The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1912–1918

GA 277a — 20 January 1914, Berlin

Notes on the Development of Eurythmy

Lory Maier-Smits, notes from 1965

After our time in Cologne, we continued our work in the same vein. We prepared some new pieces for a performance in Berlin, which took place during the society's second general meeting in January 1914.

Erna van Deventer, from: “After the Munich Mystery Play Season”

During the time of practicing the Indian Mantram and the Hebrew Psalm, the question arose for me: Can or must one eurythmize all sounds, or can one select the sounds that seem most important? But Dr. Steiner's answer was quite clear: “The whole word image must always be present before the audience, otherwise eurythmy is not a language, but only ‘babbling’, like a child who cannot yet pronounce all the sounds in a word.”

And when I asked whether it would be possible to keep up with the recitation, the doctor replied in a very friendly and ironic tone: "Why not? You don't have to pronounce all the sounds equally loudly; you don't do that when you speak either, because then it becomes “chanting” rather than artistic language. Isn't an “e” with your fingers beautiful, or an “l” with your middle finger, or a ‘u’ between your arm and neck line?" That answer gave us enough material to practice with for years.

Dr. Steiner had asked Prof. Hermann Beckh in Berlin to teach me the Indian mantra phonetically. Mr. A. Cordes from Leipzig practiced the Hebrew psalm with me: “Blessed is he who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,” and a few lines from the Odyssey in Greek. In the psalm, Dr. Steiner pointed out that in Hebrew the consonantal forces were the main thing, while in Greek the vowels were of greatest importance. I had to emphasize the more cultic text of the psalm by kneeling down very briefly at the end of each verse and sounding the cymbals (they were Chinese ones with a very beautiful metallic sound) above my head. Because consonants are so abundant in Hebrew, this is also reflected in eurythmy, where there are always many more plastic movements, while the vowels flow in between.

Elisabeth Baumann-Dolifus, from: “Memories”

From what had already been offered in Cologne, with the exception of the Christmas Gospel, we put together a program, expanded by some new material, most notably the three penitents and Gretchen from Faust II, last scene. Annemarie Donath had come over from Berlin for a short time to participate in our group work, and Käthe Mitscher had also arrived to take over the recitation. We all then traveled to Berlin, where the general meeting took place first, followed by the lecture cycle The Human and Cosmic Thought. On one of the afternoons, the third eurythmy performance took place on the enlarged lecture podium of the Architect's House Hall.

Program for the performance

The general meeting and the eurythmy performances took place in the hall of the Architektenhaus in Berlin. Erna Wolfram performed the program on January 20, 1914.

The first psalm (Hebrew): “Aschrey ha'isch - ascher io halach ba'atzat reschaim”
From Homer's Odyssey (ancient Greek)
Panis angelicus (Latin, Thomas Aquinas): “Panis angelicus, fit panis hominum”
Pater noster (Latin): “Pater noster, qui es in Caelis”
Travel blessing (Old High German): “Ic dir nâch sihe, ic dir nach sêndi”
Mantric saying (Sanskrit): “yasmajatam jagatsarvam”