Speech Formation and Dramatic Art

GA 282 — 4 September 1924, Dornach

Speech Course for Participants in the Dramatic Course V

Now that the fundamental differences between declamation and recitation have been explained in the previous lesson, we can refer to the technical terms used to describe actors in the past.

Naive: recite more, speak higher
Sentimental: declaim more, speak lower
Character actor: recite, but deeply
Heroic actor: declaim, but loudly.

In the old days, these types were not arbitrary, but were based on good old traditions in the theater of earlier eras, which were fully justified. Only the keys to them were lost.

Since Dr. Steiner will begin his course tomorrow, today everything will be devoted to practical exercises.

The song of the good man sounds high, like the sound of an organ and bells.
Those who can boast of high courage,
is not rewarded with gold, but with song.
Thank God that I can sing and praise,
to sing and praise the brave man.

Purely lyrical; lip sounds.

The dew wind came from the southern sea And sniffed through Welschland, gloomy and damp;
The clouds flew before it,
As when the wolf scatters the flock.
It swept the fields, broke the forest;
On lakes and streams, the ground ice burst.

Descriptive; palatal sounds. The listener must hear words that are meant to penetrate him spoken more slowly; for example, “clouds,” “ground ice,” and so on. In contrast, the subordinate clause is spoken more casually, somewhat faster: “As when the wolf scatters the herd.” “Wolf”: evil; word gesture.

To conclude, four language meditation exercises:

White brightness shines into the black darkness
The black darkness seizes the feeling soul
The feeling soul longs for the white brightness
The white brightness is the willful impulse of the soul
The willing soul impulse finds the white brightness
In the white brightness, the longing soul weaves

Expressing the purely spiritual: allowing the difference between light and darkness to shine through. More in pure feeling, less with the influence of will: “The feeling soul longs for the white brightness.” The same applies to finding brightness. The former “weaves” more in the pure stream of feeling, the latter more with an element of will. Guidelines for what we should express in our art. The following exercise is structured as a reversal of what is built up in the exercise: “In the immeasurably vast spaces.”

You find yourself:
Searching in worlds far away,
Striving for worlds on high,
Fighting in worlds below.

First the idea, then the three nuances: searching, striving, fighting.

Send upward longing desire
Send forward thoughtful striving
Send backward conscientious consideration

Even though it goes backward, there is an increase in intensity.

Such mantric sayings are useful in many ways. It will also teach you to make your voice a boat that carries another. For recitation in eurythmy, it is very important that the voice becomes a carrying boat!

Weigh your will clearly,
Direct your feelings truthfully,
Steel your thinking rigidly:
Rigid thinking carries,
preserves right feeling,
follows clear will
and action.

First: expectation. Like a command from spiritual worlds, from spiritual beings, not merely from an old, benevolent teacher.

The second part summarizes what has already been prepared, the fulfillment. For “preserves,” transition to the #, which has a somewhat lowering effect. If a pause is necessary, after “follows.”

Everything didactic and abstract must be removed; the spiritual experience must be included. Not didactic-religious. The possibility of filling the natural with the pictorial or musical. Both interpenetrate here. What is pictorial within sensory perception must be detached and spiritualized.

If one thinks of the scene in the spiritual realm “The Gate of Initiation,” Devachan, 7th picture, one can see what is meant by this.

In the second part, a strong stroke of will is necessary.