THE IMPORTANCE OF RHYTHMICS AND MUSICAL APPRECIATION LESSONS

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 3, Issue 9, 2 March 1925, Page 25

THE IMPORTANCE OF RHYTHMICS AND MUSICAL APPRECIATION LESSONS

<sy RENEE SATCHWELL, L.R.A.M.

Rohe Second of a Series of tides on cAppreciation

"A COW Eats Grass." was the information offered to me, to my amazement, at my first "music lesson." I was a small child, and very respectful of my new teacher and filled with awe for the strange instrument with a green silk-panell-ed arrangement in front, and most wonderful candlesticks at each side that rattled when one touched the white things called "keys." Therefore, I made no comment on the simple truth concerning the cornated ruminator; but I did feel resentful when I was next told, apparently quite irrelevantly, that "Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit," while no reward was offered to good little girls. The spelling of —A—C —E presented no difficulties. Then I was recommended to "Always Catch .Enough Geese" as an alternative to something or other, and there was a Middle C somewhere. These facts, an impatient lady in black explained, with aggravating rappings of her pencil, were to identify black dots on lines and white keys on the pianoforte. ("Never mind the black ones; don't ask questions!") In such a way was I initiated, as I thought, into the mysteries of music. I was very, very disappointed in it as a subject, and told my parents so quite emphatically, a verdict that was repeated many a time in the dark days that followed. Ah, well! music teaching and music teachers are improving, and what with gramophones and pianolas and listening-in sets and the like, our children can learn to like music before they are faced with the problem of finding the name of the note on the fourth line of the bass cleff or the meaning of the funny round note with a stem and a tail. As last month's article endeavoured to show, the more musical experiences we can give our small children before they are introduced to the reading of music and the mechanical difficulties of an instrument, the more easily they will surmount these difficulties when they come to them, having by then some reason to work and overcome drudgery.

The child, having spent the first four or five years of its life in a congenial atmosphere of nursery rhymes and spontaneous singing, where childish compositions are encouraged, should be ready for a more organised course of instruction, if possible in small classes with other children. In America and Europe there arc classes of "Eurythmics" to which one can take one's children. In this

country it is not easy to find such classes, but if in some of our larger towns there is an opportunity of letting a child attend a course of "Rhythmics" or "Musical Appreciation" lessons, the chance should certainly be taken. If there are no classes of this description available in homes where there is a piano or gramophone quite a lot of preparatory work on the right lines can be done by someone who has had sufficient musical education to be able to adapt "Eurythmic" methods.

PLATO STATED THAT “THE WHOLE OF A MAN’S LIFE STANDS IN NEED OF A RIGHT RHYTHM ” AND MODERN EDUCATIONALISTS ARE NOW EMPHATIC IN THIS, ASSERTING THAT RHYTHM MUST PLAY A LARGE PART IN THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILD

The <JftCe curing of Eurythmics COME years ago a few music teachers, chief of whom was Mons. Emile Jacques Dalcroze of Geneva, began to overhaul their system of teaching, and independently, having studied psychology and passed through different stages of thought, they all arrived, more or less, at the same conclusion: that hitherto the use of the sense of rhy-

thin as an important factor in musical education had not been sufficiently recognised. After experimenting for several years with pupils of all ages and at all stages, M. Dalcroze has formulated an elaborate system of instruction which leads students to an advanced stage of musicianship. To describe his method he has coined a word —"Eurythmics" —meaning, if one can define it in a few words, the study of rhythmic movement in relation to music. Other people, whose achievements

have not received the same amount of publicity, but of whom the name of Yorke Trotter may be known, have evolved schemes which are practically the same although per-' haps not so dogmatic and carefully worked out in detail. Strictly speak-, ing, no one but the trained followers of M. Dalcroze should use the word Eurythmics. To have called this an article on "Eurythmics" therefore would have confined me exclusively to speaking of the ideas of Mons. Dalcroze, and necessitated opening out a bigger subject than is necessary for our immediate purposetaking us farther along the road of music than we need to travel, being ordinary mortals. The convictions shared by specialists on the subject of the first years of musical education, and the line of reasoning adopted by modern music-teachers (the genuine brand), are worth the consideration of parents interested in the subject. Dancing and TN the race history, to the earliest form of musica succession of rhythmic sounds— the involuntary response of dance; not the dance of feet only, as Western races know it, but of the whole body. Then, with physical expression, came song, which became rhythmical and in time called for instrumental accompaniment. The monotonous, noisy tom-tom species gave way to instruments which could imitate the melody of human voices. Musical "form" was evolved, and the dance form was applied to vocal and instrumental music, resulting eventually in opera, symphony, oratorio, sonata, and other well-used types of musical structure. It will be seen that music and dance have grown up together. Although they may have drifted apart in maturity there is still a strong link binding them. Here, then, reason the teachers, is the order in which to present music to those uninitiated into the language as it is spoken to-day:

(a) Rhythmic sounds accompanied by dancing. (b) The study of melody, vocal and instrumental, still accompanied by dancing, (c) Instrumental and vocal music, harmonic as well as melodic, listened to and performed. We are here concerned with (a) and (b). To the primitive minds of little children, music must mean movement. Upon this principle are based the various "Rhythmic" methods of musical training. Rhythm is essential to natural development. It is as old as creation, it is the Universe. The planets, seasons, tides, all life, moves in rhythmic cycles. zA Popular conception TN employing any of these "Rhythmic" systems of teaching care must be taken that it is the music which comes first in order of importance. People are often beguiled by dancing teachers into having their children taught set Greek dances which parents fondly imagine are "Eurythmics," through having seen charming illustrations of M. Dalcroze's pupils, and consequently being bent upon following the latest craze. In these, however, the children are merely learning pretty attitudes and movements which they could, if necessary, practise without the aid of the music. There are two agents by which we appreciate music: (a) The ear, which appreciates sound; (b) the

nervous system, which appreciates rhythm. Musical education must not train the one without taking into account the other. The reaction to music in adults as well as children is naturally by physical movement. Adults, to some extent, learn to control tapping feet and nodding heads, but children, if left alone, would move their limbs and bodies freely. Why restrict this response, why not use it as a pleasant means of interpretation of what their ears can hear, but their voices cannot always imitate? Practice in interpretation makes a more critical and intelligent listener, and a careful guide can increase musical knowledge by supplying the right kind of music in proper order. Apart from the musical training, this system greatly aids physical and mental development, and has been used with great benefit to nervous and backward children. Schools in which it has been made an important part of the curriculum have found it a splendid tonic to other subjects, as the pupils show more self-control, concentration, and powers of comparison, classification, and analysis. To revert to the musical value, experiments have proved that after two years of rhythmic training, the second year including a special aural course also, children have soon gained upon and passed those who have started instrumental lessons without any preliminaries at the time when the others began their preparatory "appreciation" course.