Speech Formation and Dramatic Art

GA 282 — 3 September 1924, Dornach

Speech Course for Participants in the Dramatic Course III

Lip sounds: p m w b
Teeth sounds: f v s sch st c z
Tongue sounds: n d t l
Palate sounds: g k ch ng j h

w, f, v: Interaction of the lower lip and upper row of teeth. Compare the new structure in Lecture 18, page 356 ff.

Consciously feel and learn the difference between these sounds. The connection between the mechanical-dynamic and the life-filled can only be learned through language. In everyday life, the voice jumps back and forth; in order to speak precisely, one must first do exercises in which the voice does not need to jump.

First bring the following exercises to consciousness, but then let the flow of speech run its course so that the mind does not overthink things.

By my weapon,
You cattle departed,
Only Inger succumbed

The voice moves backward in the course of the sentence without skipping a beat: it is pleasantly easy to speak.

I wrestle with resentment,
Cattle were by the tree
I wrestle large sheep,
Full cattle down by the altar

there the voice already jumps. — These exercises and the following one in particular with fullness, clarity, roundness.

Various compiled sentences of a more or less primitive nature:

He sat by his garden gate
He advised you
Just follow the best
Right from the heart
As best you can
Right advice

The voice moves back and forth several times, but always without jumping. This is really beautiful to say.

And it billows and boils and roars and hisses,
As when water mixes with fire.

Good for achieving sharp, complicated curves: always back to the tongue; this is no longer primitive, but dramatic. Consonants dominate, therefore: from the elements, not from the soul.

From another perspective:

Blowing sounds
Pushing sounds
Vibrating sounds
Waving sounds

That is, what happens in the air outside when we work with them: we must feel what the consonant does in the air, not in our throat!

Step through the door there

When reciting, all the emotions in the words must be felt in the sound formation. To do this, it is good if the tongue develops into a tactile organ: it feels the sound. Here: feel the difference between hard t and soft d.

Listen!

h = to go out, to glide out with the flow of breath, ch = to dive in, to enter: to assimilate.

ich

expresses the essence of German: friendly, ugly, or even g at the end.

Halt! Quickly raise your high tankards!
Bring Heinrich here, high stalks

The word becomes stronger with h, it gains force. Some people see speaking as too close to the lips, which causes their speech to lose power and clarity. With “Halt!” Exhale! Exclamation mark! The person being called must actually stop.

Whistle clever whistles whistle

The pf contains a harsh rejection: compare “pfui!” (yuck!), here: from calm to action.

Receive sensitively pounds pepper

Milder: pf soft and hard; one becomes more polite, almost sentimental.

Swing heavy swallow
Quick in swing
Painless

= to communicate something confidentially. If one disregards the meaning, the sound reveals itself! That is what one should strive for.

Oh, search quickly;
It shot so sharply, shot by shot

one is carried away by the sounds, gripped! Wind instruments.

Press the things, the two fool's caps day after day

push!

Storm words rumble around gate and tower

to be nuanced in the consonants; the first ones: more floating in the stream of speech, the last ones: pushing.

Newt worm drills through gate and tower

speak as darkly and booming as possible to eliminate a slightly too bright coloring of the voice.

Stupidly, worm-newt rages through gate and tower

Pay attention to the three different moods that arise in the three lines solely through the sound.

Abracadabra
Rabadacabra = aggressive!
Bradacaraba = not very noble!
Cadarabraba

One could perceive this word as a mantra. Compare the French poet Mallarmé, “mot magique.” It attests to the fact that it is not a sophisticated word.

A = the whole person
b = shell, house of man
Ab = man with his house
Abr = runs
Abra = comes out
Abrac = stands firmly
Abraca = feels human
Abracad = points to the other person
Abracadabra = then feels a human being in him too!