The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1920–1922

GA 277c — 2 November 1922, The Hague

Eurythmy Performance

Ladies and gentlemen!

Please forgive me for not being able to deliver the introductory words I would like to precede our eurythmy performance in the language of this country. But since I do not speak this language, I ask you to accept this introduction in the language I am familiar with.

Our eurythmy performance involves moving individuals and groups of people, whom you will see here on stage. The movements performed by individuals or groups of people are not gestures in the usual sense of the word, they are not pantomime, they are not mimic art, they are not some kind of movement art, but rather a truly visible language. And I am not saying these words to explain the artistic nature of the performance; art must speak for itself through its immediate impression, otherwise it would be inartistic, and any explanation of a work of art is in itself an inartistic undertaking. But precisely because we are dealing here with sources of art that are still unfamiliar today, and with an artistic formal language that is equally unfamiliar today, please allow me to preface these words with a few words about these artistic sources and artistic formal language.

In ordinary human spoken language and in singing, we are dealing with something that develops quite naturally from the human organs of speech and singing. If we take visible language—for eurythmy is essentially a visible language—then the will, which comes from the deepest inner being of the human being, flows together with and thought, the thought that pours out of the human nervous system into the speech organs, in a very complicated way, we might say, with the will, so that the mind or feeling in speech forms what, on the one hand, the thought and, on the other hand, the will want to express.

Now, the thought element of language is actually what presents the most obstacles and hindrances to the poet, the true artist of language. Thoughts are actually an inartistic element. But thought can be studied, and everything you will see here in the art of eurythmic movement is based entirely on careful study through—if I may use Goethe's expression—sensual-supersensual observation. It is possible to study the movements of the human larynx and its neighboring organs as the word or the tone of song is transferred to the air for hearing. One gradually comes to realize that ordinary speech is actually also produced by the conversion of gestures, but not the ordinary gestures of everyday life, with which we merely accompany our speech, but gestures that do not occur at all during speech, but which live within us. And the human brain is such a complicated organ that it is extremely difficult to see how, for every vowel, for every consonant, a lawful gesture is actually translated in the human brain, which the human being holds back when speaking or singing. This lawful gesture is transformed into an image by a complicated rearrangement apparatus, the nervous system of the brain. And an image of the gesture is, in a sense, entrusted to the air stream that vibrates outwards from the human organism when singing or speaking.

So what is entrusted in a mysterious way to the air stream in human nature when speaking, what humans hold back in ordinary speech and singing, is brought out by the art of eurythmy. So that everything vocal, everything consonantal, the whole word formation, the sentence formation will now appear before you in the movements that the individual human limbs or the groups of people here before you perform.

In particular, it will be the human arms and hands that speak to you most expressively in this visible language. It is therefore not possible to understand eurythmy by relating the individual gestures performed by the artist to the word or the spiritual content. Rather, just as in music, for example, it is a matter of the sequence of tones in a melody, so here in our eurythmy it is a matter of the sequence of movements. In a sense, it is a melody of movements that is essential. Nor is it a matter of interpreting the individual movements, but rather the character of the movement itself, when viewed directly and enjoyed artistically, must evoke the mood and impression that the poet or composer intends to reveal.

Over time, we have tried to adapt the entire stage design to what is presented here as eurythmic art. And so we have tried, in particular, to create the lighting effects on the stage in such a way that they are, in a sense, a continuation of what is represented in eurythmy. So it is not a question of directly setting one lighting effect against another or relating one to another, but rather of seeing what is important in the melodious, immediately harmonious, artistic sequence of lighting effects. And so, through this eurythmy, one can accompany music in visible song. One can sing visibly eurythmically just as one can sing through sound. And one can express the poet's artistically shaped language visibly through this eurythmy.

However, just as when singing visibly to orchestral music or instrumental music, it is necessary that when the poetic is accompanied by eurythmy, then in the recitation, in the declamation, that which lies within the visible language of eurythmy is also expressed. For in fact, ladies and gentlemen, in the real, true poet, there is already a hidden eurythmy in the way he shapes language, in the way he handles the sentence, the meter, and the other artistic aspects of language. And since declamation and recitation will always go hand in hand with the poetic nature of eurythmy, you, my dear friends, have to take into account that in declamation and recitation less attention is paid to the literal meaning of the prose content of poetry than to the actual artistic arrangement of the language, to the melodious, to the imaginative and pictorial, which, however, the true artistic poet has in his poetry.

An age that will be more artistic than ours will also return to the fine art of declamation and recitation and will not, as is often attempted today, emphasize the prosaic nature of poetry, but will seek to bring out that which is a musical, plastic, pictorial element in poetry itself. And so, through this elaboration, recitation and declamation should go hand in hand, in harmonious accord with what is visibly happening on stage.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, this indeed achieves a higher level of stylization than is possible in the ordinary, merely mimetic art. And you will see this particularly clearly in the second part of today's program, after the interval – the interval will follow the eurythmic performance of “Erlkönigs Tochter” – when the scene from the second part of Goethe's ‘Faust’ will be presented eurythmically and mimically: “Die Sorge und die vier grauen Weiber” (The Care and the Four Grey Women). There you will see Faust standing on one side as a figure who initially presents himself in a naturalistic way, just as a person expresses himself in his ordinary soul life. This can be portrayed through mimicry. But then the four gray women with worry approach Faust. They are actually the embodiments of supersensible powers, supersensible forces; they can only be seen by revealing the relationship that the individual human soul can have with the supersensible, spiritual world.

In such a case, where only the spiritually visible, the spiritually experiential, not the naturalistic earthly, is to be brought onto the stage, eurythmy proves to be particularly applicable. In the “Faust” scene we are performing today, you will therefore hear how, on the one hand, Faust himself is portrayed in a naturalistic, mimetic way, as is usual in naturalistic stage style. In contrast, you will see how what the four gray women—especially Sorrow—bring to Faust is declaimed on the one hand in parallel with the eurythmic representation, but how what is given on stage is given entirely in eurythmic performance. So we can say that, especially when we need a higher stylization for what goes beyond the naturalism of the stage, it is then in particular that eurythmic art can be found in its true light.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, with all this in mind – today as always – I must ask the esteemed audience for their indulgence. For we know very well, and are ourselves our strictest critics, that eurythmy is only at the beginning of its development, but it will undergo further refinement. For even though we know very well that we are only at the beginning, we also know what immeasurable possibilities for refinement it has.

For it is indeed the case with eurythmy that it has human beings themselves as its tool, not external artistic instruments, but human beings themselves. But when we look at human beings, we see that they are a confluence of all the secrets of the world, of all the laws of the world. Human beings are a true microcosm. And by bringing human beings into the visible language of eurythmy and drawing out of them what moves the human soul, what awakens the spirit, one actually draws out of the whole human being all the secrets of the world in miniature.

And as Goethe once said so beautifully about art: When human beings are placed at the summit of nature, they see themselves once again as the whole of nature, which must once again produce a summit within itself; to this end, they elevate themselves by imbuing themselves with all perfections and virtues, invoking choice, order, harmony, and meaning, and finally rising to the production of the work of art — so one can say: In eurythmy, order, harmony, measure, and meaning are taken not only from the environment, but also from the human being himself, in that all the secrets of the world are contained within him as in a microcosm. Therefore, we can view what comes about in this way as the whole world speaking to us in its most intimate secrets through human movements, allowing the soul to reveal itself in its purest, deepest, and most intimate form. And precisely for this reason, because eurythmy uses human beings themselves as its tools, we can hope that, even if it is still a somewhat unfamiliar art form today, it will gain more and more interest and become more and more perfected in its development, so that one day it will be able to stand alongside its fully-fledged older sister arts as a fully-fledged younger art form.

A small change to the program: instead of the third piece, there will be a poem by Albert Steffen from his “Wegzehrung” (Provisions for the Journey). And then in second place, not just one song, but two such songs by Shakespeare. Then, my dear guests, I must point out that the recitation here must be given from an unusual place, and I ask you to take this into account. [I] hope, however, that the recitation, as intended, as I explained in my introductory remarks, will nevertheless resound through the house in the right way.