music reaches its noblest power, it becomes a shape in space" (Appia 1974, 95). For what is interpretation but a moving shape of music presented as expressive movement of performers in space? In this creative form, the concrete dimension of music is realised by the human body in movement. The art of creating movement interpretations of music consists in continuous construction of relations between the music and the human body, between movement and space.
It is this perspective and the personal store of experiences that affect how an individual understands and defines the discussed subject. And thus Monika Skazińska, a renowned Polish artist, teacher of Eurhythmics and choreographer, explained: "Movement interpretation of a musical piece is a method of piece explanation by using moves. Its task is to translate the basic musical material which is 'sound language' into 'movement language'" (Skazińska 1989, 215). For the author of the article "movement interpretations of a musical piece are the most beautiful and the most perfect way of reflecting music by means of spatial-movement measures. They constitute the synthesis of music and movement, thanks to which they allow a deeper experience of music that is embodied in the movement of the human body" (Galikowska-Gajewska 2012, 49). Movement interpretations of music summarise Dalcroze's educational paradigm. They express the integration of music and movement. Personal experience and perception of music through the movement of the human body, which is the foundation for all music-and-movement undertakings, leads to understanding music, to a better and easier perception of a musical work, and eventually for performers of movement interpretations, to expressive articulation of the expression of the music itself through a movement realization. The unity of music with movement is an expression of a complete fusion between a musical work, and its spatial-motor visualization, synchronized in time and space. Such a way of communicating with music is at its most meaningful and effective in the process of educating professionals: musicians, dancers, actors and singers. In Poland Rhythmics is an obligatory subject taught at the music schools of the 1st and 2nd level, ballet schools, comprehensive schools, music centers, at the Academies of Music, Pedagogical Academies, Higher Theater and Film Schools. Six Polish music academies offer Eurhythmics courses at undergraduate and graduate levels. Studies of the 1st and 2nd cycle in Rhythmics are offered by the Music Schools in Gdańsk, Poznań, Łódź, Kraków, Katowice, and by the University of Music in Warsaw. However, the amateur movement allows children, young people, and adults to experience music in movement too. Rhythmic classes are organized in local and cultural centers, educational care centers, therapeutic centers, cultural and educational institutions, and non-school educational centers. The contemporary Polish landscape which encompasses both professional Eurhythmics education and its availability to a broader range of participants, demonstrates the influence of the Dalcroze method, and within the method, the supremely important role played by movement interpretations. The strict subordination of movement to music - the clear relationship, "[...] leads all people involved in movement interpretations of music to intense experiences of music-in-movement, and to the performers' identification with the performed music. The human body becomes a transmitter of emotions, of feelings, and of the expression of the music itself." (Galikowska-Gajewska 2015, 226). Movement interpretations of music facilitate a harmonious development of participants, regardless of age. The creator of Eurhythmics placed so much stress in his method precisely on such harmonious development, recommending exercises to develop and raise the awareness of one's own body, understood as an image of the whole body, but also of its individual parts (Brzozowska-Kuczkiewicz op.cit., 47). The psychologist Henri Wallon explains it: "[...] awareness of the body is a vital element for building one's personality, it's a more or less holistic, specific and diverse impression an individual has in relation to their own body" (Idem; it is in accordance with the views in L. Picq and P. Vayer's Education psychomotoric published in 1970). Regardless of the perspective, awareness of the body assumes a close relationship between the body and the mind. These relationships are emphasized by other authors, to mention Mabel Todd for example, an American, one of the founders of the discipline of science on the relationships between mental images and movement, on the concept of ideokinesis (images referring to movement). In her Structural Hygiene she pointed out how magnificently built human body was and that it had the ability to change according to our will ( Franklin 2007, 25). In her belief in the importance of the "natural posture" - more conscious awareness of how the body functions in motion and how to improve balanced posture – a call for better bodily alignment through self-conscious awareness, she is very close to Dalcroze belief and his emphasis on the importance of acquiring " natural rhythm": "It is a fact that very young children taught by my method invent quite naturally 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." (Dalcroze 1915, 23 ). Rhythm as a factor in education
Movement interpretations, the Dalcroze's way to contemplate and express music using movements and gestures, are intended for everybody. This universality, as mentioned above, refers to the natural and aesthetic human movement. "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 instrumental 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 with character or so as to give pleasure to the listener, of giving (Pg. 16) 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 experiencing 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 composer's expression without the power of feeling it, and have no other sensibility than that of the fingers, no 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." (Dalcroze 1915, 16).
That is why simple movement interpretations of music have become a permanent feature of musical education of nursery children in Poland. They are also an extremely important part of professional musical education. Dalcroze's Eurhythmics beginning at the elementary music school level, through music high school, and ending with tertiary music courses. Children in the first level music schools get to know music and express it in simple movement interpretations. This type of physical activity evokes high levels of spontaneity and joy. More difficult musical repertoire is covered at the second level of music education within the subjects of Eurhythmics and Rhythmics courses. The fullest extent of a very intimate and mature relationship with music is experienced by the tertiary-level students of the Rhythmics specialization within the course subjects of Eurhythmics, Movement composition of music works, and Rhythmics. The students participate in the creative process of developing a movement and space composition and by doing that become familiar with the work, its origins, and its form. By formally analyzing the piece they learn musical notation - the construction of the score. However, it is the spontaneous motor reactions during the first - improvisational - movement interpretations that are the most valuable - the personal sensory experience. Such a way of communing with music (while working on the spatial-movement composition) ensures developing better understanding and an in-depth knowledge of the music. Music repertoire for movement interpretations
The selection factors
The selection of music for movement interpretation is determined by a number of factors. They include the group with which the teacher works and the type of institution where the Eurhythmics classes are organized. Different musical repertoire is intended for children, young people, and adults. This division results from the perceptive and movement capabilities of people of different age groups. Individual interests of the choreographers connected with a specific music style or the selected composer, etc., are another criterion of selection of music pieces for moment interpretation. The author believes that it is just this factor that is most inspirational and stimulates undertaking challenges in designing movement interpretations. Creation of a movement concept A work of music understood as the synthesis of many elements in the movement interpretation "is subject to visualization in the form a movement picture designed in space" (Galikowska-Gajewska 2010, 46). Music being the source of inspiration for artistic activities, sugests solutions with regard to the movement solutions as well as spatial form. Creating a movement concept is related with movement improvisation. During movement improvisation the performer senses the music with his/her entire body, lets the music carry him/her away, submits himself/herself to the influence of music, thus creating a movement unity with it. A music piece being an inspiration for creative work, should stimulate the movement sphere of the performers and lead them to articulate the full expression of music in movement. The degree of vividness and expressiveness of the movement language to a large extent depends on the perceptive and movement capabilities of the performers themselves. During the entire process of creating choreography, we should find more information about inspiration, origin and sources of the object of our interest. Thus, we ought to understand art's aesthetics and try to feel the atmosphere of a particular period of time. Then we should search for a suitable movement which allows expressing real music, not only its form but also the emotions and expression. Distinct movement is the best manner to show a vision of music and interpretation in time and space. Contemporary music as the inspiration for movement interpretations Contemporary music is the biggest inspiration for the author of this article. Its versatility resulting first and foremost from the richness of musical sound, offers enormous flexibility to create and explore original space and movement solutions. Contemporary music has a very strong impact on human imagination and is a great incentive for continuous exploration of movement, the limitations of which may result only from the anatomical features of the human body. This kind of music always opens her mind and stimulates her imagination. The simplest forms of illustrating music visualization The simplest forms of illustrating music in movement and space by the youngest children in the first place relate to the visualization of the elements of the music work, as described by Dalcroze: "Rhythm, like dynamics, depends entirely on movement, and finds its nearest prototype in our muscular system. All the nuances of time – allegro, andante, accelerando, ritenuto – all the nuances of energy – forte, piano, crescendo, diminuendo - can be realized by our bodies, and the acuteness of our musical feeling will depend on the acuteness of our bodily sensations" (Dalcroze 2000, 60). The dynamic in the body is related to the muscular system. Every dynamic tones we can express through the correct tension and relaxation of the muscles. But we also need to link this issue with the size of the movement and the space. We realized that it isn't easy to practice the tension muscles with children. So we need support in the form of props. The props – properties The props can be used in movement interpretations in a number of various ways. They can be a kind of set design/decorations on the stage. The props include also stage costumes and various objects used to express the emotional character and expressiveness of music in movement. Lighting is an indispensable element of stage presentations as well. Lighting, multimedia presentations, animations and visualizations As it has been already said, on the stage in Hellerau Adolph Appia experimented with lighting, being aware of the unusually important, expressive, and unifying role of this element, of its significance for the whole stage work perceived. Nowadays, lighting is treated in two ways: either as an element to unify the stage presentation or as an individual way of expression. When presenting movement interpretations of music on stage we take the advantage of nowadays broad range of the newest stage means that include multimedia presentations or more advances animations and visualizations. Having an even richer range of technical means to strengthen the expression of stage communication (the author refers here to movement interpretation of music), we cannot forget about the leading role of music. This has been always emphasized by Émile Jaques-Dalcroze and is manifested in his words citated in Brzozowska – Kuczkiewicz (op. cit., 31): "My whole system of education by rhythm is based on music, because music has a strong psychic force which, by its power of evoking action and then regulating it, can harmonize our whole being." The role of movement interpretations in popularisation of music
Concerts are an invaluable tool in the process of popularizing music. They include the following: Concerts of Movement Interpretations of Music, Concerts of Music Choreography, a cycle of concerts 'Music – Movement – Space, concerts entitled "To see music", "To see a picture", etc. The variety of their names does exclude the main idea of such artistic events. At the same time music is present on the stage and its visualization is presented live by the expressive movement of the performers. Thus contemporary music with its sound richness has been promoted more and more boldly for many years. Local community concerts for children, young people, and the senior citizens; concerts at children academies, concerts at the festivals of science, concerts in the concert halls for music lovers, concerts at scientific panels, congresses, seminars taking place in Poland and abroad, provide a great opportunity to present in public a broad range of music works in their movement dimension.
Conclusion
The comprehensive method of arts education proposed by Émile Jaques-Dalcroze in the beginning of the 20th century leads to harmonious human development through movement. "My hope is, that sincere artists desirous of perfection and seeking progress will study seriously the grave question 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." (Dalcroze 1915, 25) Movement interpretations of music that constitute an integral part of this education are a clear and interesting offer of becoming acquainted with music. The essence of movement interpretation – a synthesis of music and movement designed in space - refers to the contemporary indicators of contemplation of art.
Therefore, the author emphasizes the following with great determination: don't be afraid to create artistic visions of music in movement and space, marked with individual character. The author's conclusion is that it is exactly the movement interpretations of music that offer a perfect way of perception of a music work, which opens both the performers and the recipients the world of music. In addition, the author's movement interpretations of music can be seen in Accelerando: BJMD Issue 2. |
references
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Belgrade Center for Music and Dance is the publisher of Accelerando: BJMD
Belgrade Center for Music and Dance is the publisher of Accelerando: BJMD
