DALCROZE BIOGRAPHY -- Pt 2
The next major period of Emile’s life was spent in Algiers, working as assistant conductor and chorus master at a theatre. Kunman suggests that Emile was "very interested" in the native music and "notated much Arabian music." Spector also quotes Dalcroze from Souveniers, notes et critiques writing about the influence of Arabian drumming on the development of eurhythmics. Spector, though, also suggests that Emile did not make a serious study of Arabian rhythms.
Emile Henri Jaques also became known as Emile Jaques-Dalcroze during this period from 1886 to 1888. The reasons for the name change have been variously reported in different sources. Nevertheless, Emile began to be known publicly as Dalcroze even though friends and students affectionately called him "Monsieur Jaques" throughout his life.
In 1892 Dalcroze returned to Geneva and began work as Professor of Harmony at the Geneva Conservatory. Dalcroze found the students ill-prepared for musical expression despite a level of technical competence. This can be compared to a situation in which people have a vocabulary of language and might be able to read it, but can not express themselves fully. Dalcroze began to develop a series of exercises to mitigate this lack of musicality in his students.
Supposedly Dalcroze experienced a moment of "Eureka!" in discovering the possibilities of using whole body movement for music education. The story of this moment of discovery has been reported in different versions.
Clarke relates the most common version of the story. In this version, Dalcroze was perplexed with a particular student. The student seemed to possess a good ear and sense of phrasing, but was unable to play evenly in tempo. Luckily, Dalcroze happened to observe this same student walking in the street with an even gait, giving no evidence of the alternately halting and hurrying movement of the student’s piano playing. Dalcroze discovered the student moved easily, relying upon the swing of his body.
In another version, Virginia Mead reports that, "One day, while staring out the window and pondering his ideas, he was struck by the natural flow and animated movement of a student walking across campus."
In his biography of Dalcroze, Spector reports the story of the moment of of discovery as told him by Paul Boepple, an early Dalcroze disciple and eurhythmics teacher. According to this version Dalcroze met the problematic student at the train (local transit) station on his way to the Conservatory. It was raining. The two men trotted toward the school. Dalcroze noticed the student matched his even gait. Dalcroze varied his gait to test if the student would automatically synchronize movement with him. The student unconsciously matched each of his teacher’s tempo changes. According to Spector, Dalcroze thus conceived the beneficial use of whole body movement to teach musical rhythm.
These stories may be apocryphal in nature. Nevertheless, there are salient features common to each version.
Dalcroze did experience dissatisfaction with the inability of his harmony students to hear in their minds what they composed. He also chafed at technical displays that contained little content. There is evidence that Dalcroze began making detailed studies of human movement. Economy of motion held particular interest for Dalcroze. He chiefly endeavored to understand the minimum work required to shift from one pose to another.
Dalcroze began to dispense with desks in his classes and required his students to move. In one solfege class, he asked his students to move their desks away and to stand next to the piano and move as they sang. At the end of the class Dalcroze reportedly commented, "There is something to that." (The development of adapting kinesthesia to solfege raised no questions for the Conservatory’s administration at this early point.)
Dalcroze began experimenting with fuller rhythmic training. He discovered he needed other facilities. Therefore he requested a bigger room with full mirrors and a changing room to allow students to change into their exercise costumes and to shower after class.
Dalcroze argued that clothing influences movement, and that a man in a loose jersey with bare feet will move with greater ease than a man in tight clothes and narrow boots with high heels. Finally, the Conservatory administration found the removal of shoes and restrictive clothing shocking. (A quote typical of the age: "Surely no one would argue against these necessary articles of dress merely on the grounds of inconvenience to the wearer.") The administration condemned what they called "monkeyshines." Dalcroze mocked this attitude and wrote, "Simply that pure-minded people do not harbour impure thoughts, and that if anyone is incited to evil thoughts by the sight of a naked leg, it is not the leg that must be blamed but rather his own mind, so ready to offer hospitality to unwholesome mental associations."
Consequently Dalcroze separated from the Conservatory and started his own school.