The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1923–1925

GA 277d — 11 May 1924, Dornach

Eurythmy Performance

Prelude in E major, Op. 28, No. 9, by Frédéric Chopin “Der Aar” by Robert Hamerling “Darkness – Light – Love” by Rudolf Steiner Grave in D major by J. S. Bach “Schwerer Alp” by Albert Steffen Prelude in F minor by J. S. Bach “Dass den Traum” by Albert Steffen “Zum Adam und Eva Tag” by Albert Steffen Allegretto in A major, 1st movement from the 1st Violin Sonata by César Franck “Time: I saw a happy” by Fiona Macleod Ballade in A-flat major, Op. 47,3 by Frédéric Chopin “Die Geister am Mummelsee” by Eduard Mörike ‘Waldesrauschen’ by Franz Liszt “Die Nixe Binsefuß” by Eduard Mörike Minuet based on the song “Ehrlichkeit währt am längsten” by A. G. Rosenberg “La Grenouille et le Boeuf” by Jean de La Fontaine “Le Corbeau e le Renard” by Jean de La Fontaine Allegro maggiore in G major, K. 301, by W. A. Mozart

Ladies and gentlemen!

Our eurythmy is based on a special artistic source that was previously unfamiliar, as well as a special artistic formal language that is equally unfamiliar. Not in order to explain the eurythmic concept, which we will attempt to do later, because that would be inartistic, but rather to bring about an understanding of the sources, of the special artistic form language of eurythmy, a few words should be said in advance.

Eurythmy, despite what it may appear at first glance, does not seek to be what the neighboring arts, mime and dance, are. These neighboring arts are to be fully appreciated, and nothing about them is to be criticized at this moment. Eurythmy, however, stands, so to speak, between these two arts. The art of mime is used when it is a matter of making the more conventional expression that can only be achieved – namely in a civilized language – through the mere word, this conventional expression, more personal, more individual. We then use gestures, i.e., mimicry, when we want to express more of our personality in a statement than we can through spoken language alone — or at least when we believe that this should be the case.

The poet, however, the poetic artist, cannot, of course, add gestures to what he gives in his poem. Nevertheless, it must be an individual revelation of the human being, it must flow directly from the personal. And one can already say: what one adds in everyday life through the gesture of an idiom for the sake of personal nuance, the poet attempts – albeit elevated to the level of artistry – by proceeding to meter, rhyme, and in general to the formal artistic design of what he presents in language. This means that there is already something eurythmic in the artistic treatment of language.

For we find two things in poetic language. First, what we call an imaginative element. We do not listen to poetic language merely in order to absorb the prose content of the poem—we could do that much better if the poet did not express himself poetically, but presented his content in prose—we listen to what is image, what leads away from abstract ideas and is image. But then it comes down to what is the musical element in language, to this pictorial-plastic-picturesque on the one hand, to the musical on the other — that is what really artistic poetry depends on. It is only a sign that our time is not very artistically inclined when even in declamation and recitation attempts are made to overlook precisely this pictorial, plastic, and musical element in reciting and declaiming, thereby approaching what is the prose content of poetry, which is much less important than the how of poetry.

Everything that is hidden in poetry in this way can be brought out of poetry precisely through eurythmy. It is indeed the linguistic, the phonetic, that is a special metamorphosis of human gesture. When we produce ordinary gestures, we initially express what is going on in our soul in a clumsy, I would say inarticulate way through these ordinary gestures. Just observe, dear audience, what gestures people make when they want to indicate that they want to reflect on themselves, when they want to indicate that something needs to be decided, or when they want to indicate that they are surprised or amazed. All these things are purely mimetic gestures that we do not even make in one way or another, nor do people make them according to their particular dispositions—they make them more beautiful or uglier, more awkward or more perfect—but they look similar in different people.

It is a real language. Only in everyday life it is used in the same way that a very small child uses its language in an inarticulate, babbling way. But just as the very young child gradually develops into articulate speech, and speech adapts to what is to be expressed, so too can the clumsy, imperfect gestures of everyday life be trained, so that ordinary gestures relate to these trained gestures as the babbling of a child relates to fully articulated speech. And such a complete, articulate language of movement, which comes about as a real visible language through the movement possibilities of the human organism, is attempted in our eurythmy. One can even say that what lies poetically within a piece of content can be brought out completely through eurythmy. For everything pictorial and everything musical can be revealed in the particular movements of the individual human being or groups of people that you see on stage.

Actually, spoken language is also just a sign language. Only the sign is transformed so that it takes place in the moving air. When we speak, we give the air a certain form. If we could see what we form in the air when we speak in ordinary language, it would definitely be signs in the air. These gestures can in turn be transferred back to what humans can express through their arms and other limbs in forms of movement. This is how eurythmy comes into being. What is audible gesture, vocal gesture, is transformed back into visible gesture. A complete language, a visible, plastic language, emerges through eurythmy.

Just as one can speak in this way in the movements of the human organism or of groups of people and accompany [them] with recitation and declamation, which already have their inner eurythmy in the imagery or musicality of poetic language, one can also sing through appropriate movements. Visible singing, not dance, not mimicry, is what we offer here. Visible singing is when we accompany the instrumental music, which then sounds instead of declamation and recitation, with eurythmy. Therefore, what goes parallel to eurythmy as recitation or declamation must already have an inner eurythmy, that is, it must bring out the truly artistic aspect of poetry, not emphasize the prose that is so popular today because we are in an unartistic age. That is why, in many respects, what is presented here in terms of declamation and recitation is still unfamiliar today. And just as one has to get used to eurythmy, one also has to get used to the declamation and recitation that must accompany this eurythmy, but which actually represents what one must strive for in recitation and declamation in the first place.

Now, dear friends, we know very well that we are still in the early stages of our eurythmy. We are in the process of developing. We have brought out to a certain extent the movement possibilities that human beings have in their organism, and we can already express many things today. We can also already incorporate many things into the overall stage design, but these must be added gradually. For some time now, we have been trying to incorporate eurythmy more and more perfectly into the sequence of lighting effects that occur on stage, which are then continuations of what happens through the moving human beings or groups of people. Therefore, one should not see anything trivial in this, but rather something artistic. So when the stage lights up while a poem is being eurythmized and recited, this lighting up is not because the poem says that the sun is rising, for example, but because something light-like emerges in the treatment of language at this point. And so, in this lighting eurythmy, one must look at how the lighting sequences follow one another like the tones in music form a melody, and so on.

But we know that we are only at the beginning; I recently tried to develop tone eurythmy a little further by holding a course in tone eurythmy here at the School of Spiritual Science, a special course in tone eurythmy. As I said, we are only at the beginning, and we are our own strictest critics in this regard.

But on the other hand, one can see so clearly how what the poet actually wants can be revealed to a particular degree through eurythmy, through this art of movement in space. The poet was right to say: “When the soul speaks, / alas, it is no longer the soul that speaks.” The poet then means: Especially in the cultivated languages, language is more the expression of what conventionally lives among people in human social life, or also what is the result of knowledge. But what actually moves the soul, what causes passions, feelings, and emotions to rise within it as if on a wonderful scale, what allows devotion, love, and everything contained in emotional life to find expression within it—all of this can no longer be adequately expressed through the conventions of our language. The poet feels how he must transform language into images or musical gestures.

And certainly, what the poet puts into the treatment of language comes to full effect in eurythmy through the revelation of the whole human being — not just the human being in his or her vocal expression — so that one can actually see the inner, soulful aspect of a poem precisely in this eurythmic representation. And so we can believe that, because eurythmy works from the whole human being, indeed has the human being itself as its instrument — that is, the most perfect instrument one can have, through the human being, the greatest possible sum of artistic means of expression lies within it — we can hope that, even though there is still much prejudice against eurythmy today, it will continue to develop.

All arts had to start from primitive beginnings in order to gain their position in the world, but then they reached their perfection. One need only remember how painting and music have made their way through the world. Those who are modest enough today to realize that eurythmy, despite having achieved many things that can still have an effect in the realm of beauty, is still in its infancy, may also hope that, because it makes use of the whole human being and works out of the whole human being, that it will make its way from its present beginnings to ever higher and higher perfection, that the time will come when eurythmy will be counted among the arts as they are practiced today—architecture, sculpture, painting, music, poetry, dance—as a legitimate art form.

From the members' lecture in Dornach, May 11, 1924

Then next Tuesday at 8 o'clock there will be a student performance of eurythmy here. For certain sympathies that have arisen here in the latest phase of our anthroposophical development, I would like to note that male eurythmists will also be performing in this student performance on Tuesday evening at 8 o'clock. On Friday at 5 p.m., there will be a performance for anthroposophists, which will essentially contain the travel program that will then be performed in various cities in the following period. I would like to point out to anthroposophists that it would be particularly good if they were present at this performance on Friday at 5 p.m., because you will probably see a very interesting eurythmy program there. But then, because a long eurythmy tour will follow, they will not see any eurythmy for weeks. So it could be worthwhile to go and see something like this next Friday at 5 p.m.