Eurythmy Forms For Tone Eurythmy

The art of movement called eurythmy began about eighty years ago, based on Rudolf Steiner's knowledge of spiritual beings and meanings behind various human movements, as well as knowledge of the inner spiritual qualities of human beings when we move. Eurythmy performance is choreographed according to "forms" drawn to reflect the inner nature of spoken language (speech eurythmy) or a musical piece (tone eurythmy), which is the subject of Eurythmy Forms for Tone Eurythmy. Steiner produced about 1500 forms for speech and tone eurythmy to be performed in Dornach and other locations. Many of his forms for tone eurythmy arose spontaneously in response to requests for forms from eurythmists. Steiner's spontaneity is readily apparent in the sketches themselves, with some drawn at rehearsals as he listened to the music. Steiner sketched others in the evening after hearing the music once, making them available for rehearsal the next day. When he was confined to bed during his final illness, he drew forms simply by looking at the sheet music. Eurythmy Forms for Tone Eurythmy contains facsimiles of the Rudolf Steiner's original drawings and, in many cases, instructions for performing them. Included are forms for compositions by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Franck, Grieg, Handel, Lewerenz, Liszt, Mozart, Reger, Schubert, Schumann, Scriabin, van Stuten, Tartini, and many more. This is a valuable resource for all eurythmists, as well as for those who wish to gain a better understanding of eurythmy forms. This book is intended primarily for eurythmy students, performers, and teachers, and is also useful to anyone who would like to study eurythmy movements and better appreciate eurythmy performances.

Rudolf Steiner initiated a new art of movement, which can be characterised as speech and music made visible. This concise but informative guide to eurythmy includes a brief survey of dance, from its origin in the ancient mysteries to its contemporary forms, placing Steiner's ideas in their historical context. It then goes on to explore the three main strands of eurythmy: as stage performance, in education, and in therapy, giving insightful examples of each. The book has been revised and updated, and includes black and white photographs of performance and educational eurythmy.

With these fundamental lectures on speech eurythmy – given just months after his course entitled ‘Eurythmy as Visible Singing’ – Rudolf Steiner completed the foundations of the new art of movement. In connecting to the centuries-old esoteric and exoteric Western traditions of ‘the Word’ – the creative power in the sounds of the divine-human alphabet – he gave it concrete form and expression in the performing arts, education and therapy. Although aimed primarily at the professional concerns of eurythmists who perform, teach or work as therapists, the lectures offer a wealth of suggestions and insights to anyone interested in the arts. For this new edition – freshly translated by Matthew Barton and introduced by Coralee Frederickson – the original shorthand transcripts have been compared exhaustively with typed records and the notes of course participants. These notes included numerous sketches of movements, gestures and choreographies, many of which have been reproduced here to complement the text. Also featured is an appendix comprising facsimiles and transcripts of Rudolf Steiner’s preparatory notes, programmes of the eurythmy performances given during the course, and accounts by Steiner published in the Society Newsletter. Finally, there are recollections by course participants, additional sketches of forms and movements, Marie Steiner’s original foreword, and 30 pages of colour plates featuring blackboard drawings and eurythmy forms. New revised and expanded edition; Trans. by M. Barton; Intro. by C. Frederickson (Fifteen lectures, Dornach, Jun.-July 1924, GA 279); 512pp + 32pp colour plates; 23.5 x 15.5 cm

A classic book about a new form of movement, written by a great teacher and performer of eurythmy. It gives a thorough exposition of the art form. "The art of movement known as eurythmy takes its start from Goethe's view that all art is the revelation of concealed laws of Nature, which, without such revelation, would remain concealed. This thought may be connected with another Goethean thought. In each human organ there is an expression of the whole form of man. Each human limb is, as it were, the human being in miniature, just as, in Goethe's view, the leaf is the plant in miniature. We may reverse this thought and see in man a complete expression of what one of his organs represents. In the larynx and the organs connected with the larynx in speech and song, these activities set up the movements or tendency to movements, which are revealed in sounds or combinations of sounds, although the movements themselves are not perceived in ordinary life. It is not so much these movements themselves but the tendencies to them which are to be transformed by eurythmy into movements of the whole body. What occurs imperceptibly in the formation of sounds and tones in a single system of organs is to become visible as movement and posture in the whole human being. The movements of the limbs reveal what takes place in the larynx and its neighboring organs in speaking and singing; in movement in space, in the forms and movements of groups, there is portrayed what lives in the human soul as tone and speech. Thus in eurythmy, this art of movement, there is created something, at the birth of which those impulses ruled which have been active in the development of all forms of art. Eurythmy is intended to lead the art of dancing back to the source from which it originated but from which, in the course of time, it has wandered far. It would do this not through imitation or mere revival of the old, but in the true sense of a truly modern conception of art." -- Rudolf Steiner, 1922

What convinces us of the truth of a point of view? Why do we find it difficult to understand or accept differing perspectives? What are the inner foundations of our knowledge? In these concentrated and aphoristic lectures, Rudolf Steiner speaks of twelve main philosophical standpoints, and the importance of comprehending each one of them. Appreciating the variety of world-views not only sharpens our thinking and makes it more flexible, but helps us to overcome a narrow-minded one sidedness, promoting tolerance of other people and their opinions. The future of philosophy rests not upon defending one single perspective and refuting all others, but in learning to experience the validity of all points of view. Steiner goes on to explain how each philosophical standpoint is coloured by a particular ‘soul mood’, which influences the way we pursue knowledge as individuals. He characterizes the work of several thinkers in this way, throwing light on their unique contributions to human culture. Through such insights into the true nature of human thinking, we are led to understand the quality of cosmic thought, and how the human being is a ‘thought which is thought by the Hierarchies of the cosmos’. This revised translation is complemented with an introduction by Robert McDermott, editorial notes and appendices by Frederick Amrine and an index. Trans. by C. Davy & F. Amrine; Intro. by R. McDermott; Four lectures, Berlin, Jan. 1914, GA 151

With the unprecedented global conflict of the First World War as an overarching theme, Rudolf Steiner addresses timeless issues such as the search for harmony between peoples and nations, the development of the human capacity for love, the contemporary presence of Christ, and the questions of reincarnation and life after death. Speaking in the German city of Stuttgart during and after the war years, Steiner discusses the perpetual tension between East and West – particularly in relation to Europe. The war, he says, arose principally out of the Anglo-Saxon peoples' determination 'to exercise world-domination'. Knowing that Slavic culture is destined to be the precursor of the sixth cultural epoch, Western national interests resolved to make Eastern Europe – specifically Russia – 'the field for socialist experiments'. These events were aggravated by the failure of the Central European peoples in their own world-historical task, to 'rise to a broad sense of vision' as intermediaries between the two groups. Throughout, Steiner refers to the work of individual Folk Souls, but distinguishes them from the scourge of nationalism – especially when it is based on blood – whilst emphasizing the sovereignty of the individual human being. Although more than a century old, the enduring themes of these previously-untranslated lectures will resonate with many readers today. The main text is supplemented with an introduction by Simon Blaxland-de Lange, editorial notes and an index. Sixteen lectures, Stuttgart, Sept. 1914–March 1921, GA 174b

‘The study of music is the study of the human being. The two are inseparable, and eurythmy is the art which brings this most clearly to expression. In these lectures, Rudolf Steiner guides us along a path toward an understanding of the human form as music comes to rest – the movements of eurythmy bringing this music back to life.’ – Dorothea Mier ‘Fundamentally speaking, music is the human being, and indeed it is from music that we rightly learn how to free ourselves from matter.’ – Rudolf Steiner The focus of these eight lectures is the source of movement and gesture in the human being. The movement in musical experience is thus traced back to its origin in the human instrument itself. Like the degrees of the musical scale, Rudolf Steiner leads his select audience of young artists through eight stages, focusing on the living principles of discovery and renewal. Eurythmy was born in the turbulent decades of the early twentieth century. From an individual question as to whether it was possible to create an art based on meaningful movement, Rudolf Steiner responded with fresh creative possibilities for a renewal of the arts in their totality. The new art of eurythmy was an unexpected gift. Today, music eurythmy, along with its counterpart based on speech, is practiced as an art, taught as a subject in schools, enjoyed as a social activity and applied as a therapy. This definitive translation of Steiner’s original lecture course on eurythmy includes a facsimile, transcription and translation of the lecturer’s notes, together with an introduction and index. The volume is supplemented with an extensive ‘companion’, featuring full commentary and notes compiled by Alan Stott, as well as a translation of Josef Matthias Hauer’s Interpreting Melos.

Created in 1911, eurythmy was developed for years as an artistic and educational discipline. Although Rudolf Steiner pointed out its healing aspects from the very beginning, it was only in 1921 that he gave a course of lectures that gave the art of eurythmy a vital new application. To the assembled eurythmists and doctors, he presented what one participant described as '...a complete and detailed method of eurythmy therapy, in which we could directly experience that even today the creative and therapeutic power of the word ... is still at work'.Steiner's comprehensive lectures, republished here in a thoroughly revised translation, describe the principles of therapeutic eurythmy, giving many specific exercises. Primarily intended for practising eurythmists, these lectures also contain much material of particular interest. Steiner reveals the intricacies of rhythmic interplay between human physiology and the life-forces in the world around us. He describes the qualities of language and the dynamism contained in the individual vowels and consonants, elucidating their relationship with eurythmical movements and human experience. Through such movements, individuals are able to access the healing etheric forces.The exercises, referred to by Steiner as 'inner gymnastics', contain enormous potential for psychological and physiological well-being. Gaining ever-wider recognition today, they complement conventional medicine, offering a therapeutic process concerned with mind, soul and body.This new edition of these important lectures - previously published under the title Curative Eurythmy - includes an appendix with reminiscences by early eurythmists, as well as additional commentary from Dr Walter Kugler.