Dalcroze Method Guide: 4 Principles of Eurhythmics

The Dalcroze method, commonly known as eurythmics, is an experiential music teaching method developed in Switzerland by the composer and pedagogue Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. It emphasizes dance and kinesthetic rhythm games as a means of teaching various elements of music, including structure, rhythm, and musical expression.

The Dalcroze approach is one of several methods of teaching music that emerged in Europe and the United States in the early- to mid-twentieth century. Others include the Kodály method, the Orff Schulwerk, and the Suzuki method. All emphasize kinesthetic, social approaches to musical concepts.

In 1892, Vienna-born Émile Jaques-Dalcroze accepted a position at the Conservatoire of Geneva. While he trained many students with strong innate musicianship, he observed that students with a perfectly precise sense of rhythm were just as rare as students with absolute pitch. Dalcroze set about creating a music curriculum that could teach rhythm in a kinesthetic way using a student’s entire body. In his text Rhythm, Music, and Education, Dalcroze outlines a teaching method called rhythmic-solfège that aims to teach rhythm through a combination of sight-singing, ear training, and dance.

The Dalcroze education method rests on several core tenets.

1. 1. Early music education: Émile Jaques-Dalcroze believed young children should begin a music education as soon as possible. Thus, Dalcroze eurythmics instructors typically teach school-age children who are new to the world of music.
2. 2. Improvisation: Dalcroze teachers emphasize the role that improvising can play in developing an intuitive understanding of music.
3. 3. Immersive, tactile approach to rhythm: Dalcroze Eurhythmics teaches rhythm through dance and body motion.
4. 4. Emphasis on the human voice: Through rhythmic-solfège, students sing rhythmic articulations until patterns and subdivisions become second nature. They learn polyrhythms, mixed meters, conducting, and counterpoint.

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