Undoing Racism, May 2021

I am writing this the day after President Biden’s first address to Congress, where he stood, for the first time in US history, in front of two women leaders of the house: Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris. I am heartened that President Biden is diversifying leadership in the government, and that his…

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Improv Corner: Fourth Ree to One

This is a kind of two-for-one composition. In addition to the “disappearing division” rhythmic construction, there is an association at work here. Do you see it? Half notes are played as fourths, dotted quarters as thirds and quarters as seconds. The metric system may be interesting for the eurythmics classroom, but a little too restrictive…

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Dalcroze Pedagogy: Motivating Repetition and Improving Movement

(adapted from Dittus’s Embodying Music) In each lesson, Dalcroze students will need to engage in a fair amount of repetition until they achieve mastery or automatization of the required skill. This takes time and energy for the student and requires the instructor’s watchful eye to ensure that the students are sufficiently challenged and engaged. Furthermore,…

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Irregular Measures and Unequal Beats in the Work of Dalcroze and Martin

I. Irregular Measures The rhythmic concept of irregular measures appears in Frank Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano. It is also a commonly used subject in Dalcroze education. The term “irregular measures” may be used interchangeably with the term “mixed meter,” and is defined here as metrical changes with a constant, unchanging beat. “Unequal beats”…

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Behind the Scenes of the Dalcroze Lab

Jeanette Wong in Conversation with Bill Bauer The first Dalcroze Lab was launched in January of 2021, led by Silvia Del Bianco, director of the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva. The idea behind the Dalcroze Lab is to revisit workshop sessions taped at past DSA National Conferences, such as the one held in Miami in January…

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Geneva Notebook

In the fall semesters of both 2018 and 2019, I lived in Geneva to work toward the diplôme supérieur, which I earned in June of 2020. In this article, I’ll share my experiences and reflect upon a memorable period of my life. The IJD Geneva holds mythic status in the minds of many in the…

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A Note from the Board Chair

What appeals to me most about the Dalcroze practice is our long history and the degree to which we’ve maintained our connection to the origins of the method for over a century. These traditions have survived world wars, economic catastrophes, the Industrial Revolution, and political upheaval. I can see how our current challenges are fueling…

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