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Émile Jaques-Dalcroze

Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (6 July 1865 – 1 July 1950) was a Swiss composer, musician, and music educator who developed Dalcroze eurhythmics, an approach to learning and experiencing music through movement.[1] Dalcroze eurhythmics influenced Carl Orff's pedagogy, used in music education throughout the United States.

Émile Jaques-Dalcroze

Émile Henri Jaques

(1865-07-06)6 July 1865

1 July 1950(1950-07-01) (aged 84)

Geneva, Switzerland

Swiss

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 instrument—Dalcroze felt—was the best path for generating a solid, vibrant musical foundation. The Dalcroze method consists of three equally important elements: eurhythmics, solfège, and improvisation.[2] Together, according to Dalcroze, they comprise the essential 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 solfège. It was in his solfège 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, Gertrude Price Wollner,[3] 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.

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.[1] He developed techniques that combined hearing with a physical response, transferring to a physical response in singing and reading music.[1][6] 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 those 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.[10] 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.


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.

– 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.

Eurhythmics

– Helps develop ear-training and sight-singing skills. Dalcroze utilized a fixed tonic (fixed-do) solfége system believing that all children can eventually develop perfect pitch.

Solfège

– Using instruments, movement, and voice.

Improvisation

Vorschläge zur Reform des musicalischen Schulunterrichts. Gealto Hugurich, 1905

La Rythmique (2 volumes) (Lausanne: Foetisch, 1906 and 1918)

La Portée musicale (Lausanne: Foetisch)

Les Gammes et les tonalités, le phrasé et les nuances (3 volumes) (Lausanne: Foetisch, 1907)

La Bonne Chanson, in: "Gazette Musicale de la Suisse Romande", 1 November 1894

La Plastique animée (Lausanne: Foetisch)

La Respiration et l'innervation musculaire (Lausanne: Foetisch, 1907)

Le Rythme, la musique et l'éducation (Paris, 1920 and 1935); as Rhythmus, Musik et Erziehung (Basel: Benno Schwabe, 1922)

Souvenirs. Notes et critiques (Neuchâtel: Attinger, 1942)

La Musique et nous. Notes de notre double vie (Geneva: Perret-Gentil, 1945)

Notes bariolées (Geneva: Jeheber, 1948)

Bachmann, Marie-Laure (1993). Dalcroze Today: an education through and into music. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  978-0198164005.

ISBN

Caldwell, J. Timothy (1995). . New Jersey: Pearson Education. ISBN 9780130452955.

Expressive Singing: Dalcroze Eurhythmics for voice

Lois, Choksy; Abramson, Robert M.; Gillespie, Avon E.; Woods, David; York, Frank (2001). Teaching Music in the Twenty-First Century. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.  0-13-028027-5.

ISBN

Driver, Ethel (1951). A pathway to Dalcroze eurhythmics. London: Thomas Nelson & Sons.

Findlay, Elsa (1999). Rhythm and Movement: applications of Dalcroze Eurhythmics. Van Nuys: Alfred Music.  978-0874870787.

ISBN

Mark, Michael L. (1996). (3 ed.). Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0028719153.

Contemporary Music Education

Vanderspar, Elizabeth. A Dalcroze handbook : principles and guidelines for teaching eurhythmics. London: Roehampton Institute, 1984.

Institut Jaques-Dalcroze Genève

Institut Jaques-Dalcroze Belgique

Dalcroze Australia

Dalcroze biography

at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)

Free scores by Émile Jaques-Dalcroze

at Project Gutenberg

Works by Émile Jaques-Dalcroze

at Internet Archive

Works by or about Émile Jaques-Dalcroze

Dalcroze School of Music Collection