Scholarly Abstractions: Using Dalcroze

Daley, Caron.  Moved to Learn: Dalcroze Applications to Choral Pedagogy and Practice.  Doctor of Musical Arts dissertation (in progress).  University of Toronto.

 

         Over a century ago, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) began experimenting with a pedagogy that would give students access to their personal musical voice and a system of technique to express that voice with ease and sensitivity.  Music education had lost its connection to the key qualities of exceptional musicianship – qualities such as nuance, imagination, and individuality – qualities achieved through the coordinated use of the body, mind and spirit.  Dalcroze termed this coordination eurhythmy, and touted the conductor as the archetypal eurhythmician.  Using the work of the conductor as a starting point, this study examines the impact of Dalcroze Euryhthmics training on choral conducting practice, and investigates the ways in which Dalcroze-based teaching/learning models can be incorporated into four areas of the choral conductor’s work: (1) body as instrument, (2) score study, (3) gesture, and (4) rehearsal technique.  Jaques-Dalcroze’s original writings in translation provide a philosophical and pedagogical framework for the discussion.  Interviews with choral conductors trained in Dalcroze Eurhythmics (certificate, license, and diploma holders) are used to demonstrate how Dalcroze-based pedagogical content knowledge is interwoven into the choral context.  This dissertation concludes with the analysis of four choral scores from a Dalcroze teaching/learning perspective, with recommendations for conductor score study, gesture, and rehearsal technique.

 

(“Scholarly Abstractions” is a feature highlighting brief abstracts from recent graduate projects in choral music.  To share your thesis abstract, contact Scott Dorsey at )