The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Dear Attendees:

As was usual before these eurythmic performances, I would also like to introduce the presentation with a few words today. Eurythmy art uses a form of expression that is essentially new. However, my intention is not to explain what can be seen on stage, which would be inartistic – and artistic work should not need explanation – but rather to say something about this particular means of expression. Therefore, I would like to take the liberty of saying a few words beforehand.

The point is that this means of expression, a kind of visible language, is a language that works either by the whole person moving his limbs in a way that is intended to appeal to the eye in the same way as audible language appeals to the ear, or by groups of people making such movements, which constitute a kind of visible language. But it is not the opinion that this visible language should be what could be called facial expressions or gesturing or the like, but rather the opinion that the direct connection between gestures and expressions and what is going on inwardly in the soul must be must be avoided here in the artistic, as it is avoided in ordinary language, which, although it has arisen from the direct expression of feeling and external observation, is not exhausted in what could be understood as a play of gestures. It is a careful, intuitive study of the development of spoken language that leads, as it were, to the formation of this visible language.

If one develops what Goethe calls sensory-supersensory vision, one can see which movements, but especially which movement tendencies, underlie the production of audible speech by the larynx and the other speech organs. It is well known that speech is based on a kind of movement. As I speak here, the movements that are carried out by my speech organs are transmitted to the air, and it is precisely the content of what is spoken that is conveyed to the ear through the air. But it is not about these immediate vibrational movements, but rather about what, as it were, lives in these vibrations as a tendency to move, which is now carefully studied for each sound, each sound formation, for sound contexts, but which is also studied by name for sentence structure, for the internal laws of language. And all that can be studied in this way and remains unnoticed as something that only underlies the spoken language, because one draws attention to what is heard and not to what underlies the movement, all that remains unnoticed in spoken language, is transferred to the whole person. In this way the whole human being appears before the spectator as a living larynx, executing those movements which are otherwise present in the larynx as a tendency, and through which this visible speech comes about.

It may be noted that in the present day, this eurythmic art, which is born out of our anthroposophically oriented worldview, which is a further development of Goethe's view of art and artistic attitude, that this eurythmic art meets certain aspirations that live as longings, as artistic longings in our time. Who would not know, if they have only delved a little into the artistic striving and working of the present, that the arts are wrestling with new means of expression, with a new formal language? And who would not know how different the paths are on which the struggle is waged? But how unsatisfactory it is to create something out of color, out of form, and also out of words, in order to gain a new means of expression.

If we want to describe what actually prevails in newer, in modern artistic striving, then at the same time we have what still makes it difficult for viewers to directly perceive the artistic representation of the eurythmic art. For what are today's modernizations of artistic striving based on? We see how, in the development of modern times, the human being has more or less lost the ability to develop forces from within, through which he can give himself to the outside world, through which he can completely merge with the outside world.

If we look back at earlier artistic epochs, which are no longer fully understood even by many today, we have to say: something like a Raphael or a Michelangelo work of art, they arise precisely from the artist's ability to inwardly experience what the being he is depicting experiences. This inner co-experience with nature, with the world in general, has been gradually lost by people in recent centuries and is increasingly being lost in the present to the external perception of life.

Art has always tried – one need only recall Goethe's definitions of art – to reflect what one could experience through inner involvement with the other, with other beings, with external nature. They tried to replace this, let us say, with the impression of fate, with the momentary impression as in Impressionism, in the consciously impressionistic state that art wants to become, because one could not grow together with the object, as one had to, so to speak, fall out of the object; therefore one surrendered to the momentary impression. This impressionistic devotion to the momentary impression cannot lead to a real, genuine means of artistic expression, for the simple reason that this momentary impression can no longer be understood once it has passed. To a certain extent, you have to believe that such a momentary impression, captured in the impressionistic work of art, was once there. Impressionism, which seeks to be naturalistic, removes you from the actual essence of things. Man cannot bring his inner self into the world. So, artistically, he becomes an impressionist.

But then, as a kind of opposition to Impressionism, the expressionist principle has arisen in recent times. It appeared, so to speak, provocatively. Man, having lost the ability to immerse his inner self in the outer, wanted to directly express this inner self as an expression of the soul through the usual artistic means of expression.

But this, in turn, brings with it, I would say, the other danger, that what is experienced quite subjectively, subjectively experienced in the deepest inner self, is presented as a single human experience, and this again sets a limit to understanding, in that the spectator would again have to respond tolerantly to what a single individual human being experiences as the deepest experience of the soul, which he cannot do at all, to express something about which one can only say – the philistine can say –: He wants to paint or draw something spiritual; I see water, a number of ship sails, which I might just as well think are laundry hanging out to dry, and so on. These are things that are produced in expressionism, that may project the human interior outward, but cannot be understood because they are not experienced, but are merely there, in that this individual human interior is depicted as being directly connected to the external world, in direct connection with the external world.

Nevertheless, a way to truly artistic means of expression will have to be found again, in which one, so to speak, meets impressionism with expressionism, and vice versa. But one can believe that something like eurythmy could accommodate the search that lies in this direction and that this is precisely why eurythmy is so much in demand today - which, after all, is also the case with everything else that emerges from anthroposophical culture and world view.

The fact that the whole human being becomes, as it were, a larynx, that the whole human being is a means of expression for a visible language, means that what the human being can experience inwardly, which is also is experienced in the recited poems or the music played, what is experienced after, what is experienced in the innermost being, in the human soul, comes to expression in the human being himself as an outer manifestation. But this means that it is not just a momentary impression – an expression that can be captured in an impressionistic way. For if something in nature is fixed by some momentary impression, we have something that we can and do express spiritually, that we delve into the soul of nature. We can develop this by looking at the expression that is presented in eurythmic performances by the human being himself. Here, spirit and soul are presented directly in the outer movements before our eyes. At the same time, there is impression. It should not be said that eurythmy is an all-encompassing art in this respect, but it can certainly be said that it points the way to how artistic means of expression can be found for what can be felt as a yearning in broad circles of artistic endeavor today.

That, in a few words, is the modern aspect of eurythmy in the best sense of the word, what our time demands of eurythmy as an art.

But then this eurythmy has a further, pedagogical-didactic side, in that it is a kind of soulful gymnastics for the child. In the age of our materialism, purely physiological gymnastics, that which is essentially based on the materialistic view of the human body, has been produced by these views, and takes precedence. Today, people are still one-sided in this respect, although some minds, which now want to do away with many of the prejudices of the present day - such as Spengler, for example - already recognize how one-sided this kind of gymnastics is. Of course, nothing should be said against the educational value of this kind of gymnastics, but it must be supplemented by something that not only trains the body, but above all, from the soul, pours initiative into the human being, which is so lacking in our time. This can be done by the child not just doing the gymnastic movements required by the physical organization, but by making soulful movements, so that soul lives in every movement. This affects the will. It becomes inwardly soulful and strengthens the human being in the will initiative, in the creation of the will initiative. And this is what our civilization needs if it wants to move forward.

Today I want to disregard the hygienic-therapeutic side that is still in our eurythmy. Everything that eurythmy can develop is still in its infancy today. And those of our esteemed viewers who have been here before will see how we are now trying to really follow through on the broader form, for example, in terms of gesture formation and form building, how we are trying more and more to , all the gestures of the moment, and to really bring forth a moving language and music, and how we are particularly concerned not to reproduce what the prose content of the poem is, but what the poetic artist has made of that content.

Despite our efforts to move forward, I have to say it here before every eurythmy performance attended by guests: despite our efforts to move forward, we are nevertheless quite clear about the fact that this eurythmic art is only just beginning, that this eurythmic art is a very first attempt – perhaps even an attempt with inadequate means even today. But we are also clear about the fact that if we continue to develop what has already been tried, or if others continue to develop it, then eurythmy art can become something that can stand as a legitimate art alongside other, older sister arts.

Saying from the soul calendar (16) by Rudolf Steiner
Saying from the soul calendar (17) by Rudolf Steiner
“Children's Song” by Max Schuurman (children's group)
Saying from the soul calendar (19) by Rudolf Steiner
“Wind and Violin“ by Christian Morgenstern, with music by Leopold van der Pals
“Blissful” by Christian Morgenstern
“Autumnal Feeling“ by Friedrich Hebbel
“The Legacy” by Robert Hamerling
Saying from the soul calendar (20.) by Rudolf Steiner
“The Demure“ by J. W. v. Goethe
“The Convert” by J. W. v. Goethe
“Andante grazioso” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Saying from the soul calendar (21st) by Rudolf Steiner
Three-part canon (children's group)
“I. Urtrieb“ by Fercher von Steinwand
“Prooemion” by J. W. v. Goethe
“II. Urtrieb” by Fercher von Steinwand ‘Tanzliedchen’ by Jan Stuten (children's group)
Humoresken by Christian Morgenstern with music by Jan Stuten: “Ein Seufzer”; “Muhme Kunkel”; “Der Papagei”; “Lore”; “Lorus”; “Wortkunst”
“Der Rattenfänger” by J. W. v. Goethe with music by Max Schuurman

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen!

Allow me today, as usual, to say a few words before these attempts at a eurythmic presentation. It is not done to explain the idea. Artistic attempts that would first need explanations would not be such. Art speaks entirely for itself, and it should also be understandable for the immediate impression. But now, with this eurythmic art, the attempt is being made to create something out of different artistic sources than those we are used to, and through a different formal language. And about these sources and about this formal language, allow me to say a few words, also because the whole attempt at the eurythmic art is still in its infancy and only with its further perfection will it be able to give what is actually intended.

On the stage, they will perform the movements that a person performs with their limbs – movements of the whole person, movements of groups of people. All of this is not achieved by some kind of pantomime or facial expressions, but is based on carefully observing what actually happens in a person when they reveal the depths of their soul through speech. We can say that, like everything that this Dornach structure wants to present to the world, the art of eurythmy is also derived from Goetheanism, from Goethe's view of art and his artistic attitude.

Goethe undertook – if I may preface this with something seemingly theoretical, which is, however, not meant theoretically – to recognize the essence of a living being from its form. Well, more than we realize today, human knowledge will come back to this Goethean attempt at a real penetration of the essence of the living, when many prejudices will be stripped from the world view, which is still very much asserted within this world view today. What counts is simply what Goethe published in 1790 in his so vividly and profoundly significant essay, 'Attempt to Explain the Metamorphosis of Plants'. I would like to emphasize only that Goethe is concerned to explain the individual leaf in its often simple, often more complicated form for the whole plant and, in turn, to explain the whole plant in its inner ideal essence only as a more complicated leaf: The plant as a kind of community of individual, visible plants, which appear as leaves and undergo transformations and metamorphoses. The petals, calyx vessels, stamens and so on are also metamorphoses of the leaf. This living contemplation of the transformation of a single organism, this beholding of the whole living being as a more complicated structure, which is already foreshadowed in the individual organs, is what will one day solve the riddle of the living, when it is further developed.

What Goethe applied to the form of plants, and later extended to the form of animals, is here to be used – but elevated to the artistic – for the eurythmic art. From knowledge, Goethe also builds a bridge to skill, to artistic skill. And Goethe has a beautiful saying that should be taken up by every artistic disposition: “When nature begins to reveal her secrets, one longs for her most worthy interpreter, art.” This brings us to true knowledge, which does not live in abstractions but in direct observation, and to artistic creation.

Now we will attempt to extend what Goethe first observed for the purpose of design to human activity. We will carefully study the artistic movements of the larynx and its neighboring organs when speech is produced. It is not the fine vibrations that are transmitted from the human organ to the air and then travel to the hearing organ of the listener that are important, but rather the underlying movement tendencies, on which these vibrations are then, so to speak, threaded. I would like to say that when we look at a long plant stem, such as the false acacia, which forms a long stem to which individual leaflets are attached, we could follow basic tendencies that already make themselves felt in the larynx and its neighboring organs, basic tendencies for the vibrations of speech. These basic tendencies are recognized, if I may use Goethe's word, through sensory-supersensory observation. And just as Goethe imagines the entire plant to be nothing more than a single leaf in a more complicated form, we let the whole person carry out in movement what is otherwise carried out in the region of the larynx and its neighboring organs. So we actually transform phonetic speech, in which the inner movement tendencies are not subject to attention because they are only devoted to the sound, we transform phonetic speech into a visible language: the whole human being – or groups of people too – stand in front of you on the stage and perform the movements that are otherwise performed invisibly when phonetic speech is produced. That which underlies speech as a sub-sensation, I would say, is brought out and imprinted as movement on the human form or on groups of people.

This creates an opportunity to point out something that is currently being felt very vividly by creative artists – at least, one would like to point this out from one corner – namely, that a large proportion of artists today are yearning for new means of expression, new forms of expression. Impressionists, expressionists or whatever these artists call themselves, is how the various paths taken in their art are called. On the one hand, we see how the immediate impression is to be captured, how the impression is to be reproduced. Because people today have actually lost the power to delve into the inner essence of things, as the great artists of earlier epochs were able to do, have lost the ability to create entirely from within, so to speak, what remains is captured in the impression. Or, what is captured through wrong words and so on, which then seems difficult for more philosophical natures to understand, is captured in expressionism. But these are all paths that actually lead to answering the old question of art in a new way: how do you capture impressions artistically without thoughts playing a role in the process? Abstract thoughts are always the ones that kill actual art. Art must proceed without abstract thoughts. Now, here we have the opportunity. In ordinary speech, we do not have the same opportunity, because today the need to communicate has already descended too far into the conventional, into usefulness. And the artist, for example, must try to achieve through what lies beneath language - also a eurythmic element, by the way - that which can satisfy him.

Here in eurythmy, we have the opportunity - apart from the one element that is present in spoken language - to completely switch off the thought and to derive the movement directly from the whole human being, from the will, so that we have something very direct, because the means of expression is made by the human being himself, comes about in the human being himself. Incidentally, it expresses itself because the human being is the instrument of this eurythmic art and what is inherent speaks directly to the senses, as all art must speak to the senses, and everything that is soul-based passes directly into movement, so that here, under all circumstances, a union of the expressionistic with the impressionistic is created. The impression is given by everything speaking to the senses, to the eye, the expression is given by the fact that it is the inner life of the human being that is expressed in these movements. This avoids all pantomime and mere mime, and one arrives at a regularity in the movements that can be compared to the inner connection of the melodious and harmonious element in the music itself. In this way, what you will hear on the one hand as recitation and on the other as music is transposed into this visible language.

Those of you who are present and who have been here before will see that we have made efforts to make some progress recently, particularly in the construction of forms. However, these are things that are still very much in the making. We are our own harshest critics and we know very well how much is still missing in each case. On the whole, it will still be a matter of implementing the dramatic element into the eurythmic. I have been working on this for a long time, but so far no way has been found, while in the lyrical, and in the humorous, it has recently been very successful as a well-executed presentation. To express this in a new way, not only what was in the words, but the real form, that is, what the poet has made of the content, to express that also in the rhythm of the movements, that is our ideal: not to express the direct feeling, as it is also the case with music, not to express that which is a chance connection between gesture and inner soul experience, but something so lawful as it is present in the spoken language itself.

This is some of what I have to say to you about the formation of the art of eurythmy. You will see that in this art of eurythmy, the true artistic quality that has been so sorely lost in our time comes into its own. Our time often looks at the content of a poem, not at the how of the structure, the beat, the rhythm, which is what really matters. I would like to remind you again and again how Schiller, when writing his most significant poems, did not first have the literal content in his soul, but rather a kind of indeterminate melody - no matter which words it should belong to - an inwardly moving music in the soul, and only then did the words arise.

Those who cannot see through to this eurythmic element will not be able to understand the artistic element in poetry either. Recitation must also follow this aspiration, and cannot see its ideal here either, as the literal content is particularly emphasized, muffled and the like, which is currently regarded as the ideal of recitation , but rather that which lies in the how, in the formal elements, in the movement of thoughts and feelings, quite apart from the literal content, which is more of a guide to the artistic aspect and not the artistic aspect itself. This must also be expressed in the recitation. Otherwise it would not be possible to accompany this eurythmic art in reality in the recitation. The art of recitation as it is generally regarded today is something that can no longer be done alongside eurythmy. But precisely through this, the prospect will open up that our inartistic time will return to artistic feeling when one sees that something that can only be understood in the actual artistic sense, like this eurythmy, will also radiate something of the actual artistic element for the sister arts.

Then this eurythmy, this visible speech, has a hygienic element. I do not want to talk about that today because of the shortness of time. Another essential element, however, is the pedagogical-didactic one, which is why we have already introduced eurythmy as a compulsory subject in our Waldorf School in Stuttgart, where it already shows what it is supposed to for those who want to see it.

My dear attendees, of course there is a certain appreciation for gymnastics, which has emerged in more recent times in the development of humanity. But people who see a little deeper - like Spengler - have already expressed their reservations about gymnastics. And for those who are still aware of the prejudices that exist in today's world and who can see something ahead, know that gymnastics, because it is guided by the physiology of the human being, by the physical body, can to some extent also train this physical body, but that what the person of the present time does not have, but what he urgently needs – initiative in the will, initiative in the soul – can only be cultivated by introducing soul-filled gymnastics – eurythmy – alongside the previous gymnastics, which is more physical. Through this soul-filled gymnastics, which is incorporated into didactics and pedagogy, every movement that the child performs as eurythmy is such that it is worked towards engaging the whole person, not just the physical part. This is something that will be taken into account little by little, precisely because initiative of the will, soul initiative of the will, must be striven for alongside physical education, which can only come through gymnastics.

So today, in addition to the artistic side of eurythmy, you will also see something presented by children. This should be seen only as a sample of how eurythmy can work in a pedagogical-didactic way on the child. In all of this, however, I may ask for your forbearance again today, for the reason that it is meant very seriously that we ourselves are the strictest critics of these our beginnings, perhaps of the attempt of our beginnings in our eurythmic art and eurythmic didactics. They will need further training, perhaps even from others, because it takes a long time to develop, like other arts; but then this eurythmic art – anyone who seriously engages with it must have this prospect – will be able to stand in a dignified way alongside its older sister arts, which have had longer to influence people.

Dear attendees!

I have not chosen these few introductory words to precede our eurythmy because I want to explain what will be seen from the stage later on, but because this eurythmic art attempts to achieve something from particular artistic sources and in a particular artistic formal language.

Eurythmy should be a kind of visible language, a language performed by movements in a single person, by a person in space or by groups of people. But these movements that are performed should not just represent pantomime or mime, especially in relation to what is to be expressed. We will see how the recitation runs parallel to this eurythmy when the content of a word or a poem is to be expressed in the visible language of eurythmy. Musical content can also be expressed in eurythmic forms in the way that it can be expressed through tones.

However, it is not just about expressing content; it is also about ensuring that this eurythmy has been developed from a careful study of the basis of our audible language, our phonetic language. In this phonetic language, it is not just the movements that are carried out by the larynx and other speech organs that are transmitted to the air, so that they then impinge on the organ of hearing as a result of this transmission and thus convey the sound and tone, but rather, movement tendencies come into question. These inner movement tendencies of the larynx and its neighboring organs, when transformed, can be studied as if through sensory-supersensory vision. They can then be transferred from certain individual organs of speech to the whole person: then the whole person performs the same movements that are also performed by the speech organs, but in the speech organs these movements are immediately transformed into air vibrations and thus convey the sound. They are not transformed into vibrations, but proceed in the way that otherwise only the movement tendencies of the speech organs proceed. By placing the whole person or even groups of people on the stage as a living, moving larynx, you see what you would otherwise hear.

This makes it possible to go back to deeper artistic sources in the human being than is possible with mere spoken language, especially since, with a more developed spoken language – and all civilized spoken languages today are already developed – the conventional and the conceptual come into play. We have to infuse our words with that which thoughts have as a thought content or conventional content, which is necessary for people to understand each other. Both are elements that destroy the artistic. In particular, the fact that the content of thought - all thought as such is unartistic - is pushed into the sounds, thereby giving spoken language a particularly unartistic element.

And the poet has to struggle to create art in poetry despite the fact that phonetic language actually goes against the artistic. This is also the reason why in the most difficult art of all, in poetry, everyone believes they are a poet if they can just make verses, while what is essential is to see how, in true the literal is not the main thing at all, but rather that which is formal about poetry, the beat, the rhythm, the musical, entirely pictorial, that which underlies it, not the literal.

But what underlies poetry as a kind of eurythmy is then poured into visibly moving forms when one moves on to eurythmy. In this way one arrives at a kind of language that, in the immediate impression, already strings together images in front of the unspoiled aesthetic sense of the human being who is not prejudiced. Today, however, what appears in eurythmy as a law is not what is important, saying that the individual of the form expresses that, the individual of the movement expresses this, but where it depends on the succession of movements, as the organism also allows the succession of tones to have an effect on it in the musical. It is still often thought today that the human being does not feel what is to be presented in this moving music or speech of eurythmy. But then eurythmy is only at the beginning of its development and will find its way into the general realm of art.

What needs to be considered, however, is that the content of thought is indeed receding and that the content of will, that which is also artistic in poetry, the inward content of the soul, is expressed through that which is moving speech. So that, to a certain extent, in audible speech, when the content of thought is pushed back a little, the means of expression of the artistic formal language in eurythmy, and all the more so the eurythmic, artistic element, that which cannot be produced by mere phonetic speech, comes to the fore. That is one element [of eurythmics], that a visible language is attempted, and this visible language is then treated artistically.

You will see – especially if there are revered spectators and listeners among you who have been here before – how, especially in the last few months, we have worked to suppress the mere pantomime or mime in all of our work – something that can, of course, work with it if you don't want to), and how it is attempted to express precisely that which the poet first expresses in rhythm, in the inner harmonious and melodious connection of the words, to express that in the forms, that is, to take the actual artistic element and not the prose content of a poem.

Today it is difficult to distinguish between the actual artistry and the prose content of a poem, because in recitation, too, one strives to bring forth the content of the poem purely emotionally. But that is not the point. Rather, one can only accompany the eurythmic art in a recitative if one sees perfection in the recitation as emphasizing the underlying melody, harmony, rhythm, meter or imagery of the poetry, not the prose content.

It must be mentioned again and again that Schiller did not first have the prose content in mind's eye when writing his most significant poems, but rather some indeterminate melody, something musical. Only then, when this musical element had worked inwardly in him, did he invest this melodious element with a content that is basically indifferent to what was melodiously produced. Many examples could be given, especially from the great poets, of how to shape the content out of the form.

Therefore, we must also consider finding a form of recitation for this eurythmy that already contains the eurythmic element. Then you will ensure that precisely through this eurythmy, what otherwise – namely in such poems that have already been conceived in eurythmy, such as my sayings, for example, which are already thoroughly predisposed in the imagination in these eurythmic forms from the outset – that precisely there the eurythmic can come out when what is to be achieved is achieved: that in this way, eurythmy, as a matter-of-course means of expression, gives expression better, one might say, than prose words can give expression. That is the artistic side.

Eurythmy also has an important therapeutic and hygienic side, but to discuss this further would take us too far afield. I would like to speak instead about the significant didactic and pedagogical side of eurythmy, which has already been used in the Freie Waldorfschule in Stuttgart, where it has been introduced as a compulsory subject alongside gymnastics. In the future, people will think differently about these things than they do today.

You will find some examples of children's work, but it is all still in its infancy. The world will one day judge thus: physical education is certainly a very fine thing, but it will not be overestimated, physical education, the purely physiological physical education that studies the forms of movement from the physical body. People will know that we can achieve strong muscles, but what can we do to achieve the strength of the soul's initiative? That is what is important and what can be achieved through eurythmy as inspired gymnastics, when not only physiological movements are performed, but soul lives in every movement, as is the case in eurythmy, that is, inspired gymnastics.

Furthermore, it is not only a special kind of art form, but also has a special pedagogical-didactic side that is important for strengthening the will and developing inner initiative in children. Anyone who observes the present time with an alert soul rather than a dormant one will recognize the extent to which we are led to develop the energy of the soul. For this is something that we truly lack and that is fundamentally connected with our social issues in the most acute way.

It is self-evident that what can be offered in one direction or another is still in its very early stages. We are our own harshest critics and I therefore ask you to be lenient with what we have conceived artistically. Eurythmy is still in its infancy, but it will perfect itself, perhaps through us, but more likely through others. And then it will be able to stand as a young art alongside the older arts, which have already become part of people's habits, tastes and prejudices. It will be able to stand as a young art, as a fully fledged young art, alongside its older sister arts.

Saying from the soul calendar (22nd) by Rudolf Steiner
Saying from the soul calendar (23rd) by Rudolf Steiner
“The Element of Life“ by Friedrich Hebbel
Saying from the soul calendar (24th) by Rudolf Steiner
“Little Dance” by J. $. Bach (children's group with eurythmists)
Saying from the soul calendar (25.) by Rudolf Steiner
“Sommerbild“ by Friedrich Hebbel
Saying from the soul calendar (26.) by Rudolf Steiner
“Scherzo” by Hendrika Hollenbach
Cosmic prelude with music by Leopold van der Pals
“V. Urtrieb“ by Fercher von Steinwand
“VI. Urtrieb” by Fercher von Steinwand
“Soldatenliedchen“ (children's group)
From the ‘Vormittags-Skizzenbuch’ by Christian Morgenstern
“Ein Rätsel” by Rudolf Steiner
“Schwalben” by Christian Morgenstern
“Two Roots“ by Christian Morgenstern
Satirical prelude with music by Leopold van der Pals
“Northward” and “West-East” by Christian Morgenstern
Prelude with music by Leopold van der Pals
The “Magpie” series by Christian Morgenstern

Dear attendees,

As on previous occasions before these eurythmy exercises, I would like to take the liberty of saying a few words in advance today. This is not done with the intention of somehow explaining artistic performances, that would be inartistic - art must speak for itself - but it is done because what is presented here as the eurythmic art is based on certain sources for artistic creation that have not been used in the same way before, and also on a certain formal language that has not been used in art in this way either. The basis of this eurythmy is a kind of visible language, but not a sign language or anything mimetic - anything gestural or mimetic must be avoided here.

Rather, you will see [this language] expressed through the individual human being moving in his limbs – or through the movement of the human being in space or also through the movement of the mutual positions of groups. So you will see movements that are visible linguistic expression in the same way that expression is ordinary language in an audible way. So eurythmy is based on emotional life expressed in a visible language.

What the artist then seeks to shape is, of course, something that is first built on this special language. This special language has not come about in some arbitrary way, through the fixation of this or that movement for the individual sound, for the individual word or for some sentence or some rhythm, or from some other context. Rather, the basis for the eurythmic art has come about through careful study, but on the basis of what Goethe calls sensuous-suprasensuous vision.

Our speech organs – the larynx and the other speech organs – are in constant motion. Everyone knows that they are in motion when we speak, because the sound is simply conveyed through the air by the air being vibrated by the movement of the speech organs. But it is not this movement that is important here, but rather the tendency to move, which in turn underlies this vibratory movement. And this tendency of movement, which can be studied for every sound, for every inflection, and also for that which underlies the expression of speech in the soul, has all been studied and is transmitted from a single organ or a group of organs, such as the larynx and its neighboring organs, to the movements of the whole person.

This is done entirely out of Goethe's world view. Goethe sees the whole plant only as a complicated expression of a single organ, the leaf. This is an expression of Goethe's important theory of metamorphosis, which has not been sufficiently appreciated scientifically by a long way. Just as Goethe's morphology of form thus sees the whole plant as a complicated, developed leaf, so we try, as it were, to place the whole human being on the stage like a modified, moving larynx. And then, in the artistic realm, what has been begun is further transformed. The artistic aspect only really begins when what has been gained through the study of the secrets of human speech is shaped.

Of course, from today's point of view, it is very easy to say: Yes, what movements are performed, that cannot be understood. My dear audience, a new-born child does not understand language either. Language must first be listened to. And for eurythmy this is not as easy as it is for speech. When a person simply abandons themselves to the form of movement on which the art of eurythmy is based, they have an instinctive, intuitive knowledge of it. Every human being has the potential to understand human language; but it must be clear, for example, that poetry first emerges from ordinary spoken language by formally transforming and developing this spoken language in terms of rhythm, rhyme, alliteration and so on. So what can be learned eurythmically as a basic formal language must first be artistically developed. Those of the honored audience who have been here often will notice how we have progressed in recent months in terms of the artistic development of eurythmy. You may have seen how much at that time still recalled facial expressions, ordinary gestures, but how we worked our way out of that, so that little by little there is actually nothing left in what is done in eurythmy but what the poet makes out of the linguistic content. And the further we get at shaping what the poet first makes out of the linguistic content, the more the eurythmic art will develop. The artistic element in eurythmy is to the movement of speech, to visible speech, as poetic language is to language.

The task now is to present a self-contained work of art through the inner laws of eurythmy, just as one creates a musical work of art through the succession of tones or the poetic art through the artistic design of the vocabulary of language. They will become a completely independent art because that is still necessary today, until eurythmy has achieved a certain emancipation, being a completely independent art. However, this may take a very long time, perhaps decades. Today you will still see musical elements presented in parallel, where some soul element is revealed through the sound, through the musical art – and at the same time the same soul element through the eurythmic art – or mainly poetic elements. And here it must be taken into account that when the eurythmic is accompanied by recitation, the recitation itself is forced to return to the earlier, more artistic forms of recitation, which have been more or less lost in our thoroughly unartistic times.

Today, something special can be seen in such recitation, which essentially goes back to the prose of the poem's content and actually takes back what the poet has made from the material of the poem. That is why the poet creates something out of language in rhyme, rhythm, beat and so on. When reciting, this does not have to be taken back by reciting according to the content of prose, according to the pure logic that underlies it. This is considered a sincere, soulful recitation. However, it has become an unartistic recitation. We are therefore trying to shape the art of recitation in a eurythmic way again, namely to give what is already eurythmic in poetic language in recitation as well, to bring out the rhythmic, the pictorial, imaginative, the rhyme and so on. It is precisely in such things that eurythmy, in the wake of which such views must arise, can in turn have a fruitful effect on other artistic endeavors. And that will be of very special importance in our time.

It is already the case, as I have said, that eurythmy is in the early stages of its development. We ourselves are most aware of the mistakes we still make today; but it will perfect itself. Today it must be said that this eurythmic art has, firstly, the artistic on the one hand; on the other hand, however, it has an essentially pedagogical-didactic and hygienic element in it. And in the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, we have introduced eurythmy as a compulsory subject.

One day, when people think about these things more objectively than they do today, they will see that when children are taught eurythmics, they actually add something to ordinary gymnastics that can be called soulful gymnastics, because every movement also comes from the soul. In this way, what is merely physiological gymnastics - that is, something derived only from the physical laws of the human body - is enriched by movements that come from the soul. This has a very strong influence on the whole development of the growing human being. While ordinary gymnastics actually only trains the body, eurythmy - you will also see some examples of children's eurythmy today - has an effect on the child and its development that awakens and appropriately fosters willpower, the soul's initiative. And this is of the greatest possible importance for our time, for the present and the near future, since our age has brought about catastrophic events precisely because people lack awakened souls.

So then, eurythmy has various sides to it: an artistic side, a pedagogical-didactic side. But all this is actually only just beginning today. Hopefully it will be further developed, probably by others, no longer by us. For the one who can really see through the world form language of eurythmy knows what still needs to be done. Then it will be seen that it can stand alongside its older sister arts as a fully justified art. In this sense of a beginning, perhaps also of an attempt at a beginning, I ask you to take up such ideas from the eurythmic art as we want to present to you again today.

Saying from the Calendar of the Soul (24) by Rudolf Steiner
Saying from the Calendar of the Soul (25) by Rudolf Steiner
“Prooemion“ by J. W. v. Goethe
“l. Urtrieb” by Fercher von Steinwand
“Parabasc” by J. W. v. Goethe
“II. Urtrieb“ by Fercher von Steinwand
“Epirrhema” by J. W. v. Goethe
“III. Urtrieb“ by Fercher von Steinwand
“Antepirrhema” by J. W. v. Goethe
“]V. Urtrieb” by Fercher von Steinwand
“The Treasure-Digger” by J. W. v. Goethe
Evoe with music by Max Schuurman
A cheerful prelude with music by Leopold van der Pals
Humoresques by Christian Morgenstern: ‘The Lamb Cloud’; ‘The Stations’; ‘The Salm’ with music by Jan Stuten

Dear attendees! We are taking the liberty of showing you another sample of the eurythmic art today. This art is based on certain artistic sources that are to be newly opened and aims to become a kind of new artistic formal language. For this reason, you will allow me, as I usually do before these performances, to send a few words in advance today - not to explain the performance, but rather, artistic things must work through themselves in the immediate impression, but to suggest the formal language and sources from which what is presented to you here as the eurythmic art comes.

The basis of the art of eurythmy is a kind of visible language. The whole human being performs movements in his gestures, or: he performs movements in space or groups of people perform movements in space. All this could be understood as an ordinary, even representational, ordinary art of dance, but it is neither of these, but is based on a careful study of the ordinary language of the human being. This is what is perceived by the human ear. But at its basis lies a certain tendency of the larynx and other speech organs to move. These tendencies of movement are to be understood as what is communicated as a vibrating weaving of the air: It is not something more highly developed than thought, but something more deeply rooted, something that takes place in a seemingly simpler way than the vibrations of the air, but which is expressed through the vibrations of the air when the tone that underlies this movement tendency expresses itself.

We can study what the larynx and speech organs do when a sound is produced, how they behave in a whole word, in a sentence transition, how they behave when certain sound sequences play out, and so on. All this can be studied – allow me to use this Goethean expression – through sensory-supersensory observation. Then, what is otherwise only assessed – that is why I said: movement tendencies – what is otherwise only assessed in the larynx and the other speech organs, is transformed into small vibrations as it develops, and then transferred. And then what language describes, what the human being performs in his movements or in movements in space, or what groups of people perform, that means what can be experienced, can be experienced on the one hand through language, and on the other hand through the visible language of eurythmy. One can express through this eurythmy what musical creation is – you will also see rehearsals today – one can also express what poetic creation is.

But when the recitation, that is, the artistic reproduction of the poetic, accompanies the eurythmy, then, for example, the recitation must take up the eurythmic element. Today, our age is somewhat inartistic, and one does not have the feeling that the real artistry of a poem only begins when the prose-like, the mere content, the literal content of a poem has been overcome. It is never about what the poet says, but how he says it, how he shapes it in meter and rhythm or how he artistically shapes it and is able to give shape to the image through the word. In the case of a poet like Goethe, for example, we can see how his poetic language has a plastic character, how he imaginatively conceived the transformation of the pictorial. In the case of Schiller, we know that before he wrote any poem, he had a kind of melody living in his soul. At first, it was all the same to him what should arise from this melody as a poem – “The Diver” or “The Fight with the Dragon”: He had it living in his soul as a melody, and the other simply lined up in the poem. That is how you can shape with the melodic, with the plastic poem.

All of this comes to light in a proper recitation. In our unartistic age, what is usually brought out is what is appropriate to the prose content, what is literal. What the poet has artistically done with the content is what is actually formally artistic in the recitation. And then what is offered in the poetry also coincides with what is offered in the visible language of eurythmy and in the recitation. You know how to shape this or that sound, this or that word formation and the like, so that something artistic comes about from the whole, and in particular, that the artistic element of the eurythmic performance is properly formed in parallel with the poetry, the artistic formation of a poem. That is a purely artistic activity. And we must distinguish between the elementary nature of the eurythmic language of form and what is artistically revealed in the process. But it is not the case that eurythmy is pantomime, mimicry or mere gesticulation or dance. Rather, everything is such that actually everything lies in the artistic sequence of movement forms, so that the melodious and musical lies in the sequence, in the interaction of the sounds. Likewise, an inner lawfulness in space and in the time of the eurythmy production underlies this.

Those of you who have been here before will have noticed how, over the past few months, we have been working to develop this element of artistic form-giving more and more in eurythmy, and how we are getting closer to capturing in artfully designed forms what the poet has made of the literal content. In this way one can adapt exactly to the humor or tragedy or ballad-like language or whatever characterizes a poem.

So this eurythmy initially offers something artistic. The human being is the instrument for their eurythmic performances. In the most eminent sense, this eurythmy achieves precisely what Goethe had in mind when he said: When man is placed at the summit of nature, he sees himself again as a whole nature, which in turn has to produce a summit. To achieve this, he elevates himself by permeating himself with all perfection and virtue, invoking number, order, harmony and meaning, and finally rising to the production of the work of art. We should bear in mind that the visible and invisible worlds converge in his being, that all the forces at work in the visible and invisible are reflected in him in some way, are formed in him in miniature. And when the human being makes himself an instrument of artistic expression through his organism, what is particularly expressed is what then strives in the human being's soul towards movement. Eurythmy is an art that, when it arises directly and immediately, truly works out of the movements of the human being.

That is the artistic side of eurythmy. On the other hand, there is something about eurythmy that – quite apart from many other things – can be addressed as a therapeutic-hygienic element, but which I do not want to talk about now. But another element of eurythmy is the pedagogical-didactic element that it contains. At our Freie Waldorfschule in Stuttgart, which was founded by Emil Molt and is run by myself, we have introduced eurythmy as a compulsory subject alongside gymnastics.

One will only appreciate eurythmy as a compulsory subject once one has overcome certain prejudices – which, from my point of view, I do not want to fight so much – regarding gymnastics. Gymnastics is purely physical. One may have one's own opinion about the movements that the physiologist derives from the physical make-up of the human being. I do not want to dispute them here, but it is nevertheless the case that ordinary gymnastics only has a physiological meaning for the harmonization of the physical body of man. Although I do not want to go as far as a naturalist who listened to my introductory words in this regard and who said: He would not even appreciate gymnastics as much as I do. He would not consider it to be something physiologically effective, but simply a barbarism. But the present, dear honored attendees, will object to that, especially if one has to evoke some hostility because of the other branches of one's activity, one would not want to go straight to such sentiments.

But this is what must be particularly emphasized, regardless of whether gymnastics merely trains the human body physiologically or whether it is also a barbarism: the powers of the soul, the initiative of the will, are in any case – and I emphasize this particularly – is trained in children through eurythmy, when the child, through this compulsory subject, becomes so immersed in these eurythmic movements, when they are performed in the right way, as a young child would otherwise naturally become immersed in spoken language. Eurythmy awakens activity in the human soul, so that the drowsiness in which the souls find themselves can be overcome. Otherwise it would get more and more out of hand in the most terrible way. If you imagine, let us say, the next generation, you have to admit that you can only get beyond these things by at least adding this soul-filled gymnastics to the usual external soulless gymnastics, in eurythmy.

Everything in eurythmy is still in its infancy, but you can be quite sure that we are our own harshest critics. We know what we lack and we are constantly striving to make more and more progress in this respect. I have often mentioned that we have made good progress, for example, in shaping the large forms. We will show you these large forms today in a Fercher poem, “Choir of Primordial Instincts”, which is being performed today and which really moves in a strange cosmic directing force, in that it - Fercher von Steinwand - poetically shapes you. When you see this 'Urtrieb' choir, you will perhaps notice how we have tried and are still trying to make good progress again and again. Over time, the art of eurythmy will be perfected more and more, either by ourselves or probably by others, so that it can establish itself as a fully-fledged newer art alongside the older fully-fledged arts.