A conceptual study of spirituality in selected writings of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze

Abstract

Several authors have noted that one of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze’s aims was to dissolve the mind–body dualism, typical of Cartesianism. However, there has been little research on the spirit–body connection, as it appears in Jaques-Dalcroze’s writings. The purpose of this document analysis is to understand how a hermeneutic phenomenological model for spirituality in music education can inform our understanding of spirituality in selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze. In the adapted model holism, balance, aesthetic experience, and movement in time, space, and with energy emerged as core concepts. This gives us a much richer understanding of the Dalcroze approach than has hitherto been available and adds to a growing narrative about the spiritual as it pertains to Jaques-Dalcroze and the approach he initiated.

Keywords

corporeality Dalcroze Eurhythmics hermeneutic phenomenology Jaques-Dalcroze relationality spatiality spirituality temporality

Introduction

Although there are many research studies on the Dalcroze¹ approach and applications in various contexts (Habron, 2013, 2015; Mathieu, 2010) as well as research on spirituality in music education (Beringer, 2000; Bogdan, 2010; Boyce-Tillman, 2000, 2007; Carr, 2010; Matsunobu, 2011; Palmer, 2010; Yob, 2010, 2011), there are no studies that we are aware of that address Dalcroze Eurhythmics and spirituality within the field of music education.² Several authors have noted that one of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze’s aims was to dissolve the mind–body dualism, typical of Cartesianism (Juntunen, 2004; Juntunen and Westerlund, 2001). Although the body/mind and spirit connection in musical experience has been made in Elliott’s praxial philosophy of music education (Silverman, Davis, & Elliott, 2013), there has been no research on the spirit–body connection as it appears in Jaques-Dalcroze’s writings.

Our study differs from the above-mentioned studies because it is a systematic document analysis that is informed by a theoretical model of spirituality in music education. Our research problem was “derived from a theory by questioning whether a particular theory [a hermeneutic phenomenological model for spirituality in music education] can be sustained in practice [selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze]” (Merriam, 2009, p. 57). What followed was an elaboration and modification of existing theory by the rigorous “matching of theory against data” (Strauss & Corbin 1994, p. 273). The modified theory (see Figure 2 later) illustrates the links between Jaques-Dalcroze’s writings and spirituality.

Dalcroze practitioners and music teachers might be interested in this study because a heightened awareness of spirituality in Jaques-Dalcroze’s writings could contribute to pedagogical thoughtfulness and tact regarding the experiences of participants in Dalcroze contexts, whether educational, therapeutic, or in the performing arts. It might also be useful for historians of music education, dance and body culture in helping them to understand the presence of spirituality in Jaques-Dalcroze’s thought during the years 1898–1930.

The purpose of this document analysis is therefore to understand how a hermeneutic phenomenological model for spirituality in music education (Figure 1) can inform our understanding of spirituality in selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze. This document analysis responds to the question: how can we understand spirituality in selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze using a phenomenological model for spirituality in music education?

Figure 1.

A hermeneutic phenomenological model for spirituality in music education (Van der Merwe & Habron, 2015).

It is important in studies of spirituality to make a distinction between it and religion, as the two terms can be confused. Religion has been defined as “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods” (Religion, 2013). Spirituality, by contrast, is generally used as an umbrella term that may embrace religion, but also includes many other ways to express and value the ineffable, aesthetic or sacred in human experience. Van der Merwe and Habron’s article (2015) refrains from defining spirituality and rather explains spirituality in the music education literature in terms of holistic and sacred experience as well as the relational, spatial, temporal, and corporeal ways we are in the world. Van der Merwe and Habron’s (2015) conceptual model for spirituality in music education (Figure 1) is our point of departure for this article and therefore we will explain it briefly.

Explaining the theory we are using

The hermeneutic phenomenological model for spirituality in music education (Figure 1) is based on the literature on spirituality, spirituality in music education, and spirituality in dance education. “Phenomenology describes how one orients to lived experience, hermeneutics describes how one interprets the ‘texts’ of life” (Van Manen, 1990, p. 4). To build a conceptual model for spirituality in music education, Van der Merwe and Habron (2015) interpreted 22 sources (Figure S1, available online) as “texts of life,” all of which concerned spirituality as lived experience. From analyzing the 22 sources and incorporating Van Manen’s lifeworld existentials, core concepts emerged: holistic experience and sacred body, time, space, and relationship. The four emergent themes were corporeality, relationality, temporality, and spatiality. These ways of being in the world are often transcended through spiritual experiences within active music education. In this model, spirituality in music education is described in terms of these core concepts and four themes. Each theme has categories related to the theme (Figure 1).

In the first theme, relationality, connection to self, others, the world, and the sacred was a category with many quotes. It is an important aspect of spirituality in music education since it often features when spirituality in music education is described in the literature. It is also this connectedness in music education activities which people find meaningful. Boyce-Tillman (2000) explains that, “The self is constructed as a dynamic entity balancing a number of polarities” (p. 92). Polarities such as spiritual virtues and vices were also found in the literature on spirituality in music education. In the second theme (Figure 1), spatiality, there were references in the literature to awe and wonder, becoming mindful and aware during music education activities. This acute awareness often facilitates ecstasis, transcendence and a different kind of knowing, namely suprarationality. The third theme (Figure 1), temporality, is about spirituality as a journey. In music education, spiritual experiences are often joyful. When peak experiences occur during music activities, many of the authors of the 22 sources describe flow experiences. Spiritual experience is also often linked in the literature to the eternal, when time is transcended or with the understanding that this spiritual journey is eternal. The fourth theme, corporeality, reminds us that spiritual experiences in music education are embodied experiences and these experiences are enhanced through awareness of the body and sensory experience. Creativity is also often associated with corporeality and spirituality.

We want to interrogate the applicability of Van der Merwe and Habron’s model to aspects of spirituality that appear in selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze. This is timely, as the phenomenon of spirituality is not only of increasing importance in music and dance education research (Bogdan, 2010; Boyce-Tillman, 2007; Van Der Merwe & Habron, 2015; Williamson, 2010), but has also received serious attention recently in Dalcroze studies. For example, Huxley and Burt (2014) investigate Jaques-Dalcroze and Wassily Kandinsky’s “contributions to the development of the spiritual and the inner life” (p. 255), noting that they shared the “artistic aspiration to help individuals move towards a new way of being that was less materialistic and more spiritual” (p. 261). Huxley and Burt (2014) provide an historical foundation for our study, as they show that people in Jaques-Dalcroze’s lifetime, such as M. T. H. and M. E. Sadler, who met him, saw him work, and published his texts, noticed the presence of spirituality in his practice and thought. This existing research helps to ground our study and avoid “description located in a vacuum” (Sutherland, 1969, p. 54) that may sometimes afflict document analyses.

Method

The research design of this article is a qualitative conceptual study. Although qualitative studies are often inductive, this study was more deductive (Merriam, 2009). We questioned the applicability of spirituality theory (Van der Merwe & Habron, 2015) in selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze and created a modified theory on Dalcroze and spirituality. “This theory-first approach is useful for testing and developing theories in new contexts” (Rule & John, 2011, p. 96).

Data collection

The following selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze, were chosen because they are available in English and are well-known:

The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze (1920;)³

Rhythm, music and education (1921/1967);⁴ and

Eurhythmics, art and education (1930).⁵

These are the three major collections of essays by Jaques-Dalcroze that have been translated. We use the third and revised edition of The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze (1920). This was a collective work, first published in 1912, with a second and revised edition appearing in 1917. The second source, especially, has been influential. A new edition of this book was published in 1967 and reprinted by the Dalcroze Society UK in 1980 and 2000. It has been translated into many languages besides English, including Chinese and Japanese. Taken together, the essays in these collections were written over a 32-year period.

A word on translation

The three sources upon which this document analysis is based are English translations from the original French. Therefore it is important to acknowledge briefly the complexity of translation with an example. Jaques-Dalcroze often uses the words âme and esprit, and they can be translated in several ways. Normally, translators of Jaques-Dalcroze’s writings render esprit as “mind” and âme as “soul.” However, this is not consistent since esprit is sometimes translated as “spirit”:

Tant que ceux-ci n’auront pas été complètement développés, il y aura conflit entre les sensations et les sentiments, et la lutte incessante entre le corps et l’esprit empêchera la spiritualisation nécessaire de la matière. (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1965, p. 58)

So long as the body has not been perfectly developed, there must be constant friction between sensations and feelings, and this incessant conflict between body and spirit will prohibit the necessary spiritualisation of matter. (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1914/1967, p. 62)

Regardless of issues in translation, we focus on the English translations, but bring this issue to the fore to signal that an analysis of the original French texts may yield some different results.

Data analysis

During the systematic document analysis new data (selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze) were constantly compared to a priori codes from the hermeneutic phenomenological model for spirituality in music education (Van der Merwe & Habron, 2015) and as a result a modified model with codes, categories and themes emerged. The a priori codes used were the categories in Figure 1. ATLAS.ti 7, a computer-aided qualitative data analysis software program, was used to facilitate this iterative process of noticing, collecting, and thinking about data (Friese, 2012, p. 92).

Findings and discussion: Matching theory against data

The findings and discussion are presented as a continual comparison between the hermeneutic phenomenological model for spirituality in music education (Figure 1) and the data (selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze). The patterns of findings show how Jaques-Dalcroze’s ideas, theories and observations relate to the model (Figure 1). We now consider the four lifeworld existentials and the accompanying categories in the model after a brief look at the findings in relation to the core of the model.

Holism, balance, aesthetic experience, and movement in time, space, and with energy emerged as core concepts related to the categories in all four themes (Figure S2, available online). First, Jaques-Dalcroze continuously stresses holism, the inseparability of body and mind, sometimes body, soul and mind: “It must likewise be possible for the individual’s motor powers … to be placed in immediate contact with the cerebral and the emotional faculties, for soul and body to be in mutual and intimate communion” (1930, p. vii).

Second, there is balance, which is closely related to holism, but is distinct. Within the holistic experience afforded by eurhythmics, the balance between the different aspects of the self is important for Jaques-Dalcroze. He also speaks of restoring balance, a clear indication of the original therapeutic dimension of eurhythmics (Habron, 2014): “idea and sensation may be united by a series of calm waves which create psychophysical balance” (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1930, p. 65).

Third, aesthetic experience is fundamental to eurhythmics. Jaques-Dalcroze wanted his pupils “to say at the end of their studies, not ‘I know,’ but ‘I experience’” (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1925/1930, p 58). However, for Jaques-Dalcroze the primacy of experiential learning lies not in “taking in” musical experience in an impressionistic way, but in responding in a fully alert, somatic, and precise way.

In Figure 1 the core concepts are holistic experience, sacred body, time, space, and relationships. In the selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze, we did not find these to be the core concepts when spirituality was described. Instead, movement in time, space, and with energy emerged as core concepts. Jaques-Dalcroze suggests that rich embodied experience through rhythmic movement affords spiritual experience, and that this is a necessary step towards the expressive “inspiriting” of artistic means.

Van der Merwe and Habron’s (2015) model of spirituality in music education had holistic experience at the center. Thus, in placing holism and aesthetic experience in the center of our picture of Jaques-Dalcroze’s writings, we see that these two terms re-appear, but now separately, and in more nuanced ways. There are two other significant differences. Balance now appears as central and the sacred drops out of the picture. Jaques-Dalcroze does not use the word, except to say that “Rhythm is everywhere” is a “sacred principle” (1916/1967, p. 109). And yet this does not undermine the strong seam of spiritual awareness that runs through his writings, as we will now show, by focusing on each of the four themes: relationality, spatiality, temporality, and corporeality.

Theme 1: Relationality in selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze

During the analyses of Jaques-Dalcroze’s writings, relationality emerged as a theme as well as the following categories: connection to inner self, others, and the environment, spiritual unity, spiritual virtues and vices, give life, and meaning (Figure S3, available online). Three categories of connections with self, other, and the environment (Figure S3, available online) feature in Jaques-Dalcroze’s writings. He states “Teachers should aim at furnishing them [pupils] with the means both of living their own lives and of harmonising these with the lives of others” (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1919a/1967, p. xi). Jaques-Dalcroze (1920) also believes that embodied musical expression can connect us with the depths of our inner being and that “nuances of tone, pitch and intensity of sound … create in music that higher element that … [can connect] the individual with the universe” (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1915a/1967, p. 83).

Connection to inner-self (Figure S3, available online) is often mentioned in Jaques-Dalcroze’s writings when he emphasizes self-knowledge, self-development, and self-expression and relates self-knowledge to aesthetic expression. “One can create nothing of lasting value without self-knowledge” (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1912/1920, p. 30). Therefore he urges music teachers to train children “to become conscious of their personalities, to develop their temperaments, and to liberate their particular rhythms of individual life from every trammelling influence” (1919a/1967, p. xii). However, he not only emphasizes self-knowledge and self-expression, but also communal aesthetic expression. For example, Jaques-Dalcroze (1919a/1967, p. xiii) talks about connection to others (Figure S3, available online): “now the War is over, the coming generation will experience this need of forming groups for the expression of common emotion.” In terms of spiritual unity, Jaques-Dalcroze (1919a/1967) believes “that a new demand for collective unity will drive numerous persons, formerly estranged from art, into association for the expression of their common spirit” (p. xii).

Jaques-Dalcroze (1920, 1912/1967, 1930) preaches spiritual virtues (Figure S3, available online) such as joy, love, hope, and honesty and says that “children need—above all else—masters who love them and make a point of getting to know them” (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1922/1930, p. 13). He considers art “the outward projection of love and knowledge of beauty and truth” (1930, p. 93). Therefore “Aesthetics should be born of ethics” (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1919c/1967, p. 186). For him, “receive and give” is the “golden rule of humanity” (1914/1967, p. 63) and he explains that the “more joy we inherit, the more we are tempted to impart it among those to whom it has been denied” (1915b/1967, p. 100). Jaques-Dalcroze (1921/1967) does not only acknowledge spiritual virtues, but also spiritual vices (Figure S3, available online). He suggests that the true educator provides students with examples of both beauty and ugliness, good and evil, so that the student is provided with the means to choose between them (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1921/1967, p. 35)

A spiritual virtue that flows like a golden thread through Jaques-Dalcroze’s writing is joy. He states “I like joy for it is life” (1912/1920, p. 31) and relates music to life (Figure S3, available online) when he says that “No art is nearer life than music” (1921/1967, p. 16). Life becomes visible through music in movement. Jaques-Dalcroze (1920, p. 25) writes, “In several of her plastic interpretations the great artist Isadora Duncan instinctively surrenders her body to continued movement and these interpretations are the most filled with life and meaning.”⁶ Meaning (Figure S3, available online) also stems from the connection to others while moving together, when harmony is established between people. The Dalcroze approach is meaningful because it promotes the connections people have with their inner selves, others, and the environment. This links with our next theme, spatiality, because these meaningful connections may lead to transformation and transcendence.

Theme 2: Spatiality in selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze

In selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze, the following categories related to spatiality emerged: freedom, awareness, awe and wonder, ecstasis, transcendence, sensibility, transformation, and suprarationality (Figure S4, available online). All the categories within the theme spatiality in Van der Merwe and Habron’s (2015) model for spirituality in music education are mentioned in the writings studied here, with emphases on transcendence and suprarationality. From Jaques-Dalcroze’s writings, new categories, namely freedom, transformation, and sensibility emerged.

“To live life fully both mind and the body must be free” (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1930, p. 70). It is through freedom of expression that people are transformed (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1925/1930, p. 61). According to Boyce-Tillman (2000, p. 91), “there is great stress on freedom as a necessary part of the creative process” and creativity is connected with peak experiences, transformation and transcendence (Boyce-Tillman, 2000, p. 91).

Other spatiality categories that facilitate transcendence and transformation are awareness/consciousness, awe and wonder, and ecstasis. Jaques-Dalcroze often mentions how his approach awakens “vital emotions and the consciousness of mental states” (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1921/1967, p. 5). He also believes that to be completely musical a child should possess “the consciousness of bodily rhythm” (1921/1967, p. 36).⁷ This awakening of a learner’s temperament and aesthetic sense should be the music teacher’s first priority (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1921/1967, pp. 104–105).

Jaques-Dalcroze puts a lot of emphasis on the awe and wonder that the beauty of music provokes and urges teachers to awaken in their pupils a “love for life in beauty, and beauty in life” (1921/1967, p. 108). When pupils become aware of this beauty ecstasis becomes possible. This “mystical emotion is an intensification of aesthetic emotion and proceeds from a state of mind akin to intoxication” (Schopenhauer, cited in Jaques-Dalcroze, 1930, p. 190). Just as ecstasis is associated with being transported outside ourselves, “by pleasure so intense that it seems sometimes almost painful to endure” (Bogdan, 2010, p. 119), so is transcendence.

Boyce-Tillman (2007) also defines the nature of spirituality “as the ability to transport the experiences to a different time/space dimension—to move them from everyday reality to a world other than the commonplace” (p. 1410). Jaques-Dalcroze refers to transcendence of the body, the self and transcending inwards and upwards. He regards the body as the medium of elevation and the catalyst for transcendence. “The more automatism possessed by our body, the more our soul will rise above material things” (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1914/1967, p. 61). This correlates with the notion of embodied spirituality which is “generally understood to reflect a view that all dimensions of the human being—body, soul and spirit—are potentially sites for the transcendent” (Trousdale, 2013, p. 24). Jaques-Dalcroze explains that the unification of spirit and body is only possible through “an assiduous training in movements in time and space” (1916/1967, p. 110).

Sensibility, “a true sense of the relations between movements in time and those in space” (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1925/1930, p. 49), relates to artistic awareness, which in turn originates from sensations and emotions, “feeling/s” Jaques-Dalcroze would say. “These qualities are delicacy of aural perception, nervous sensibility, rhythmic feeling … and the faculty of spontaneously externalising sensations of movement and transforming them into feelings and emotions—i.e. the imaginative and creative sense” (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1925/1930, p. 49).

Jaques-Dalcroze (1909/1920) believes that artists trained in his method will find “new rhythmic forms to express their feelings and that in consequence their characters will be able to develop more completely and with greater strength” (p. 18). He describes transformation of character, selves, education, and humanity in his writings and urges educators to regenerate themselves and “help [with] the growth of a more beautiful humanity” (1912/1920, p. 31).

Jaques-Dalcroze says that his method stimulates intuition (1930, p. 105) and “subconscious expression” (1909/1920, p. 16), which Boyce-Tillman (2000) calls “subjugated ways of knowing” (p. 92). Van der Merwe and Habron (2015) called it suprarationality. This type of knowing is embodied knowledge. The body “is itself a site of spiritual knowing, of experiencing the immanent mystery” (Trousdale, 2013, p. 24).

Theme 3: Temporality in selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze

Emergent categories related to temporality were: rhythm, joy, journey, and eternal (Figure S5, available online). Whilst rhythm did not emerge from Van der Merwe & Habron’s (2015) literature review of spirituality in music education, it is no surprise—given its importance to Jaques-Dalcroze—that it should surface often in his writings. Rhythm was placed within temporality, since it relates to time and duration. Joy, which did feature in the model (Figure 1), is also prominent and Jaques-Dalcroze himself frequently associates rhythm with joy. For example “There is no greater happiness than in moving rhythmically and giving body and soul to the music that guides and inspires us” (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1919b/1967, pp. 167–168).

Elsewhere Jaques-Dalcroze states “I preach joy, for it alone gives the power of creating useful and lasting work” (1909/1920, p. 31). Jaques-Dalcroze also prefigures contemporary theorists when he writes that in the rhythmics class the child will “conceive a profound joy of an elevated character, a new factor in ethical progress, a new stimulus to will power” (1915b/1967, p. 98). Joy in music education is associated with communion and interpersonal relations (Petersson and Nyström, 2011).

Rhythm is also associated with connection to others. Given that the Dalcroze class is nearly always a group experience, this is not unexpected. The relationality that rhythm affords also operates intra-personally. For Jaques-Dalcroze, rhythm organizes the self and helps to connect different facets of the individual:

Only rhythm can assure the unity of human faculties and constitute that ethical individuality … the possession of which reveals our divers potentialities, and transforms the human organism into a confluence of ideas, sensations, and faculties—a living harmony of independent entities voluntarily united (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1916/1967, p. 109, emphasis in original)

The notion of journey is a temporal one. The single lesson, a teacher’s career, and one’s whole life are all journeys. Grise-Owens (2011) has noted that spiritual journeys can be expressed in terms of endeavor. Jaques-Dalcroze’s views bear this out: “Rhythmic movement is a very focus of energy and joy, and all who study it are upheld by the consciousness that they are aiming at the same goal and are linked to one another by bonds of solid affection which give them renewed strength, security and courage” (1930, p. 13). He also writes about “a common seeking after the eternal laws of art” (1930, p. 38), a viewpoint that brings together the idea of a shared journeying with that of timelessness. Jaques-Dalcroze often appeals to eternality—the collapsing of past, present and future—and saw in his method the potential of its revelation: “It reveals to us secrets of the eternal mystery that has ruled the lives of men throughout the ages” (1914/1967, p. 64).

Although journey and the eternal are woven into Jaques-Dalcroze’s notion of the temporal, rhythm is the more prominent thread. It is closely linked to joy, it is a factor that connects us to others and to ourselves, and it is fundamental to aesthetic expression. Jaques-Dalcroze wrote “rhythm is movement” (1907/1967, p. 39) and so it is to corporeality that we now turn.

Theme 4: Corporeality in selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze

Corporeality can be explained by the following emergent categories: embodiment, creativity, sensory experience, expression, breath and energy (Figure S6, available online). Many of the aspects of corporeality present in Van der Merwe and Habron’s (2015) model for spirituality in music education are also present in Jaques-Dalcroze’s texts.

Embodiment features strongly. Jaques-Dalcroze claims “Every man should have music within himself”(1925/1930, p. 58). The italics in the original highlight his insistence that music be “lived” corporeally (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1925/1930, pp. 50–51). As in the spirituality literature, Jaques-Dalcroze links embodiment and creativity. He writes that eurhythmics “gives it [art] the most perfect and supple of interpreters, the human body, which may become a marvellous instrument of beauty and harmony when attuned to the artistic imagination and collaborating with creative thought” (1925/1930, p. 55). According to him, aesthetic expression via the body is only made complete if imagination and creativity are present.

The body is a sensing organism and the presence of corporeality in Van der Merwe and Habron’s (2015) model for spirituality in music education emphasizes the fleshiness of spiritual experience; the spirit, according to Trousdale (2013), is not disembodied. Within Jaques-Dalcroze’s writings, corporeality is ever-present and this includes sensory experience. He states “The child’s first education consists in teaching him to know himself, in familiarising him with, and arousing in him sensations, feelings and emotions” (1925/1930, p. 50).

For Jaques-Dalcroze, embodied experience of music and aesthetic expression were mutually supportive. The ability to embody music leads to musical expression and the latter, in turn, develops the former. Brown argues the possible relevance of sensory experience to spirituality as follows:

Many of the physical activities that children engage in and that are not inherently competitive … but rather experience-based lend themselves particularly well to prioritising direct experience using … sensory focusing … for the purposes for spiritual growth. (Brown, 2013, p. 39)

Rhythmic movement also includes the most primordial of bodily movements, the breath. Besides noting that “The action of breathing provides a regular division of time, and is thus a model of measure” (1907/1967, p. 38) and that breathing exercises aid relaxation, Jaques-Dalcroze claims “Breathing is at the basis of every manifestation of life, and plays as well aesthetically as physiologically a role of the very highest importance in moving plastic” (1919c/1967, p. 215).⁸

For Jaques-Dalcroze, his method was also a sort of energy. He claims “It is a force analogous to electricity … an energy … whose influence restores us to ourselves, in making us aware, not only of our own powers, but also those of others, those of humanity” (1925/1930, p. 57). One of the reasons for this may be the inherently social nature of a Dalcroze education, in which various forms of contact between participants are fundamental to the experiential learning process (Greenhead & Habron, 2015). Indeed, according to Roulston (2010), embodiment in music education relies on multisensory experiences mostly in relation to others. In Jaques-Dalcroze’s essays, eurhythmics is presented as a means to self-knowledge and awareness of others through reflection-in-action; he observes that it not only has the potential to reveal us to ourselves, but it also to reveal others to us.

Concluding with the adapted model of Dalcroze and spirituality

Taken as a whole, these findings indicate that Jaques-Dalcroze’s writings relate substantially and unequivocally to the four lifeworld existentials and the accompanying categories in Van der Merwe and Habron’s (2015) model that was used to interrogate the data (Figure 1). Therefore, we conclude that we can fruitfully understand Jaques-Dalcroze’s writings from almost all the perspectives provided by the hermeneutic phenomenological model of spirituality in music education. This gives us a much richer understanding of the Dalcroze approach than has hitherto been available and adds to a growing narrative about the spiritual as it pertains to Jaques-Dalcroze and the approach he initiated (Huxley & Burt, 2014). The adapted model that emerged is shown in Figure 2. The relatively few differences between the models confirm the usefulness of Van der Merwe and Habron’s (2015) model, as it has been applied in this case. This study also shows how the model is adaptable when applied to different cases.

Figure 2.

A phenomenological model for spirituality in selected writings by Émile Jaques-Dalcroze.

Implications

In the music education literature there has been a discourse in recent years about how we could create opportunities where spiritual experiences might be possible in the music class and why this might be important (Boyce-Tillman, 2007; Bogdan, 2010; Yob, 2011). In the writings of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze studied here, we find that this discourse is in fact at least more than a century old as he explains how teachers might develop connections between body, mind and soul.

Jaques-Dalcroze suggests the following ways we could teach for spirituality:

“create a feeling for beauty in the souls of our pupils” through “the power of suggestion” where nuance changes can be suggested by the teacher without sacrificing the natural musicality of the child (1905/1967, p. 22).

Cultivate the aesthetic sense and direct education not only at understanding music, but also at loving it (1905/1967, p. 23).

“It is better to provide him with the means of choosing between good and evil, beauty and ugliness, than to show him either only the good and beautiful or only the bad” (1905/1967, p. 27).

Integrate music into learners’ beings so that “the soul should be widened … enlarged by learning” (1905/1967, p. 27).⁹

Create awareness or musical consciousness through physical experience (1907/1967, p. 39).

Submerge and saturate the spirit in music through musical education in which the body “plays the intermediary between sounds and thought” (1898/1967, p. 4).

Focus on both individual and communal aesthetic expression.

Unify spirit and body through “movements in time and space” (1916/1967, p. 110).

Boyce-Tillman (2007) mentions that the aesthetic is now a secular term for the spiritual domain. Since Jaques-Dalcroze is primarily concerned with aesthetic expression, it gives us reason to believe that if the Dalcroze approach is applied in the music class, opportunities for spiritual musical experiences could be created. We believe it is important to create these opportunities because spiritual experiences could increase spiritual well-being. Spirituality is often described as a connection to self, others, the world, and the transcendent (Hyde, 2005, p. 33). Fisher (2007, p. 165) similarly defines spiritual well-being as being “reflected in the quality of relationships that people have in up to four domains, namely with self, with others, with the environment and/or with God.” If the Dalcroze approach could help us to connect with each other it is worth pursuing in music education.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Professor Selma Odom for commenting on an earlier draft of this article, to Professor Dee Reynolds for help in discussing issues of translation and to Professor Louise Mathieu, Dr Josée Vaillancourt, and Ana Navarro Wagner for help in translating the abstract.

Notes

References

Beringer

(2000). In search of the sacred: A conceptual analysis of spirituality. Journal of Experiential Education, 23(3), 157–167. doi:10.1177/105382590002300307

Bogdan

(2010). The shiver-shimmer factor: Musical spirituality, emotion, and education. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 18(2), 111–129.

Boyce-Tillman

(2000). Promoting well-being through music education. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 8(2), 89–98.

Boyce-Tillman

(2007). Spirituality in the musical experience. In Bresler

(Ed.), International handbook of research in arts education (pp. 1405–1422). New York, NY: Springer.

Brown

D. H. K.

(2013). Seeking spirituality through physicality in schools: Learning from “Eastern movement forms.” International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, 18(1), 30–45. doi:10.1080/1364436X.2013.776521

Carr

(2010). Exploring the spiritual and moral light and dark sides of musical experience and appreciation. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 18(2), 130–144. Retrieved from http://muse.jhu.edu/

Choksy

Abramson

R. M.

Gillespie

A. E.

Woods

(1986). Teaching music in the twentieth century. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Fisher

J. W.

(2007). It’s time to wake up and stem the decline in spiritual well-being in Victorian schools. International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, 12(2), 165–177. doi:10.1080/13644360701467469

Friese

(2012). Qualitative data analysis with Atlas.ti. Los Angeles: Sage.

10.

Greenhead

Habron

(2015). The touch of sound: Dalcroze Eurhythmics as a somatic practice. Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, 7(1), 93–112.

11.

Grise-Owens

(2011). Pedagogy and spirituality in higher education: Perspectives, practices, and possibilities. In: Chang

H. V.

Boyd

. (Eds.), Spirituality in higher education: Autoethnographies (pp. 147–162). Walnut Creek: CA, Left Coast Press.

12.

Habron

(Ed.). (2013). Proceedings of the First International Conference of Dalcroze Studies. Coventry: Coventry University.

13.

Habron

(2014). “Through music and into music”—through music and into wellbeing: Dalcroze Eurhythmics as Music Therapy. TD: The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 10(2) [special edition], 90–110.

14.

Habron

(Ed.). (2015). Proceedings of the 2nd international conference of Dalcroze studies. Vienna, Austria: University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

15.

Huxley

Burt

(2014). Concerning the spiritual in early modern dance: Émile Jaques-Dalcroze and Wassily Kandinsky advancing side by side. Dance, Movement and Spiritualities, 1(2), 251–269. doi:10.1386/dmas.1.2.251_1

16.

Hyde

(2005). Beyond logic—entering the realm of mystery: hermeneutic phenomenology as a tool for reflecting in children’s spirituality. International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, 10(1), 31–44.

17.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1898/1967). The place of ear training in musical education. In Rubenstein

H. F.

(Trans.), Rhythm, music and education (pp. 1–5). London: The Dalcroze Society.

18.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1905/1967). An essay in the reform of music teaching in schools. In Rubenstein

H. F.

(Trans.), Rhythm, music and education (pp. 6–35). London: The Dalcroze Society.

19.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1907/1967). The initiation into rhythm. In Rubenstein

H. F.

(Trans.), Rhythm, music and education (pp. 36–46). London: The Dalcroze Society.

20.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1909/1920). Rhythm as a factor in education ( Ingham

P. & E.

, Trans.). In The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze (3rd ed.; pp. 12–21). London: Constable and company.

21.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1912/1920). From lectures and addresses ( Ingham

P. & E.

, Trans.). In The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze (3rd ed.; pp. 28–33). London: Constable and company.

22.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1912/1967). Music and the child. In Rubenstein

H. F.

(Trans.), Rhythm, music and education (pp. 47–59). London: The Dalcroze Society.

23.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1914/1967). Rhythmic movement, solfège, and improvisation. In Rubenstein

H. F.

(Trans.), Rhythm, music and education (pp. 60–79). London: The Dalcroze Society.

24.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1915a/1967). Eurhythmics and musical composition. In Rubenstein

H. F.

(Trans.), Rhythm, music and education (pp. 80–90). London: The Dalcroze Society.

25.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1915b/1967). The school, music and joy. In Rubenstein

H. F.

(Trans.), Rhythm, music and education (pp. 91–102). London: The Dalcroze Society.

26.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1916/1967). Rhythm and creative imagination. In Rubenstein

H. F.

(Trans.), Rhythm, music and education (pp. 103–112). London: The Dalcroze Society.

27.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1919a/1967). Foreword. In Rubenstein

H. F.

(Trans.), Rhythm, music and education (pp. ix–xiii). London: The Dalcroze Society.

28.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1919b/1967). Eurhythmics and moving plastic. In Rubenstein

H. F.

(Trans.), Rhythm, music and education (pp. 146–168). London: The Dalcroze Society.

29.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1919c/1967). Rhythm, time and temperament. In Rubenstein

H. F.

(Trans.), Rhythm, music and education (pp. 181–200). London: The Dalcroze Society.

30.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1920). The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze (3rd ed.). London: Constable and company.

31.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1921/1967). Rhythm, music and education ( Rubenstein

H. F.

, Trans.). London: The Dalcroze Society.

32.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1922/1930). The technique of moving plastic. In Cox

(Ed.), Rothwell

(Trans.), Eurhythmics, art and education (pp. 14–47). London: Chatto and Windus.

33.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1925/1930). The inner technique of rhythm. In Cox

(Ed.), Rothwell

(Trans.), Eurhythmics, art and education (pp. 48–61). London: Chatto and Windus.

34.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1930). Eurhythmics, art and education ( Cox

, Ed., Rothwell

, Trans.). London: Chatto and Windus.

35.

Jaques-Dalcroze

. (1965). Le Rythme, La Musique, et l’ Éducation (new ed.). Lausanne: Foetisch Frères, S. A. Éditeurs.

36.

Juntunen

M-L.

(2004). Embodiment in Dalcroze Eurhythmics (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Oulun Yliopisto, Oulu, Finland.

37.

Juntunen

M-L.

Westerlund

(2001). Digging Dalcroze, or, dissolving the mind-body dualism: Philosophical and practical remarks on the musical body in action. Music Education Research, 3(2): 203–214.

38.

Matsunobu

(2011). Spirituality as a universal experience of music: A case study of North Americans’ approaches to Japanese music. Journal of research in music education, 59(3), 273–289. doi:10.1177/0022429411414911

39.

Mathieu

(2010). Un regard actuel sur la rythmique Jaques-Dalcroze / A current look at Dalcroze Eurhythmics, Recherche en education musicale. Retrieved from http://www.mus.ulaval.ca/reem/REEM_28_Dalcroze.pdf

40.

Merriam

S. B.

(2009). Qualitative research. A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey- Bass.

41.

Religion. (2013). In Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/religion Accessed 06/12/2013.

42.

Palmer

A. J.

(2010). Spirituality in music education: Transcending culture, exploration III. Philosophy of music education review, 18(2), 152–170. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/PME.2010.18.2.152

43.

Petersson

Nyström

(2011). Music: Artistic performance or a therapeutic tool? A study on differences. International Journal of Music Education, 29(3), 229–240.

44.

Roulston

(2010). “There is no end to learning”: Lifelong learning education and the joyful learner. International Journal of Music Education, 28(4), 341–352. doi:10.1177/0255761410381822

45.

Rule

John

(2011). Your guide to case study research. Pretoria: Van Schaik.

46.

Silverman

Davis

S. A.

Elliott

J. D.

(2013). Praxial music education: A critical analysis of critical commentaries. International Journal of Music Education, 32(1), 53–69. doi:10.1177/0255761413488709

47.

Sutherland

(1969). The study of the history of education. History, 54(180), 49–59. doi:10.1111/j.1468–229X.1969.tb01237.x

48.

Strauss

A. L.

Corbin

(1994). Grounded theory methodology: An overview. In Denzin

N. K.

Lincoln

Y. S.

(Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

49.

Trousdale

(2013). Embodied spirituality. International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, 18(1), 18–29. doi:10.1080/1364436X.2013.766880

50.

Van der Merwe

Habron

. (2015). A conceptual model of spirituality in music education. Journal of Research in Music Education, 63, 47–69.

51.

Van Manen

. (1990). Researching lived experience. Human Science for Action Sensitive Pedagogy. Ontario: The Althouse press.

52.

Williamson

(2010). Reflections and theoretical approaches to the study of spiritualties within the field of somatic movement dance education. Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, 2, 35–61. doi:10.1386/jdsp.2.1.35_1

53.

Yob

I. M.

(2010). Why is music a language of spirituality? Philosophy of Music Education Review, 18(2), 145–151. Retrieved from https://www-jstor-org.web.bisu.edu.cn/stable/10.2979/PME.2010.18.2.145

54.

Yob

I. M.

(2011). If we knew what spirituality was, we would teach for it. Music Educators Journal, 98, 41–47.