The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1918–1920

GA 277b — 9 May 1920, Dornach

66. Eurythmy Performance

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen.

Allow me to introduce this eurythmy presentation with a few words, as I usually do. Perhaps this is permissible because this eurythmic art is concerned with the establishment of something truly new, which cannot be compared with all kinds of neighboring arts, dance or other movement arts, but which seeks to draw in a serious way from the most original, most elementary artistic sources and also to make use of a special artistic language of forms. However, it may perhaps be stated that it is precisely through this eurythmic attempt that many things, I would say, can be attempted on a trial basis, which lies in the will of contemporary artistic natures. It is well known that contemporary artists seek new paths in the most diverse ways, since there is a certain justified conviction that the traditional artistic language of form has died to a certain extent and can no longer produce anything new, and that new paths must be sought. Of course, some of the things being sought are grotesque, in the form of expressionism, futurism, impressionism and so on. But however much of this one rejects, and however much of it one approves of with extraordinary justification, the fact of this striving as such indicates that a sincere artistic mind is searching for new paths.

Now it must be said that all these attempts actually have in common the fact that the means - be it in the field of painting, the colors and forms that can be applied, or in the field of sculpture – everything that is tried suffers from the same deficiency, which can be characterized simply by saying that the correct way to use artistic means has not yet been found in a satisfactory way. In our culture, we have come to a point where a certain abstract, conceptual, ideal element is considered to be particularly decisive. But all that is conceptual, ideal is actually the death of every true artistic endeavor. Every artistic endeavor must, as Goethe said, proceed from sensuous-supersensuous contemplation. But sensuous-supersensuous contemplation can only be attained when that which makes the sensuous impression also works spiritually-supersensuously, without having to be translated into concepts first. Now, of course, poetry and music as such also strive for this; but especially in the field of poetry, the fact that in our time language is also permeated and interspersed with the abstract element is particularly true, and that one feels a certain longing to come to more original sources of artistic work than those that can be achieved with language today. And this is what we are attempting to do with our eurythmic art, at least in a limited way. This eurythmic art, which we will be presenting to you today, is a weak attempt. All attempts are still weak because the eurythmic art is at the beginning of its development. This eurythmic art will show you the movements of the individual human being, especially of the arms and hands, but also of the other limbs of the human organism. These are movements that are already present in the human organism itself, but then also movements of groups, positions of groups, and so on.

All this could initially be seen as arbitrary gestures. But anyone who has studied eurythmy will recognize that these are never arbitrary gestures, never something that could be mistaken for pantomime, facial expressions or random movements. Just as little can that which is conceived as movement in eurythmy be conceived as a random gesture, just as language itself cannot be conceived as a random sound or as a random combination of sounds. The point is that every time you try to use mere pantomime or facial expressions as a means of expression, you also need the subjective-personal aspect of the human being.

Now consider how the subjective-personal contains that which cannot make a real artistic impression, because the subjective-personal is precisely an arbitrary element. Language has only freed itself from the subjective-personal because we are forced to accept language as something given. Even if you have this or that experience that you want to express through poetry, you have to put yourself in a lawful linguistic context; you have to pour into the lawful linguistic context what you have as a poetic experience.

But our language has already become conventional. Our language has become very much the expression, the predestined expression for the prosaic, for the literal. But that is not the actual artistic element in poetry either. The actual artistic element is that which lives in the extra-intellectual and wells up directly from the extra-intellectual spiritual of the whole human being, from a certain element of will. In order to arrive at this eurythmy, an attempt was made to explore, through sensory-supersensory observation, the movement tendencies of the human speech organs, tongue, lips and larynx themselves, which movement tendencies then underlie the undulating movements in the tones, but are transformed. And these movement tendencies were now transferred to the movement of the whole human being in a completely lawful way, so that in a certain sense one can say: when you see the movements performed by people on stage, it is not the tremulous movements that underlie the tones, but movement tendencies, the directions of movement that are then assessed in the speech organs of the human being, that are applied to the whole human being. The whole human being and groups of people come to you as a kind of living larynx. Eurythmy is language made visible. But this means that by translating the lawful element that is present in the human organism into movement, one is able to overcome the personal and yet is an experience of the soul, to be drawn out of the whole human being, so that one has the human being before one as a sensual object, but at the same time every movement is imbued with soul; thus a supersensible element is present in every movement.

This eurythmy does indeed have a sensual and supersensible element, so that one can say: In a limited sphere, this eurhythmy fulfills a long artistic yearning. One need only recall how those who are more delicate and artistically sensitive have always felt the yearning to express that which is an inner experience in such a way that it is not poured into the conventionality of language. There is a beautiful verse by Tieck, which says that with regard to human feelings of love, one cannot actually express human feelings of love with the abstract elements of thought. The romantic Tieck expresses this very beautifully. He says very beautifully:

Sweet love thinks in sounds,
For thoughts are too distant,
Only in tones may she, Beautify everything she wills.

It is a verse that truly expresses the deepest human yearning, but which must naturally arouse the disgust of every philistine logician, every pedant. And Ludwig Uhland, who – and I do not underestimate him at all – was a great poet, but despite being a great poet was an even greater pedant, corrected Tieck by making the following verse:

Liebtet ihr nicht, stolze Schönen,
Selbst die Logik zu verhöhnen,
I would dare to prove
That it is nonsense to say:
“Sweet love thinks in sounds."

The pedant cannot imagine that something lives in the thinking element and is too original, too elementary, to be expressed in abstract language. This consideration – not of the poet Uhland, but of the pedant Uhland – was then taken further by a logician, of course a good one, who proved quite logically that it would be nonsense to think that something is thought in sounds.

Now, when it comes to making the demand to bring human experiences to revelation through such an art of movement as eurythmy, one must be prepared for the fact that, of course, pedantry and logic that walks on crooked paths will have all kinds of objections. On the other hand, however, it must be asserted that there are experiences of the soul that need something more original today than what can be given in literal language.

Today, eurythmy has simply responded to the longing for forms of expression that are so strictly and internally connected to the human being as the expression of the organized larynx and its neighboring organs. But while ordinary language has become more of an expression of thought, the point is that eurythmy becomes an expression of the will. Therefore, the recitation accompaniment must also return to the reality of the art of recitation.

Today, we live in an unartistic age, and so people feel that a recitation is particularly beautiful when the speakers draw from the content, as they say, and particularly internalize the content of the matter to be recited. But that means nothing other than bringing out the prose content. Then it is much more artistic in the sense that romantics some time ago found it particularly pleasing to even listen when they were presented with poems whose language they did not understand. They listened to the rhythm, to the musical element, to that which formed an image. That is the characteristic of an artistic age.

So too must recitation today – there is no other way to accompany eurythmy with recitation – return to rhythm, to meter, to what is musically and visually plastic at its core, to that which that is then needed, I would say as a ladder to hang the actual artistic element on, namely the literal content of a poem, which does not actually constitute the poem as a work of art, but constitutes its prose content. On the other hand, many elementary human elements can be traced back to eurythmy.

And finally, it is the case that if the feeling of the audience is intense enough, then - regardless of the language in which the recitation is performed - an international feeling is felt in eurythmy, a universal human language. This is also something that can occur with this eurythmy, a universal human language. Because what is actually spiritual in a poem, which does not lie in the literal content, which cannot be reduced to what lies in a national language, the truly artistic, that is something that, when it is particularly grasped in its inner mobility, can be felt as something completely international, I would even say precisely in mute language. And I believe that when the moment comes when people realize that what is actually artistic in a poem is not what its content resounds with, but rather what eurythmy can bring forth – apart from the literal content. Once we have realized this, we may yet see the importance of eurythmy for our whole development in a different light from the one we are looking at now.

Apart from the fact that there are many other sides to this eurythmy - including a hygienic side, it has a healing effect on the human body and it is particularly as children's eurythmy, of which we can only show you a small sample today , will acquire a certain significance in the pedagogical-didactic view, in that the purely physiological gymnastics, which starts from pure physicality, makes the human being strong in a certain way, but does not actually reach into his or her will initiative. On the other hand, soul-inspired gymnastics – and this is also what eurythmy is, in addition to being an art form – soul-inspired gymnastics, which we introduced as a compulsory subject for the youngest children at the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, alongside ordinary gymnastics, will, at the right age, develop the right disposition for initiative of the will, for an inner soul activity. And this is certainly necessary for today's humanity, which tends to fall asleep so easily when the most important human matters are discussed.

In view of the fact that eurythmy has such lofty goals, we must always ask for forbearance with regard to what can be offered today, because we are still at the very beginning of the development of the eurythmic art. The honored audience who were here months ago may see how we are endeavoring to advance the matter, especially in the elementary artistic design, the form, in the emotional forms of movement. But much remains to be done. For example, I am trying, and will try harder in the near future, to somehow bring the course of dramatic art, the actual artistic aspect of drama, to eurythmic revelation, which is very difficult. But this eurythmic art will advance if contemporaries can show some interest in it. Of course, for what can be offered today, the forbearance of contemporaries must still be sought. Nevertheless, there is the conviction that something can be created with this eurythmy as a very young art, probably by others than us in later times, which will be able to present itself as a fully valid art alongside older sister arts.