The methods of the Dalcroze approach to music educationeurhythmics, solfge, and

improvisationhave had a profound influence on modern music education. In particular, the

overt training in kinesthetic abilities, and the assertion that the relationship between music and
movement is an intimate one, is at the heart of Dalcrozes approach to instruction. The
empirical research on kinesthesia in education and on the Dalcroze approach to music
education is only starting to explore the many facets of this way of teaching, but the existing
research is encouraging. This article will provide accounts of eurhythmics, solfge, and
improvisation, giving emphasis to what types of activities might occur in these three facets of
the Dalcroze approach to music education. Following this, the sense of kinesthesia will be
discussed in relation to Dalcrozes approach. Finally, empirical and philosophical studies of the
Dalcroze approach will be briefly summarized.

mile Jaques-Dalcroze (July 6, 1865 July 1, 1950) was an Austrian composer,

musician and music educator who developed Dalcroze Eurhythmics, a method of learning and
experiencing music through movement. Dalcroze eurhythmics influenced Carl Orff's pedagogy,
used in music education throughout the United States.[citation needed]

Dalcroze's method teaches musical concepts, often through movement. The variety of
movement analogues used for musical concepts develop an integrated and natural musical
expression in the student. Turning the body into a well-tuned musical instrumentDalcroze
feltwas the best path for generating a solid, vibrant musical foundation. The Dalcroze method
consists of three equally important elements: eurhythmics, solfge, and improvisation.[1]
Together, according to Dalcroze, they comprise the essential musicianship training of a
complete musician. In an ideal approach, elements from each subject coalesce, resulting in an
approach to teaching rooted in creativity and movement.

Dalcroze began his career as a pedagogue at the Geneva Conservatory in 1892, where he
taught harmony and solfge. It was in his solfge courses that he began testing many of his
influential and revolutionary pedagogical ideas. Between 1903 and 1910, Dalcroze had begun
giving public presentations of his method.[2] In 1910, with the help of German industrialist Wolf
Dohrn, Dalcroze founded a school at Hellerau, outside Dresden, dedicated to the teaching of
his method. Many musicians flocked to Hellerau, among them Prince Serge Wolkonsky, Vera
Alvang (Griner), Valeria Cratina, Jelle Troelstra (son of Pieter Jelles Troelstra), Inga and Ragna
Jacobi, Albert Jeanneret (Le Corbusier's brother), Jeanne de Salzmann, Mariam Ramberg, Anita
Berber, and Placido de Montelio. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the school was
abandoned. After the Second World War, his ideas were taken up as "music and movement" in
British schools.
Biography[edit]

mile Henri Jaques was born in Vienna, in 1865. He later adapted the name mile Jaques-
Dalcroze. His mother, Julie Jaques, was a music teacher, so he was in contact with music since
his childhood. Naturally, by influence of his mother, Dalcroze formally begun his musical studies
still in his early years. When he was 10 years old, his family moved to Geneva, Switzerland, and
in 1877 Dalcroze joined the Conservatoire de Musique. He also studied at the College of
Geneva, which he did not appreciate. Dalcroze considered the College as a "prison" where
education was basically rules, which were not concerned about the students' interests.[3]

In 1881, he was part of Belles-Lettres Literary Society, a students' group dedicated to acting,
writing, and performing music in general. At that time, Dalcroze felt more interested in
composing. In the year of 1884, he studied composition with Lo Delibes and Gabriel Faur.
Around the same year he was part of the Comedie Francaise. Further on he studied
composition with Mathis Lussy, which influenced him in the process of rhythmic development.
By the year 1886 he was the assistant conductor in Argelia, where he discovered Arabia's folk
music. In contact with this kind of music, Dalcroze noticed that there were different worlds of
rhythmic expression, where each of them would require a particular way of writing, as well a
unique performance style. Accordingly, he developed a new kind of music notation. In 1887, he
went to Conservatory of Vienna, where he studied with Anton Bruckner.

He enrolled at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genve in 1892, but in 1910 he left the
Conservatory and established his own school in Hellerau, nearby Dresden. Many great
exponents of modern dance in the twentieth century spent time at the school, including Kurt
Jooss and Hanya Holm, Rudolf Laban, Maria Rambert, Uday Shankar and Mary Wigman. In
1911, Dalcroze and his students were invited by Prince Sergei Volkonsky to show their work in
St. Petersburg and Moscow. He came back to Geneva in 1914 to open a new institute and in
1920 the school was moved to Helleray Laxenburg, near Vienna. However the school was
closed by the Nazis. He died in Geneva, on July 1, 1950.
Educational Philosophy[edit]

In his search for a more intense rhythmic experience, Dalcroze posed some questions. First, he
questioned why music theory and notation were taught as abstractions, dissociated from
sound, movements and feelings that they represented. Moreover, by taking the pianist as an
example, he asked how the finger technique taught by professors could be considered a
complete musical education. Finally, he was intrigued that the qualities that characterize a real
musician were rarely experienced in a music class.

Dalcroze believed the first instrument that must be trained in music is the body.[citation needed] He
developed techniques that combined hearing with a physical response, transferring to a
physical response in singing and reading music. He did many experiments with his students,
used to help in the process of learning and feeling music. His main goal was to develop the
inner ear to facilitate musical thinking, reading and writing music without the help of an
instrument. While continuing to build his methodology, he observed his students and noticed
that the students who could not play in time in the music world, were able to walk in time in
the real world. The walking was completely spontaneous and easy.[4] He observed that some of
his best students could tap the beat using their feet, or shake their heads and bodies in
response to music. This physical response was natural and common to all ages and
cultures.[citation needed]

Moreover, he noticed that students would change their movements when following a
crescendo, and would respond physically to the accents of the music. They also relaxed their
muscles with the endings of phrases. As they seemed to hear the music, feeling its effects, he
concluded that the students themselves were the instruments, not the piano.

Dalcroze eurhythmics[edit]

Main article: Dalcroze Eurhythmics

Dalcroze noticed that students had a mechanical understanding instead of a musical

comprehension. They were not able to hear harmonies that they wrote in the music theory
classes, and they could not create simple melodies and chord sequences. This resulted in a lack
of musical sensitivity that caused problems in the performance. His effort was to find ways to
help their students to develop skills of feel more, hear, create, imagine, connect, memorize,
reading and writing, as well performance and interpretation in music. He worked in order to
free the students from the conflicts between mind and body, feeling and expression.[5]

Dalcroze realized that the aspects of music that are more connected to the senses are the
rhythm and the movement. Regarding the three elements of music: pitch, rhythm and dynamic,
he recognized that the last two were entirely dependent on the movement. He also found their
best models in the muscular system. For him, all degrees of time (tempi) can be experienced,
understood and expressed through the body. He felt that the enthusiasm of musical feelings
depended on the sharpness of physical sensations. He was convinced that the combination of
intense listening and the responses of the body would generate and release a powerful musical
force.

Dalcroze needed a laboratory to test his theories. By working with students, he decided to hire
his own workspace. He started to look for principles, teaching strategies, teaching styles and
methods that could convert music into a practical educational tool. The principles and methods
that they developed were unique and new, so they had given a special name: eurhythmics.[6]

In the beginning, Dalcroze thought that the solution to many problems would be basically
teaching musicians to contract and relax in a specific time (the speed of sound or time), in a
specific space (the duration of a sound), and with a particular force (energy dynamics of a
sound). Thus, he worked on a new series of exercises designed to help students strengthen
their perception by the metric and its instincts by many streams of the movement, called
rhythm. Then, he began to propose exercises by playing music and suggesting that students
walk as they would feel the pulse. Surprisingly, students acted differently and had difficulties in
different tempos. Therefore, he deduced that people still had trouble reaching the goal of
speed, accuracy, and performance by being rhythmically expressive. He realized that there
could be some system of quick communication between the brain, which understand and
analyzes, and the muscles that performs - a system to e from the brain, which studies the
performance of the body and sends the information to be corrected.

Objectives of Dalcroze Eurhythmics[edit]

1. Mental and Emotional: awareness, concentration, social integration, realization and

expression of nuances.

2. Physical: to make the performance easier, to make the performance accurate, to develop
personal expressiveness through the performance.

3. Musical: quickness, precision, comfort, expressive personal response to the listening,

analysis, writing and improvisation.

Dalcroze Eurhythmics practices 3 concepts:

Eurhythmics - Musical expression through movement; developing musical skills through

kinetic exercises. The students can learn rhythm and structure by listening to music and
expressing what they hear through spontaneous bodily movement.
Solfge - Helps develop ear-training and sight-singing skills. Dalcroze utilized a fixed
tonic (fixed-do) solfge system believing that all children can eventually develop perfect
pitch.
Improvisation - Using instruments, movement and voice.
Techniques of Dalcroze Eurhythmics[edit]

In 1905, Dalcroze organized thousands of games and exercises by connecting beautiful music,
intense listening, and consciously improvised movement. According to him, the professor must
be able to improvise the songs for the activities in the music class.

The motion approached by Dalcroze were: movements, postures and gestures to express the
tempo, duration, dynamics, accents, and other elements that produce rhythmic material.[7]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFjTyI1hofA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKQBc0ZliyY

http://www.manifoldmelodies.com/docs/Manifold_Dalcroze_voice.pdf

mile Jaques-Dalcroze was an Austrian composer, musician and music educator who developed
Dalcroze Eurhythmics, a method of learning and experiencing music through movement.
Wikipedia
Born: 1865, Vienna, Austria
Died: 1950, Geneva, Switzerland
Education: Conservatoire de Musique de Genve
Record label: Sterling World Premiere
Albums: Janie / 1914, Impressions Tragiques / Tableaux Romands (Moscow Symphony
Orchestra, feat. conductor: Adriano)