The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1920–1922

GA 277c — 16 May 1921, Dornach

36. Address on Eurythmy

Part I (Goetheanum)
“Graceful Region (Ariel Scene)” from ‘Faust II’ by J. W. v. Goethe
“The Nile Delta“ by Wladimir Solowjow (Russian) ‘World Soul Spirits’ by Rudolf Steiner
“Laurore sallume” by Victor Hugo
“Spring“ by Rudolf Steiner
“Proemion” by]. W.v. Goethe
From the “Chymischen Hochzeit” by Valentin Andreae with music by Max Schuurman Part II (Joiner's workshop)
Elegiac prelude with music by Leopold van der Pals
“Heiß mich nicht reden“ (Mignon II) by J. W. v. Goethe
“Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt” (Mignon III) by J. W. v. Goethe
“Erlkönig“ by J. W. v. Goethe with ‘Elven prelude’
Prelude ‘Look around you’
“The little bouquet” by J. W. v. Goethe
Cheerful prelude
Humoresques by Christian Morgenstern: “The Prayer: The Deer”; “The Lion”; “The Priestess”; “From the Suburbs”

Dear attendees!

We will be giving you a eurythmy performance here today, and I will take the liberty of saying a few words in advance about the nature of our eurythmic art. This art is based above all on a real, visible language. You will see gestures, movements, performed by individuals, groups of people and so on here on stage. What is presented here is not intended to be some kind of mimic or pantomime performance, or even something dance-like, as we understand these things today. Rather, it is about exploring, through sensual and supersensory observation – if I may use this Goethean expression – which movement tendencies underlie our speech organs when phonetic language is produced or when singing is produced . In this case, however, it is more a matter of movement tendencies that, I would say, are still disappearing as they arise and then transform into that which, as a movement of the air, underlies the tone, the sound.

These movements, which only half arise, but which as such lie quite clearly, I would say in the will of the human being, in the unconscious will of the human being, are carefully studied and are now transferred according to the principle of Goethe's metamorphic view of the whole human being, namely to that part of the human being that can most directly reveal the soul's inner being: to the human arms and hands, which are then supported, admittedly, by movements of the rest of the human organism.

When I say, according to the principle of Goethe's metamorphic view, it means that, as Goethe saw in the individual leaf of the idea a whole plant and in turn in the whole plant a more intricately designed leaf, so in the processes that take place in an organ system, one can see something like an expression of the whole human being. This is indeed the case when a person makes use of the activities of his speech organs. What we otherwise feel as the content of our full humanity is expressed, so to speak, through this one organ system. And so, like Goethe, we can look at the whole plant as a more complicated leaf, and in a sense we can make the whole human being an organ of expression for his soul and spirit. And then something like a visible language emerges, which is the basis of our eurythmy.

It is therefore important to bear in mind that the movements that are performed are not random gestures that would be added at random to one or other expression of the soul, but that everything that is done in terms of the smallest and small movements here is subject to strict inner laws, just as the formation of language itself is.

Anyone who has an appreciation of the eurythmic quality of the way language is treated by the true poet, something of what one might call the pictorial, painterly or musical representation of language, will also have to approve of an extension of the artistic formal language into this eurythmic quality, for artistic reasons, I think. For anyone who is interested in art at all is also interested in expanding artistic means.

What the poet actually wants is based on something that, I would say, is one layer deeper than what we reveal through language in ordinary prosaic expression. When we reveal ourselves in ordinary prosaic expression through the literal, then basically it is the thought that is embodied in our language. And it is quite certain that all thought kills what is actually artistic.

The actual artistry of poetry makes use only of thought, of the literal content. But what is truly artistic about poetry is the special formation of language, the relationship between one sound and another, between high and low tones, and so on and so forth. It is that which presupposes that the human being not only has an understanding of the meaningful that is expressed through his language, but also has an understanding of the phonetic, of the sound itself.

For what appears here as eurythmy is not the same gesture that we use to accompany our speech today. The gestures we use to accompany our speech do, to a large extent, come from the unconscious, but they are connected to the meaning of what we are saying. And the details of the eurythmic movements performed here are essentially connected to the sounds and tones themselves.

So we can say that when we see one or other of these movements performed, it is the reaction of the human soul, not to the meaning expressed by some sequence of sounds, but to the sequence of sounds themselves, which produces sympathetic, antipathetic, joyful, sorrowful impressions and so on, albeit in a finely nuanced way. Nuances of the soul and its inner movement, which are brought about by the sound itself, are to come to light through eurythmy. Therefore, precisely that which is actually volitional, that is, emotional, in the artistic can come to light through this eurythmy, that is, that which has already stripped away the thought, the inartistic. And those who can immerse themselves in this way of looking at eurythmy will probably find that the very thing the poet struggles with in order to express it in language can be expressed particularly well in the visible language of eurythmy. These are a few words that point to the essence of eurythmy in an artistic sense.

This eurythmy has another side, a hygienic-therapeutic side. The gestures and movements that are made here initially appear to us as something like a visible pronunciation of what is recited here in the poetry, or are intended to be a visible song, a musical element. This eurhythmics is therefore presented as musical and recitative, accompanied.

But at the same time, these movements are such that they follow from the inner laws of the organism itself. Anyone with an appreciation of the human form will know that the outer limbs, as you know, extend into the most intimate structures of all the organs. When the human form is at rest, it is in a constant state of transition into movement. We cannot, my dear attendees, look at a head, for example, which is intended to be at rest [gap in shorthand], or at each finger, which is intended to grasp, in its resting form [gap in shorthand], or at how it looks in motion, how it must appear at rest.

In this way, however, it is possible to extract, as it were, the forms of movement from what man is as an organized being, which are thoroughly healthy forms of movement of the human being. And in this way it is possible to extract certain forms of movement from healthy people, but also from sick people (this is only hinted at), which can also be applied to the medical field (this is only hinted at).

The third [area of eurythmy is] didactic and pedagogical. We introduced [eurythmy as a subject] in the Waldorf School, founded by [Emil Molt], from the very beginning. It represents a kind of soulful gymnastics. And it must be said that one day we will think about these things more impartially and without prejudice than is already possible for people today. One day we will see that our present-day gymnastics are actually only taken from the laws of the human body, so that children derive great joy and devotion from this soulful gymnastics from the very beginning. They feel that they are entering into a life of movement that has been drawn from the nature of the human being itself. It can be said that it is quite possible to perceive in children that the soul forces can also be cultivated in this way through eurythmy, namely the initiative of the will, which is not really expressed through ordinary gymnastics. I would say that a certain efficiency and a certain courage come from ordinary gymnastics. But it is the inner initiative that comes from the soul, and this is what can be cultivated in children through eurythmy.

And so this eurythmy has three sides. But what is artistic for us here is [illegible word]. And this artistic element is indeed only just beginning today. I must therefore ask again and again to be lenient with what [gap in shorthand]. We ourselves are the strictest critics of what we have dared to begin with this eurythmy. But one must consider that eurythmy uses that [illegible word] as its means of expression, its tool, which summarizes all the secrets of the world, which is a real microcosm: it uses the human organization itself.

Goethe says that man arrives at art by taking order, harmony, measure and meaning from the whole of the rest of the world and expressing them in his production. When man borrows order, harmony, measure and meaning from the world through mystical vision and expresses them through his own intention, thus making himself, as it were, a work of art, then the artistic must come to expression in the best way. Therefore, one may also believe that, despite the fact that eurythmy is only just beginning today, it will have developmental possibilities in itself, so that one day, when it has been further developed, it will be able to present itself in a fully valid way as a younger art alongside the older, fully valid arts.

We will, honored attendees, have the first part of our presentation here in this room today. Then there will be an intermission after the performance of The Chemical Wedding. And for the following part, that is, for what comes after the intermission, I ask the honored audience to please go to the rehearsal hall.