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 Conservatoire of Music. 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 first public recognition of the method was at the Music Festival in Solothurn in 1905, where a demonstration 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 specialized 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, properly used, might be of enormous value in the education 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 ClaparÈde, 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 musician for musicians. But the further I carried my experiments, 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 individual 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 character is formed, and his powers of expression developed."
In 1906 was held the first training-course for teachers; how the method has since grown can be realized by noting that a fortnight was then considered a sufficient 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 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[1]
The method naturally falls into three divisions—
- (a) Rhythmic gymnastics proper.
- (b) 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 development of faculty in the individual, it will be dealt with in detail.
(b) 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 naturally uses his own methods of ear-training, which are extremely successful, but he does not lay stress on them; he does, however, 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.
Beating 4/4.
Illustration
Movements for the Semibreve.
(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 preparing for the teaching diploma in Eurhythmics. 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 gymnastics 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 observed; later it may be varied in many ingenious ways, for instance in what is known as plastic counterpoint, where the actual notes played are represented by movements 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 for all tempi from 2/4 to 12/4 and includes 5/4 7/4 9/4.
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 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, however, 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 the beat preceding the one in which the change is to be made, very rapid mental and physical response is necessary, especially if the music be at all quick. Exercises of this class soon give the power of rapid muscular innervation 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 grouping 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.
MOVEMENTS TO INDICATE VARIOUS TEMPI
Simple music is played to which the pupils march. As they grasp the beat they 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 likened to the alphabet of the method, the elementary exercises as a whole being its accidence, the more advanced stages, including plastic expression, its syntax.
TRAINING IN METRE
This group of exercises is a natural 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 becoming itself the signal for the next.
Again, the pupil learns to realize[1] a rhythm played on the piano or indicated by the movements of another person. This is something quite apart from mere imitation; trained by previous exercises, the pupil first forms clear mental images of the movements corresponding to the rhythm in question and then gives physical expression 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 succession 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 in which children are taught to read and write is remembered.
Oral and visual images of letters and words are impressed 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.
DEVELOPMENT OF MENTAL RESPONSE
A rhythm in music consists of a regularly recurring series of accented sounds, unaccented sounds, and rests, expressed in rhythmic gymnastics by movements and inhibitions of movements. Individuals who are rhythmically uncertain generally have a muscular 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 moment, the change of movement is not made to time, and the physical expression of the rhythm is blurred.
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 muscular effort and without for a moment losing the feeling for each time-unit of the music.
MENTAL HEARING. CONCENTRATION
Physical movements repeatedly performed create corresponding images in 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 formulÆ 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 corresponding movements to experience the rhythm as clearly as if he were expressing it by marching. He simply continues to perform the movements mentally. If, however, 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 corresponding 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.
ANALYSIS AND DIVISION OF TIME VALUES
The exercises of this group are designed to teach how to subdivide units of time into parts of varying 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 expressed 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 syncopation 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 suggestion of movement or is omitted, e.g., Music Staff
These exercises in syncopation are perhaps some of the most difficult in the method, as they demand an 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 feeling for rhythm. As a rule children find these exercises easier than do adults.
Illustration
Beating 5/4 in canon without expression.
Illustration
Beating 5/4 in canon with expression.
REALIZATION OF TIME AND RHYTHM
The object here is to express by rhythmic movements and without hesitation rhythms perceived 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 without 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 reading, in which, while we are grasping the meaning of a sentence, the eye is already dealing with the next, preparing it in turn for comprehension.
DEVELOPMENT OF INDEPENDENT CONTROL OF THE LIMBS
Characteristic exercises of this group are: beating the same time with both arms but in canon, beating two different tempi with the arms while the feet march to one or other or perhaps march to yet a third time, e.g., the arms 3/4 and 4/4, the feet 5/4. There are, also, exercises in the analysis of a given time unit into various fractions simultaneously, e.g., in a 6/8 bar one arm may beat three to the bar, the other arm two, while the feet march six.
DOUBLE OR TRIPLE DEVELOPMENT OF RHYTHMS
These exercises are a physical preparation for what is known in music as the development of a theme. While the composers 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.
PLASTIC COUNTERPOINT AND COMPOUND RHYTHMS
In plastic counterpoint the arms realize the theme, i.e., make as many movements as there are notes, whilst the feet mark the counterpoint in crotchets, quavers, triplets 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.
GRADATION OF MUSCULAR EFFORT. PATHETIC ACCENT. PLASTIC EXPRESSION
The exercises already dealt with have all the general purpose of developing feeling for rhythm by giving training in the physical expression of rhythms. Those in this last group aim at 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 individuality, to temperament, and give opportunity for that free self-expression for which the preceding exercises have provided facility.
Percy B. Ingham.
