The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1920–1922

GA 277c — 4 August 1922, Dornach

Eurythmy Address

On August 4, 1922, Rudolf Steiner presented the first twelve eurythmy figures, which he had developed with the English sculptor Edith Maryon (1872-1924), to the eurythmists and interested members at the Goetheanum. “At the lectern,” reports Tatiana Kisseleff, "there were two tall stands on the right and left, on which there was something covered with paper. Rudolf Steiner gave a lecture on the artistic means of the various arts [...], then moved on to eurythmy and pointed out that this art uses the expressions inherent in the human being: movement, feeling, and character, and that the artistic means of eurythmy is the whole human being. After the lecture, Rudolf Steiner stepped down from the lectern and, saying, “... in order to offer help to those who want to practice and perfect themselves in the art of eurythmy, these figurative, colored representations of individual sound forms were made,” he removed the paper, and we saw a series of cut-out, colored wooden figures."

My dear friends! Today I would like to give you some hints about our art of eurythmy. We must be aware that every art has to work within the realm of the means available to it as its artistic tools. And an art can only be truly alive if it resolves to achieve what it sets out to achieve solely through the artistic means at its disposal. Let us take the plastic arts as an example. Sculpture, as an art form, has shape, flatness, and rounded flatness as its artistic means, and when it depicts, for example, an animal or a human figure, it must apply the rounded, flat surfaces in such a way that everything else that is human or animal is also expressed in these rounded flat surfaces through the appropriate technique. So let us assume that we want to depict an animal with smooth fur. We will have to treat the surface of the marble, bronze, or wood differently than we would if we were depicting an animal with woolly fur. We will always have to express what is not within the scope of the artistic means in question through these artistic means. In sculpture, for example, we will have to bring ourselves to express, in the treatment of the surface of the skin, what represents the color, the incarnate, in real human beings. It would therefore be wrong for someone to try to represent a plaster cast instead of a sculpture of a human being. Although it would correspond completely to the human form, it would only reproduce what is naturalistic human form. Such a representation would never be able to convey the impression of a real human being. For a real human being makes an impression first and foremost through their complexion, through their color, and through many other things; they make an impression through their expression. We cannot incorporate all of this into the art of sculpture. We must therefore design the surface differently than we have it in naturalistic human beings if we want to express the totality of the human being.

And so, for example, in the art of painting, where we again have to work on a surface, we must use color to express what the figures we depict can express in naturalistic reality through their form, and so on and so forth. In recent times, this artistic insight has been lost to a certain extent, and because people have not understood how to work from the realm of artistic means of an art, the naturalistic principle has crept in more and more, this naturalistic principle, which, because it can only appear in some art within the artistic means, brings out the unnatural and lifeless in an artistic way.

When we have the stage in front of us, for example, we must be aware of everything that is happening on stage and what is to be portrayed in terms of a life that is understood in a completely different naturalistic way than what the stage can portray. The stage is a kind of relief of life, and we must arrange everything on stage in such a way that this is taken into account, that we are dealing with a relief of life. For example, we must know that it means something when an actor in a drama walks backwards to forwards. This does not mean the same thing on stage as when a person walks backwards to forwards in a room, because we have to take the whole milieu into account, we have to take the audience with us, because the work of art develops between the stage and what is happening with the audience.

For example, if a passage is to be spoken by an actor in a drama that is intended to be particularly intimate in content, we must never allow the actor to step back for this intimate effect, but must instead have the actor step forward on stage for the intimate effect. On stage, everything means something different than in general. When an actor walks from the right side of the auditorium to the center, it means something completely different than when he walks from the left side of the auditorium to the center, and so on.

We must master the means at our disposal in the field of stage art. We must take into account the actor's movement in this or that direction on stage. It is not irrelevant to ask ourselves: What would a person do who wants to express something intimate? Naturalistic art usually takes the view: Well, then we'll just let him whisper. Under certain circumstances, this may not achieve the same effect for the naive viewer as we can easily achieve by having the actor take three, four, five steps forward on such an occasion, and so on and so forth.

Let's take another art form that is least appreciated in our time, the art of declamation and recitation. If, in the art of declamation and recitation, one behaves in the way one believes is the most natural way to speak, the most naturalistic way to emphasize, then that is the least artistic. The art of declamation and recitation is something completely different. It is about knowing how to study: which character is in the vowels, which character is in the consonants, what special mood lies in the vowel e, in the vowel a? What changes in the mere “mood” of the m? What changes in the mere a-mood of the l? And then to understand how to extend such moods, which are already present in the vocalization and consonantization, across the entire line, perhaps even across an entire monologue, so that one can say that a particular monologue could be spoken in the e mood, in the a mood, that is, in the mood that can be developed in particular with the a or the e or the l or the m.

And so it is entirely possible to use special means to create a configuration, an artistic treatment, which actually constitutes the art in question. Furthermore, the art of recitation and declamation is about distinguishing the epic mood from the lyrical and dramatic moods. It is also about taking particular care, especially in this art, to ensure that the audience's reception is naive, under the greatest possible artistic development, the conscious artistic development of the person who has to recite or declaim.

This can never be achieved through naturalism, but only by understanding how to shape the sounds, the sentences, and entire rhetorical passages correctly. That is why I often have to say, in connection with eurythmy, that the art of recitation and declamation is all about bringing out the musical and imaginative elements in the poet's use of language and achieving through speech formation what is otherwise achieved in naturalistic life through emphasis.

If we now consider eurythmy from this point of view, insofar as it is to become a real art, we must ask ourselves: What are its artistic means? Well, you have all attended eurythmy performances and therefore know that in eurythmy, the movement of the human limbs, namely the arms and hands, but also, at least to some extent, the movement of the whole human body, is initially a means of expression for eurythmy as an art.

So movement itself is what it is all about at first. And the perfection of eurythmy is only achieved for the viewer when they see something in the movement as such, in the movement that corresponds, for example, to a vowel or consonant, or in the form that then arises as a result of the movement. That is the first thing.

But we must not forget that eurythmy is a real visible language and as such an expression of the soul, just like spoken language. So what eurythmy expresses must have the same effect on the eye through its artistic means as spoken language has on and through the ear. It would therefore be completely wrong to believe that ordinary facial expressions or physiognomy have any significance in eurythmy. These ordinary facial expressions or physiognomy have no significance whatsoever; only the movement itself is important. The viewer must therefore be able to completely forget, in terms of the essence of the movement, what the eurythmist's face looks like or does in terms of facial expressions or other aspects. In the ideal sense, it does not matter at all whether the eurythmist has a beautiful face or an ugly face – which, as we know, never happens. But let's assume it does – it still doesn't matter. Well, it must be possible to focus attention completely on the movement itself through the movement.

But eurythmy is, after all, language as movement, it is the expression of the human soul. And no one, for example, as a reciter or sculptor, will be able to form a sound or a sequence of sounds, or shape a surface, if they do not have a feeling, a feeling for the curved surface, for the formation of the sound or the sequence of sounds. It is not so important that the performer, at the very moment of his performance – he would only be distracted by this – should have a naturalistic feeling, as is intended to be aroused in the viewer or listener. Rather, it is important that he feels the sound context, the sound design. And it is important that the sculptor feels the surface. The sculptor has a different feeling when he feels a round or a flat surface. It is not the same feeling that one wants to portray; it is the artistic feeling that one develops within the realm of artistic means.

This feeling can also play a role in eurythmic art for the performer. And precisely when the performer has the right feeling, the right sensation in this relationship to his form of movement, he will be able to make it have a soulful effect on the audience. Let us imagine what this might actually be. Let us assume that the movement – let us say for a particular letter – requires the eurythmist to move his arm in this way and hold it there for a short time.

Then this is initially the movement or the form into which the movement has entered.

But this movement will only have a soulful effect if the eurythmist also has the feeling that he himself feels this movement with his movement, as if he had a tangible air up here that feels different from the general air, if he had a tangible air here or if he had something wrapped around his arm for my sake that he has to carry. Imagine that this is a feeling. He moves his arm in this way and has the feeling that something very light is resting on him, touching and pressing him, or that something is pulling him. If we were to represent this in an expressionist form, we could do so by creating a veil here. Then the viewer sees, if the eurythmist is really skilled at designing the veil so that you can see through it, the veil is designed and placed in such a way that the eurythmist feels a slight pressure here and a slight pull there, then the viewer also sees what the eurythmist feels. And you can pour all the feelings of the eurythmic movement into the form of the veil.

Of course, this is a very ideal thing that cannot be achieved right away, but it is something that must be strived for, at least little by little. It was therefore quite right to add the veil to our eurythmic performance at first, because the veil is essentially a means of support for the audience to actually see externally in moving plastic what the fluctuating feeling is in the eurythmist.

And again, when movement and feeling interact in the way I have described, we already have part of the soul. For instead of thought, we have movement, and we have feeling directly. Of course, it will be a great help to the audience if the veil has a certain color in relation to the robe, because the movement will essentially be expressed in the robe, while the feeling will be visible in the veil.

In this way, the harmony between movement and feeling can also be brought to light in beautiful expressionistic forms. And one can then say that if, for example, one gives the robe a color corresponding to the e-sound, then, in accordance with the e-sound, if the robe has a certain color, the veil must have a corresponding different color, so that both colors are in the same relationship as movement and feeling.

However, this cannot be used in this way in eurythmic performance at first, because of course you cannot change the robe and veil for every sound. But as I said earlier, if we really penetrate things artistically, we can speak of certain moods, say, with the E, say with the #, and then transfer that not only to lines and stanzas, but to an entire poem. And if we have a feeling for it: this poem is tuned to I, that poem is tuned to E, or let's say, if we have the feeling: In this poem we get a real mood that corresponds to the poem, if we do it with two eurythmic performers in such a way that we characterize an e mood through one of them with the robe and veil, and an i mood through the other, then the mood of the poem can come to the fore through the interaction of these two moods in combination.

Such attempts have already been made in the coordination of veils and robes for entire poems, because such things must be taken as a starting point. One cannot say that things can be based on a nebulous fantasy; rather, they must be experienced artistically from within and studied artistically, only then can they be translated into such a reality that the viewer, even if he knows nothing about all this, still has the corresponding impression in a completely naive way.

Now, when it comes to the presentation of eurythmy, a third element comes into play, and that is the element of will, the character. If you think of any sound and think that it should be presented in eurythmy, you will say to yourself: First of all, in movement, something like the general speech formation in recitation is presented. The way in which language is shaped pictorially or musically is expressed in the movement of eurythmy. The feeling that the reciter also puts into his recitation, the feeling that is expressed quite visibly, in that what the eurythmist himself must feel in his imagination — something presses, something pulls — causes him to behave quite differently in movement. This becomes quite involuntary, instinctively different in movement, as he feels in this way or in another way. This really enlivens and animates the whole thing. And it is good if the eurythmist not only masters the very external movement, but also has this feeling: when he makes an e, he has very specific quiet sensations here or there, when he surrenders himself to this quiet sensation in his imagination. But because he makes the movement, he will animate the movement in a completely different way than if he only makes the movement mechanically.

But the reciter also brings an element of will into the recitation. He speaks, let's say, softly; he intensifies, he speaks some things very loudly. That is the element of will that is brought in. And this element of will, which I would like to call the character in the artistic, this element of will, you can also bring into the eurythmic performance. Suppose you have to hold your arm in a certain way for some sound's sake – and there you have your hand. Now you will quite involuntarily and instinctively do something different artistically if you hold your hand completely limp, leaving it to its own weight, or if you stretch it out. And you will bring character into your recitation and declamation in much the same way as the reciter does, through stronger, more powerful language or less powerful language. For example, you will give a completely different character to what you are expressing with your arm if, as a eurythmic performer, you not only give yourself over to your imagination, but also bring this imagination to fruition within yourself. Let's say you tense your forehead when performing a certain letter or passage. Or you feel that you are giving strength to the muscles of your upper arm during a certain movement. Or you feel that you are consciously placing your feet on the ground during a certain movement by pressing down on the floor. This is the third element, the character that can come into eurythmy.

So we have the opportunity to truly express the whole soul in eurythmy. Now, my dear friends, it is remarkable that when one really carries out this idea that I have just expressed, one comes to the conclusion that simply by expressing eurythmy in a certain way, one can create the beginnings of what is sought today as a special art form, the expressionism of art. For eurythmy is, in a certain sense, truly expressionistic. It simply does not use the often silly means employed by so-called expressionism; it uses the artistic means with which one can truly create forms of expression, expressions artistically in the movement of the human body, in the feelings poured into the limbs and in the character poured into the limbs, as I have just described.

And now, in a few depictions, which are admittedly still in their infancy, an attempt has been made to shape precisely what I have just described, to shape it in such a way that, at least initially, the sounds have been treated according to these principles, treated in such a way that each sound is done justice in a certain expressive manner, by truly representing the movement in one color, the feeling that is veiled within it in a second color – of which, of course, only the color can be seen in the representation – and the character in a third color. So that you can represent every sound eurythmically through color according to movement, feeling, and character.

This may achieve two things. First, it can be seen to what extent eurythmy achieves artistic results with its means. For everything that is to be achieved artistically through eurythmy, everything that is simply to happen on stage and be used, is this: movement, feeling, character, in the form I have described. Just as the sculptor with his use of surfaces, the reciter with his use of sound, and the musician with his use of tone, the eurythmist must achieve everything that is to be achieved with movement, feeling, and character. Nothing else should be considered. This is the realm of the means of eurythmic art. Everything must be achieved with these means.

So in the figurative representations that have been given here — and recently, in particular, with regard to the fact that the Oxford eurythmy performances are intended to help people understand eurythmy through such representations — you will see in these representations, which have been attempted in recent times and which are now intended to make the essence of eurythmy even clearer, that I have succeeded in stimulating some intentions in this regard, at least for the time being, and that the representations have then come about through the diligence of Miss Maryon in recent times.

An attempt has now been made to provide illustrations that contain nothing other than the three elements I have spoken of. So that, on the one hand, one can be led into an understanding of eurythmy, but on the other hand, the eurythmist himself will also be able to learn a great deal from these representations, because, having the representations before him, he will have given the essence of some eurythmic element.

Now, my dear friends, as I show you these representations, I ask you first of all to note that these representations should in no way be copied or imitated. “Reproduction strictly prohibited,” my dear friends. That is the first thing. And the second thing is that when I show them to you, you should not knock them over or run around and mess them up.

Initially, the only attempt was made to represent the series of letters in accordance with the principles I have just mentioned. So here you will see representations of people in which everything else that does not belong to eurythmy has been omitted. So you should not expect any painterly or sculptural representations of people, but only eurythmic people, that is, people who are nothing but eurythmy, but this eurythmy in the highest completeness for the individual sounds.

So they do not have faces, but the faces are such that the character, the form, and so on are indicated. If you go through them in order, you have: a, e, o, u, d, b, f, g, h. The shape of what would otherwise be a face is indicated by the movement, which of course can only be hinted at, but it is also good in itself if the eurythmist imagines that it looks like this. Then you have t, s, r, p, n, m, and l. I would now ask you to come a little closer.