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1. AN INVESTIGATION OF DALCROZE-INSPIRED EMBODIED MOVEMENT
WITHIN UNDERGRADUATE CONDUCTING COURSEWORK
by
NICHOLAS J. MARZUOLA
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Nathan B. Kruse
Department of Music
CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
May, 2019

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CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES
We hereby approve the dissertation of Nicholas J. Marzuola,
candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy*.
(signed) Dr. Nathan B. Kruse (chair of the committee)
Dr. Lisa Huisman Koops
Dr. Matthew L. Garrett
Dr. Anthony Jack
(date) March 25, 2019
*We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any
proprietary material contained therein.

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Copyright © 2019 by Nicholas J. Marzuola
All rights reserved

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DEDICATION
To Allison,
my loving wife and best friend.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................... 5
LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 10
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................. 11
ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................... 13
CHAPTER ONE, INTRODUCTION............................................................................... 15
History of Conducting................................................................................................... 16
Ensemble Participation in the United States ................................................................. 23
Community Music ..................................................................................................... 24
Singing Schools and Vocal Music............................................................................. 24
Brass Bands and Orchestras ...................................................................................... 25
Instrumental Music in the Schools ............................................................................ 27
Conducting Education in the United States................................................................... 29
Contemporary Methods of Conducting Pedagogy .................................................... 30
Conducting Classes Today ........................................................................................ 31
Embodiment and Disembodiment................................................................................. 33
Embodiment in Music Education .............................................................................. 35
Chapter Summary.......................................................................................................... 37
Need for the Study......................................................................................................... 38
Purpose Statement......................................................................................................... 40
Research Questions.................................................................................................... 40
Definitions ................................................................................................................. 41
CHAPTER TWO, RELATED LITERATURE ................................................................ 43

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The Mind-Body Problem .............................................................................................. 44
The Historical Roots of Dualism............................................................................... 45
Mind-Body Problem in Development and Learning ................................................. 49
Dalcroze Eurhythmics................................................................................................... 52
Eurhythmics as an Approach..................................................................................... 53
Emile Jaques-Dalcroze before Eurhythmics.............................................................. 57
Eurhythmics in the United States .............................................................................. 63
Dalcroze Eurhythmics in Music Education Research ............................................... 67
Dalcroze in Beginning Conductor Research ............................................................. 70
Chapter Summary.......................................................................................................... 74
CHAPTER THREE, METHODOLOGY ......................................................................... 76
Purpose Statement......................................................................................................... 76
Research Questions.................................................................................................... 76
Qualitative Research ..................................................................................................... 77
Case Study................................................................................................................. 77
Current Study Design ................................................................................................ 80
Researcher Lens ............................................................................................................ 81
Personal Considerations ............................................................................................ 81
Participant Selection...................................................................................................... 84
Ethical Considerations............................................................................................... 85
Data Collection and Analysis........................................................................................ 87
Interviews .................................................................................................................. 88
Observation and Field Notes ..................................................................................... 88

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Course Documents..................................................................................................... 89
Participant Journaling................................................................................................ 89
Email Communication............................................................................................... 89
Data Analysis............................................................................................................. 89
Trustworthiness ......................................................................................................... 90
Methodological Limitations.......................................................................................... 91
Reporting the Findings.................................................................................................. 93
CHAPTER FOUR, FRONTIER STATE UNIVERSITY: MOVING THE BODY......... 94
Plains, Prairies, and Badlands ....................................................................................... 94
The Setting: Frontier State University....................................................................... 97
Participants ................................................................................................................ 99
Conducting Class..................................................................................................... 105
It is About the Body................................................................................................. 112
Summary ..................................................................................................................... 117
CHAPTER FIVE, RIVERS UNIVERSITY: AN EMBODIED PEDAGOGY IN
MOTION......................................................................................................................... 119
A Campus, School, and Classroom in Motion............................................................ 119
The Setting: Rivers University ................................................................................ 121
Participants .............................................................................................................. 121
An Embodied Pedagogy in Action.......................................................................... 140
Summary ..................................................................................................................... 149
CHAPTER SIX, CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION.............................. 150
A Holistic and Embodied Approach........................................................................ 152

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A Natural Fit for Conducting Education ................................................................. 162
A Vehicle for Discovery.......................................................................................... 169
Summary ..................................................................................................................... 180
CHAPTER SEVEN, PRELIMINARY ASSERTIONS AND IMPLICATIONS........... 181
Preliminary Assertions about the Quintain ................................................................. 181
Confident Conductors.............................................................................................. 182
Students’ Sense of Body.......................................................................................... 184
Student Musicality................................................................................................... 187
Ability to Gesture .................................................................................................... 191
The Potential of Plastique Animée .......................................................................... 193
Implications for Music Education............................................................................... 195
Implications for Conductor Educators..................................................................... 196
Implications for Schools and Departments of Music .............................................. 198
Implications for Conductors .................................................................................... 199
Chapter Summary........................................................................................................ 200
CHAPTER EIGHT, SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS FOR
FUTURE RESEARCH................................................................................................... 202
Summary ..................................................................................................................... 202
Research Questions.................................................................................................. 203
Conclusions................................................................................................................. 205
Suggestions for Future Research................................................................................. 206
Codetta: All Musical Truth Resides in the Body ........................................................ 210
APPENDIX A, LIST OF SAMPLE CONDUCTING TEXTS....................................... 212

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APPENDIX B, LETTERS OF COOPERATION, IRB PROTOCALS, AND CONSENT
DOCUMENTS................................................................................................................ 220
APPENDIX C, OPEN-ENDED SEMI-STRUCTURED QUESTIONS FOR
CONDUCTOR EDUCATORS....................................................................................... 246
APPENDIX D, OPEN-ENDED SEMI-STRUCTURED QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS
......................................................................................................................................... 247
APPENDIX E, WEEKLY JOURNAL PROMPTS........................................................ 248
APPENDIX F, OBSERVATION FIELD NOTES ......................................................... 253
APPENDIX G, IN VIVO CODES WITH FOCUSED CODES..................................... 255
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 258

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1 A Hypermodern Conductor (1901) By Hans Schliessmann............................ 20
Figure 2.1 The Dalcroze Institute in Geneva (Dalcroze Institute, n.d.)............................ 53
Figure 4.1 Frontier State University's Fine Arts Center ................................................... 93
Figure 4.2 The choir room at Frontier State University; classroom where the conducting
class met............................................................................................................................ 96
Figure 4.3 Frontier State University Campus Map, with Fine Arts Building marked...... 98
Figure 5.1 Classroom setup for Advanced Conducting at Rivers University................. 116
Figure 5.2 Information about the Dalcroze method Dr. Hansen wrote on the board for
students ........................................................................................................................... 116

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are many people who made this project possible and who have helped me
immeasurably along the way. I am eternally and deeply grateful for all of you and your
support throughout this entire process.
To my dissertation committee, Dr. Nathan B. Kruse, Dr. Lisa Huisman Koops,
Dr. Matthew L. Garrett, and Dr. Anthony Jack, thank you for your time, talents, effort,
and insights that helped to strengthen my final manuscript. Your guidance and
suggestions assisted me immensely throughout this project.
To my advisor and mentor, Dr. Kruse, your guidance and much-appreciated wit
helped me keep going through both the easy and the tough times. You are the model of a
wonderful advisor, colleague, and mentor, and I could not have asked for a better
committee chair. I never thought that I could complete a research degree, but you have
been the perfect guide since the first time I inquired about Case through the conclusion of
my dissertation. For that, I will forever be grateful.
To Dr. Koops, thank you for cultivating my writing abilities both in class and
within this project. Also, thank you for showing me that it is possible to be both a
successful academic and maintain a work-life balance.
To Dr. Garrett, thank you for your insights, especially from the quantitative and
choral perspective. Your expertise and perspective in this project really helped me to
improve the final draft.
To Dr. Jack, thank you for sharing your vast philosophical and hard-sciences
knowledge. I learned a lot from you and your suggestions.

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To “Dr. Williams,” “Dr. Hansen,” and the students at “Frontier State University”
and “Rivers University” who participated in this research. I sincerely want to thank you
for your time, energy, and openness. I am in your debt, and am so glad I could explore
this topic though meeting and conversing with you.
To my Masters’ advisor, mentor, and friend Dr. Stephen Gage. You both revived
my career and inspired this project. I am thankful and honored that you entered my life in
more ways than I can ever express.
To my former teachers, John Lenzo, Scott Johnston, Bob Jorgensen, and Dr.
Brandt Payne. You continually inspire me to be a better teacher and musician by the
examples you set for me. To my former students, especially in Marietta, Columbus, and
Youngstown, I miss you and always think of you, even if we have fallen out of touch.
Thank you for teaching me how to teach.
To my grandmother Elaine Marzuola, who entered her eternal rest halfway
through this degree. I will never forget her kindness, fierce love, or support for her
children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. I know that she is smiling right now,
and I hope to live up to her example.
To Mom, Dad, Jason, John, Kim, Andrew, Carrie, Anderson, Ruby, Phoebe, and
all of my family and friends. Your love and support has been invaluable and appreciated.
To my wife Allison, who has endured and supported me through five years of my
enrollment in graduate school. I look forward to spending more time with you and raising
Bambina together now that I am finished.

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An Investigation of Dalcroze-Inspired Embodied Movement within Undergraduate
Conducting Coursework
ABSTRACT
by
NICHOLAS J. MARZUOLA
The practice of conducting requires one to take abstract musical ideas and
translate them into embodied physical expression to communicate with an ensemble.
Many colleges and universities include conducting in their sequences of study for
undergraduate music majors. Often, undergraduate conductors feel like they are
uncomfortable with their gestures, even after completing conducting courses (Silvey,
2011). One possible solution for helping students’ self-confidence while conducting is to
incorporate embodied methodologies into conductor education. Dalcroze Eurhythmics is
one promising option for making conductor education more embodied (Meints, 2014).
The purpose of this adapted multiple instrumental case study was to examine the
incorporation of Dalcroze Eurhythmics in undergraduate-level conducting classes. A
specific focus was placed on the perspectives of conductor educators who employ
Dalcroze Eurhythmics in their conducting classes and on the perceptions of their
students. The following questions guided this research: (a) How do conductor educators
incorporate Dalcroze Eurhythmics into their conducting curriculum?, (b) What specific
aspects of Dalcroze Eurhythmics systems do conductor educators incorporate into their
conducting curriculum?, (c) What benefits and challenges of incorporating Dalcroze

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Eurhythmics do conductor educators and students identify?, and (d) How do conducting
students describe their experience learning conducting through Dalcroze Eurhythmics?
I spent three days each at two universities in the United States and collected data
through observation, interviews with faculty and students, participant journaling, email
communication, and acquiring class-related documents. My data analysis included
transcribing recorded interviews and classroom observations, generating and applying
codes, and identifying themes that emerged from the data. Themes that emerged in cross-
case analysis included (a) a holistic and embodied approach, (b) a natural fit for
conducting education, and (c) a vehicle for discovery. Within the theme of a vehicle for
discovery, four sub-themes emerged which were (a) confidence, (b) bodily awareness, (c)
musicality, and (d) gesture. I asserted that Dalcroze Eurhythmics can help students
develop various aspects of conducting skills and students’ self-efficacy. More research is
needed to determine the long-term impact of Eurhythmics on conducting abilities. Future
research should also consider the impact of other embodied pedagogies on conductor
education.

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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Conducting is a skill that requires one to embody musical thought through
physical movement. Conductors must take aural and musical ideas and translate them to
physical ones. They then must use physical gestures to communicate music to performers
through indicating time, style, dynamics, phrasing, balance, articulations, and other
assorted components of musical performance. Ensembles typically rely on conductors to
provide ensemble cohesion and musical direction. Yet, how do conductors learn to show
music through their bodies? To what degree do novice conductors automatically know
how to represent music through their bodies from the beginning? In what ways do
musical embodiment and gesture develop? Is it possible for conducting teachers to
introduce and nurture embodied musical skills through instruction? To what extent can
university and college conducting instructors encourage students to demonstrate music
through their bodies in beginning conducting courses?
With the intent of understanding practices of teaching and conducting in modern
university classrooms, this dissertation focuses on movement that conducting educators
have used to teach students through embodied means. Embodied practices and
understandings involve the body as part of the learning process. Movement systems are
embodied because they are predicated on the notion of teaching information through
bodily movement. One such movement system is Dalcroze Eurhythmics. In this
dissertation, I will explore Dalcroze Eurhythmics within the domain of conductor
education, including definitions and explanations of the system, historical information
about the approach, and existing research regarding the use of Eurhythmics in the
classroom.

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In this chapter, I will discuss the development of the act of conducting, the
historical incorporation of ensembles in the schools, and how the music education
profession has infused conducting and conductor education into its practices. There is
also an exploration of embodiment, considerations about conducting, and how learning to
conduct can be an embodied process. Finally, I will discuss the need for the study and the
research questions that will guide this project.
History of Conducting
Humans have expressed and shared music through gestural communication for
many centuries. Historical reference to music gesture dates back to Antiquity (Gerson-
Kiwi & Hiley, 2001; Hickman, 1949; Randhofer, 2004). The earliest recorded form of
rudimentary conducting occurred in Babylonian Jewish and ancient Egyptian
communities, where people would lead others in musical performance through
cheironomy (Randhofer, 2004). Cheironomy is a practice of dictating pitch and rhythm
through gesturing of the arms and hands. In ancient Egypt, cheironomy was a system of
teaching and communicating music rather than a system of what current musicians
consider to be modern conducting (Gerson-Kiwi & Hiley, 2001; Hickmann, 1949). This
system of representing music through gesture is still prevalent in societies that descended
from the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians, including Coptic, Eastern Orthodox, Roman
Catholic, and Jewish communities around the Middle East and the Mediterranean
(Randhofer, 2004). Because of its survival in these communities today, scholars have
suggested that cheironomy influenced gestural development in the Middle Ages, although
there is little tangible evidence to support this claim (Gerson-Kiwi & Hiley, 2001).

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Around the year 1110, Guido de Arezzo pioneered another major advancement in
musical gesture through his invention of the “Guidonian Hand,” which incorporated hand
gestures similar to cheironomy. De Arezzo’s system included using various parts of the
hand to represent different pitches within a medieval hexachord (Palisca, 2013). By
pointing to specific points on the hand, a single person could lead a group of people in
chant. This system allowed the chant leader not only to indicate pitches to singers but
also to specify and guide the chant’s performance tempo. Notably, these early conducting
practices existed primarily to indicate pitch and melody instead of musical time (Wissner,
2018). Although current scholarship suggests that there was no explicit connection
between cheironomy and the Guidonian Hand, the documented existence of both systems
indicates that the use of musical gesture dates back over many centuries (Parrish, 1978;
Szendy 2016). Today, modern society typically considers that one of the main purposes
of conducting is to establish time or to keep musicians together temporally (Spitzer et al.,
2001).
The concepts of conducting time and keeping a steady beat did not appear in
scholarly writings until the end of the 15th
century, four and a half centuries after the
invention of the Guidonian Hand (Spitzer et al., 2001). The need for a group of musicians
to establish a steady beat, either collectively or through a central authority figure, arose
with the development of polyphonic music. Musicians needed a way to organize and keep
independent musical lines together. Sixteenth-century treatises advocated that choristers
give a visual beat called a “tactus” with their hand to help accomplish this task, whereas
treatises on instrumental music proposed that performers tap their toes collectively to
maintain a consistent pulse (Davidson, 2005). As choirs grew and practices of antiphonal

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choral singing became prevalent over the 16th
and 17th
centuries, more choirs needed a
central figure to give and keep musical time. Often, either the choirmaster or a designated
singer would hold an implement, such as a small stick or a rolled up piece of paper, and
gesture a tactus for a large choir or multiple choirs (Spitzer et al., 2001). Other time-
beaters would use large staffs to keep time for choirs, church musicians, and noble court
ensembles. One of the most famous users of this large staff was French court composer
Jean-Baptiste Lully (Anthony, 1989). Fatefully, Lully’s rudimentary conducting with his
large staff would ultimately kill him, as he accidentally impaled himself with the device
while leading a performance of his Te Deum in 1687 (Kropp & Jacobs, 1991). The injury
resulted in gangrene, which progressed to a fatal infection that killed the composer 2
months later.
Other musicians found ways to gesture and organize time that were less
detrimental to life and limb. With the development of basso continuo as well as larger
instrumental ensembles in the 17th
century, musicians increasingly needed someone to
help facilitate ensemble cohesion and unity. Typically, an instrumentalist within the
ensemble would assume these duties (Spitzer et al., 2001). Instead of showing a tactus as
in choral settings, the leader often would guide the group by example, or by how they
played. The instrumentalist who assumed these duties was usually either a keyboardist or
the leading violinist, the predecessor to the modern concertmaster (Brown, 2001). In the
case of the lead violinist, their bow movement became a visual representation for keeping
the pulse among the orchestra. Eventually, this use of the bow led to the use of a formal
wooden baton. One of the earliest adopters of the baton was composer Louis Spohr, who
first used the implement in an engagement with the London Philharmonic in 1820,

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though he only used the baton during rehearsal (Jacobs, 1950). Felix Mendelssohn was
one of the first notable musicians to embrace using the baton regularly, making a habit of
baton conducting in both rehearsals and performance (Todd, 2003). Mendelssohn not
only solidified the use of baton conducting in large ensemble rehearsal and performance,
but also introduced systematic rehearsal techniques and other aspects that would become
defining characteristics of being a “conductor,” including rehearsal pacing, podium
demeanor, and musical leadership (Todd, 2003).
After Mendelssohn, Berlioz furthered the art of baton conducting and described
conducting as an expressive and interpretive art rather than one of simple time beating in
his seminal conducting treatise in 1856 (Spitzer et al., 2001). Wagner and Mahler
broadened the notion that a conductor was to be expressive and interpretive, each known
for his distinct and dramatic interpretations of other composer’s works in addition to their
own. There were numerous accounts and writings about their expressivity, and how they
used physical gesture to encourage musicians to play emotionally (Mauceri, 2017).
Dozens of contemporary newspapers and other publications featured caricatures that
depicted (and often mocked) the extremely large and grandiose gestures for which
Mahler would become infamous (Figure 1) (van der Wall van Dijk, 2017).

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Figure 1.1 A Hypermodern Conductor (1901) By Hans Schliessmann (1852-1920) from (van der Wall van
Dijk, 2017).
Simultaneous to Wagner’s and Mahler’s development of expressive gesturing
from the podium, conducting was becoming its distinct part separate from the role of the
concertmaster. Although most conductors through the 19th
century were also composers,
conductors began to emerge whose primary role was to conduct and lead an ensemble.
While not the first of these specialized conductors, the person who was perhaps the most
influential in the development of conducting as a profession was Hans von Bülow
(Birkin, 2013; Spitzer et al., 2001).
Bülow began his musical career as a concert pianist and remained popular
throughout Europe as a performer during his entire professional career. Bülow changed
both the status and responsibilities of the conductor when he assumed the position of
director and conductor of the Meiningen Court Orchestra in the 1880s (Walker, 2010).

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Known for their precision and performance excellence, the Meiningen Court Orchestra
became the standard by which other orchestras, especially in Berlin and Vienna, would
try to emulate. Bülow’s work with the ensemble both in rehearsal practice and in
performance directly resulted in a high standard of musical achievement; Bülow’s
appointment and innovations in rehearsal technique as a conductor marked a watershed
moment in the conductor’s role in preparing and leading ensembles (Spitzer et al., 2001).
Contemporaries such as Mahler, Damrosch, Bruno Walter, and Tchaikovsky admired
Bülow’s abilities as both conductor and rehearser (Walker, 2010).
Because of his cachet as a respected conductor, Bülow needed a conducting
protégé to teach the art of conducting. Apprenticeships were one of the dominant models
of learning and education in late 19th
century Europe (Berryman, 1991). If one were to
become a competent baker, artisan, performance artist, or any other specially-trained
professional, they learned from a reputable expert in that field. Bülow eventually found
his apprentice in composer Richard Strauss (Kennedy, 1999). After hearing and
programming his work Serenade for Winds, op. 7 in 1884, Bülow became interested in
the work and future of the 17-year-old Strauss. Bülow was so enamored with the piece
that he commissioned the young Strauss to write another work for Meiningen’s players,
which would become the Suite for 13 Winds. At the première of his work, Bülow asked
Strauss to conduct but provided little rehearsal time for the young composer. Despite this
challenge, the premiere and Strauss’ conducting abilities were a success, and Bülow
offered Strauss an assistant conducting position with the Meiningen Orchestra the next
day (Linn, 2009). Although most modern classical music connoisseurs know Strauss for
his compositions, he first became known around Europe for his work as Bülow’s assistant

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conductor, and then as a conductor in his own right. Strauss learned the art and practice
of conducting by serving as Bülow’s apprentice, immersed in one-on-one interactions and
hands-on experiences. This master-apprentice model of teaching and learning conducting
was the mode by which many conductors at the turn of the 20th
century learned the
practice. When one perspective conductor asked Strauss to teach him the art of
conducting as an apprentice, Strauss responded that he could teach the student everything
he needed to know in only a few minutes; the rest had to come from experience
(Dollman, 2012). Strauss’ attitudes toward learning conducting mirrored those held
across many contemporary musical circles throughout Europe.
Contrary to belief in the hands-on and master-apprentice approaches, some
conservatories introduced group conducting classes early in the 20th
century. One of the
earliest schools to introduce conducting classes was the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory
in St. Petersburg, which began to offer conducting in 1905 (The St. Petersburg State
Conservatory, n.d.). Nevertheless, many European musicians’ sentiments regarding
conductor education was that conducting could only be learned through hands-on
experience; subsequently, most institutions were slow to introduce conducting classes
during the next few decades. The latest of the major European music schools to introduce
conducting classes was The Paris Conservatory in 1929 (Galkin, 1989). According to
conducting historian Elliot Galkin (1989), conducting was the final course added to the
standard music school and conservatory curricula (e.g., theory, ear training, lessons,
orchestration) in the majority of American and European music schools. Galkin asserted
that early-century conducting paragons such as Furtwangler and Toscanini never taught
conducting because they were enculturated in the Straussian master-apprentice attitude

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that many of the musical elite held. Later, maestros Bernstein and von Karajan taught
many students individually, hearkening back to the master-apprentice model that Bülow
and Strauss demonstrated many decades earlier. However, the majority of these students
studied conducting while attending school or conservatory (Galkin, 1989).
By the middle of the 20th
century, virtually every conductor participated in music
school or conservatory-level conductor training before matriculating to experience in the
field (Galkin, 1989). These conductors ranged from conductors of major orchestras in
Europe and America; to band, choir, and orchestra directors at colleges and universities;
to music educators working with middle school and high school music programs.
However, it is unclear how these conductors learned to use gesture and body movement
in their conducting. For American conductors, some of the solutions to these questions
were found in the evolution of music education in the United States, including the sudden
need to prepare conductors for school and community music programs.
Ensemble Participation in the United States
Music has been an integral part of community and public school culture in the
United States since the 18th
century (Colwell et al., 2013; Keene, 2009). A large part of
American musical culture has included participation in and performances of large
conducted ensembles. Americans first embraced community music, which then led to
promoting choir, band, and orchestra offerings in public schools by the 1930s; with the
popularity of ensembles in the schools came the need to prepare music educators who
could conduct these groups. In the following section, I will briefly trace the history of
how music became a part of the American educational system, including its origins in
community music, how vocal music entered the classroom, the history of American

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instrumental music, and finally, how instrumental music became a standard part of most
schools’ curriculum.
Community Music
Community music has been a hallmark of American music and musical
expression from the landing of European immigrants on Plymouth Rock through the New
Immigration of the 19th
and 20th
centuries (Roediger, 2005). Beginning with the earliest
Anglo European settlers, Americans lived and congregated in groups of similar ethnic
origin and cultural background (Walzer, 1980). The cultural aspects shared among these
pluralistic groups of people included religion, culinary taste, and fine art. As America
grew, this trend of settling and living in ethnic communities continued through the arrival
of Eastern and Central Europeans in the New Immigration period of the late 19th
and
early 20th
centuries (Roediger, 2005). Anglo and Germanic migrants brought with them
aspects of Western European art and culture, including art music and large ensembles
(Dinnerstein & Reimers, 2009). As settlers formed communities and began to interact
with one another, these musics eventually combined and evolved into distinctly American
iterations of musical expression; however, this music largely retained much of the
European character that immigrants brought across the Atlantic. One of the forms of
music that was part of the development of American music culture was vocal music,
particularly because it was integral to the faith-based aspects of the American ethos.
Singing Schools and Vocal Music
Vocal music was the first widespread musical offering available to students in the
United States. The American singing school movement began in New England in the
latter decades of the 18th
century as a place for children to learn how to read music and

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sing, especially for religious purposes in various American Protestant churches (Birge,
1937). Singing schools were the foremost places for teaching music to large numbers of
people in early American cities. Lowell Mason (1792-1872) founded a particularly
successful singing school in Boston in 1833, which became incredibly popular within its
first two years of existence (Eskew et al., 2001). Because of the singing school’s success,
the Boston Public Schools requested that Mason introduce his singing school method into
their classrooms in 1837. This event was a turning point in American music education, as
it marked the first time that a school system implemented an organized method of music
education as a part of its curriculum. Over the proceeding decades, many other American
schools introduced oratorio-singing ensembles, glee clubs, and other forms of vocal
music (Keene, 2009). In a rapid surge of popularity, school choirs emerged in schools
around the United States in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The American school was a
place where people could learn about and perform vocal music in addition to churches
and other faith-based organizations. While vocal music established itself in the schools,
instrumental music was taking shape in the community, and eventually, became part of
the schools as well.
Brass Bands and Orchestras
One of the earliest community performance groups that flourished in America
was the local brass band. These ensembles were descendants of British bands formed in
the early 19th
century (Newsome, 1979). Employees at various factories and corporations
in Britain formed these ensembles for morale and musical enjoyment, and immigrants to
America brought the practice with them. A musician within the group typically led the
others; often the lead or melody playing soprano cornetist or saxhornist assumed this role.

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This tradition was quite similar to the one found in European orchestras at the time, in
which the leading violinist or concertmaster gave musical direction. The popularity of the
American brass band continued into the American Civil War, where many regiments on
both sides of the Mason-Dixon utilized brass ensembles for musical entertainment as well
as to signal military commands. After the war, these musicians formed community-based
civic bands that adorned town squares and gazebos throughout the United States for the
rest of the 19th
and into the early 20th
century.
Orchestral music also gained immense popularity in America during the 19th
century, but its trajectory of development was different from that of the community band.
Moravian immigrants formed the first known string ensembles in the United States in the
late 18th
century in North Carolina and Pennsylvania (McCorkle, 1956). These ensembles
existed to accompany religious ceremonies rather than as a concert ensemble (Elson,
1915). Americans initially heard orchestras outside of religious contexts as
accompaniment for plays and public dances, performances in public parks, and
entertainment in restaurants (Spitzer, 2012). As the 19th
century progressed, immigrants
(mainly Germanic) formed societies and institutions in part for promoting the orchestral
music of their homeland (Root, 2012). However, these societies also symbolized a desire
for some Americans to elevate certain aspects of musical performance and culture over
other forms of music by the end of the century. To that end, orchestras became an
allegory for social status; the orchestra represented aristocratic attitudes through the
medium of art music (Root, 2012).
Lawrence Levine described this phenomenon in his seminal book,
Highbrow/Lowbrow (1988), as the sacralization of culture in America. To assert their

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cultural superiority over other groups, wealthy native-born and German-American
immigrants sought to make certain aspects of art and culture “sacred” or considered of a
higher nature than that of the cultural other (Taylor, 2007). According to Levine, the
orchestra represented a form of highbrow music, resulting in the formation of orchestras
and philharmonic societies in almost every major American metropolis during the latter
half of the 19th century that promoted the orchestra as the epitome of artistic integrity.
Whereas the band was popular in small towns, the orchestra was popular among the well-
to-do in large American cities. Although orchestras in many American cities have
attempted to reach a wider audience in recent years through events such as free
community performances and playing movie soundtracks while simulcasting the film,
societal perceptions about the orchestra representing the socio-economically advantaged
continued into the 20th
century and remain today (Chang, 2017).
Instrumental Music in the Schools
The popularity of the band and orchestra in the United States eventually led to the
incorporation of instrumental music into American public schools. The first instrumental
music offering that gained widespread traction in the schools was the school orchestra. In
the mid-19th century, some schools in cities such as Chicago, Cincinnati, and suburbs on
the east coast offered orchestra as an extracurricular activity outside of the school day
(Clague, 2012; Humphreys, 1995). During the American Reconstruction after the Civil
War, bandmaster Patrick Gilmore and the Handel and Haydn Society organized musical
festivals across the nation that featured adolescent ensembles. These adolescent
musicians frequently performed successful concerts, which inspired school leaders to
incorporate ensembles into their curricula (Colwell et al., 2013). As a result, various

28. 28
schools began to offer instrumental ensembles by the turn of the 20th
century. The most
popular of these ensembles was the school orchestra, which experienced a golden age in
the period between 1900 and the 1920s (Humphreys, 1989). The school orchestra was so
prolific by the 1920s that national orchestra contests emerged, which were both well
attended and highly competitive (Hash, 2016).
Around 1920, changes in American values and societal development prompted a
shift to the school band as the most popular instrumental ensemble in American schools.
Accompanying the United States’ involvement in World War I was an intense explosion
in patriotism, and with it, an instillation of American militaristic values in the nation’s
public schools (Whitehill, 1969). Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (R.O.T.C.) programs
became ever more popular, and with them, R.O.T.C. associated bands. These school
bands became the predominant choice to play for community events, and eventually, as
stand-alone concert ensembles in the following decades. Additionally, school
administrators increasingly added extracurricular sports activities into their schools in the
early 20th
century, initiating the boon of marching and pep bands that soon followed
(Colwell et al., 2013). Because of their popularity as an ensemble that represented both
patriotic and athletic sentiments of early 20th
century Americana, the band quickly
became the most popular ensemble in American schools, effectively replacing the school
orchestra as the instrumental ensemble of choice by the end of the 1930s (Keene, 2009).
Due to financial unsustainability in the professional and community concert bands, the
propagation of school bands also effectively replaced the American community-based
band with the school-based model in communities across the nation during this same
period (Rhodes, 2007).

29. 29
With the popularity of music ensembles in schools across the nation, music
teachers had to have some conducting knowledge and ability to lead a band, choir, or
orchestra program effectively. As these three types of ensemble were included more and
more in local school curricula, schools needed to find teachers who possessed knowledge
related to teaching ensemble classes, including the ability to conduct. By the middle of
the 1930s, almost every school system in the United States offered large ensembles as
part of their secondary school curriculum (Keene, 2009). Because of the nature of music
education and large ensemble participation in American schools, college music teacher
education programs in the United States found it necessary to prepare teachers for
conducting and rehearsing ensembles in the schools.
Conducting Education in the United States
By the 1930s, the meteoric rise of ensemble popularity in the schools facilitated
the need for music schools, especially music teacher preparation programs, to include
conducting in their curriculum (Keene, 2009). American music schools did just that,
albeit not consistently. Elizabeth A. H. Green, considered one of the world’s most
important conducting pedagogues, lamented this aspect of conductor education in a 1961
article in the Music Educators Journal (Green, 1961a). Green stated that she observed
students who possessed adequate baton technique, yet many others were unprepared to
conduct, especially before entering the field as music educators. She asserted that this
disparity occurred because various schools offered a varying range of conducting
educational experiences. Some institutions offered two or more semesters of conducting.
Other institutions folded conducting into the curriculum in other courses, such as part of
an instrumental methods course, rather than offering a standalone conducting class.

30. 30
Because conducting was a skill that music educators often used in the classroom, Green
recommended that music education programs should include more conducting education
to prepare preservice music teachers for their duties as ensemble teachers.
Coinciding with her call in the article for a change in the way that American
music schools taught conducting, Green also released the first edition of her now
ubiquitous book, The Modern Conductor (1961b). Within the text are exercises that are
designed to help develop gestural clarity as well as right and left-hand independence;
much of its content is rooted in the conducting practices of Russian conductor Nikolai
Malko. Her suggestions for change appear to have altered the trajectory of conducting
courses, as her text has become a standard conducting method, especially regarding
gestural ideas in conducting classes across the United States (Hannah-Weir, 2013).
Contemporary Methods of Conducting Pedagogy
Green’s (1961a, 1961b) work, along with the efforts of conducting educators at
various universities, helped to establish a somewhat standard method of teaching
conducting across the country. The Modern Conductor (Green, 1961b) is a popular book
that is used in conducting courses, especially within second or third-semester
undergraduate classes and with conducting graduate students (various personal
communications, 2014-2018). Green included physical movement discussions in the text
to facilitate students’ gestural and conducting pattern development. The movements that
Green incorporated were exercises for left-right hand independence, examples of metric
patterns, and descriptions of different gestures.
Conductor educators typically incorporate a variety of other texts and methods
into undergraduate conducting curricula, aside from Green (1961b). One such work is On

31. 31
Becoming a Conductor by Frank Battisti (2007). The work contains exercises for pattern
and gestural development, as well as advice on administering music programs. Another
text is Hunsberger’s and Ernst’s The Art of Conducting (1992), which contains basic
elements of conducting patterns, as well as exercises meant for learning conducting in
group settings, such as a conducting classroom.
The Green (1961b), Battisti (2007), and Hunsberger (1992) textbooks, and others
like them, contain valuable information about pattern, gesture, podium presence, score
study, and other aspects necessary for being a conductor. (A sample list of conducting
textbooks can be found in Appendix A.) While these texts can be beneficial for teaching
multiple, introductory facets associated with conducting and basic gesturing, they do not
contain information that guides beginning conductors in learning how to connect musical
ideas and elements of a score to their embodied physical movements. The most valuable
combination of time keeping, musical understandings, and body movement in conducting
education is unknown. An exploration of embodied movement in conducting coursework
might be a way to explore how these elements are connected.
Conducting Classes Today
Instructors at various colleges and universities teach conducting in disparate
ways, and institutions vary in the number of required semesters or hours of study that
they offer (Manfredo, 2008). The National Association of Schools of Music (NASM)
requires that accredited institutions provide conducting instruction for all undergraduate
music students (2017). The organization also states in their official accreditation
requirements that rehearsal and conducting techniques are important for music majors to
acquire during their undergraduate studies (NASM, 2017). Yet, the guidelines that

32. 32
NASM lists are vague regarding how many semesters or hours of experience satisfy this
requirement. For music education programs, NASM’s official accreditation document
simply states that music education majors must be “competent” in their conducting
abilities (NASM, 2017, p. 117). This ambiguity in requirements translates to a large
variance in both the way that conducting is taught and the amount of conducting
experience that colleges and universities offer (Boardman, 2000; Manfredo, 2008;
Runnels, 1992).
The broad scope of NASM’s requirements for the implementation of conducting
education has led to a disparity in the way that conducting is taught in various
institutions. This variety in conducting education has possibly led to a variety of
undergraduate experiences. In one study about the undergraduate conducting education,
Silvey (2011) examined the perceptions and attitudes of 173 undergraduate preservice
music teachers from a wide variety of NASM-accredited institutions regarding their
conducting class experiences. Silvey determined that preservice music teachers indicated
various levels of comfort in conducting ability and acquired skills during their
undergraduate conducting experience; participants reported that they regularly felt a lack
of security with gestures and using gestural communication. Additionally, the participants
also reported the need for more podium time during their conducting education. Silvey
suggested that conducting faculty should spend more time teaching expressivity and
elements of gesture to help students become more comfortable with those aspects of
conducting. Regardless of how an institution incorporates conductor education into its
curriculum, conductor education could potentially include methods that help
undergraduate conductors develop gestures and expressive communication. Gestures and

33. 33
physical communication are integral to conducting efficacy, and because preservice
teachers have reported a lack of comfort in gesturing, conducting educators could seek
out ways to help preservice music teachers improve their gestural comfort and
knowledge. Teaching through embodied means, or in a way that incorporates students’
physical movements, might hold promise for such endeavors.
Embodiment and Disembodiment
Embodiment refers to the act of representing or understanding a concept through
physical means using the human body (Leman, 2007). Demonstrating and signaling
music through physical gesture is an embodied process (Leman & Maes, 2014).
Embodiment is a broad topic, but at its core is the notion that human beings learn,
communicate, understand, exhibit, operate, and engage in other activities through the
body (Csordas, 1994). From the embodied viewpoint, the mind and the body are
inextricably connected, working as a congruous whole to take in stimuli and to execute
functions. Pedagogues who teach movement within their respective fields, such as acting,
dance, and athletics (Stucky & Tomell-Presto, 2004) typically teach using embodied
techniques and methodologies.
Conversely, when one treats a process or activity performed by someone as
happening separately through either the mind or the body, they are treating the activity as
disembodied. In the disembodied view, the mind affects actions in the body and,
likewise, the body affects thoughts in the mind. People who possess disembodied thought
maintain that the mind and body are separate, disconnected systems that influence one
another.

34. 34
The debate surrounding the level of connectedness between the mind and the
body has endured for centuries (Csordas, 1994). During Greek Antiquity, Plato described
aspects of thought, or the mind, and the physical world, including our bodies, as two
distinct individual aspects of the existing world. In the 16th
century Enlightenment,
Descartes furthered these notions by proposing that the mind is separate from and in
control of the body, resulting in what philosophy now refers to as mind-body dualism.
Many of today’s Western scientists, philosophers, researchers, and teachers tend to fall
into the disembodied camp, the result of years of philosophical Cartesian mind-body
dualism that has dominated common philosophical thought since the Enlightenment
(Columbetti, 2010). Applied to education, an instructor’s personal view of whether
knowledge is embodied or disembodied can affect what they teach in their classes (Latta
& Buck, 2007). Music educators are likely prone to teach influenced by their embodied
or disembodied interpretations.
However, a disembodied approach seems to run counter to musical experiences,
and, specifically, to the act of conducting. Because musical gesture involves the
demonstration of a musical concept formed in the mind through physical means in the
body, conducting is an embodied activity. Yet, many conducting educators could hold a
disembodied view, and a disembodied perspective inadvertently might influence the way
that they teach conducting and musical gesture. From a disembodied perspective, musical
gesture results from one forcing the body to demonstrate a musical idea in the mind.
Someone who holds the embodied view, in contrast, would consider the gesture an
integral part of the music itself, demonstrated through a specific movement. Belief in
either of these two perspectives would impact conducting instructors’ teaching of musical

35. 35
gesture. A complete discussion of embodied and disembodied approaches, and their
relevance to conducting, can be found in Chapter 2.
Embodiment in Music Education
The concept of embodiment has become a topic of discussion in music education
research in recent decades (Fortuna, 2017; Juntunen, 2002; Juntunen & Hyvonen, 2004).
Typically, music training in America and Europe adheres to a conservatory approach,
which focuses on the cerebral aspects of musicianship such as musical theory, part-
writing, ear-training, memorization of historical facts, and other aspects (Jones, 2009).
Students within this model learn by analyzing scores and sheet music in music theory
classes, memorizing facts and data in music history classes, performing in various
ensembles, and spending time weekly with master teachers on their particular instrument
or music-making endeavor. The majority of these music teaching and learning techniques
focus on mental knowledge and performance training, and rarely involve physicality or
kinesthetic learning (Jones, 2006). However, researchers and scholars within music
education, musical movement, and cognition have explored the mind-body connection in
an effort to make music learning more embodied.
Musical movement can be useful in developing music cognition. Recent research
has indicated that movement exercises and training, such as those found in Dalcroze
Eurhythmics, Orff-Schulwerk, and Kodály, can have a positive affect both musically and
extra musically on the human brain (Ahokas, 2015; Gerson, Schiavio, Timmers, &
Hunnius, 2015; Janzen, 2014; Kozak, 2015; Toiviainen, Luck, & Johnson, 2010;
Venetsanou, Donti, & Koutsouba, 2014; Wang, 2008; Zachopoulou, Derri, Chatzopoulos,
& Ellinoudis, 2003). Research also has shown that musical movement activities are

36. 36
useful for developing musicianship at all ages (Toiviainen, Luck, & Johnson, 2010;
Zachopoulou, Derri, Chatzopoulos, & Ellinoudis, 2003). Specifically, music educators
have used Dalcroze Eurhythmics at all levels from elementary to university as a way to
incorporate movement-based activities into the music classroom (Gambetta, 2005;
Juntunen, 2002; Juntunen & Hyvönen, 2004; Neidlinger, 2003; van der Merwe, 2015).
Because of their embodied natures and their potential for encouraging students to learn
through movement, these two systems have been used to teach conducting.
Discourse surrounding the body’s connection to music learning began well over a
century ago, despite the fact that embodiment only became a popular paradigm within
discussions in most other fields in the last few decades (Juntunen, 2002). In the late 19th
century, Swiss pedagogue Emile Jacques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) perceived a lack of
musicality in his students, and identified a lack of physical connection to the music as a
hindrance in their ability to be musically expressive and accurate. Students were
proficient technically, but they needed to develop both rhythmic and pitch-matching
accuracy. It was in these solfège courses that Dalcroze began to experiment with and
develop what he eventually called the Eurhythmics system. (Dalcorze, 1921). Dalcroze
described musicians at the turn of the 20th
century as “automatons,” who learned
technical movement and facility in robotic fashion, but as a result, had no exposure or
training in musical expressivity (Dalcroze, 1921, p. 16). To combat this notion of
automaton-like musicality, Dalcroze developed Eurhythmics as a system that imparted
musicality through physical gesture and expression. Dalcroze recognized the limitations
of Cartesian mind-body separation expressed within music instruction at the time, and
developed a pedagogical system that attempted to rectify that problem.

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Dalcroze Eurhythmics has been a popular system for teaching musical concepts
through movement in the 20th
and 21st
centuries (Butke & Frego, 2017; Carnegie Melon
University, n.d.; Dalcroze Society of America, n.d.; Juntunen, 2002; Spector, 1990; van
der Merwe, 2015). Although Eurhythmics is used in the realm of elementary general
music (Butke & Frego, 2017; Juntunen, 2004; Liao, 2002), music educators have used it
in classrooms with students of all ages and in different situations (O’Leary, 2010; van der
Merwe, 2015; Walker, 2007). Chapter 2 includes a full discussion of Eurhythmics in
music education research. Despite the prevalence of the system in classrooms with
students of all ages, no known empirical studies have documented the use of Eurhythmics
within university-level conducting courses (Meints, 2014).
Chapter Summary
Music leaders have been communicating though physical action for centuries, but
the art of conducting itself has become important in the last few centuries as music has
become increasingly complex (Spitzer, et al, 2001). With the development of Western art
music, music simultaneously became more emotive and expressive in nature, especially
during the Romantic era. Because music contained more expressive elements, conductors
needed to incorporate more expressive gestures into their conducting in addition to the
basic principles of time, beat, pattern, and shape. Due to conducting’s development into a
prominent role, music conservatories and music schools in America and Europe began to
incorporate conducting courses into their regular curricula at the turn of the 20th
century.
Specifically in America, choral, orchestral, and concert band ensembles have served
religious, civic, and military functions throughout the nation’s history. Because of the
importance of music within American society, ensembles gradually became part of the

38. 38
curricula within American schools. As a result, ensembles became a staple of American
music education. Because preservice teachers are likely going to conduct after
graduation, they need to develop gestures and expressive conducting abilities that go
beyond the scope of traditional conducting textbooks. Learning through the body and
creating musical mind-body connections might help preservice teachers cultivate their
gestural and expressive conducting capabilities before entering the music classroom.
Need for the Study
Conducting is an activity that requires a music leader, director, or teacher to
provide physical and gestural communicative ideas to a group of performing musicians.
Musicians must watch and receive communication and information from conductors, and
translate those ideas into sound. Because secondary music teachers rehearse and conduct
ensembles, music teacher preparation programs at conservatories and schools of music
teach preservice music teachers how to conduct and rehearse an ensemble. Although
preservice teachers typically receive two to three semesters of conducting and rehearsal
technique development (Manfredo, 2008; NASM, 2017), most in-service teachers
continue to develop gestural clarity and effectiveness after entering the field as full-time
teachers. However, the way that conducting educators teach conducting varies from
institution to institution because of differences in instructor philosophies, time allotted for
conducting instruction, specific course content, and other factors. One of the most
influential factors that can affect how students learn to conduct may be their conducting
instructor’s individual beliefs about the connection of body and mind.
Additionally, Western society has struggled with the concept of the mind-body
relationship, and how they are interconnected with one another. Some music teachers,

39. 39
including those who teach conducting, likely teach in ways that are disembodied, or that
discount the role of the body in understanding and demonstrating musical thought.
Knowledge is often disseminated through verbal communication, written work, or
musical performance from sheet music in music courses. A number of conducting
teachers might teach concepts and ideas in an exclusively cerebral fashion, such as
through reading, writing, and class discussion, but might not teach using methods that
incorporate mind-body connections. Pedagogues in other movement-heavy disciplines
such as acting (Stucky & Tomell-Presto, 2004), have circumvented the mind-body
problem by extensively incorporating movement into their courses and training programs.
The conservatory model that many higher-education music programs utilize might
prevent incorporation of teaching techniques that include the body. Conversely, some
music educators, including conducting teachers, have found ways to incorporate
movement into their courses (Aubin, 2010; Meints, 2014; Neidlinger, 2003). These
educators successfully found ways to encourage students to construct meaningful
connections between their minds and bodies.
To help develop students’ gestures as well as expressive conducting, some
conductor educators have incorporated movement in their conducting classes, including
exercises from Dalcroze Eurhythmics. Scholarship in practitioner-level journals has
addressed the use of Dalcroze Eurhythmics in conductor education (Dickson, 1992;
McCoy, 1994) as well as basic examinations of Eurhythmics in various schools’
conducting classes (Meints, 2014). However, there is no known research regarding the
use of Dalcroze Eurhythmics in conducting classes from an empirical or investigatory
perspective. This study will address the lack of research by describing the use of

40. 40
Dalcroze Eurhythmics in conducting classes, including perspectives of teachers who
incorporate these movement systems, as well as their respective students.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this adapted multiple instrumental case study was to examine the
incorporation of Dalcroze Eurhythmics in undergraduate-level conducting classes. A
specific focus was placed on the perspectives of conductor educators who employ
Dalcroze Eurhythmics in their conducting classes, and on the perceptions of students who
are enrolled in these classes. The following questions guided this research:
Research Questions
1. How do conductor educators incorporate Dalcroze Eurhythmics into their
conducting curriculum?
2. What specific aspects of Dalcroze Eurhythmics systems do conductor educators
incorporate into their conducting curriculum?
3. What benefits and challenges of incorporating Dalcroze Eurhythmics do
conductor educators and students identify?
4. How do conducting students describe their experience learning conducting
through Dalcroze Eurhythmics?
In this dissertation, I will explore the perceived disconnect between knowledge
learned in the classroom and expressive physical and gestural communication on the
podium. I will present evidence that much of the learning and teaching that we
experience in music education is disembodied in nature, and that this disembodiment
contributes to the initial struggle of learning to communicate musical ideas and
musicality through physical conducting gesture. I will then explore the practices of

41. 41
conductor educators who employ embodied means of teaching in their own classrooms.
These conductor educators use specific body movement systems such as Dalcroze
Eurhythmics to encourage students to think and communicate musical ideas through
embodied means. I will explore the perceptions of these educator participants and their
students about the benefits and drawbacks of teaching conducting through specific
movement systems. My intention is to discover the perceptions and attitudes of
conducting faculty and their students regarding the use of Eurhythmics in the conducting
classroom. Chapter 2 continues this line of discussion and includes additional details
related to the mind-body problem and Dalcroze Eurhythmics.
Definitions
Cartesian. From the ideas, writings, and philosophies of Descartes. “Descartes’.”
Cheironomy. A practice dating back to Antiquity of dictating pitch and rhythm through
gesturing of the arms and hands
Conducting educator. A university individual faculty member who teaches conducting
to students at the college or university level.
Descartes. Enlightenment era philosopher (1596-1650) who, among many other
philosophic, scientific, and mathematic advancements, proposed that the mind and body
are two separate but connected entities. Famously stated, “I think, therefore, I am,”
signaling an attitude of the mind being the most important aspect of humanity, as well as
exuding control over the body.
Disembodied. Antonym of Embodied. A notion, philosophy, or belief that the body is
not explicitly connected to the human mind.

42. 42
Disembodiment. The notion that a concept, typically the mind or soul, is separate from
the physical body.
Embodied. Including the body. Within philosophy and cognition, considering the body
and the mind as an inseparable and congruous system.
Embodiment. The act notion of representing or understanding a concept through
physical means using the human body (Leman, 2007).
Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. Music pedagogue (1865-1950) who invented Eurhythmics as a
way to help conservatory students develop musical expression.
Eurhythmics. A system invented by Emile Jaques-Dalcroze that uses movement to
facilitate acquisition of musical knowledge in learners (Juntunen, 2002). Also referred to
as “Dalcroze Eurhythmics,” The “Dalcroze method,” and the “Dalcroze approach.” The
method has four distinct branches: eurhythmics (lowercase e), solfège, improvisation and
plastique animée.
Gesture. In conducting, a physical act to demonstrate musical characteristics such as
style, volume, tempo, and phrasing to an ensemble.
Master-apprentice model. A system of education featuring an experienced professional
teaching a skill, trade, or knowledge to a less- or non-experienced person, typically in
one-on-one settings. The dominant models of learning and education in late 19th
century
Europe (Berryman, 1991).
Mind-body dualism. The philosophical notion that the mind and body are two distinct
and separate entities that communicate with one another.
Mind-body problem. Questions about how the mind and body interact with one another.
Tactus. Visual representation of steady beat.

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CHAPTER TWO
RELATED LITERATURE
The previous chapter provided an overview of the history of conducting and
music education in America. Following that was a discussion on how these histories
influenced the role of American music teachers, who eventually needed to learn how to
conduct as part of their teaching responsibilities. Chapter 1 also outlined the development
of conductor education, and how conflicting attitudes toward mind-body dualism may
have influenced the ways in which conducting educators approached conducting with
undergraduate students for a large part of the 20th
and 21st
centuries. Conducting
educators who include movement systems in their coursework could help conducting
students gain a stronger connection between mind and body while learning how to
conduct, especially in students’ gestural and expressive choices on the podium.
This chapter provides further context for what philosophers call the mind-body
problem. The mind-body problem will then be related to dualism and embodiment, which
have been sources of debate within music education and conducting research. The
chapter then details historical background of the embodied pedagogical systems of
Dalcroze Eurhythmics and how it incorporates the body related to musical concepts.
Finally, this chapter discusses research regarding the incorporation of Eurhythmics into
conducting education curricula.

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The Mind-Body Problem
How do scientists, philosophers, researchers, and educators reconcile, or at the
very least, explain how the conscious mind and physical body interact with one another?
According to Putnam (2000), this question has been at the center of countless debates for
millennia in various cultures around the globe. Questions regarding how the mind and
body interact with one another created what scholars called the mind-body problem
(McGinn 1989; Nagel, 1998, Putnam, 2000). Specifically in Western thought and
philosophy, Rene Descartes (1596-1650) explored and changed the debate during The
Enlightenment (1620-1789), when he espoused that a division exists between the mind
and the body (Skirry, 2016). In doing so, Descartes established the notion that humans
are firmly dualistic in nature, or in other words, that people exist as two distinct entities:
mind and body. Cartesian (Descartes’) dualism influenced philosophers, scholars, and
society in general for centuries after The Enlightenment into modern thought (Alsop,
2005). In recent decades, scholars in fields such as anthropology (Csordas, 1994),
philosophy (Robinson, 2003), sociology (Bendelow & Williams, 1995), feminist theory
(Bickford, 1997), health sciences (Mehta, 2011), and education (Bereiter, 2005) have
sought ways to reject dualism, and to explore how the mind-body problem can be
rectified in each of their respective fields. By practicing strict dualism and eliminating the
body from considerations about how humans think, learn, and interact, the resulting
description of the human mind is incomplete, because human beings learn through and
use the physical body in conjunction with the mind.

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The Historical Roots of Dualism
The concept of mind-body separation implies that human beings exist in binary,
or are dualistic in nature. Historically, scholars considered Classic Greek philosopher
Plato (428-348 BC) as the first philosopher who described humans as existing as two
divided entities (Robinson, 2016). Plato’s philosophy of “dualism” posited that humans
exist as the soul (which included the intellect), and as a physical body. However, Plato
was not the only philosopher who described the world as existing in pairs. For centuries,
Western thought has defined much of the human perception of the world in two natures.
Civilizations have developed such binaries as good and evil, God and Satan, life and
afterlife, male and female, Occident and Orient, and so on (Benson, 2002). Plato’s
dualism dominated the philosophical notions of Western thinkers for the next few
centuries, including early Christendom and the Middle Ages (Robinson, 2016). Later,
Descartes and Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) reconsidered the works of Plato, and
furthered the notion that human beings existed in a dualistic nature of soul (later called
the mind), and body. The following sections detail the ideas of each philosopher and a
discussion of how mind-body dualism has influenced music education and conducting
education.
Descartes and The Enlightenment. The Enlightenment, also known as the Age
of Reason, was a period of philosophical evolution and scientific advancement in 18th
century Europe (Roberson, 2016). One of the central tenets of the Enlightenment was that
people should define and construct all knowledge through objective reason. Descartes
was one of the chief philosophers during this period, and espoused that thoughts and
ideas could only be true if they could be logically rationalized (Lacey, 1996). As part of

46. 46
his philosophy, Descartes described a new way of justifying the human experience and
existence, inspired partly by Platonic dualism. Cartesian (Descartes’) philosophy
suggested that humans exist as two substances: mind and matter (Hatfield, 2016).
Descartes proposed this notion in his text, Meditations (1641). Famously, this discourse
produced a philosophy that would sway the development of Western society for the next
few centuries: the idea of mind-body dualism.
Descartes described how each of the two parts made up the human being. He
believed that the mind was not only separate from the body, but also that it indeed
controlled the body and was the primary agent in the existence of humanity (Kim, 2000).
This mode of thinking initiated a string of events that affected Western society in various
forms, including strong implications in medicine, philosophy, psychology, and the
humanities (Vertinsky & Hargreaves, 2006). Cartesian dualism influenced considerations
of physicality, which in turn disembodied Western thought, and, perhaps most
detrimental, discounted human emotions and feeling as not only unimportant, but rather
something to be rejected from rational thought (Calhoun, 2001). As renowned feminist
and prominent New Musicologist Susan McClary, whose expertise includes musicology
related to the body, once stated, “the body has been despised by the West for a long time”
(personal communication, September, 2016). Beginning with Descartes’ philosophical
influence during the Enlightenment, Western society has avoided considering physicality
and has discounted the role the body plays in the way that we think as human beings
(Calhoun, 2001). Plato’s dualism influenced Western ideas about the mind and body that
Descartes later considered and expanded in his own discourse of the mind and body.

47. 47
After Descartes, Immanuel Kant considered new ways of defining the connection
between body and mind.
Kant. Immanuel Kant codified and expanded upon Descartes’ beliefs in his
writings about dualism. Kant advocated that human thought was inexorably separated
from the nature of physical existence (Ameriks, 2000). According to Kant, the human
mind creates thoughts and defines the way phenomena are or exist through sensory
experience. Kant posited that for humans to process any thought, including feeling,
emotion, or sense, they first experience a stimulus from something, and then
conceptualize or perceive it through mental rationalization. All external stimuli,
therefore, are synthesized by the human mind, which then organizes these stimuli into
thoughts, concepts, and perceptions (Brook, 2016). Meanwhile, Kant advocated that the
mind is not only above all else, but is central to the ways in which humans experience the
world around them. Although this philosophy did not call for as stark a separation
between mind and body as Descartes championed, the philosophy was still dualistic in
nature and considered the body and the mind separate by nature instead of one contiguous
system. The dualistic view of a division between mind and body began with Plato’s
definition of the soul and physical world; and then Descartes wrote that the mind (which
replaced the soul) was central to human nature and had complete agency over the body.
Finally, Kant believed that the body influenced the mind, but the mind controlled the
body, although the body could send the mind information (Ameriks, 2002; Lacey, 1996).
A critique of dualism. In his book, Descartes’ Error (1994), neuroscientist
Antonio Damasio distilled the problems associated with Descartes’, Kant’s, and others’
reflections concerning mind and body. In Descartes’ Error, Damasio framed his analysis

48. 48
through the story of Phineas P. Gage, a railroad supervisor who sustained a railroad spike
impalement in the early 19th c. during a blasting accident. The spike entered Gage’s
cheek and exited through his left frontal lobe, damaging the emotional processing center
of his brain. In chronicling Gage’s story, Damasio discussed how Gage’s brain damage
and recovery changed his capacity for emotion and how those variations influenced
Gage’s logic and reasoning faculties. Through his examination, Damasio argued that
emotional states directly influence human beings’ reasoning and social behaviors. When
someone experiences an emotion, it is a response to an accompanying physiological
change, such as increased heart rate, sweating, and pupil dilation. Because emotions are
directly influenced by bodily states, Damasio concluded that conscious and rational
choices are impacted directly by our feelings, or in other words, that physical sensation
directly affects logic and reasoning. Through Descartes’ Error and other work in his lab,
Damasio formulated a theory called “somatic marker hypothesis” (Damasio, Tranel, &
Damasio, 1991), which simply states that emotional processes guide decision-making.
Damasio’s work attempted to dismantle the notion of mind-body dualism by suggesting a
strong, inseparable link between body and mind.
Dualism in the arts. Mind-body dualism likely has influenced both the arts and
the ways in which pedagogues teach in artistic disciplines (Powell, 2009). In recent years,
pedagogues in movement-based disciplines have begun to rectify the division of mind
and body that has dominated Western philosophy within their own classrooms. For
example, in theater, teachers have used models and exercises that incorporate the body
into actor training (Riley, 2004). Similarly, dance teachers and choreographers have
sought to help students make better connections between mental concepts and how they

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demonstrate those concepts through physical movement (Fraleigh, 1996). Mind-body
dualism also has influenced the ways in which music educators teach music to their
students. The next section outlines discuss the mind-body problem and dualism within
learning and development with a focus on music education. Descriptions of how music
educators have attempted to solve the mind-body problem when teaching music are
included.
Mind-Body Problem in Development and Learning
Effects of the mind-body divide are present in the way that human beings learn as
they age. As people get older, they progress through different stages of development both
related to and facilitated by movement. Notably, researchers have studied this concept
within early childhood, where changes in embodied knowledge are most pronounced.
Children learn to move based on several factors including physiological development,
behavioral characteristics, and the building of movement experiences over time (Malina,
2004). These factors contribute to how children learn to move within their specific
environment and context. Music can have a direct impact on motor development during
early childhood. For example, mothers introduce music early into a child’s life by singing
lullabies, soothing them through rocking, and bouncing them to the tempo of music,
which ultimately influences their motor skills (Trehub & Trainor, 1998). Young children
frequently demonstrate their learned connection between music and movement. Often,
children outwardly exhibit high levels of engagement with music through large body
movements (Koops, 2017). Research in sociology and anthropology suggests that music-
related movement influences early childhood learning in almost every culture on Earth
(Philips-Silver, 2009).

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Although not as prominent as studies in early childhood, researchers have also
examined movement in adult education, especially within the context of embodied or
somatic experiences (Batson, 2009; Bennet, 2012; Merriam, Caffarella & Baumgartner,
2007). Despite the existence of these studies, the role that movement has in affecting
adults has only recently been examined, meaning that the full impact of embodied
learning on adults is still unknown (Barndt, 2018; Yorks & Kasl, 2002). Yet, acquiring
embodied knowledge is clearly important for some adults, such as people who study
movement-based disciplines, such as theatre, dance, music, physical education, and
conducting. Specifically in the field of music education, researchers have examined the
roll that movement can play in helping students of various ages learn about music while
overcoming the mind-body problem.
Researchers in music and music education have examined mind-body dualism in
a variety of ways. Music education scholars have proposed that learning through the body
might provide music learners a more comprehensive and beneficial music learning
experience (Juntunen & Hyvönen, 2004; Leman, 2007; Paparo, 2016). By teaching
through movement, music educators could teach musical knowledge and musicality to
students in a way that connects mind and body rather than dividing the two in dualistic
fashion (Leman & Maes, 2015). Movement has been shown to help music students from
elementary school age (Liao, 2002) through university age (van der Merwe, 2015;
Walker, 2007) improve musical competency. For example, Liao (2002) examined
whether movement training enhanced elementary students’ relationship between voice
and gesture. Liao examined 53 fifth graders, divided into three groups, two treatment
groups that received different types of movement training and two control groups. Using

51. 51
pretests and posttests rated by nine different experts, Liao discovered that movement
training significantly increased students intonation and tone quality while singing (p
<.05). There was no significant difference in types of movement used in this specific
experiment.
Walker (2007) performed a content analysis and investigation of movement
within music theory programs in the United States, and stated that music theory
professors who incorporated movement into their undergraduate teaching reported that
their students made better connections to concepts compared to when they did not teach
using movement. Similarly, van der Merwe (2015) examined undergraduate music
students’ perceptions about learning music through movement, and her participants
reported that they felt like they had stronger musical knowledge after learning music
using movement (this study is detailed further in the following pages). Additionally,
pedagogues have examined the role that students’ bodies and their own bodily self-
awareness have on their learning of musical knowledge (e.g., Leman, 2007; Liao, 2002;
Paparo, 2016). Researchers determined that involving and knowing about the body
positively affected students’ acquisition of musical knowledge (Bowman, 2004; Conable,
2002; Paparo, 2016; Woodward, 2009). These studies indicated that learning music
through movement could be beneficial for music learners of all ages and with varying
levels of musical experience.
By using movement systems in their classrooms, music educators might seek to
make their lessons more embodied, or by teaching in a manner that encourages the body
and the mind to perform and act as one musical and connected entity (Juntunen &
Hyvönen, 2004). One movement-related music teaching system is Dalcroze Eurhythmics,

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which uses movement to facilitate acquisition of musical knowledge in learners
(Juntunen, 2002). Music educators who teach students at all ages, including elementary
general music, secondary level ensembles, and in various courses in higher education,
have utilized the system within their own teaching practices.
The mind-body problem is reflected in beginning conducting classes. Within
conducting courses at the undergraduate level, many students learn to embody music and
connect movement to music for the first time (Neidlinger, 2003). Given that the domain
of conducting is a highly physical endeavor, learning to comprehend music through the
body could be beneficial for developing gestural understanding and comprehension of
musical movement. Similar to other music teachers, conducting educators utilize
Eurhythmics within their undergraduate conducting classes to rectify the mind-body
problem. The following sections outlines Dalcroze Eurhythmics, and include details
regarding how the system works, historical background, and research about it.
Dalcroze Eurhythmics
Dalcroze Eurhythmics is a system that teaches students about music through
movement. In the late 19th
century, composer and music educator Emile Jaques-Dalcroze
recognized that the way students in his conservatory classes had previously learned music
discounted the body and musical feel entirely (Dalcroze, 1921). Dalcroze believed that
the way students learned prior to enrollment in conservatory harmony and ear-training
courses, which primarily consisted of pen-and-paper style of learning music and music
theory, caused students to lack practical musicality and awareness. To rectify these
issues, Dalcroze eventually developed a way of teaching music that incorporated the

53. 53
body extensively, and that became a popular system of music instruction used in 20th
and
21st
century Europe, America, and Australia: Dalcroze Eurhythmics.
Eurhythmics is an art and a practice that has stood at the center of some schools of
musical instruction since Emile Jaques-Dalcroze first introduced the method. For well
over a century, various practitioners in Western music pedagogy incorporated the use of
Eurhythmics as a tool for teaching rhythmic competency and developing musicality in
elementary-aged students through conservatory graduate students. The following section
contains descriptions about the Eurhythmics system, and provides basic information
about its methodology. After that is the chronology of Eurhythmics and a discussion of
its historical backgrounds, as well as how the system spread through Europe to America.
Current applications of Eurhythmics instruction are included, with a particular focus on
the college/university and conservatory levels. Finally, there will be discussion regarding
the influence of Eurhythmics on music learning previously documented within related
research.
Eurhythmics as an Approach
Dalcroze Eurhythmics (also called the Dalcroze approach or the Dalcroze
method) is a system of music instruction that utilizes rhythmic movement, ear training,
and improvisation to develop and refine a person’s inherent musical abilities (Carnegie
Melon University, n.d.). The system uses human movement including swaying of the
body, bipedal (using both legs) movement, movement of the extremities including the
head and face, and other motions to conceptualize and embody different musical ideas
and styles. The Dalcroze method contains four main branches or areas: eurhythmics,
solfège, improvisation, and plastique animée.

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Eurhythmics. When people engage in eurhythmics (lowercase e), they are
purposefully moving their bodies with the rhythm of music (Dalcroze Society of
America, 2019). Eurhythmics is also the part of the method with which most people
likely are familiar. Within the act or concept of eurhythmics, practitioners complete
activities, often called “games,” where they step to a steady pulse, use props to show a
steady beat, and execute movements to embody beat patterns, meters, and rhythms. The
purpose of the eurhythmics branch of Dalcroze is to engrain rhythm to the point of being
natural or second nature within students’ musical thought (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1921).
People often can misconstrue eurhythmics as the only part of the method, as most people
call the entire Dalcroze approach “Dalcroze Eurhythmics.” However, the entire Dalcroze
approach or system of “Dalcroze Eurhythmics” (uppercase E) is comprised of all four
branches.
Solfège. American solfège is typically moveable-Do and designed so that students
can find scalar patterns in all twelve keys interchangeable. Dalcroze solfège is different,
in that it is fixed-Do. The entire Dalcroze solfège technique is predicated on the notion of
tuning students’ ears to the pitch C so that they develop relative pitch. By learning
through fixed-Do solfège, Dalcroze practitioners believe that students develop relative
pitch, create a personal tonal context, better recognize melodic motion, and improve
sensitivity to harmony and modulation (Ristow, Thomsen & Urista, 2014).
Improvisation. Dalcroze practitioners believe that students must be able to
change and adapt along with changing musical styles (Daley, 2012). Improvisation
occurs in multiple facets of the Dalcroze method. For example, while engaging students
in eurhythmics exercises and games, teachers will suddenly vary the style, tempo,

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harmony, or rhythm of the music to which the game is set, forcing students to make a
change based on the alteration in the music. Dalcroze practitioners believe that this sense
of improvisation helps students to develop a better sensitivity to music and be able to
better recognize variations within it.
Plastique animée. A plastique animée is a choreographed movement to music. It
is more connected to the music than simple dance, because practitioners focus on certain
elements of music, such as harmony, melodic contour, energy, rhythm, tempo, rhythm,
style, and any other musical elements, and represent one or more of those elements in
movement. For example, a Eurhythmics practitioner might embody a lyrical piece of
music during a plastique by floating or gliding across a floor and using large but direct
body movement in the arms and torso. Conversely, a person performing a plastique to a
marcato piece might demonstrate this by stomping or moving the extremities and torso in
direct, jabbing motions. The possibilities of what a person can demonstrate through
plastique are limited by only the music itself. Notably, some practitioners consider
plastique animée as its own distinct activity that encompasses all parts of the method
(Dalcroze Society of America, 2019), whereas others define it as a fourth, coequal branch
of the method (Juntunen, 2016). This manuscript considers plastique animée as a fourth
branch equivalent to the other three.
The holistic method. People who teach and use the Dalcroze method often
combine all four branches to provide students a holistic approach to music education
focused on learning music through the body. No matter what activity or branch that
Eurhythmics practitioners incorporate into lessons, they encourage students to use
gestures and movements that are musical and instinctive to the natural way in which a

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human body moves (Dalcroze Society of America, 2019). This concept is crucial for
engaging in Dalcroze; all movements must be simultaneously natural and musical. The
goal of the system is to encourage musical development, including knowledge of basic
music ear training and musical expressivity.
Dalcroze educators’ views of Eurhythmics. Eurhythmics proponents and
educators believe that the system helps students to develop and refine their awareness and
execution of tempo, style, dynamics, texture, phrasing, and structure (Dalcroze Society of
America, 2019). Dalcroze himself admitted that it is difficult for someone to grasp the
concept of what the system means without experiencing it first-hand (Carnegie Melon
University, n.d.). Many contemporary Dalcroze educators maintain that people can fully
understand the method and all of its benefits and implications only through experience
and immersion (Carnegie Melon University, n.d.; Dalcroze Society of America, 2019). In
its online literature, the Dalcroze Society of America (2019) stated, “Students cannot
expect to gain a Dalcroze Education from a book or video alone; they must experience
this type of education in the classroom.” Similarly, the Marta Sanchez Dalcroze Training
Center at Carnegie Melon (n.d.) stipulated, “to obtain a better understanding of the
method, personal experience was essential.” From the Dalcroze expert’s perspective, a
person must seek out official Dalcroze training through workshops or other means in
order to understand completely the ways that the method affects and retrains musical
faculties. Ultimately, the system involves learning about and demonstrating different
aspects of musical construction and performance through different, natural motions that
the human body executes. Dalcroze’s experiences in witnessing non-European culture

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and teaching students at the Geneva Conservatoire prompted Dalcroze to develop a way
to teach students music and expressivity through movement.
Emile Jaques-Dalcroze before Eurhythmics
Emile Jaques-Dalcroze was born in Switzerland in 1865 (Haward & Ring, 2001).
As a young adult, Dalcroze attended the Geneva Conservatoire, where he was an
excellent student, receiving first prize for music and poetry. After completing his
conservatory studies in Geneva in 1886, Dalcroze became the assistant director of the
Algiers Municipal Theater in the French-occupied African nation of Algeria (Bauer,
2012). For many years, many Dalcroze scholars believed that Dalcroze first
conceptualized Eurhythmics while looking for a better way to teach musicality and
musical expression to his students after an appointment to the Geneva Conservatoire.
Dalcroze expressed this thought himself because he discussed his desires to teach
students how to feel music better in his own writings (Dalcroze 1916; 1921). However,
recent research (Bauer, 2012) has unearthed Dalcroze’s time in Algiers, some 6 years
prior to teaching harmony classes at the Conservatoire, as providing the seed that
eventually helped to germinate his now renowned method.
Dalcroze in Algeria. Bauer (2012) proposed that Dalcroze was particularly
inspired by the asymmetric meters of the Sufi music that Dalcroze heard during his
appointment in Algiers, and Sufi performers’ ability to perform and produce this music
with such ease. The manner in which Algerian musicians could improvise music quickly
and adeptly, particularly in the religious Sufi rituals, inspired Dalcroze. Although
Dalcroze showed an intense curiosity in these musics, he was by no means a scholar of
them, nor did he study them in any depth. Rather, Dalcroze was motivated by the

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performances he attended, the culture that he witnessed, and through the way that dancers
moved effortlessly and accurately with the music that accompanied their routines. These
events would later become important in the development of his Eurhythmic system.
Dalcroze returns to Europe. Following the completion of his theater conducting
contract in Algiers, Dalcroze returned to Europe, and headed to Paris to study at the Paris
Conservatoire (Spector, 1990). In Paris, Dalcroze studied with Faure, Delibes, Bruckner,
and Fuchs, but it was his friendship and interactions with fellow Swiss national Mathis
Lussy that would have a lasting impact on his development of Eurhythmics. Lussy’s first
book Exercises de mecanisme (1863) was highly regarded by piano teachers, including
Liszt. However, his follow-up, Traite de l’expression musical (1873), was the book that
predominantly inspired Dalcroze. Lussy included methods in the work that were designed
to teach students about musical expression and ways of incorporating expressivity
training into musical teaching. Dalcroze used descriptions in Traite de l’expression
musical regarding physical manifestation of rhythm, the treatment of metrical and
rhythmic accents, and the use of music terms derived from the use of meter in classical
poetry in Eurhythmics (Haward & Ring, 2001).
Teaching at the Geneva Conservatoire. After his training in Paris, the Geneva
Conservatoire hired Dalcroze as professor of harmony in 1892 (Haward & Ring, 2001).
While teaching solfège courses there, Dalcroze became increasingly unsatisfied with the
musical training and skills that his students exhibited in class. He found that students
were technically proficient, but lacked both rhythmic and pitch-matching accuracy. It was
in these solfège courses that Dalcroze began to experiment with and develop the
Eurhythmic system (Dalcroze, 1921). Within these classes, Dalcroze combined the

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aspects of Algerian rhythm and dance he witnessed a few years prior with the ideas
regarding rhythm that he developed while working with Mathis Lussy. By using elements
from each of these aspects of his experience, Dalcroze developed a system of movement
that encouraged students to embody different aspects of music, including variations in
style, rhythm, tempo, and beat. For example, Dalcroze would play the piano and have his
students change their movements to match what he was playing. A shift in tempo
indicated a change in students’ movement speed. Changes in style also indicated changes
in movement direction and movement choice, such as flowing movements for legato, and
short, pointed movements for staccato. Eurhythmics exercises have taken many different
forms over the years, especially in its modern practice, but the act of matching physical
movement to varying types of music has remained central to its practice (Butke & Frego,
2017).
The primary issue that Dalcroze perceived in the training of musical students was
a disconnection between musical output and the use of self-expression (Dalcroze, 1915).
In his observations, Dalcroze noted that student musicians could have many years of
training on an instrument or on their voices, but believed that they were unable to be
rhythmically precise and were deficient in their ability to match pitch because of a lack of
emotional self-expression. An analogy that Dalcroze wrote in The Eurhythmics of Emile
Jaques-Dalcroze (1915) likened this musical disconnection to language. To paraphrase,
Dalcroze compared the inability of a musician to emote expressively to someone who
possesses an immense vocabulary, yet is unable to verbalize or write his or her own
thoughts and expressions.