Dalcroze education is a playful, experiential approach to teaching and learning music. Through movement, ear-training, and improvisation, students of any age can unlock the music within their body.
Recent Blog Posts
Updates from the DEI Committee
By Dawn Pratson | January 13, 2025
Recently I attended a reunion of the k-8 school where I taught from its founding in 2005 until 2016. The Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School was founded by a group of primarily Asian American but also African American social justice activists and folk arts advocates. The vision of the school ...
Read More → Quick Reactions with a Dalcroze Teacher
By Michael Joviala | December 17, 2024
This is the inaugural edition of “Quick Reactions with a Dalcroze Teacher”, a new regular feature of the DSA blog. Each month I’ll interview a different Dalcroze teacher. For the premier, I interviewed myself! Q: Give your “Dalcroze Origin Story” in 50 words or less. A: My girlfriend (now wife!) ...
Read More → Inspired by Dalcroze: Beginning a Teacher Training Journey
By Kumiko Jones | December 17, 2024
One day, I found myself interested in the question of how young children can grasp complex musical concepts at such an early age. My curiosity increased when I watched my four-year-old son, Arthur, engage with music in a way that was surprising and instinctive. He was not only listening to ...
Read More → Remembering Annabelle Joseph
By Katie Couch | December 4, 2024
We learned this morning that Annabelle Joseph, our friend and colleague of many years, passed away last evening (11/19/24). Annabelle was an alumnus of Carnegie Tech (Piano Performance, 1953) and taught Eurhythmics and Solfège in the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music from 1989–2016 (27 years). She was the Director ...
Read More → Sabbatical in Switzerland: Institut Jaques-Dalcroze (Part 1)
By Richard Spalding | December 4, 2024
This article first appeared in The Orff Echo, Volume XVIII, No. 4, Summer 1986. ©1986 American Orff-Schulwerk Association, Mayfield Heights, OH. Used by permission. Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, composer, pianist, and professor of harmony at the Conservatory of Geneva, developed his method of music education over an extended period from about 1900 to the 1920s. ...
Read More → The Mystery of the Espèce
By John R. Stevenson | November 19, 2024
Introduction Émile Jaques-Dalcroze used the term espèce (French for “species”) to describe all varieties of pitch sets, including dichords, trichords, and heptachords (among others), which outline and define all qualities of seventh chords. To understand the espèces requires a thorough understanding of the do-to-do scales, pitch sets (dyads, trichords, etc.), ...
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