Dalcroze Eurhythmics: an Evolving Pedagogy

“[…] Rhythmics has set itself the goal of establishing an efficient and unimpeded communication circuit between [the body and the mind], […] it must be considered as a means to establish such links. “

 (Bachmann, 1984, p.30)

Jaques-Dalcroze was a man of relationship. Gifted with great musical and creative talents, he let himself be guided by his intuition, and by a freedom of spirit whose radiance has already surpassed more than a century, for our greater benefit.

I owe him personally for having enlightened my childhood and my youth through his songs that my mother, his pupil, sang to us at home, and during the weekly rhythmics classes that I particularly loved. He has sown in me the taste of the freedom to be, to think and to express myself.

Since his death in 1950, scientific research has made great strides in affective neuroscience, neuropsychology, bioacoustics, psychology and other areas related to human learning. In a complementary training, I sought to explore the question of quality in listening, because this one thing precisely constitutes an important element of direct communication and an integration of learnings in general.

LISTENING TO THE VOICE TO FEEL AND LIVE MUSIC IN THE BODY

Jaques-Dalcroze said: “… [rhythmics] seeks to reveal us to ourselves, to say: I know and I think, because I feel and I experience. (Bachmann, 1984, p.61)

He was already highlighting the importance of the proprioceptive approach, the ability to feel what is happening in us. While it is true that through muscular sensation, body movement fosters a certain level of listening and body awareness, it is the more subtle movements that put us in close contact with our sensitivity and our inner being.

For example: in a group, if I make a sound and I ask the participants to join me on this sound by extending it in unison, what happens?
I experience a feeling of vibration reinforced by the sounds of others;
I have a feeling of volume in my body. It feels three-dimensional;
I feel the voices of the others vibrating within me;
I feel part of the group;
I feel all the space around me;
I feel both the presence of the others and my own;
I feel inhabited by the music as it awakens emotions within me.

Our bodies reveal to us innumerable internal movement sensations when we are listening without outwardly moving. A soft sound that vibrates in the body, with closed mouth, can create a very intense sensation: the alternating movement of two sounds repeated several times slowly gives a sensation of physical space: the musical interval becomes a distance that is felt as a sensory reference. It is moving to feel the music exist in oneself, to feel that one is the music. These sensations are all the more perceptible as we give them conscious listening and attention. They are a source of pleasure and pleasure leads more easily to conceptual assimilation.

During oral dictation one day, a student told me that the inherent beauty of a sub-dominant chord created so many emotions in her that she found it difficult to continue singing. Another realized that naming the notes she was singing robbed her of the pleasure of the sound sensation. She needed to stay longer in this first step so that afterwards, the name of the notes were established more naturally and did not replace the pleasure of listening.

LISTENING TO BE IN RELATION

 “The emotive sensation is the secret organizer of the mind-body relationship” (Dolto, 2016)

Dalcroze was a man of heart, close to children and their emotions; some of his songs still touch today’s younger children with their universal feelings.

The enjoyment of group rhythmics classes and the happiness of connecting with music generate valuable experiences in themselves. But this does not prevent some people from experiencing anxiety when it comes to memorizing a musical phrase and then writing it: the fear of forgetting the previous sounds can block the ear, one’s receptivity and one’s memory. The same phenomenon also happens in memory exercises in rhythmics classes, as well as in improvisation.

Incredible progress has been made in methodology and didactics, in body vocabulary and in the links between movement and music, but there is often a lack of time or attention to acknowledge the person first before considering the results of his or her learning.

Feeling is a movement of the emotions. We are all sentient beings, but aren’t we all exposed to the risk of being more concerned with the doing rather than with the being? On gaining knowledge and experience rather than presence? It is not a question of choosing between one or the other, but of living both through placing the quality of human relationships at the heart of our action. Having access to one’s own feelings and emotional momentum allows us to connect with the children or adults we teach. In return, the students respond to this openness by giving us their confidence, which in turn facilitates their learning and allows them to become more engaged.

The emotional dimension adds to the muscular sensations of the body in action, thus significantly enriching the experience of movement as conceived by Dalcroze. It gives us access to an even deeper and more profound experience, since it consciously includes the whole being in the experience.
A rhythmics class is above all an experience of the body in motion. However, by using voice in movement exercises and emphasizing the sensation of vibration in solfege and harmony, one promotes a better integration of musical artistry, and a more comprehensive grounding in the body. It is a way of taking Dalcrozian language further.

Françoise Lombard, May 2018
Dalcroze diplôme supérieur
The Art of Listening

francoise-lombard.com

Thanks to Google and Sharon Dutton for the English translation and to Mary Brice for her work on the definitive version for publication.

References
Bachmann, M.-L. (1984), La Rythmique Jaques-Dalcroze, Neuchâtel : Les éditions de la Baconnière.
Dolto, C. (2016, avril), conference at the «Université du Québec à Montréal».