Sabbatical in Switzerland: Institut Jaques-Dalcroze (Part 1)
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. He was the greatest exponent of his own “system” and continued to research, explore, think, and write about his findings throughout his working life.
Known in the United States as eurhythmics, this great body of work encompasses the study of traditional harmony, solfège, and la Rythmique. This is Jaques-Dalcroze’s active method of studying the basics of musicianship through bodily movement in response to the music performed, for the most part, by the instructor at the piano. Jaques-Dalcroze thought of music as a means to mental and bodily health and not just an end in itself.
In 1919, he wrote (Le Rythme La Musique et L’Education, p. 5):
Twenty-five years ago, beginning my career as a pedagogue at the Conservatory of Geneva, noticed from the beginning that rhythmic sensations in music come from muscular and nerve interactions (jeu) of the organism in its entirety. Thus, I came to consider musicality that is only auditory as an incomplete musicality, to look for the connection between movement and hearing, between energy and space, between music and the character, between music and the personality, between music and the dance… these are my ideas as they were written from 1897 until the present…
Though “Monsieur Jaques” quite intentionally set out to establish a method, it was never his intention to publish a method. Though he and his devoted pupils very meticulously recorded every exercise, game or activity he invented (often with the pupils’ collaboration or at their suggestion) there is not an “authorized” edition of these notated devices. Just now they are carefully preserved in the cupboards and closets in the studio of the director of the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze (IJD), Dominique Porte.
Jaques-Dalcroze felt that each candidate teacher should be capable of creating anew all the various steps and stages of the method. This expertise should be acquired through first-hand experience or total immersion, under the supervision of carefully chosen artist teachers. He was fully aware that the successful continuation of this work depended not upon teachers with absolute pitch repeating memorized drills, games, and musical tricks, but upon well rounded, serious, and sincere artist teachers who had assimilated both his processes and his philosophy.
Three categories of training are offered at IJD, other than classes for children from age five through adolescence. First, training for music teachers and other professional. Second, there is the certificate course and the diploma course.
The certificate course requires four years of study and consists of:
- La rythmique
- solfège or vocal study of music reading, writing, and ear training
- harmony, including written, keyboard, and vocal work
- piano instruction, technique, and piano literature
- piano improvisation classes, playing creatively with and without advance preparation
- classes in movement techniques, basic body movement, creative dance, exercise
- pedagogy, supervised teaching of children
- Cours Global, a weekly course combining most of the above mentioned disciplines.
The recipient of the certificate is authorized to teach children.
The diploma course is designed to train an elite corps of master teachers who would be qualified to teach-train others who are candidates for the certificate. This demanding course may last up to two years. Certificate courses are taught at Dalcroze training centers throughout the world, but only the Institut awards the coveted diploma. In spring 1984, only one diploma was granted.
In the third category are classes in eurhythmics for amateur adults, beginners or advanced. These resemble the continuing education classes in the USA with no goal other than the self-betterment of the participants. Regardless of the level of the classes at IJD, the method remains the same. Only the scope and intensity of the lessons vary appropriately to the needs of the children, professionals, or amateurs.
Children’s classes at IJD
As a Professor of Music Education, I felt it imperative to see firsthand the training of the very young and adolescent children. These classes are generally held afternoons, or on Thursdays throughout the day. (Geneva children attend no school Thursday and only a half day on Saturday). Some classes last one hour and forty minutes. This makes great demands on the children and the teachers. In addition, the Institut has the praiseworthy practice of encouraging a very relaxed and open attitude towards class work. As a result, parents, other teachers, and interested visitors are often in attendance. Everyone is made to feel welcome by both teachers and students.
As I watched the children engaged in rhythm exercises, solfège drills, conducting, singing, game playing, music listening, and response-reaction activities, I reflected philosophically about it all. It appeared to me that the children came to classes quite willingly but that, for the most part, their presence was motivated by the intense interest of the parents.
I heard, on more than one occasion, that participation in “Dalcroze” was a must for the bourgeois families of Geneva. I personally believe that few of the children ever ask to come to classes. (Of course, I am not considering here Dalcroze classes which are part of the curriculum of the public school system.) And, though I felt that most of the children were not intellectually aware of that aims of the teacher planned activities, nor even conscious of the wholesome benefits derived, I truly believe that a majority of children enjoyed the classes immensely and were enriched musically, physically, and spiritually. In addition, it is important to note that the activities were organized and executed by the teachers in very creative and engaging ways with much energy, delight, and enthusiasm.
The teachers’ goals were invariably met, with the children moving to the improvised piano music played with variations in tempi, dynamics, timbre, phrasing, etc. When solfège was included, most children sang the sol-fa syllables using fixed do with very good tone and read rhythmic and melodic notation appropriate to their age and experience level.
Teacher-Training at IJD
Though I continued to observe the children’s classes throughout the semester, the greatest portion of my time was spent in the classes for professionals. Being engaged in teacher training at the University of Louisville (Kentucky), I felt it important to see the methodology and content of these training sessions. It seemed equally right for me to find out how my own musical and bodily competencies measured up to those of the professors and the other students. In order to participate fully, I enrolled in as many courses as seemed suitable.
My choices were: Solfège I with Marie Louis (Malou) Hatt-Arnold, Rythmique Level I-II with Marie-Laure Bachmann, and Cours Global Level II with the Doyenne of the institut, Madeleine Duret. I remember vividly my bewilderment during those first classes. Dressed in jogging pants, black tee-shirt, and barefooted, I made quite a contrast with my youthful fellow students who were between 19 and 28 years of age. In a school of most females (“helas,” sighed many of the teachers), I only had two “buddies,” Gianfranco, 19, from Sicily, and Enrique, slightly older, from Madrid.
Though fluent in French for many years, I was not accustomed to the various accents one encounters in Geneva, and the technical terms of music caused me to be rather slow to react. The rooms were exceedingly ‘live’ acoustically. It was a problem for me to just hear terms such as “croche” (eighth note), “noir” (quarter note), “blanche” (half note), shouted across the room full of stomping, sweating, sometimes groaning students. Compounding the comprehension difficulties was the enthusiastic and generally boisterous piano improvisation of the instructor. Without pause in playing, she was likely to call out suddenly, “double vitesse” (twice as fast), or one of the “consignes” (signals) agreed upon prior to starting the exercise: “hip” (heep), “hop” (huhp), or “houp” (hoop), meaning go forward, backward, or in circles, or whatever else we had decided it would mean. Often, just when an exercise was mastered, all of the “consignes” were changed, or their meanings reversed.
A typical Dalcrozian instruction would proceed thus: “when I play, you stand still; when I stop, you walk or run the rhythm I have just completed.” Another might be: “reverse my rhythmic devices. If I play [beat-trotting-trotting-beat], you step [trotting-beat-beat-trotting].” Hands and arms are given tasks in opposition to foot movements and individual people are played against each other as in a symphony orchestra.
To extend the skills of dissociation even further, hand drums are sounded, balls are tossed and bounced, sticks, ropes, and hoops are maneuvered. Concentration, flexibility, and musical sensitivity were essential to success, not to mention quick understanding of all commands. I was impressed with the reaction-responses of my young peers, who soon accepted me as one of them and called me by the friendly and informal “tu” (thou).
They had started their classes in September of 1983, and I was beginning in mid-January, 1984.
I found that movement in eurhythmics requires a coordination of ear, body, and intellect that I had not previously encountered in any of my long music experiences. Thus, despite being in good physical condition, having participated extensively in folk dancing and having been accustomed to music and movement in many years of Orff Schulwerk practice, I found myself, at first, frustrated and confused.
Determined to go on, I began to observe that not all my young friends were equally quick to comprehend. Often, I was able to guess the next development of the lesson before arriving at that point. I noted too that though students might move skillfully and effortlessly to the improvisation from the piano, some at times were unable to reproduce accurately on the chalkboard the notation for our body work. I felt here to have a slight edge on my less experienced companions.
Dalcroze artist-teachers
I want to point out here my admiration for the Dalcroze professors. There is probably no other field of music teaching that requires such total musicianship, instrumental skill, compositional knowledge, choreographic form, and perhaps, crowd management. What is more, this vigorous activity is carried on in a very light-hearted manner by teachers and students, even though everyone takes the work to be done seriously. Inevitably, with ever increasingly difficult tasks piling up, there comes a time in every lesson when the majority can no longer coordinate ear, brain, and body. The movement ceases amid bursts of laughter, or by good-natured teasing of the instructor for having given a last outrageous command. Reproaches or complaints are virtually unheard of. If impatience is present, it is seldom manifested. The artist-teachers are masters at pedagogy which, in the case of Dalcroze work, would include philosophy and psychology. It is even more remarkable to find this high degree of tolerance for frustration among the young students, some of whom are superior musicians as well as experienced dancers.
This is a part of the genius of Jaques-Dalcroze. This is still his institut, and it is as if he is ever present, looking on to see how things are going, and letting all know that he just wouldn’t have it any other way. “Monsieur Jaques” and his teachers and students all know that this “stuff” is hard to do and that even the most gifted have to expend their last bit of energy and concentration to attain what my still be an imperfect performance. This concept was beautifully expressed by Madeleine Duret when she said, somewhat wistfully, “Jaques-Dalcroze, c’est une ideale!”
In addition to these active classes, the professional students attend other, more sedentary classes to learn solfège and harmony. When not seated at one of the two or three pianos in the room, the student is at the big working table stinging along, conducting, tapping the pulse, or noting what is happening on score paper. Every possible device of ear-training, solfège singing, scales, chords, rhythms, form, and analysis is explored. These are always repeated with variations in tempi, dynamics, and timbre.
It is not possible to imagine a more thorough, no-nonsense, exhaustive course in the fundamentals of music. At the same time, the storehouse of clever and fascinating music games, “tricks,” and drills left by Jaques-Dalcroze provide both teachers and students with many hours of delight. A Dalcroze lesson will invariably contain the surprise, the unexpected twist that will keep the learner on his toes and, if not cautious, even slightly off-balance. A master at keeping the pupils engaged, Jaques-Dalcroze was wise enough to space his traps far enough apart so that the student is encouraged to continue.
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. Part two of this original article will be published forthcoming.
