This Fall, we’ll be focusing on embodied harmony. What propels a melody forward, pulling the listener along, yearning for resolution? How do we reach for new harmonic possibilities in our songwriting, in our improvisation, in our movement? Why do some chords seem to lead to other chords? The Swiss musician Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) developed a whole pedagogy of music and movement to explore these questions.
Together, we’ll focus on plastique animée, a movement practice that Dalcroze created for analyzing sound, incorporating the principles of breathing, countermovement, energy flow, balance, symmetry, and sensuality. We’ll attempt to feel with our arms and legs what a melody ‘wants’ to do next, and explore how those embodied responses come into being. We’ll also investigate how artists like Stanislavsky, Laban, and Kandinsky followed Dalcroze in expressing the intrinsic, physical, and visceral bond between performing artists and their work.
Learning Outcomes:
In this course, the students will:
-Experience and identify the grammar of western harmony.
-Create gestures that express their experience of those harmonies.
-Analyze and imitate the harmony of their favorite music.
-Improvise and compose for their voice or instrument.
-Choreograph solo and group plastique animée.
Delivery Method: Fully in-person
Course Level: 2000-level
Credits: 2
Th 10:00AM - 11:50AM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 12
Course Frequency: One time only
Categories: All courses , Fully In-Person , Fundamentals
Tags: chord progression , conducting , expression , harmony , improvisation , listening , melody , modern dance , movement , music , Songs , Songwriting , theory