Ebook: Rhythm, Music And Education

The Dalcroze Eurhythmics approach to music education was developed in Switzerland in the early Twentieth Century by Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. While the approach was initially intended for conservatory students, Eurhythmics soon expanded to the training of musicians, dancers, and actors of all ages, as well as to therapeutic applications.

The philosophy of Eurhythmics centers on the concept that the synthesis of the mind, body, and resulting emotions is fundamental to all meaningful learning. Plato said in this Laws: Education has two branches, one of gymnastics, which is concerned with the body, and the other of music, which is designed for the improvement of the soul (Pennington, 1925, p. 9). Emile Jaques-Dalcroze believed that every musician should strive to be sensitive and expressive, and to express music through purposeful movement, sound, thought, feeling, and creativity.



Mead (1994) cites four basic premises that encapsulate the philosophy of Eurhythmics:

1. Eurhythmics awakens the physical, aural, and visual images of music in the mind.

2. Solfège (sight-singing and ear-training), improvisation, and purposeful movement together work to improve expressive musicality and enhance intellectual understanding.

3. Music may be experienced through speech, gesture, and movement. These can likewise be experienced in time, space, and energy.

4. Humans learn best when learning through multiple senses. Music should be taught through tactile, the kinesthetic, the aural, and the visual senses.



Jaques-Dalcroze wanted to create an approach to music education in which sensory and intellectual experiences are fused into one neuromuscular experience—reinforcing the body’s response to music (Caldwell, 1995). He felt that this would lead to performance at high levels beyond expectation (Carder, 1990). Dalcroze believed that music education should center on active involvement in musical experience. Technique and intellectual understanding are important, but active experience must come first. Today’s music education is based on the “sound before the symbol” philosophy, a legacy of Jaques-Dalcroze and Pestalozzi before him. Jaques-Dalcroze felt that students could practice and learn musical expression through the active discovery of time, space, and energy. He believed that as music moves, so should musicians; therefore, rhythm is elemental to this philosophy. Jaques-Dalcroze taught that through rhythmic movement, musicians could experience symmetry, form, tension, and relaxation, phrasing, melody, and harmony. Experience should teach the musical elements (Martin, 1965).



Jaques-Dalcroze intended for his approach to develop musical understanding through eurhythmics and to help students develop immediate physical responsiveness to rhythmic stimuli. Developing musical rhythms and nervous sensibility would ultimately lead to the capacity to discriminate even slight gradations of duration, time, intensity, and phrasing. Through rhythmic movement, students would begin to think and express themselves more musically. Initially, Jaques-Dalcroze’s conception of eurhythmics was designed for the education of conservatory musicians, but soon expanded to the early musical education of children, and to those with special needs. His philosophy grew to include the belief in the development of a more musical society through rhythmic training in the schools (Campbell, 1991).