What do you know that your sentient, feeling body did not first experience? The musician Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) invented Eurhythmics to explore this question. Self-awareness, self-expression, and musical knowing are all seated in the body, the fundamental constant of all experience. So how do we honor that truth in our learning? We notice and name discrete events, but what about the flow that connects them?
This Spring, we’ll explore what embodiment, proprioception, and attention to nuance can teach us about how we express ourselves and interpret others. Through music and movement, we’ll consider the philosophy and enduring influence of Francois Delsarte. Playfully noticing the aesthetics of experience, we’ll investigate how we shape our world to be inclusive, interactive, and compassionate. As Stephen Neely, a modern Dalcroze pedagogue, writes, “The human experience is analog. It is the actual, visceral, flesh and bone, breathing, beating body that is the only translator of experience we possess.”
Learning Outcomes:
In this course, the students will:
-Experience and identify the grammar of western rhythm.
-Create gestures that express their experience of those rhythms.
-Analyze and imitate the rhythm and structure of their favorite music.
-Improvise and compose for their voice or instrument.
-Discover and deepen relationships between sound and musical gesture.
-Work closely with their classmates to witness a diversity of experiences.
Delivery Method: Fully in-person
Course Level: 2000-level
Credits: 2
W 10:00AM - 11:50AM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 12
Course Frequency: One time only
Categories: 2000 , All courses , Cancelled Courses , Fully In-Person , Fundamentals , Two Credit , Updates
Tags: awareness , barefoot , beat , conducting , creativity , Delsarte , embodiment , experience , feeling , groove , harmony , instrument , interdisciplinary , listening , meter , movement , Music fundamentals , philosophy , proprioception , rhythm , self-knowing , Soul , spirit