The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1912–1918

GA 277a — 21 August 1915, Dornach

The Apollonian Course IV

The prelude presented here, later called the “cosmic prelude,” was originally referred to as the “ether wave” or, in the performance programs of the time, the “serious prelude.”

Ether wave

Something that replicates movements that are invisibly present everywhere. An inner forward movement.

The spirals express the forward movement of a wave that occurs invisibly in all ether.

Such an [upbeat] for poems of greater, even cosmic content.

Upbeat for cosmic representations

1 goes to 2, 2 goes to 1, 3 goes to 4, 4 goes to 3, 5 goes to 6, 6 goes to 5, 7 goes to 8. 8 and 9 make spirals; then 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 take three steps to the left and the whole thing is repeated. - The wave can move forward in all kinds of movements, e.g., in a circle, in a spiral, in a straight line, etc.

He said of this form: “This is a typical ‘ether wave’ and should continue to move in circles in space.” This happens because 8 does not run to the place of 7, but is “ejected” in a spiral movement, seeking “something new” and thereby pulling the others along. - Due to lack of space, we only did it 3 times next to each other on the carpentry stage.

First, 7 movements are made; then there is the movement of the person in the center and the person standing on the right; these two are actually the ones who propel the whole wave forward, the one in the middle pushes from within, so to speak, and the one on the right is the one who “seeks the new.” [...] And now VII to VIII; at this moment, VIII and IX begin to move in the vortex at the same time, but each in a different direction. These can be different types of vortexes. [...] VIII now stands a little further to the right, the others move up a few steps. This can be repeated three times, or more, as a prelude to representations that bring the cosmic to the human.

Further design possibilities

Instrumental music

The etheric wave can be circular, elliptical, or even heart-shaped.

The whirlpools

can also be done, but in 1915 they were not done. [...] but rather like this: