The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1920–1922

GA 277c — 3 July 1921, Dornach

40. Eurythmy Performance

The first part of the performance took place in the Goetheanum building, the second part in the carpentry workshop.

1. Part (Goetheanumbau) “Symbolum“ by J. W. v. Goethe with music by Leopold van der Pals “Weltenseelengeister” by Rudolf Steiner Saying from the Calendar of the Soul (10) by Rudolf Steiner “Spring” by Rudolf Steiner with music by Leopold van der Pals Saying from the Calendar of the Soul (11) by Rudolf Steiner “The posy“ by J. W. v. Goethe A cheerful prelude with music by Leopold van der Pals ‘Highland’ by J. W. v. Goethe Saying from the soul calendar (12) by Rudolf Steiner “World soul” by J. W. v. Goethe with music by Max Schuurman Part two (carpentry) Music by Leopold van der Pals
   “Charon“ by J. W. v. Goethe
   “Mignon” by J. W. v. Goethe
   “Zum neuen Jahr” by J. W. v. Goethe
   “The Three Gypsies“ by Nikolaus Lenau with music by Jan Stuten
   “Anchovy Salad” by J. W. v. Goethe
   “The Barkers“ by J. W. v. Goethe
   Satirical prelude with music by Leopold van der Pals
   “Seance” by J. W. v. Goethe

Dear attendees, Allow me to say a few words to introduce the performance, as I always do before these eurythmy performances. This is not done in order to somehow explain the artistic performance; that would be inartistic, the artistic must speak for itself. But in this eurythmy we are dealing with a special formal language that is unfamiliar, and with drawing from artistic sources that we have not yet become accustomed to. And I would like to say a few introductory words about these sources and this formal language. What you see on stage is either an individual moving person — moving in their limbs — or moving groups of people. None of the movements presented here are pantomime or facial expressions. If one still sees something of that kind in the performances, it is because eurythmy is still in the early stages of development. And everything dance-like, mime-like and so on must be overcome in this eurythmic art. What underlies it is a real, visible language. Every single expression is not taken from the momentary meaning of this or that word, which eurythmy accompanies, or this or that musical motif; rather, one is dealing with a real language that is drawn from the human organism as elementarily as the sound language, as the phonetic language itself.

It would, of course, be quite impossible to keep asking, 'What does this mean? What does that mean?' about the details of spoken language. This is also not possible with this real, visible language of eurythmy; rather, the forms of eurythmy are based on a real, if I may use Goethe's expression, sensual-supersensory study of spoken language and singing itself.

Our larynx and speech organs as a whole are designed as a part of the human organism in such a way that they want to carry out certain movements. I have to put it this way, because it is first and foremost the predispositions for movement that are involved. These predispositions do not come directly out of the larynx and the other speech organs during ordinary speaking and singing, but are transformed into vibrations of the air, and this is what gives us the sound of speech or singing. But if one really studies what is stored in the larynx and its neighboring organs, as I said, through sensory-supersensory observation, then one can transfer what is stored for a single organ complex to the whole human being, entirely according to the principle of Goethe's metamorphosis teaching, which of course then has to be implemented artistically. In particular, the expressive organs of movement, the arms and hands, can be used to convey the same effect as speech.

And in this way, with regard to human nature, one arrives at something more artistic than even speech or song can be. For in our words, even in poetically and artistically formed language, we have before us a combination of what takes place through the will of man and through the thoughts of man in connection with each other. But all thought, in essence, is inartistic. If our thinking is to be put into action, if one is to look for meaning, expression and so on in the syntactical or other sense, then, to the same extent that one has to do this, what wants to reveal itself becomes inartistic. The poet is always struggling between what is beauty of sound sequence, sound design, rhythm, beat, and what the whole inner movement of the linguistic is, and what is thought. The conceptual is, so to speak, only something that must necessarily be taken along if the sound is to be heard.

But if we go back to the actual element of movement, to the disposition to move in the speech organs, and transfer it to the whole human being, so that the whole human being or groups of people become, as it were, visibly moving larynx and speech organ, then we go back to the element of will. And that emerges from the full human being, the whole human being. It can be seen from this that, firstly, even in a primitive language, a single word is often used for movements that are carried out by the human being and for the sounds that accompany them when they are sung or recited. Primitive man moves when he abandons himself freely to his inner being, in the process of transforming language into art. Hence a word for human artistic movement and for the sung or recited word in primitive language.

On the other hand, we can say that everything that is a mental element in poetry recedes behind the purely formal, that is, the actual artistic element; this comes through as a will element, as a movement element – and movement is always a manifestation of the will – this comes through this eurythmic movement entirely.

Anyone who is able to study the human organism as a whole or in part will say to themselves: the human organism at rest has a certain shape. So now we see the shape, let us say of a hand. We cannot be satisfied with just looking at the hand at rest. Every finger, every surface on the finger, everything about the finger is such that it wants to move out of the shape into movement. If one discovers the laws, as must be the case for eurythmy, where the entire human form wants to pass over, in a very elementary, natural way, into movements that are inherent in it, then one comes to a pure expression of will, to a spiritualized expression of will, and is then able to detach the poetic, the truly poetic, from the literal and to express through the word and through this form of movement more and more that which underlies the actual artistic aspect of poetry in the real poet, in the real artist.

It is therefore important not to believe that one can directly indicate every single gesture in a mimic way in the poem without the accompanying movement. Just as in spoken language itself, the essential, insofar as spoken language is artistically formed, lies in the succession of sounds in the visualization of the sounds, so too here nothing lies in the individual gesture, which is not a gesture at all, but rather, as in music, it lies in the succession of sounds, in the shaping of the sounds - in the movement, the succession of movement, the actual element of the artistic in eurythmy is in the succession of movement. And just as little as one can say in the depths of one's being, when confronted with language, that one wants to bring it to some kind of understanding in the first immediate impression, [but] one simply grasps it in terms of feeling, just as little can one say of eurythmy: this gesture does not fit with this or that that is at its basis. Rather, the aim is to be able to feel the linguistically visible element in eurythmy as such. Eurythmy as such is not yet art. Only then must that which is drawn from the organism in the form of movement be shaped artistically.

Recently, we have endeavored to achieve a great deal in this direction, particularly in the shaping of movement. Those of you who have seen eurythmy before will notice how the forms that are usually more silent, with which we introduce or end a poem, express not only the moving people or groups of people, but also the mood, beat and rhythm of the poem. Thus you will see moving people or groups of people on stage; you will hear what is presented in the movement of eurythmy accompanied by recitation or music. However, it must be noted from the outset that the recitation that has to accompany this eurythmy must now return to the truly artistic element of recitation and declamation.

This artistic element of declamation has, of course, been much maligned in recent times. I use this expression for the reason that those insults that have occurred certainly did not arise out of mere ignorance, but out of ill will, which is connected with all sorts of things, and in particular arose out of an unartistic sensibility that is so widespread in the present day. We appreciate all too little in the present what it means that a true poet like Schiller did not start with the literal meaning of the most important of his poems, but rather started from an indefinite feeling of a melody and only then, I might say, lined up the literal meaning with this musical element. Goethe started more from a figurative-imaginative point of view. But [on this figurative] - which is also expressed in rhythm, beat and so on - and on the musical, the actual artistic of poetry is based, not on the literal content. Just because something is inartistic in our time, one cannot take that into account, because in the emphasis of the pure prose content, in the recitation or in the declamation, something special is being attempted. I would like to say that the inability to feel artistically about recitation today has led to these smear campaigns being unleashed in recent times, especially against recitation to accompany our eurythmy. And it is precisely this form of recitation that will have to prevail because it goes back to what is already eurythmic, namely also musical and imaginative, in language itself.

Just as eurythmy can be accompanied by recitation and declamation, since it is intended to be only a different expression of what is heard, so can eurythmy be accompanied by music. You can sing in these eurythmic movements just as you can reveal yourself through sound. And when music is accompanied by eurythmy, it can be understood as singing in visible motion, and nothing else.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the artistic side of eurythmy. I would just like to mention that eurythmy also contains two other elements. One is a hygienic-therapeutic element, because it can be drawn from the human organism – from that which is already within it, that which occurs in movements. Therefore, these movements can also be transformed into healing movements. A start has already been made on this recently. Now, this side of eurythmy, the hygienic-therapeutic side, will also be further developed.

The third element is the pedagogical-didactic element, which has already proven itself in the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, founded by Emil Molt and led by me, where, in addition to gymnastics, this spiritualization of human movement in eurythmy is introduced to children as soon as they enter elementary school and then continued as a compulsory subject through all school grades throughout.

It may be said that every movement that a child has to perform is not merely carried out from the physical-physiological, but from the whole human being, who is spirit, soul and body. So that the child feels from the outset: it is making movements into which its soul-spiritual flows. The children feel this as something completely natural. And what is more, the fact that children feel so completely in their element is also based on the fact that this eurythmy is particularly suitable not only for developing the physical structure of the limbs and for evoking physical dexterity in movement, but also for evoking the will initiative that our time and probably also the next generation will so urgently need. What eurythmy offers children is education in the will initiative.

I will not go as far as a very famous contemporary physiologist – you would be amazed if I were to mention his name – who, after such introductory words, when he was watching a performance, told me that gymnastics, which are often overestimated today, are not a means of education, but a barbarism. As I said, it was not I who said it, but a famous contemporary physiologist. One could say that this gymnastics, which is based purely on external, physical considerations, this gymnastics that supports the physical, must be complemented by that which is then the spiritualized gymnastics for children, which can be given to the child through eurythmy. The child feels completely at home in its element.

These are the three sides of eurythmy. And here in our performances, it is of course the artistic aspect that comes into its own. And here it may perhaps be said again and again that this eurythmy, if further developed, is truly suited to fulfill that which appeared to Goethe as the highest artistic principle, in that he said: He to whom nature begins to reveal her secret longs for her most worthy interpreter, art - not for the abstract physiology of natural laws , but to the revelation in art.

Man is that which, in essence, he has in his organism as cosmic laws and cosmic secrets. If we set him in motion in such a way that what is grounded in his essence becomes visible in the movement, then we can say: human nature begins to reveal its essence to him who feels a deep longing to bring out this essential humanity in an artistic way from within the human being.

On the other hand, when Goethe says: When man is placed at the summit of nature, he in turn produces a summit within himself, takes harmony, order. and meaning together, in order to finally rise to create the work of art - so one may say: an art that does not make use of external instruments, but of the human organism itself as its instrument, as its tool, an art that brings out from this human organism measure, harmony, meaning and so on, such an art has within itself the germs to become more and more perfect.

We are our own harshest critics. I know very well that this eurythmy is only at the beginning of its development. Therefore, I must always apologize to the esteemed audience when such attempts are made. But those who are willing to engage with what is being developed will recognize that if it is properly developed, by us or by others, the eurythmic art will be able to join the other, older, fully-fledged arts.