The Influences of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze’s Eurhythmics Found in Frank Martin's 8 Préludes Pour Le Piano
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Authors Poon, Chiew Hwa
Publisher The University of Arizona.
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THE INFLUENCES OF ÉMILE JAQUES-DALCROZE’S EURHYTHMICS FOUND IN FRANK MARTIN’S 8 PRÉLUDES POUR LE PIANO by Chiew Hwa Poon
______Copyright © Chiew Hwa Poon 2017
A Document Submitted to the Faculty of the
FRED FOX SCHOOL OF MUSIC
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of
DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS
In the Graduate College
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
2017
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THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE
As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Chiew Hwa Poon, titled The Influences of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze’s Eurhythmics found in Frank Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Musical Arts.
______Date: 5/1/17 Tannis Gibson
______Date: 5/1/17 Lisa Zdechlik
______Date: 5/1/17 Shelly Cooper
Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College.
I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement.
______Date: 5/1/17 Dissertation Director: Tannis Gibson
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STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author.
SIGNED: Chiew Hwa Poon
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my major professor, Professor Tannis Gibson. Thank you for being my teacher and believing in me. You have been a tremendous inspiration to me in how you live as a passionate and artistic pianist and a dedicated and supportive teacher. It has been the greatest privilege to study with you and work with you.
Thank you, Dr. Lisa Zdechlik. I am grateful to work with you as a student and teaching assistant. Your generous suggestions and advice are always important to me. I would not teach in the way I do now without your patience, knowledge and guidance. I really appreciate your effort and encouragement in making me a better teacher.
Thank you, Dr. Shelly Cooper for serving as my committee member. I am thankful for your support and intelligent ideas. Observing how you teach early childhood classes and understanding the principles behind the methods has been one of my most rewarding experiences throughout my studies.
I would like to thank my colleagues Chia-Chun Ko, Hye-Yeon Park, Amy Burmeister, Woan Ching Lim and Kimberly Prins Moeller. Your friendship, love and support has been a wonderful gift to me throughout my journey. Thank you for sharing your precious talent and time with me.
Finally, a special thank you to my family for your love, trust and endless support. I would not have made it without you all. Words are not enough to express how grateful I am to have all of you as part of my life.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES ...... 7
LIST OF FIGURES ...... 10
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………...……….…...12
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ...... 13
Intent and Scope...... 13
Review of Scholarly Literature ...... 17
CHAPTER II: BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF FRANK MARTIN AND OVERVIEW OF HIS MAJOR WORKS...... 21
Life and Musical Background of Frank Martin ...... 21
Stylistic Development and Overview of Martin’s Major Works...... 24
Early Compositional Style ...... 24
Mature Compositional Style ...... 26
CHAPTER III: BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF ÉMILE JAQUES-DALCROZE AND OVERVIEW OF HIS EURHYTHMICS METHOD ...... 30
Dalcroze’s Life and the Development of his Educational Method ...... 30
Dalcroze Eurhythmics ...... 34
CHAPTER IV: THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN FRANK MARTIN AND ÉMILE JAQUES-DALCROZE ...... 38
CHAPTER V: FRANK MARTIN’S 8 PRÉLUDES POUR LE PIANO ...... 44
Background ...... 44
Influences of J.S. Bach and Arnold Schoenberg ...... 47 6
CHAPTER VI: EURHYTHMICS ELEMENTS FOUND IN FRANK MARTIN’S 8 PRÉLUDES POUR LE PIANO AND EURHYTHMICS-BASED ACTIVITIES ...... 51
Irregular Measures ...... 53
Unequal Beats ...... 65
Polyrhythm ...... 73
Rhythmic Counterpoint ...... 81
Canon……………………………………………………………………….……………………88
CHAPTER VII: CONCLUSION ...... 93
APPENDICES………………………………………………………………………..…………….……97
REFERENCES …………………………………………………………………………….…………..103
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LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES
Musical Example 4.1. Polymeter and polyrhythm in Martin’s Etude rythmique, mm. 1-9…………………………………………………………. 38
Musical Example 5.1. B-A-C-H motif in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude I, mm. 1-3………...……………………………………. 46
Musical Example 5.2. B-A-C-H motif in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude II, mm. 1-2…………………..………………………..... 46
Musical Example 5.3. Pseudo-twelve-tone row in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VI, mm. 1-2…………………………………………….. 47
Musical Example 5.4. Twelve tone rows in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 17-20………...………………………………. 48
Musical Example 6.1. Irregular measures in Kavaldjiev’s Dilmano, Dilbero, mm. 1-9…………………………………………………………. 52
Musical Example 6.2. Irregular measures exercises in Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, Volume 2, Méthode Jaques-Dalcroze, Mesure alternées, p. 1.… 53
Musical Example 6.3. Irregular measures in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude IV, mm. 1-6…………………………………...... …..…. 54
Musical Example 6.4. Dalcroze’s subdivision of long note-values into different groupings, Rhythm, Music and Education……………………… 55
Musical Example 6.5. Exercises in 6 beats, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, Volume 2, p. 2…………………………………………………... 55
Musical Example 6.6. Meter changes in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 39-41…………………………...... …………. 55
Musical Example 6.7. Meter changes in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 80-82………...………………………………. 56
Musical Example 6.8. Meter changes in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 88-89…………...……………………………. 56
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Musical Example 6.9: Implied meter changes in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VI, mm. 1-2………………………………………….…. 57
Musical Example 6.10. Irregular measures exercise using chords from Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude IV, mm. 1-6……………….…. 60
Musical Example 6.11. Dalcroze’s Unequal Beats examples……………………….…... 63
Musical Example 6.12. Unequal beats in Kavaldjiev’s Dilmano, Dilbero, mm. 1-2.….... 64
Musical Example 6.13. Unequal beats in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude IV, mm. 1-3………………………….………………... 65
Musical Example 6.14. Unequal beats in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VIII, mm. 48-49………..…………………………….… 67
Musical Example 6.15. Dalcroze’s Unequal Beats example……………………….…… 67
Musical Example 6.16. Exercises of different groupings in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 39-40………………………… 70
Musical Example 6.17. Dalcroze’s Rythmique II et III, 1926-1927, Volume 38, p. 122……………………………………………... 72
Musical Example 6.18. 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prelude VI, mm. 1-5……………...... 73
Musical Example 6.19. 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prelude VII, mm. 77-79…………..... 75
Musical Example 6.20. 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prelude VIII, m. 15…………….…... 75
Musical Example 6.21. 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prelude VIII, m. 20……………….... 76
Musical Example 6.22. Rhythmic Counterpoint in Dalcroze Eurhythmics…………..….79
Musical Example 6.23. Rhythmic counterpoint exercise, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, Volume 2, p. 70……………………………………………..…. 80
Musical Example 6.24. Martin’s analysis of rhythmic counterpoint, 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude IV, mm. 1-6……………………….…………… 81
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Musical Example 6.25. Rhythmic counterpoint, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, Volume 2, p. 93……………………………………………………………. 82
Musical Example 6.26. Rhythmic counterpoint in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude V, mm. 17-18…………………………………………. 82
Musical Example 6.27. Rhythmic counterpoint in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 60-62…………………………………….…... 83
Musical Example 6.28. Rhythmic counterpoint exercise, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, Volume 2, p. 69…………………………………………….….... 83
Musical Example 6.29. Interrupted canon exercise…………………………………….. 86
Musical Example 6.30. Interrupted canon in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 54-57……………………..……………….… 87
Musical Example 6.31: Canon exercise, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, volume 1, p. 51.….. 87
Musical Example 6.32: Canon exercise, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, volume 1, p. 67.….. 88
Musical Example 6.33: Canon exercise on piano, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, Volume 2, p. 94……………………………………………….. 88
Musical Example 6.34: Canon in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VI, mm. 1-9………………………………………….... 89
Musical Example 6.35: Theme of a canon with expression, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, Volume 2, p. 68………………………………………………... 89
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 4.1. Dalcroze’s notation of dotted-note in Martin’s La notation du rythme……. 40
Figure 4.2. Martin’s suggested notation of unequal beats……………………………… 40
Figure 6.1. Irregular measures………………………………………………………….. 49
Figure 6.2. Unequal beats………………………………………………………………. 50
Figure 6.3. Polyrhythm…………………………………………………………………. 50
Figure 6.4. Rhythmic counterpoint……………………………………………………... 50
Figure 6.5. Canon……………………………………………………………………….. 50
Figure 6.7. Irregular measures exercise with verbal cues “Change!”…………………... 59
Figure 6.8. Irregular measures exercise with verbal cues (numbers)………………….... 60
Figure 6.9. Piano exercises based on Dalcroze’s suggested exercises………….….…… 61
Figure 6.10. Irregular measures exercises between 6/8 and 3/4……..…………………. 62
Figure 6.11. Comparison of Martin and Dalcroze’s 3 Unequal Beats divisions……….. 66
Figure 6.12. Regularity of unequal beats in Martin’s Prélude IV………………………. 68
Figure 6.13. Unequal beats exercises of two and three…………………………………. 69
Figure 6.14. Unequal beats exercise of three different groupings……………………… 70
Figure 6.15. Polyrhythm exercise………………………………………………………. 77
Figure 6.16. Subdivisions of 6/8……..…………………………………………………. 78
Figure 6.17. Rhythmic counterpoint exercise…………………………………...……… 84
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Figure 6.18. Rhythmic counterpoint exercise with the theme extracted from mm. 1-4 of Martin’s Prélude IV……………………………………..…….. 88
Figure 6.19. Canon exercise…………………………………………………………….. 90
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ABSTRACT
Frank Martin’s (1890-1974) 8 Préludes pour le piano has been studied and analyzed by many researchers, yet the influence of one of Martin’s most important educational experiences, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, has not been discussed in connection to this work. The purpose of this research is to investigate the influences of Émile Jaques-
Dalcroze’s (1865-1950) educational method, eurhythmics, on Martin’s compositional writing, specifically the 8 Préludes pour le piano. This research demonstrates the connection between Martin and Dalcroze through several key observations: 1) their close collegial relationship; 2) the influences of Dalcroze Eurhythmics in Martin’s approach to rhythm; and 3) Martin’s writings on rhythm as connected to Dalcroze Eurhythmics. The examination of Frank Martin’s major piano work, 8 Préludes pour le piano, reveals a strong connection between these composers and their fascination with the expressive power of rhythm. In this paper, I examine the eurhythmics elements evident in Martin’s
8 Préludes pour le piano: irregular measures, unequal beats, polyrhythm, rhythmic counterpoint and canon. Additionally, Dalcroze Eurhythmics-based activities for learning
Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano are offered with the intent of enriching the pianist’s experiences in learning and performing this piece and demonstrating the practical application of the method.
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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
Intent and Scope
The intent of this study is to examine how Émile Jaques-Dalcroze’s (1865-1950) eurhythmics method influenced Frank Martin’s (1890-1974) compositional writing, and, more specifically, his treatment of rhythm in 8 Préludes pour le piano. The close collegial friendship enjoyed by these two Swiss composers was founded in their shared understanding of rhythm as a fundamental musical parameter; both individuals demonstrated new approaches to rhythmic treatments in the early-twentieth century, one as a pedagogue and one as a composer.1
Frank Martin (1890-1974) was a Swiss composer, pianist, and harpsichordist. At age sixteen, he began piano and composition lessons with Joseph Lauber,2 whose teaching provided Martin with a strong foundation in music fundamentals.3 Martin’s wide variety of compositions included vocal and instrumental works, ballets, operas, chamber and large ensemble works. One of his most famous works, Petite symphonie concertante
(1945) for string orchestra and a solo group comprised of harp, harpsichord and piano, is
1 Daniel Rubinoff, “Émile Jaques-Dalcroze's Influence on Frank Martin: 1924-1937” (PhD diss., York University, 2011), iv.
2 Joseph Lauber (1864-1952), a Swiss composer and organist. He taught at Zürich Conservatoire and Geneva Conservatoire. In 1900, he co-founded L’Association des Musiciens Suisses to promote the music of Swiss composers (http://web.archive.org/web/20060506022132/http://www.mjcerri.com/Lauber/lauber.htm).
3 Donna Sherrell Martin, “The Piano Music of Frank Martin: Solo and Orchestral” (DMA diss., University of Cincinnati, 1993), 4.
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an effective two-movement work enhanced by the interesting combination of different timbres.4 Martin composed eight solo piano works, the best-known among them are 8
Préludes pour le piano (1948), Etude rythmique en hommage à Jaques-Dalcroze (1965) and Fantaisie sur des rythmes flamenco (1973).
In 1926, Martin’s interest in rhythm led him to study at the Institut Jaques-
Dalcroze (IJD) where he worked closely with Émile Jaques-Dalcroze.5 After completing his studies, Martin became a professor of improvisation and rhythmic theory at the
Institut. Martin held eurhythmics in high regard and praised the method’s effectiveness for training young performers and composers. During his years at IJD as an instructor, he began to incorporate aspects of Dalcroze’s method in his teaching approach.6
Eurhythmics, an educational method founded and developed by Dalcroze, is intended to deepen students’ responses to rhythm through body movements.7 The word eurhythmics is derived from the Greek word eurhythmia, which translates as “good flow” or “good movement.” Achieving a quick and regular communication flow between brain
4 Bernhard Billeter. "Martin, Frank." Grove Music Online. www.oxfordmusiconline.com (accessed June 11, 2015)
5 Swiss composer and music educator Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) began studying music at an early age with his mother, Julie Jaques. He attended the Geneva Conservatoire, studied in Paris with Gabriel Fauré, Léo Delibes and Mathis Lussy, and also studied in Vienna with Anton Bruckner and Robert Fuchs. In 1892, he was appointed as Professor of Harmony at the Geneva Conservatoire, where he began to research and develop what would come to be known as the Dalcroze Eurhythmics method (Lawrence W. Haward and Reinhard Ring. "Jaques-Dalcroze, Émile." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed June 11, 2015, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy1.library.arizona.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/14181).
6 Rubinoff, 135.
7 Ibid., iv.
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and body through rhythm is a major principle of the eurhythmics method.8 Dalcroze viewed rhythm as foundational to life and believed rhythm, as a musical construct, could develop related physical responses.9 He stated that the study of rhythm awakened the feeling for bodily rhythm:
A special training of the muscular system and nerve centres [sic], the capacity for perceiving and expressing nuances of force and elasticity in time and space—likewise concentration in the analysis, and spontaneity in the execution, of rhythmic movements, enabling pupils to read, mark and finally create rhythm (both mentally and physically).10
The movements one might observe in a typical eurhythmics class are an individual or group of students responding with movements according to the music improvised by the teacher at the piano.
The task typically is to move in space using certain guidelines that are specific to the occasion or musical piece. The teacher shapes the music not only to the rules of the task, but to what he or she observes the students doing. The students, in turn, shape their accomplishment of the task to the nature of the music – its tempo, dynamics, texture, phrase structure, and style.11
My study focused on selected eurhythmics elements directly connected to the rhythmic devices in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano. These eurhythmics elements include irregular measures, unequal beats, polyrhythm, canon, and rhythmic counterpoint.
While Dalcroze codified a large array of eurhythmics elements, my study was limited to
8 Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze (Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1918), 16.
9 Rubinoff, 22.
10 Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Rhythm, Music and Education, Trans. Harold Rubenstein (New York and London: G.P Putnam's Sons, 1921), 120-1.
11 Anne Farber and Kathy Thomsen, ed., Dalcroze Society of America, “What is Dalcroze?” http://www.dalcrozeusa.org/about-us/history (accessed August 18, 2015).
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these five identified elements as they appear in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano. I have drawn this selection of eurhythmics elements from the eurhythmics exercises outlined in
Dalcroze’s books, Rhythm, Music and Education (1921) and La Rythmique (1918).12 The rationale behind my focus on the analysis of eurhythmics elements is that the piece exhibits a strong rhythmic presence upon listening, and that the close collegial relationship between these two Swiss composers—both fascinated by rhythm—invites further inquiry. A portion of this study was devoted to the creation of rhythmic exercises using various gestures to help performers achieve the fluidity of coordination necessary for the successful performance of Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano. The author has provided a detailed pedagogical guide for performers to enhance the understanding of
Martin’s rhythmic compositional techniques, and demonstrated that Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano was influenced by the Dalcroze Eurhythmics method.
12 Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Rhythm, Music and Education, trans. Harold Rubenstein (New York and London: G.P Putnam's Sons, 1921); and É mile Jaques-Dalcroze, Methode Jaques-Dalcroze: La Rythmique (Lausanne: Jobin et Cie, 1918)
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Review of Scholarly Literature
Four dissertations on Martin’s piano music are available, but none examine the connections between Martin’s compositions and Dalcroze’s Eurhythmics. Stylistic
Analysis of Selected Works By Frank Martin13 by Tupper provides an overview of
Martin’s piano works through analysis of form, harmony, texture, rhythm and meter.
Tupper discusses Martin’s use of irregular accents and compound meters in his 8
Préludes pour le piano. Collins’ The Eight Préludes for Piano of Frank Martin14 displays a brief analysis of the 8 Préludes pour le piano including form, melodic procedure, harmonic analysis and pianistic idioms, while D.S. Martin’s work The Piano Music of
Frank Martin: Solo and Orchestral15 focuses on the formal structure, harmonic language and the use of syncopation in each Prélude. Finally, Invention through Synthesis: Former
Composers Observed in Frank Martin's Huit préludes pour le piano16 by Pak surveys the influences of other composers on Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano and presents a motivic analysis of the Préludes.
13 Janet Tupper, “Stylistic Analysis of Selected Works by Frank Martin” (PhD diss., University of Indiana, 1964).
14 Geraldine Collins, “The Eight Preludes for Piano of Frank Martin: A Lecture Recital, Together with Three Recitals of Selected Works of J.S. Bach, L.V. Beethoven, J. Brahms, F. Chopin, I. Albéniz, R. Schumann, A. Scriabin, F. Liszt, and K. Szymanowski.” (DMA diss., North Texas State University, 1980).
15 Donna Sherrell Martin, “The Piano Music of Frank Martin: Solo and Orchestral” (DMA diss., University of Cincinnati, 1993).
16 Jooeun Pak, "Invention through Synthesis: Former Composers Observed in Frank Martin's Huit préludes pour le piano" (D. Mus diss., Indiana University, 2014).
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Research pertaining to the influence of Dalcroze Eurhythmics on Martin’s works is limited. Rubinoff, in his dissertation “Émile Jaques-Dalcroze's Influence on Frank
Martin: 1924-1937,” investigates Dalcroze’s influence found in Martin’s music during the period 1924-1937.17 The dissertation provides an historical background of Dalcroze and Martin and the connection that developed between them. Rubinoff analyzes three works by Martin: Trio sur des mélodies populaires irlandaises (1925), Rythmes (1926) and the piano work, Étude rhythmique (1965). These discussions provide an informative and analytical framework through which to identify and explore many of the eurhythmics elements found in Martin’s compositions. Rubinoff does not include Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano in his discussion, nor does he provide an application of the method through suggested eurhythmics movements.
As a prominent early-twentieth century music educator, Dalcroze authored many books including Rhythm, Music and Education and The Eurhythmics of Jaques-
Dalcroze.18 He also published a treatise, Méthode Jaques-Dalcroze.19 Rhythm, Music and
Education, that outlines his teaching philosophies and insights into rhythmic ideas supported by numerous eurhythmic exercises, while The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze summarizes his belief in rhythm as an essential factor in education. In addition to these two books, Dalcroze’s treatise will also be utilized; in this treatise, he presents his method
17 Daniel Rubinoff, “Émile Jaques-Dalcroze's Influence on Frank Martin: 1924-1937” (PhD diss., York University, 2011).
18 Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Rhythm, Music and Education, Trans. Harold Rubenstein (New York and London: G.P Putnam's Sons, 1921); and idem, The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze. (Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1918).
19 É mile Jaques-Dalcroze, Methode Jaques-Dalcroze: La Rythmique (Lausanne: Jobin et Cie, 1918).
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in six parts and uses drawings to enhance the understanding of movement. One useful section of the treatise is found in La Rythmique,20 which explains the eurhythmic exercises used by Dalcroze in his teaching. These publications serve as valuable sources for the rhythmic analysis of Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano.
Several publications offer insight regarding Martin’s thoughts on the value of
Dalcroze’s method, and demonstrate the professional and pedagogical connections between Martin and Dalcroze. Martin shared insights on rhythm in his book, Écrits sur la rythmique pour les rythmiciens, les pédagogues, les musiciens,21 and devoted the first half of the book to discussing Dalcroze and the rhythmic development of Dalcroze’s method. Martin also wrote introductions for two of Dalcroze’s biographies: Émile Jaques
Dalcroze: L’homme, le compositeur, le créateur de la rhythmique and Rhythm and Life:
The work of Émile Jaques Dalcroze.22 Another important source of Martin’s musical thought is found in Entretiens sur la musique where he discussed his compositional techniques.23 These sources provide persuasive evidence of Dalcroze’s influence on
Martin.
20 La Rythmique was published in two volumes, each chapter presents a pedagogical approach in different meters using body gestures and rhythmic exercises. Dalcroze also included a variety of finger exercises to address rhythmic mastery for piano including irregular accents, dynamic exercises, polyrhythms and counterpoint.
21 Frank Martin, Écrits sur la rythmique pour les rythmiciens, les pédagogues, les musiciens (Geneva: Éditions La Papillon, 1995).
22 Frank Martin et al. Émile Jaques Dalcroze: L’homme, le compositeur, le créateur de la rhythmique (Neuchâtel: Éditions La Baconnière, 1965); Irwin Spector, Rhythm and Life: The Work of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (New York: Pendragon, 1990).
23 Frank Martin and Jean-Claude Piguet. Entretiens sur la musique. (Neuchâtel: Éditions de la Baconnière, 1967).
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Several books and articles have been written about Dalcroze’s life, works, and educational approach. These important sources provide an understanding of the principles of Dalcroze’s teaching and the development of his method. The titles include Rhythm and
Life: The Work of Émile Jaques Dalcroze and Dalcroze Today: An Education Through and into Music.24 Spector, the author of Rhythm and Life: The work of Émile Jaques
Dalcroze, details the influence of Dalcroze on Martin’s compositional techniques, demonstrating how Martin acknowledged that influence:25
Martin recognized the pedagogic qualities of rhythmique, but for him (Martin) the method mainly served to bring him into more direct observation of rhythms, always a viable consideration in his works. Rhythms, he said, became more meaningful to him since he was so close to the Dalcroze movement, and he could work it into his compositions more intelligently, more effectively.26
24 Irwin Spector, Rhythm and Life: The Work of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (New York: Pendragon, 1990); Marie-Laure Bachmann, Dalcroze Today: An Education Through and Into Music (Oxford University Press: New York, 1991).
25 Irwin Spector was an educator, musicologist, and composer. He is most known for his work Rhythm and Life: The Work of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze.
26 Irwin Spector, Rhythm and Life: The Work of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (New York: Pendragon, 1990), 330.
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CHAPTER II: BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF FRANK MARTIN AND OVERVIEW OF HIS
MAJOR WORKS
Life and Musical Background of Frank Martin
Frank Martin, born September 15, 1890 in Geneva, Switzerland, was the tenth child of pastor Charles and Pauline Martin. His grandfather, Charles Martin-Labouchère, a bassoonist in the Geneva Orchestra, was the only professional musician in the family.
Martin’s parents encouraged all of their children to learn music. At age 9, Martin composed his first song, Tête de linotte.27 Although Martin gravitated towards music, he followed his parents’ wishes and studied mathematics and physics during his teenage years. However, with the knowledge that he wished to become a musician, he chose not to complete the courses. Instead, at age 16, he began private instruction in piano and composition with Joseph Lauber.28 Although Martin never formally attended a conservatory, he furthered his musical education by attending Geneva Symphony
Orchestra rehearsals to study orchestration.29
In 1915, Martin met Ernest Ansermet who had been appointed as the principal conductor of the Geneva Symphony Orchestra. Over time, Ansermet and Martin
27 Mervyn Cooke, "Frank Martin's Early Development," The Musical Times, Vol. 131, No. 1771 (September 1990): 473-478. Tête de linotte (Scatterbrain)
28 Joseph Lauber (1864-1952), a Swiss composer and organist. He taught at Zürich Conservatoire and Geneva Conservatoire. In 1900, he co-founded L’Association des Musiciens Suisses to promote the music of Swiss composers (http://web.archive.org/web/20060506022132/http://www.mjcerri.com/Lauber/lauber.htm).
29 Cooke, 473.
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developed a friendship and Ansermet would become one of the most important advocates of Martin’s music, conducting many premiere performances of his compositions. 30
Martin was in active service during World War I, which resulted in a significant decrease in his compositional output during a three-year period. After World War I,
Martin lived in Zurich, Rome, and Paris, and was exposed to the newest compositional styles of the early-twentieth century. Martin married Odette Micheli in 1918 and raised six children, but the marriage eventually failed and he returned to Geneva in 1926.31
Martin’s fascination with rhythm led him to attend the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze from 1926-1928. He remained at the Institut from 1928-1937, where he served as
Professor of Improvisation and Rhythmic Theory and worked closely with Émile Jaques-
Dalcroze—Institut founder and director. In that same period, he held several other positions including Director of Technicum Moderne de Musique, a private music school that he founded; Professor of Chamber Music at the Geneva Conservatory; and pianist and harpsichordist in the Société de Musique de Chambre.32
Martin married his second wife, Iréne Gardian, in 1931. Unfortunately, their marriage ended with Gardian’s illness and death in 1939.33 In 1946, Martin moved to
Amsterdam with third wife, Maria Boeke, a flutist. He traveled regularly to teach composition classes at the Cologne Hochschule für Musik (1950-1957) where Karlheinz
30 Donna Sherrell Martin, “The Piano Music of Frank Martin: Solo and Orchestral” (DMA diss., University of Cincinnati, 1993), 4.
31 Ibid., 5.
32 Ibid., 5-6.
33 Rubinoff, 164. 23
Stockhausen was among his pupils. During this period, he also travelled internationally to perform his works. Martin’s compositions became increasingly popular throughout his life as evidenced through prizes and honors garnered, including the Swiss Composer’s
Society Award (1949) and honorary doctorates awarded by the University of Geneva
(1949) and the University of Lausanne (1960).34 Frank Martin continued to compose in
Amsterdam until his death at age 84 in 1974.
34 Ibid., 6.
24
Stylistic Development and Overview of Martin’s Major Works
Early Compositional Style
Frank Martin considered himself a late starter and did not establish a compositional style until later in his career.35 He grew up surrounded by German music, as it was the music enjoyed by his family and the trend in Geneva prior to Ernest
Ansermet’s arrival. He began private lessons with Joseph Lauber, who provided Martin with the foundation of traditional harmony. Martin’s background and training drew his focus to the harmonic aspects of composition, where it remained throughout his creative life. Piano became Martin’s preferred instrument largely due to its wide range of harmonic capabilities.
Martin was deeply moved by a performance of J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at age 12, and specifically was captivated by Bach’s treatment of harmonies and chromaticism.36 The influence of Bach is especially evident in Martin’s work leading up to his Piano Quintet (1919), which marked the beginning of the middle experimental period of his works.37 Despite the fact that Martin was raised in Switzerland, a French- speaking country, his musical background primarily consisted of German music until
Ansermet began to advocate for and perform the music of contemporaries such as
Debussy and Ravel in Geneva.
35 Mervyn Cooke, "Late Starter. Frank Martin Found himself Late in Life." The Musical Times, Vol. 134, No. 1801 (March 1993): 134-136.
36 Martin, 11.
37 Ibid., 14. 25
Martin’s Trois poémes païens for baritone and orchestra (1910) was his first composition to gain notable public attention. The first performance of these songs was intended for the tenth anniversary celebration of the Swiss Musicians Associations.38
Martin considered his Quatre Sonnets à Cassandre for mezzo-soprano, flute, viola, and cello (1921) to be the best of his early works. This was the first composition to introduce characteristics that would become his mature style, including attention to music’s vertical dimension and avoidance of tonal harmonies found in the Classical and Romantic periods.
One of Martin’s most significant compositional style developments during the
1920s was an intense interest in rhythmic experimentation. He was commissioned by the
Comédie de Genève to compose incidental music for Sophocles’s Oedipe-Roi and Oedipe
à Colone.39 This theatrical involvement provided an opportunity for him to explore ancient Greek rhythms. Martin also experimented with the polyrhythms of India and the additive rhythms of Bulgaria. These bold rhythmic explorations found their way into his
Trio sur des mélodies populaires irlandaises (1925) and Rythmes (1926), a three- movement symphony.40
In the early 1930s, Martin sought a method to organize his complex harmonic language while maintaining his interest in contrapuntal writing.41 After studying Arnold
Schoenberg’s twelve-tone system for several years, Martin adopted this technique for
38 Cooke, "Frank Martin's Early Development", 473.
39 Ibid., 476.
40 For detailed analysis of Martin’s interest in ancient Greek rhythms and use of these rhythmic experimentations, see Rubinoff.
41 Cooke, "Frank Martin's Early Development", 476.
26
certain works. Quatre Pièces Brèves for solo guitar (1933) was his first experimentation in serial composition. The work was written for Andrés Segovia and arranged in two versions, one for solo piano and the other for orchestra, both entitled Guitare. Martin also applied the twelve-tone system in his Piano Concerto No. 1 (1933-34).42 However,
Martin clarified that in this concerto he used only selected elements of twelve-tone technique as a means of coloring the musical language. Martin, who largely rejected the aesthetics of Schoenberg, surprisingly turned to the twelve-tone technique for inspiration as a compositional tool.43 This concerto marked the high point of Martin’s early development and depicts his lyricism and a synthesis of the compositional techniques he had explored in the preceding 25 years.44
Mature Compositional Style
Martin’s first mature work was Le vin herbé (1938), a secular oratorio based on a novel by Joseph Bedier and composed for 12 voices accompanied by seven strings and piano.45 Martin held Le vin herbé in high regard. “If I had to name a high point of my work, I think I would name the Vin herbé, which is perhaps the first of my works in
42 The first performance of the Piano Concerto No. 1 was given by Walter Gieseking in 1936.
43 Martin, 19.
44 Ibid.
45 Bernhard Billeter, "Martin, Frank." Grove Music Online. www.oxfordmusiconline.com (accessed June 11, 2015): 909.
27
which I succeeded in forging a personal idiom.”46 Martin was satisfied with the refinement of harmonic progression and dissonance that he achieved in this work.47 This style set an important precedent for Martin’s later works.
In 1945, Martin completed a work that would become his most famous and widely performed composition: Petite symphonie concertante, commissioned by Paul
Sacher.48 This two-movement work features the unusual instrumentation of solo harp, harpsichord, piano, and a double string orchestra.49 The composer discussed his approach to the combination of instruments:
I hasten to add that never before in my life had I heard a harpsichord, a harp and a piano playing together, and the mingling and contrasting of their diverse sonorities with those of the string orchestra was for me an exciting exercise of inner auditory imagination.50
Martin’s reputation expanded significantly with the work’s international performances. Billeter comments on Martin’s innovative ideas found throughout the work:
46 Henri Jaton, “Frank Martin at 70,” Musical America 81 (January 1961): 111, quoted in Donna Sherrell Martin, “The Piano Music of Frank Martin: Solo and Orchestral” (DMA diss., University of Cincinnati, 1993), 20.
47 See detailed descriptions of Le vin herbé in Cooke’s "Late Starter. Frank Martin Found himself Late in Life,” 135.
48 Paul Sacher (1906-1999), a Swiss conductor and philanthropist, founded the Basel Chamber Orchestra to perform works written before the classical period and during modern era. He was known for commissioning works of twentieth century composers including Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Benjamin Britten, Elliott Carter, Paul Hindemith and others. (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Sacher-Paul.htm)
49 Cooke, "Late Starter. Frank Martin Found Himself Late in Life.”: 136.
50 Frank Martin, “Petite symphonie concertante,” chapter in The Composer’s Point of View, ed. Robert S. Hines (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970), 154, quoted in Donna Sherrell Martin, “The Piano Music of Frank Martin: Solo and Orchestral” (DMA diss., University of Cincinnati, 1993), 23.
28
The combination of greatly differing intensities and the reconciliation of different timbres yield fascinating musical effects. Effective ideas are never employed in a manner that is merely evocative. The two-movement work is of an ingenious, original form, and yet readily comprehensible in broad outline.51
Although piano was young Martin’s favored instrument, his complete output for solo piano is surprisingly limited. His major piano work, 8 Préludes pour le piano, was composed in 1948 and dedicated to Dinu Lipatti in admiration of the legendary pianist.
His other solo piano works include Guitare (1933), Clair de lune (1952), Etude rythmique en hommage à Jaques-Dalcroze (1965), Esquisse (1965), and Fantaisie sur des rythmes flamenco (1973).
Martin’s creativity and compositional pace accelerated throughout the latter part of his life. The majority of his later compositional output consisted of sacred works, the most significant being the Requiem (1971-2)—inspired by the architecture of Venice,
Paestum, and Monreale during a trip to Italy in 1971. Martin was unable to finish his final work, Et la vie L’emporta, due to the illness that took his life. This cantata depicts the struggle between life and death, likely mirroring the composer’s struggles at that time.
Because of the diverse styles in Martin’s works throughout his lifetime, it is difficult to categorize Martin’s music as representative of any particular school.52 Martin wrote often about his own compositions and thoughts on music. During his final years, he reflected upon the aesthetic responsibilities of the composer and concluded:
Whatever the movements of the soul, the spirit, the sensibility that are manifested in one’s work, and whether the state is one of anguish or even
51 Billeter, 909.
52 Billeter, 908.
29
despair, one’s art inevitably bears the sign of…this liberation, this sublimation which evokes in us a finished form, and which is, I think, what is called “beauty.”53
53 Ibid.
30
CHAPTER III: BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF ÉMILE JAQUES-DALCROZE AND
OVERVIEW OF HIS EURHYTHMICS METHOD
Dalcroze’s Life and the Development of his Educational Method54
Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) was born in Vienna, where he was exposed to a broad range of music, art, and theatre from an early age. He was a composer and music educator of Swiss parents, Jules-Louis and Julie Jaques. Dalcroze’s first music teacher was his mother, who adopted the teaching method of Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-
1827). Pestalozzi believed students would understand a concept more effectively if learning occurred through sensory experiences with the body and experiential activities.55
Dalcroze moved to Geneva with his family at age 10. He continued his musical studies at the Collège de Genève until age 12, but found the school’s teaching curriculum rigid and uninspiring. In 1881, he was admitted to the gymnase, a European institution that offered a curriculum in classical education; his interest in music and theatre flourished within this environment.56 While at the gymnase, he wrote several musicals and performed as an actor, singer, and pianist. Dalcroze eventually traveled to Paris to study acting at the Comédie-Française and continued his studies in musical composition under Fauré, Delibes and Lussy, and later in Vienna with Bruckner and Fuchs. Dalcroze’s
54 The author is indebted to two sources for much of the material in this chapter: an essay by Percy B. Ingham, “The Method: Growth and Practice,” in The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze and the dissertation of Daniel Rubinoff, “Émile Jaques-Dalcroze's Influence on Frank Martin: 1924-1937.”
55 Although music was not Pestalozzi’s area of expertise, his method became prominent in music education. His ideas also influenced Dalcroze’s pedagogical innovations.
56 Spector, 7. 31
most significant experience was studying with Mathis Lussy, the author of “Traite de l’expression musicale” (1873), an essay that captivated Dalcroze with its discussion of rhythmic expression. At that time, rhythm and expression had become the core of his music education principles.
In 1886, Dalcroze was appointed as the assistant director of the Theatre des
Nouveautes in Algiers, where he was a conductor and chorus master. During his three years in Algiers, he was exposed to Arabic folk music and its complex rhythms, which would later transfer into his own music teaching. At age 25, he moved back to Geneva where he was appointed professor of harmony at the Geneva Conservatory. As a teacher, he soon discovered that traditional teaching methods failed to offer students a living experience of music. Though the students were described as “technically far advanced,”
Percy B. Ingham states:
After many years of study [students] were unable to deal with the simplest problems in rhythm and that their sense for pitch, relative or absolute, was most defective; that, while able to read accurately or to play pieces memorized, they had not the slightest power of giving musical expression to their simplest thoughts or feelings.57
To address these weaknesses, Dalcroze gradually developed a system of coordinating body movements with music known as “eurhythmics.” Dalcroze first gained public recognition for his method at a conference of the Swiss Musicians Association in
1905, and held the first training course for teachers the following year. Dalcroze’s friend
Dr. Édouard Claparède (1873-1940), a neurologist and child psychologist, assisted
Dalcroze in making broader connections between his method and educational psychology,
57 Ingham, 36.
32
especially in terms of connecting movement and cognition. Claparède was fascinated by the similarities of the psychological concepts between his work and Dalcroze’s discoveries in the learning process of eurhythmics:
It is interesting to note that you have arrived from routes totally different than physiological psychology at the same conception of the psychological importance of movement as a support for intellectual and affective phenomena.58
In 1910, Dalcroze received a generous offer from Wolf and Harald Dohrn, wealthy German industrialists who supported his educational method. They built an architecturally-designed space specifically for Dalcroze’s needs at Hellerau, Germany.
Over 600 students, representing 16 nationalities, flocked to Dalcroze’s institution, an indicator of the increasing success and popularity of Dalcroze’s method. Dalcroze was forced to return to Geneva due to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Upon his return, he founded a new Central Training College for teacher training in his method, which is recognized today as the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze. In 1917, more than 400 students attended the Institut.
During the 1920s, Dalcroze spent time in Paris teaching and promoting his compositions. In 1924, a special edition of Dalcroze’s journal, Le Rythme, was published.
In it, various opinions and testimonials on Dalcroze’s method were included by many important French composers and performers, including pianist Alfred Cortot (1877-1962)
58 This an excerpt from a testimonial that Claparède wrote for a special 1924 edition of Dalcroze's journal, Le Rythme (Geneva: Institut Jaques-Dalcroze, 1924), 41, quoted in Daniel Rubinoff, “Émile Jaques-Dalcroze's Influence on Frank Martin: 1924-1937” (PhD diss., York University, 2011), 21.
33
along with composers Gabriel Faure (1845-1924), fellow Swiss composer, Arthur
Honegger (1892-1955), Vincent d'Indy (1851-1931), and Albert Roussel (1869-1937).59
Dalcroze continued to teach and promote his educational techniques until shortly before his death on July 1, 1950. His method spread slowly and steadily in the United
States; the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze remains to this day as the worldwide headquarters for
Dalcroze’s method and teacher training. 60
59 Rubinoff, 33-34.
60 Information regarding to Dalcroze Eurhythmics in United States are found on the website of Dalcroze Society of America, http://www.dalcrozeusa.org/ 34
Dalcroze Eurhythmics
Dalcroze’s teaching philosophy was influenced by his diverse educational experiences. It is strongly rooted in the belief that students learn best through direct experience and teachers should teach through interactive activities that combine theory and practice. The concrete experience must come before abstract knowledge. A foundational component of his teaching philosophy is the use of the body to understand, react to, and express music. Dalcroze divided his educational approach into three key elements: eurhythmics (body movement), solfège (ear development), and improvisation.
Dalcroze believed students should learn music through multiple senses: kinesthetic, aural, visual and tactile.
Solfège is an essential component of Dalcroze’s ear training method; the voice is considered an important body instrument. Dalcroze’s solfège activities focus primarily on singing scales, isolating specific intervallic patterns, chord tones, and transpositions or modulations. During his tenure as professor of harmony at the Geneva Conservatory,
Dalcroze realized his students lacked effective solfège training, and in response created solfège exercises that encompassed his own C-scale method. This “Dalcroze scale” method begins every scale with C, and students are trained to differentiate the key from the varying whole and half-step intervals.61 This activity reinforces the pitch C in students’ tonal memory, an important part of Dalcroze’s education and results in their capacity to develop accurate intonation and pitch memory.
61 For example, in “Dalcroze scale”, students sing G major scale in the order of “C-D-E-F#-G-A- B-C”, A major scale in the order of “C#-D-E-F#-G#-A-B-C#”.
35
In addition to solfège, Dalcroze believed in the pedagogical value of improvisation and stressed its importance in the development of comprehensive musicianship within his publications.62 During Dalcroze improvisation activities, students experience musical creativity and spontaneity through immediate expression in response to unfolding ideas and thoughts of students themselves. Students display understanding of body movement, solfège, and musical elements through improvisation. This process begins slowly and builds in small increments; first with the body, then the voice, and finally the piano. Students typically improvise alongside the teacher with each performing different roles. For example, students improvise with their body movement in response to the teacher’s improvisation on the piano. Students also improvise vocally using fragments of a major scale and solfège. For the final stage of improvisation on the piano, the student must be physically, emotionally, and musically ready. Dalcroze emphasized improvisation as an essential element for eurhythmics teachers.
Every teacher of Eurhythmics should have made a serious study of improvisation at the pianoforte, and of all the connections between the harmony of sounds and that of movements. He should be able to translate rhythms expressed by movements of the body into musical rhythms, and vice-versa.63
The word “eurhythmics” is derived from the Greek word eurhythmia, which means “good flow” or “good movement.” Dalcroze believed the body could become an expressive instrument, playing the role of an intermediary between sound and thought.
62 Irwin Spector, Rhythm and Life: The Work of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (New York: Pendragon, 1990); Marie-Laure Bachmann, Dalcroze Today: An Education Through and Into Music (Oxford University Press: New York, 1991), 137.
63 É mile Jaques-Dalcroze, The Jaques-Dalcroze Method of Eurhythmics: Rhythmic Movement (London: Novello and Company, 1920), 7. 36
Though Dalcroze referred to his method using the French term gymnastique rythmique, his English colleagues used the word “Eurhythmics,” a term introduced by, John W.
Harvey (1889-1967), a philosopher and student of Dalcroze in Hellerau. Harvey explained that the term gymnastique rythmique was insufficient when addressing the broader meaning of the method:
But for the principle itself and the total method embodying it, another name is needed, and the term "Eurhythmics" has been coined here for the purpose. The originality of the Dalcroze method, the fact that it is a discovery, gives it a right to a name of its own: it is because it is in a sense also the rediscovery of an old secret that a name has been chosen of such plain reference and derivation. Plato…has said that the whole of a man's life stands in need of a right rhythm: and it is natural to see some kinship between this Platonic attitude and the claim of Dalcroze that his discovery is not a mere refinement of dancing, nor an improved method of music- teaching, but a principle that must have effect upon every part of life.64
Dalcroze created many eurhythmics activities to help students achieve awareness, control, and mental-physical unification. He considered body movement the predominant experience. Listening was also key to the experience as the individual's sensitivity to sound determines the sensitivity of the physical response. Dalcroze’s eurhythmics exercises developed and enhanced students’ responses to tempo, meter, rhythmic patterns, dynamics, and expressive nuances, and supported his belief that students should develop their musical faculties as a human before specializing on any instrument.65
Dalcroze wrote extensively about his educational method and published a treatise in 1906, La Méthode Jaques-Dalcroze. It consists of five parts, the second of which is La
64 John W. Harvey, “Note” in The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze, É mile Jaques-Dalcroze (Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1918), 7.
65 Ingham, 37.
37
Rythmique, which explains the eurhythmic exercises used by Dalcroze in his teaching. La
Rhythmique was published in two volumes and the English translation appeared in 1920 as “Rhythmic Movement.”66 The eurhythmic exercises include a range of movements: marching, walking, skipping, hopping, running, and jumping. Students move in response to Dalcroze’s improvisations on specific eurhythmic elements including: meter changes, irregular meters, complementary rhythms, unequal beats, polyrhythm, canon, and many others.
Dalcroze viewed eurhythmics as a personal experience intended to create within the student a desire to communicate and express themselves. He also believed eurhythmics provided a powerful means toward creating a deep connection between the body and the brain.
The aim of all exercises in eurhythmics is to strengthen the power of concentration, to accustom the body to hold itself as it were, at high pressure in readiness to execute orders from the brain, to connect the conscious with the sub-conscious, and to augment the sub-conscious faculties with the fruits of a special culture designed for that purpose.67
Dalcroze’s pedagogical method impacted students’ psychological and physical connections, increasing their sensitivity to music and enabling them to respond to musical stimuli through body movements. As an advocate and teacher of the Dalcroze method,
Frank Martin was deeply influenced by Dalcroze and his concepts.
66 É mile Jaques-Dalcroze, Methode Jaques-Dalcroze: La Rythmique (Lausanne: Jobin et Cie, 1918); and É mile Jaques-Dalcroze, The Jaques-Dalcroze method of Eurhythmics: Rhythmic Movement (London: Novello and Company, 1920).
67 Dalcroze, Rhythm, Music and Education, 118. 38
CHAPTER IV: THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN FRANK MARTIN AND
ÉMILE JAQUES-DALCROZE
The nine-year collegial relationship between Frank Martin and Émile Jaques-
Dalcroze began in 1928, when Martin was appointed Professor of Improvisation and
Rhythmic Theory at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze. They maintained their friendship after
Martin’s departure from the Institut in 1937. The correspondence between Martin and
Dalcroze spanned over a twenty-year period, bearing particularly strong evidence of their well-established relationship. Dalcroze expressed appreciation and support for Martin’s work in his letters (see Appendix A),68 and was deeply pleased with Martin’s successful career during the 1940s. In their 1948 correspondence, Dalcroze invited Martin to accept the position of director at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze. Dalcroze wished for the Institut to remain a burgeoning music center after he vacated the director position. He immediately thought of Martin as the ideal candidate for the position, recommending Martin as a creative artist, knowledgeable in eurhythmics, and capable of guiding the Institut’s progress. However, Martin moved to the Netherlands in 1946 to concentrate solely on his compositions and to gain relief from his administrative and teaching duties.69 Instead, one of Dalcroze’s pupil, Marguerite Croptier (1901-1990), was appointed as director of the
Institut in 1948.70
68 The letters are extracted from Frank Martin’s Écrits sur la rythmique pour les rythmiciens, les pédagogues, les musiciens.
69 Rubinoff, 187.
70 Ibid., 34-5. 39
Over the course of Martin’s tenure at the Institut, Dalcroze’s influence remained prominent. Evidence of this connection is illustrated in Martin’s lesson plans, consisting of numerous rhythmic exercises designed to be taught in eurhythmics classes. These exercises reveal a direct link to Dalcroze’s teaching, particularly with regard to training students’ quick reactions to musical stimuli through the use of specific rhythmic exercises.71
Another significant reflection of Martin’s connection to Dalcroze is found in the
Etude rythmique, a solo piano work composed by Martin in 1965. This composition was later performed in a celebration concert of the centennial year of Dalcroze’s birth.72
Although composed long after Martin left the Institut, the influences of Dalcroze
Eurhythmics are undeniable in this work. Maria Martin noted that the rhythmic challenges created by her husband in Etude rythmique had a direct connection to the eurhythmics training at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze:
Because it was a piece for an institution where rhythm was the main subject, Frank Martin amused himself by basing the composition on a rhythmic problem that he had proposed to some of his students in an improvisation class at the Dalcroze Institute.73
According to Rubinoff, the eurhythmics subjects and rhythmic challenges presented in the Etude rhythmique are ones of polymeter and polyrhythm. These eurhythmics subjects appear as advanced materials in the Dalcroze’s Diplôme
71 For more information on Martin’s lesson plans, see Daniel Rubinoff, “Émile Jaques-Dalcroze's Influence on Frank Martin: 1924-1937” (PhD diss., York University, 2011), 132-5.
72 Rubinoff, 190.
73 Ibid.
40
examination.74 The meter for the entire work is divided into a 9/8 time signature in the right hand and 3/4 time signature in the left hand. The polyrhythmic challenges in this piece are not simply three-against-two between the hands, but are more complex due to the layered phrase indications and the different phrase groupings between the hands. The contours of the melody and accompaniment form a larger four-measure phrase structure.
Musical Example 4.1 reveals the technical challenges in interpreting the grouping of phrases as discussed by Maria Martin:
The two hands play on 3 against 4, but the musical element in the hand which plays in three is in 4, and that of the hand which plays in 4 is phrased in three.75
Musical Example 4.1. Polymeter and polyrhythm in Martin’s Etude rythmique, mm. 1-9.
74 Ibid., 193.
75 Ibid., 191.
41
Martin’s close relationship with Dalcroze is apparent through several publications in which Martin wrote about the composer and his method. Ecrits sur la rythmique et pour les rythmiciens, les pédagogues et les musiciens is one of the most prominent manifestations of Martin’s belief in and support for Dalcroze’s philosophical approaches to understanding rhythm.76 The first half of the book is devoted to discussion of the rhythmic development of the method and Dalcroze as the method’s founder. The second part of the book elaborates on the transfer of Dalcroze Eurhythmics when composing music.
La notation du rythme (1926), an essay included in the second half of the book, was originally a lecture Martin presented at Dalcroze’s First Congress on Rhythm in
1926.77 Here, Martin revealed an emerging acquaintance with Dalcroze Eurhythmics even before enrolling as a student at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze. In his lecture, he discussed composers’ challenges in the notation of unconventional rhythms such as irregular meter, polymeter, and polyrhythm. He expressed support for Dalcroze’s innovative use of additional dots to lengthen the duration of rhythm as a replacement for using tied notes (see Figure 4.1).78
76 Frank Martin, Écrits sur la rythmique et pour les rythmiciens, les pédagogues, les musiciens. (Geneva: Éditions La Papillon, 1995).
77 Rubinoff, 103. Dalcroze’s First Congress on Rhythm was held in Geneva from August 16 to August 18, 1926. This was an international congress exploring the applications of rhythm in music, art and life. There were thirty-nine lectures that discuss rhythm through various approaches including pedagogical, psychological, physiological and sociological perspectives. See more information in Rubinoff’s dissertation.
78 Ibid., 109.
42
Figure 4.1. Dalcroze’s notation of dotted-note in Martin’s La notation du rythme 79
Further evidence of Martin’s acknowledgement of Dalcroze’s notational approach is found in his discussion of beat duration. Martin defined beat as a duration corresponding to a conductor’s gesture, thus allowing the unit of the duration to be variable. He suggested that a practical solution to notating the unequal beat would be to display the beats above the musical staff through the inclusion of value and order of beats
(see Figure 4.2). This specific eurhythmics subject is directly related to Martin’s own discussion of unequal beats in his Préludes IV from 8 Préludes pour le piano.80
Figure 4.2. Martin’s suggested notation of unequal beats81
Additionally, Martin wrote introductions for two of Dalcroze’s biographies: Émile
79 Martin, 45.
80 See Chapter V of this document for the analysis of Frank Martin’s unequal beats in Prélude IV of 8 Préludes pour le piano.
81 Martin, 46. 43
Jaques Dalcroze: L’homme, le compositeur, le créateur de la rhythmique and Irwin
Spector’s Rhythm and Life: The work of Émile Jaques Dalcroze.82 These introductions offer further insights regarding Martin’s belief in the value of the Dalcroze method and demonstrate the professional and pedagogical connections between the two men. Irwin
Spector notes the influence of Dalcroze on Martin’s compositional techniques, especially in guiding Martin toward rhythms and ways to integrate them into his compositions effectively.83
Martin and Dalcroze viewed eurhythmics as an educational philosophy that could serve to enrich one’s learning experience, physically and psychologically. They also believed that eurhythmics, through active listening and understanding of the body-rhythm connection, was capable of significantly enhancing the artistic experience for all musicians.
82 Frank Martin et al. Émile Jaques Dalcroze: L’homme, le compositeur, le créateur de la rhythmique (Neuchâtel: Éditions La Baconnière, 1965); Irwin Spector, Rhythm and Life: The Work of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (New York: Pendragon, 1990).
83 Spector, 330. Irwin Spector was an educator, musicologist, and composer. He is most known for his work Rhythm and Life: The Work of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze.
44
CHAPTER V: FRANK MARTIN’S 8 PRÉLUDES POUR LE PIANO
Background
8 Préludes pour le piano, written in 1948, is one of Martin’s most performed piano works. This set of preludes is dedicated to Dinu Lipatti, a legendary twentieth century Romanian pianist and close friend of Martin. Martin’s inspiration for the preludes emerged from a Lipatti performance in London during the same year. Frank Martin’s wife, Maria, recalled that her husband had intended to write a set of twelve preludes; however, for unknown reasons, he composed only eight. She noted that Lipatti’s playing and extraordinary touch was consistently in Martin’s mind while composing the work.
Martin included this inscription in the manuscript sent to Lipatti:
For your ten enchanted fingers to wander I would have liked twelve magic gardens. Alas! There are only eight and unfairylike. Too often, in my laborious work, The Muse cocked a snock at me.84
Lipatti was fond of the preludes and remarked that he needed two years of practice before he could master and perform them in public, demonstrating his integrity as a pianist and his deep respect for the composer’s work. Unfortunately, Lipatti never performed the preludes as he died unexpectedly from leukemia in 1950. Tormented by
84 Maria Martin, Record jacket notes for Frank Martin, Oeuvre intègrale pour piano; Nicole Wickihalder (piano), Accord 140059 stereo, 1982, quoted in Donna Sherrell Martin, “The Piano Music of Frank Martin: Solo and Orchestral” (DMA diss., University of Cincinnati, 1993), 54-55.
45
Lipatti’s death, Martin put the preludes away for many years before finally recording them in 1966.85
The harmonic language of Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano is primarily chromatic with the melodic structures often derived from octatonic scales.86 Tupper’s detailed analysis reveals both traditional and unique forms in Martin’s preludes. On the traditional side, Prélude VI is a canon while Prélude VIII is constructed in a rondo form.
Tupper provides the formal outlines of Préludes IV and V using the term “part form” to describe Martin’s use of sectional material that does not function formally as binary or ternary:
In short pieces or movements from larger works, Martin usually adopts some type of part form which is concise and allows some contrast along with an emphasis of unifying techniques. The Piano Préludes…are examples of this formal type. 87
The remaining preludes, I, II, III and VII, are categorized as unique forms where no standard genre is found in the individual structure. According to Collins, the definition of
“unique form” comes from Douglass M. Green’s book, “Form in Tonal Music.”88 Green explained the unique form as a nonstandard form in which the design of a work is constructed differently from the norm.89
85 Ibid., 56.
86 Pak, 15.
87 Tupper, 206.
88 Geraldine Collins, “The Eight Preludes for Piano of Frank Martin: A Lecture Recital, Together with Three Recitals of Selected Works of J.S. Bach, L.V. Beethoven, J. Brahms, F. Chopin, I. Albéniz, R. Schumann, A. Scriabin, F. Liszt, and K. Szymanowski.” (DMA diss., North Texas State University, 1980), 15.
46
Martin employed a collection of different tempos in the ordering of the preludes to create contrast. They are as follows:
I. Grave II. Allegretto tranquillo III. Tranquillo ma con moto IV. Allegro V. Vivace VI. Andantino grazioso VII. Lento VIII. Vivace
The preludes exhibit contrasting tempi in the order of slow, fast, slow, fast, fast, moderately slow, slow, and fast. Collins divides the preludes in two groups, resulting in a four-plus-four plan of slow-fast-slow-fast (Préludes I, II, III, IV); fast-moderately fast- slow-fast (Préludes V, VI, VII, VIII). She states, “This divisional tempo scheme supports the contention that the metrical-rhythmical makeup of each prelude was controlled by and within a larger plan.”90
89 Douglass M. Green, Forms in Tonal Music. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc, 1965), 283.
90 Collins, 5-6.
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Influences of J.S. Bach and Arnold Schoenberg
Martin’s lifelong admiration of J.S. Bach was sparked by a memorable performance of the St. Matthew Passion that he attended as a young man. He was particularly intrigued by Bach’s use of chromaticism and his treatment of harmonies and counterpoint. Their shared religious backgrounds also served as inspiration for Martin.
Bach’s compositional characteristics deeply influenced young Martin—an influence that would consistently find its way into his music throughout his life.
Several Bach motives that function as a unifying device are embedded throughout
Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano.91 Upon examination, it is obvious that Martin was aware of his own manipulations of the B-A-C-H motive in 8 Préludes pour le piano.
According to Pak, the B-A-C-H motive and its variants strongly bind the eight preludes to create a sense of unity. Pak notes that motives found in the earlier preludes are stricter when compared to the later preludes in the set, and the presence of the motives decreases and becomes less apparent.92 Musical Example 5.1 displays the B-A-C-H motive as it appears in the opening of the first prelude in the pitches of G#-G-B-A#. The beginning of
Prélude II (Musical Example 5.2) also displays the composer’s use of the B-A-C-H motive in both the melody (C#-C-E-Eb) and the accompaniment (A#-A-C-B). The recurrence of the B-A-C-H motive in 8 Préludes pour le piano functions as cyclic motivic development in unifying this work.
91 Geraldine Collins and Jooeun Pak’s documents provide a detailed analysis of Bach motives in each of the preludes.
92 Pak, 9.
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Musical Example 5.1. B-A-C-H motif in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude I, mm. 1-3.
Musical Example 5.2. B-A-C-H motif in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude II, mm. 1-2.
During the 1930s, Martin encountered Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique while seeking a method to organize his complex harmonic language. Martin’s understanding of and enthusiasm for this new method led to his adaptation of Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique in his compositions. Collins quotes Martin’s approach to incorporation of this technique:
Above all we must never set aside our own musical sensibility and look to this new technique (twelve-tonalism) to find an easy way out of 49
difficulties. . . Everyone will shape it according to his own temperament. . . . We can enjoy being freed from . . . classical tonality, but we need not necessarily give up our feeling for tonal functions, for the functional bass. . . .93
The twelve-tone rows found in 8 Préludes pour le piano are limited to the initial statements and are not developed beyond. Préludes VI and VII exemplify Martin’s adaptation of the new method; the twelve-tone row is stated but does not obey the strict rules of Schoenberg’s technique. Pak claims that Prélude VI utilizes a pseudo-twelve- tone row, as pitches D and B are not included in the row (see Musical Example 5.3).94 In this example, Martin adapted Schoenberg’s technique for his own uses, as demonstrated by the application of an incomplete row.
Musical Example 5.3. Pseudo-twelve-tone row in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VI, mm. 1-2.
Another twelve-tone row occurs in measures 17 through 20 of Prélude VII (see
Musical Example 5.4). According to Pak’s analysis, there are two twelve-tone rows in the phrase, with the pitch B overlapping in the second beat of measure 18.95 Unlike Prélude
93 Collins, 17.
94 Pak, 45-46.
95 Ibid., 48-49. 50
VI, the appearances of twelve-tone rows in Prélude VII are established with all twelve pitches. In contrast to the disjunct melodic line of Prélude VI, Martin used the twelve- tone rows to create a thicker texture and darker tone color in Prélude VII.
Musical Example 5.4. Twelve tone rows in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 17-20.
In summary, Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano was inspired by the virtuosity and manipulations of pianistic sound and textures that the composer had heard in Lipatti’s performances. Each prelude is imbued with its own character and style and each is distinctly different from the other. Martin’s uses of Bach motives and Schoenberg’s serialism functioned ingeniously as a method of organizing and unifying the preludes.
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CHAPTER VI: EURHYTHMICS ELEMENTS FOUND IN FRANK MARTIN’S
8 PRÉLUDES POUR LE PIANO AND EURHYTHMICS-BASED ACTIVITIES
This research examined Dalcroze’s approach for eurhythmics elements, and subsequently identified these elements in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano. Five eurhythmics elements were found in Martin’s work: irregular measures, unequal beats, polyrhythm, canon and complementary rhythms. A glossary of these eurhythmics elements, as identified by Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, is presented and explained. Each of the eurhythmics elements is linked to the Prélude that resembles a specific eurhythmics element. The eurhythmics activities for each eurhythmics element are based upon
Dalcroze’s philosophy and practice of internalizing musical rhythm before playing it on an instrument.96
Glossary of eurhythmics elements as identified by Émile Jaques-Dalcroze:
Irregular measures: Meter changes with underlying consistent beat. This is also known as mixed meter.
Figure 6.1. Irregular measures
96 Elsa Findlay, Rhythm and Movement: Applications of Dalcroze Eurhythmics (Secaucus, NJ: Summy-Birchard, 1950), 2.
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Unequal beats: The unconventional subdivision of beats with the number of divisions in each beat varying and contributing to different durations within each beat. This is sometimes labeled as additive rhythm.
Figure 6.2. Unequal beats
Polyrhythm: Two or more rhythmic patterns in different note groupings played simultaneously.
Figure 6.3. Polyrhythm
Rhythmic Counterpoint: A rhythmic pattern with long notes (theme) accompanied by shorter note values.
Figure 6.4. Rhythmic counterpoint
Canon: Two or more identical phrases beginning at different times.
Figure 6.5. Canon
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Irregular Measures
The rhythmic concept of irregular measures appears in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano. Irregular measures, as identified in Dalcroze’s Eurhythmics approach, may be used interchangeably with mixed meter, as the meter changes while the beat remains consistent.
In Rhythm, Music and Education, Dalcroze expounded on the necessity for irregular measures:
There is no reason to insist upon regular bar-lengths throughout an entire piece. In most folk-songs (sic) the melody is subject to irregularities of measures. It is only in the conventional and classical works of the last two or three centuries that we find a systematic division into regular bars. Far be it from us to object to this classical regularity of bar-time, but, seeing that every irregularity in a work of art must be the product of an emotion, we suggest that the question of the employment of irregular bars should be the subject of special analysis on the part of every musician.97 (See Appendix A for examples.)
Rubinoff noted that Martin and Dalcroze shared an admiration for Bulgarian folk music, and in particular its distinctive use of irregular rhythms. Dalcroze viewed
Bulgarian music as a source of innovation for contemporary composers and stated:
The popular Bulgarian melodies…constantly written in irregular metre (sic), and often changing with brief measures of 7/8, 5/8, 11/8, etc., are the product of a very refined sensibility…[that] are not often appreciated by a European ear.98
97 Dalcroze, Rhythm, Music and Education, 151-2.
98 Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Rhythms of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, and the Teaching of them in Schools of Music (August 1926): 95-96, quoted in Daniel Rubinoff, “Émile Jaques-Dalcroze's Influence on Frank Martin: 1924-1937” (PhD diss., York University, 2011), 91.
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Martin and Dalcroze’s common interest in Bulgarian folk music influenced their musical works. Musical Example 6.1—a sample of the Bulgarian Folk Song, “Dilmano, Dilbero,” arranged by Ivan Kavaldjiev (1891-1959)—illustrates irregular meters alternating between 8/16 and 11/16.
Musical Example 6.1. Irregular measures in Kavaldjiev’s Dilmano, Dilbero, mm. 1-9.99
99 Ivan Kavaldjiev, “Dilmano, Dilbero” http://www.europacantatutrecht.nl/download/BladmuziekB05_Dilmano_Dilbero3.pdf (accessed July 21, 2015).
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According to Rubinoff, Dalcroze and Martin valued the importance of teaching meter changes, as evidenced by its inclusion in their respective eurhythmic classes.100
Dalcroze wrote 54 finger exercises for piano (single hand) consisting of frequent meter changes, which he published in the final chapter of La Rythmique and named “Exercises on Alternating Measure with Unequal Beats.” Each exercise implies various meter changes though time signatures are not indicated (see Musical Example 6.2).
Musical Example 6.2. Irregular measures exercises in Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, Volume 2, Méthode Jaques-Dalcroze, Mesure alternées, p. 1.
Note: all blue markings are the author’s indications.
Similar to Dalcroze’s right hand exercises, Martin utilized irregular measures in
Prélude IV without indicating meter. The implied meters found in Prélude IV include the following: 5/8, 6/8, 7/8, 8/8, 9/8, 10/8, 12/8 and 13/8 (see Musical Example 6.3).
100 Rubinoff’s dissertation analyzes and compares the lesson plans written by Martin and Dalcroze respectively during their teaching at the Institut of Jaques-Dalcroze. Daniel Rubinoff, “Émile Jaques- Dalcroze's Influence on Frank Martin: 1924-1937” (PhD diss., York University, 2011), 122-35.
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Musical Example 6.3. Irregular measures in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude IV, mm. 1-6.
Dalcroze developed irregular measures exercises in his teaching to stimulate students’ flexibility and spontaneity in listening and quick responses to note-grouping changes. Dalcroze’s rhythmic exercises, found in Rhythm, Music and Education, present meter changes between 6/8 and 3/4 (see Musical Example 6.4). Dalcroze also provided exercises consisting of various six-beat groupings using the eighth note as the beat (see
Musical Example 6.5). In both exercises, the teacher is expected to improvise from among the different groupings while the student reacts with changing body gestures. Both examples address meter changes alternating between 6/8 and 3/4.
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Musical Example 6.4. Dalcroze’s subdivision of long note values into different groupings, Rhythm, Music and Education.
Musical Example 6.5. Exercises in 6 beats, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, Volume 2, p. 2.
The similarity of alternating 6/8 and 4/3 meter changes are noted in Martin’s
Prélude VII. Examples include mm. 39-41 (see Musical Example 6.6), mm. 80-82 (see
Musical Example 6.7) and mm. 88-89 (see Musical Example 6.8). These meter changes are closely related to Dalcroze’s rhythmic exercises presented in Musical Examples 6.4 and 6.5.
Musical Example 6.6. Meter changes in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 39-41.
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Musical Example 6.7. Meter changes in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 80-82.
Musical Example 6.8. Meter changes in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 88-89.
Martin’s application of irregular measures can also be found in the opening of
Prélude VI (see Musical Example 6.9). This section displays note-grouping changes within one 12/8 measure. The first measure in the right hand can be interpreted as 6/8 followed by 3/4. The change of grouping in measure 1 of Prélude VI resembles the meter changes found in Dalcroze’s rhythmic exercises (see Musical Examples 6.4 and 6.5).
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Musical Example 6.9: Implied meter changes in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VI, mm. 1-2.
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Eurhythmics-Based Activities for Frank Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano
Rhythm is an essential music element and its successful realization is indispensable for any musical performance. Dalcroze upholds the importance of studying musical rhythm by insisting that bodily movement must precede all instrumental studies.101 The following activities are created to correspond with Dalcroze’s belief that before applying rhythm to an instrument, one should first internalize it physically. The activities that follow are intended for practicing the rhythmic concept of irregular measures away from the piano.
Several of these activities require more than one participant. One participant will play the piano while others will move in response to the music. These two roles can be exchanged during the course of the activities. For the purposes of this document,
“Individual A” and “Individual B” will be used to identify the roles. All exercises should begin in a slow tempo and adjust according to the adaptability of each individual.
101 Elsa Findlay, Rhythm and movement: Applications of Dalcroze Eurhythmics (Secaucus, NJ: Summy-Birchard, 1950), 2.
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Eurhythmics-Based Activity 1: Irregular measures in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude IV, mm. 1-6.
Number of participants: two or more
Procedure:
1. Individual A claps consistent eighth-notes and Individual B steps to the eighth-
notes.
2. Individual A cues by saying “Change!” on the last beat of the measure and
Individual B responds immediately by lifting up both heels as a preparation to
step in a different direction (See Figure 6.7). The number of beats can be
improvised at this preparation stage.
Figure 6.7. Irregular measures exercise with verbal cues “Change!”
3. Individual A cues by stating the number of the beats in the next measure. Cues are
given on the last beat of the measure, and Individual B responds immediately by
lifting up both heels and stepping in a different direction. Individual B must step
and count the number of beats cued by Individual A (See Figure 6.8). The number
of beats may be improvised at this preparation stage.
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Figure 6.8. Irregular measures exercise with verbal cues (numbers)
4. Individual A improvises on the piano using the first chord of every measure (RH)
in Frank Martin’s Prélude IV (See Musical Example 6.10). Individual B steps to
the eighth-note beat and changes direction when hearing the chord changes. The
last beat of the measure is accented and serves as a signal to step in a different
direction.
Musical Example 6.10. Irregular measures exercise using chords from Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude IV, mm. 1-6.
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Eurhythmics-Based Activity 2: Irregular measures in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude IV, mm. 1-6.
The exercise below is based on Dalcroze’s suggested exercises (see Appendix B) to be played on the piano. The theme is extracted from Frank Martin’s Prélude IV, measures 1-4. These exercises can also be applied to the rest of the Prélude with a similar approach.
Figure 6.9: Piano exercises based on Dalcroze’s suggested exercises
Theme
1. Lengthening of a beat
2. Repetition of a beat
3. Doubling the length of a bar
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Eurhythmics-Based Activity 3: Irregular measures in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 39-41.
Number of participants: two or more
Procedure:
1. Individual A uses a percussion instrument (hand drum, castanet, etc.) to play the
6/8 rhythm and instructs Individual B to step and walk to the primary beat of two.
Then Individual A plays the 3/4 rhythm and instructs Individual B to clap to the
main beat of three. Start with four repetitions of 6/8 and four of 3/4, then decrease
the repetitions to three, two and finally to one of each (see Figure 6.10).
Figure 6.10. Irregular measures exercises between 6/8 and 3/4
2. Individual A plays measures 34-53 of Martin’s Prélude VII and asks Individual B
to respond using movement of 6/8 or 4/3 as prepared.
3. Individual A plays measures 17-53 of Martin’s Prélude VII, and Individual B
responds to the meter changes.
Note: This exercise for meter changes can also be applied to Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VI, mm. 1-2 (See Musical Example 6.9).
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Unequal Beats
Unequal beats is a rhythmic element identified by Dalcroze and included in his eurhythmics method. Martin’s application of unequal beats is found in Préludes IV and
VIII of 8 Préludes pour le piano. Dalcroze originated the term “Unequal Beats” and defined this eurhythmics element as uneven grouping of short-duration notes.102 Unlike the typical system of feeling beats in equal length, Dalcroze’s notational approach employs beats in uneven length using a time signature of instead of 4/4. He displays several possibilities of dividing into unequal beats (See Musical Example 6.11).
Musical Example 6.11. Dalcroze’s Unequal Beats examples 103
As previously stated, Martin and Dalcroze were attracted to the complex rhythms of Bulgarian music, which is often associated with unequal beats. In Martin’s essay La mesure et le rythme, he discussed his admiration for the ease of Bulgarian indigenous people in performing complex rhythms, including unequal beats. Martin begins the
102 Dalcroze, Rhythm, Music and Education, 154.
103 Ibid., Musical Supplement 7.
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following discussion with an approach that might be typically used by a classically trained musician:
We can consider a measure of 14/16, like a measure of 6/8 in which two sets are formed of seven 16th notes each, and the accent is on the first and the eighth 16th notes. But this misrepresents the rhythm. For Bulgarian shepherds, rhythm is a simple succession of long and short notes, and the accent is constantly displaced from one note to another without there being a feeling of difficulty. 104
Musical Example 6.12 presents the opening measures of the Bulgarian folk song,
“Dilmano, Dilbero.” Here the division of unequal beats within the time signature of 8/16 is illustrated with dotted lines.
Musical Example 6.12. Unequal beats in Kavaldjiev’s Dilmano, Dilbero, mm. 1-2.105
Martin’s association with Dalcroze is clearly evident through Martin’s discussion of unequal beats in his Prélude IV. Martin states that this Prélude was composed with unequal beats and provided an analysis of unequal beats divisions in his Entretiens sur la musique:
104 Frank Martin, Écrits sur la rythmique pour les rythmiciens, les pédagogues, les musiciens. (Geneva: Éditions La Papillon, 1995), 58.
105 Ivan Kavaldjiev, “Dilmano, Dilbero,” accessed July 21, 2015, http://www.europacantatutrecht.nl/download/BladmuziekB05_Dilmano_Dilbero3.pdf
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Here is an unmeasured Prélude. There are measures, if you will, but one has 7 beats, another 8, and the next one 9, etc. Actually, they are measures with unequal beats.106
The unequal beats in Prélude IV are of different lengths and order. Musical Example 6.13 displays the division of unequal beats in the opening of Prélude IV as discussed by
Martin.107 These characteristics of unequal beats are linked directly to Martin’s interest in
Bulgarian rhythm and to Dalcroze’s unequal beats examples as examined previously in
Musical Example 6.11.
Musical Example 6.13. Unequal beats in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude IV, mm. 1-3.
Dalcroze provided numerous possibilities of unequal beats divisions using different meters.108 The order of unequal beats in m. 17 and m. 30 of Martin’s Prélude IV are identical to Dalcroze’s unequal beats examples (see Figure 6.11). These similarities
106 Frank Martin and Jean-Claude Piguet. Entretiens sur la musique. (Neuchâtel: Éditions de la Baconnière, 1967): 100, quoted in Jean Claude Piguet, Trans. Karl Günther, Liner Notes, Complete Works for Solo Piano, Daniel Spiegelberg (piano), Gall AAD 636. 1995, compact disc.
107 Frank Martin and Jean-Claude Piguet. Entretiens sur la musique (Neuchâtel: Éditions de la Baconnière, 1967): 100
108 Dalcroze, Rhythm, Music and Education, Musical Supplement 7.
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draw a clear connection between Martin and Dalcroze, especially considering their shared understanding of notation and rhythm.
Figure 6.11. Comparison of Martin and Dalcroze’s 3 Unequal Beats divisions
Meter Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Dalcroze’s Unequal Beats examples, Prélude IV Rhythm, Music and Education109 measure 17 divided into 3 Unequal Beats
measure 30 divided into 3 Unequal Beats
Another example of unequal beats is found in mm. 48-49 of Prélude VIII, written in 9/16 time signature (see Musical Example 6.14). Instead of grouping the divisions into three equal beats, Martin created two unequal beats with the divisions of 12345 1234.
The accents and slurs placed at the beginning of each unequal beat emphasize the groupings within the measure. This is closely related to Dalcroze’s unequal beats division of (See Musical Example 6.15).
109 Ibid., Music Supplement 7-8.
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Musical Example 6.14. Unequal beats in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VIII, mm. 48-49.
Musical Example 6.15. Dalcroze’s Unequal Beats example 110
Dalcroze discussed his thoughts on the irregularity of unequal beats in his book,
Rhythm, Music and Education:
These (unequal beats) will produce at first sight an impression of irregularity. But their conscious and persistent repetition and symmetry will create a new regularity and symmetry which will prevent their compromising the unity of the metre [sic]…Many musicians fear that these disparities and irregularities may prejudice unity of style, by producing abrupt and jerky phrases and rhythms. It is, however, an established fact that every series of uneven time-values repeated at regular intervals gives an impression of regularity.111
Dalcroze’s perspective on unequal beats can be applied to playing Martin’s Prélude IV.
The meters are constantly changing in this Prélude and when a specific meter reoccurs, it provides the performer with a sense of regularity in the music. This happens when the unequal beats are identical as in measures 2, 11, 17 and 26 (See Figure 6.12).
110 Ibid., Musical Supplement 8.
111 Ibid., 154.
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Figure 6.12. Regularity of unequal beats in Martin’s Prélude IV
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Eurhythmics-Based Activity 4: Unequal beats in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude IV, mm. 1-3.
Number of participants: two or more
Procedure:
1. Individual A plays Figure 6.13-A and Individual B swings both arms from side to
side for every main beat. Repeat until Individual B masters the beat.
2. Similarly, Individual A plays Figure 6.13-B and Individual B steps to the beat.
Figure 6.13. Unequal beats exercises of two and three
3. Individual A plays both musical examples with repetition and alternation of these
two musical examples. Individual B listens to the changes and steps to the beat.
Note: The groups of three and two appear often in Prélude IV as an unequal beat. This exercise is to develop the flexibility of the body in responding to changes of notes grouping. The chords in the musical examples are extracted from the beginning of
Prélude IV.
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Eurhythmics-Based Activity 5: Unequal beats in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 39-40.
Number of participants: one
Procedure:
1. Clap and stomp the three groups of 6/8 in the arrangements found in Figure 6.14.
Repeat each movement until it is mastered, then alternate among these three
movements.
Figure 6.14. Unequal beats exercise of three different groupings
2. On the piano, play each bracket in Musical Example 6.16. Repeat and alternate
the brackets once the individual brackets are mastered. Brackets A, B and C are
directly related to the rhythm and movement in Figure 6.14.
Musical Example 6.16. Exercises of different groupings in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 39-40.
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Polyrhythm
Polyrhythm involves two or more rhythmic patterns in different note groupings played simultaneously, and is found in the final three pieces of Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano. Martin’s interest in polyrhythm is evident in various other compositions, such as his Trio on Irish Folk Tunes (1925) and Rythmes (1926).112
Dalcroze taught polyrhythm through the coordination of various body gestures.
He outlined the importance of rhythmic training through dissociation of body movements to create the experience of polyrhythm in the body:
It is necessary to exercise all his limbs, and that is — that a child is rarely born polyrhythmic. To create in him the sense of simultaneous rhythms, it is indispensable that he should be made to execute, by means of different limbs, movements representing different durations of time. These exercises will enable him to subdivide bars into even shorter intervals of time. One limb, for example, may execute the quarter- values of the time, another the eighths, a third the sixteenths — or, by way of variation, one the quarter-values, another the same in syncopation — and by this means he will attain the necessary facility in dissociating movements to enable him to practice [sic] and observe polyrhythm.113
Percy Ingham, co-founder of the London School of Dalcroze Eurhythmics, noted in his essay “The Method: Growth and Practice” that Dalcroze’s polyrhythm exercises develop independent control of the limbs by dividing meter into various body parts simultaneously.114 Musical Example 6.17 displays an exercise taught by Dalcroze in his
112 Rubinoff, 128.
113 Dalcroze, Rhythm, Music and Education, 88-9.
114 É mile Jaques-Dalcroze, “The Method: Growth and Practice,” in The Eurhythmics of Jaques- Dalcroze, ed. Percy B. Ingham (Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1918), 52.
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eurhythmics class involving the voice, arms, and feet.115 The use of these body parts implies singing, clapping, and marching.116 Dalcroze categorized this type of exercise as a dissociative exercise, where different body parts perform different rhythms simultaneously. The meter of this exercise is 3, however, the rhythmic patterns in each measure vary between 6/8 and 3/4 time signatures. The challenge of this exercise is to continuously pass the layered rhythmic patterns through three body parts simultaneously.
Musical Example 6.17. Dalcroze’s Rythmique II et III, 1926-1927, Volume 38, p. 122.
Dalcroze and Martin share a similar approach to the use of polyrhythm as demonstrated in Martin’s Prelude VI (Musical Example 6.18). In boxes A and B of
Musical Example 6.18, Martin juxtaposes time signatures with the left hand in 6/8 and the right hand in 3/4. In addition to the polyrhythm in box B, the performer must interpret the irregular slurred notes that occur in both hands. Martin’s rhythms and articulations
115 Rubinoff, 129.
116 Dalcroze, Rhythm, Music and Education, 134.
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resemble Dalcroze’s complex approach to polyrhythmic layering found in his Rythmique
II et III.
Musical Example 6.18. 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prelude VI, mm. 1-5.
Dalcroze emphasized the importance of polyrhythm exercises. His exercises increase awareness of rhythm through listening and body movement. Moreover, they train students to respond quickly to rhythmic changes. The coordination of these complex body rhythms transfers to piano playing. Dalcroze also provides specific preparatory exercises for acquiring coordinated body rhythms at the keyboard. He suggests the following:
play simultaneously different phrases - 2 against 3, 3 against 4, 3 against 5, 4 against 5, etc. - study compositions in a slow tempo, making sure to count the [rhythmic] subdivisions, then, at tempo, try to have the muscular sensation of playing two opposing rhythms. 117
117 In Daniel Rubinoff’s dissertation, he stated that Dalcroze included polymetric and polyrhythmic exercises in his unpublished piano improvisation method. Rubinoff, 72. 76
Martin also valued a pedagogical approach to mastering polyrhythm; he provided the following exercise in one of his lesson plans:
1. Running in eighth-notes, [the students] clap the binary or ternary rhythm that the teacher plays on the piano. 2. Continue clapping the binary rhythm while the teacher plays the ternary [rhythm]. 3. Continue clapping the ternary rhythm while the teacher plays the binary [rhythm]. 4. Clap eighth-notes in the hands and walk the quarter-note or dotted quarter note [beats].118
These exercises, devised by Martin, assist students in performing multiple rhythms simultaneously with different body parts, and as such, align closely with Dalcroze’s dissociative exercises.
Similarities in approach to polyrhythm are again found in Prélude VII. In measures 77-79, the right hand plays in a triple meter (3/4) while the left hand implies a duple meter (6/8). Both meters are combined in the left hand alone at measure 79.
(Musical Example 6.19)
118 Rubinoff, 134-5. 77
Musical Example 6.19. 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prelude VII, mm. 77-79.
Other examples are found in measures 15 and 20 of Martin’s final Prelude
(Musical Example 6.20 and 6.21). The polyrhythm in measure 15 is a combination of
18/16 time signature (left hand) and 9/8 time signature (right hand), creating a hemiola— a three-against-two rhythm in each beat, with the right hand divided into three in a beat and the left hand divided into two groups in a beat. In Musical Example 6.21, Martin alters the polyrhythmic pattern of measure 15 by shifting the upper register rhythms to create a three-against-two layering. Both examples reflect and illustrate the polyrhythm activities of Dalcroze Eurhythmics.
Musical Example 6.20. 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prelude VIII, m. 15.
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Musical Example 6.21. 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prelude VIII, m. 20.
Martin’s and Dalcroze’s fascination with rhythmic complexity served as a primary focus for their composing and teaching philosophies. It appears that Martin’s earlier experiences with Dalcroze Eurhythmics strongly influenced his approach to polyrhythm within the 8 Préludes pour le piano.
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Eurhythmics-Based Activity 6: Polyrhythm in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VI and VIII.
Number of participants: two or more
Procedure:
1. Individual A improvises in a triple meter (3/4) on the piano and Individual B steps
and claps to each beat of the measure.
2. Individual A cues by saying “Change!” and Individual B responds immediately
by stepping and swinging arms on the beat of two (main beat of 6/8) while
Individual A remains playing in 3/4.
3. Repeat the first two procedures, but Individual A improvises at the piano in 6/8
and Individual B steps and claps the main beat of 3/4 with the cue of “Change!”.
4. Individual A improvises with the rhythm in Figure 6.15 and switches the rhythm
between hands. Individual B claps in three and steps in two when Individual A
starts improvising. When the rhythm between hands is switched, Individual B
responds with clapping in two and stepping in three (Figure 6.15).
Figure 6.15. Polyrhythm exercise
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Eurhythmics-Based Activity 7: Polyrhythm in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII.
Number of participants: one
Procedure:
1. Individual A taps in compound duple meter (6/8), with a subdivision of 6. When
the beat is established, Individual A chants “Ta” on every beat of 3/4, in addition
to tapping the compound duple meter (6/8) on the lap (Figure 6.16).
Figure 6.16. Subdivisions of 6/8
2. Individual A switches the coordination by chanting the beats of 6/8 and tapping
the beats of 3/4.
3. Individual A improvises on the piano starting with the accompaniment (LH) in
6/8 and melody (RH) in 3/4, and vice versa.
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Rhythmic Counterpoint
Rhythmic counterpoint is another eurhythmics element in Dalcroze’s educational method. Martin’s incorporation of rhythmic counterpoint is found in Préludes IV, V and
VII of 8 Préludes pour le piano. In Dalcroze Eurhythmics, rhythmic counterpoint is a rhythmic element consisting of long notes that construct a theme accompanied by shorter note values in the accompanying lines. Percy Ingham suggests a realization of an eurhythmic exercise for rhythmic counterpoint in which the arms represent the theme and the feet create counterpoint using shorter note values such as quarter notes, eighth notes, triplets or sixteenth notes.119 Musical Example 6.22 displays an example of rhythmic counterpoint in Dalcroze Eurhythmics as discussed by Ingham.
Musical Example 6.22. Rhythmic Counterpoint in Dalcroze Eurhythmics120
According to Rubinoff, students often perform more complex exercises in advanced eurhythmic classes, such as performing several rhythms simultaneously.121
119 Dalcroze, The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze, 46.
120 Ibid., 51. The author provides this example based on Percy Ingham’s discussion.
121 Rubinoff, 125. 82
Musical Example 6.23 provides an example of a Dalcroze advanced rhythmic counterpoint exercise in which students are asked to improvise a counterpoint to the given theme.
Musical Example 6.23. Rhythmic counterpoint exercise, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, Volume 2, p. 70.
Martin’s Prélude IV exhibits the type of rhythmic counterpoint found in Dalcroze
Eurhythmics. In Musical Example 6.24, Martin himself provides an analysis of the rhythmic counterpoint featured in Prélude IV. In his writings, Martin divided each hand into independent meters, stating that two different meters are necessary to form a rhythmic counterpoint. He used arrows to indicate the connection between these two parts where they share the same cadences and meet on the first beat of the measures.
However, Martin clarified that this specific rhythmic analysis is not intended for pianists who perform the piece. He suggested that pianists focus primarily on the beats of the 83
right-hand melody and shape the line lyrically.122
Musical Example 6.24. Martin’s analysis of rhythmic counterpoint, 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude IV, mm. 1-6.
Martin’s Prélude IV displays similarities to the rhythmic counterpoint exercises found in Dalcroze’s La Rythmique (Musical Example 6.25). In this example, Dalcroze provided rhythmic exercises as a general application to piano studies. The right hand has the role of a sustained melody while the left hand often follows the right hand with shorter note values.
122 Frank Martin and Jean-Claude Piguet. Entretiens sur la musique (Neuchâtel: Éditions de la Baconnière, 1967): 102-4
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Musical Example 6.25. Rhythmic counterpoint, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, Volume 2, p. 93.
Martin’s application of rhythmic counterpoint also appears in measures 17 and 18 of Prélude V (Musical Example 6.26). In similar fashion to the preceding Dalcroze exercise, the longer note values in the highest part occur as the primary rhythm while the short sixteenth notes in the lower part form the counterpoint.
Musical Example 6.26. Rhythmic counterpoint in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude V, mm. 17-18.
Another example of rhythmic counterpoint is found in measures 60-62 of Prélude
VII (Musical Example 6.27). The theme of this rhythmic counterpoint appears in the left- hand part while the right-hand part functions as the counterpoint. This is closely related 85
to another of Dalcroze’s rhythmic counterpoint exercises on the piano (Musical Example
6.28).
Musical Example 6.27. Rhythmic counterpoint in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 60-62.
Musical Example 6.28. Rhythmic counterpoint exercise, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, Volume 2, p. 69.
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Eurhythmics-Based Activity 8: Rhythmic counterpoint in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude V and VII.
Number of participants: two or more
Procedure:
1. Individual A plays a theme in a triple meter (3/4) on the piano, Individual B
listens, memorizes and steps to the rhythm of the given theme (Figure 6.17).
2. While continuing to play the Theme at the piano, Individual A cues by saying
“hop!” and Individual B responds immediately by clapping the counterpoint in
eighth-notes. When Individual A cues with “hip!” Individual B responds by
clapping the counterpoint in triplets (Figure 6.17).
Figure 6.17. Rhythmic counterpoint exercise
3. While Individual A continues to play the Theme at the piano, Individual B
improvises the counterpoint by clapping.
4. Individual B plays the theme on the piano (LH) and creates a counterpoint with
the right hand.
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Eurhythmics-Based Activity 9: Rhythmic counterpoint in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude IV, mm. 1-6.
Number of participants: two
Procedure:
1. Individual A plays the top melody line of Martin’s Prélude IV (right hand) as the
theme of the counterpoint. Figure 6.18 shows the theme extracted from measures
1-4 of Martin’s Prélude IV.
2. Individual A taps the counterpoint in eighth-notes using left hand while right hand
plays the theme.
3. Repeat the second procedure, tapping the sixteenth-note counterpoint line.
4. Individual B cues by saying “hip!” and Individual A responds by clapping the
counterpoint in eighth-notes. When Individual B cues “hop!”, Individual A
responds by clapping the counterpoint in sixteenth-notes (See Figure 6.18).
Figure 6.18. Rhythmic counterpoint exercise with the theme extracted from mm. 1-4 of Martin’s Prélude IV.
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Canon
In his teaching, Dalcroze discussed the importance of canon and its place within eurhythmics. Interrupted canon and continuous canon are two types of canon found in the
Dalcroze Eurhythmics method. Continuous canon is a typical canon where two or more identical phrases begin at different times. Interrupted canon is a eurhythmics exercise where a teacher creates a pattern and students respond by imitating, similar to an echo.
Musical Example 6.29 offers an example of interrupted canon.
Musical Example 6.29. Interrupted canon exercise
Dalcroze’s interrupted canon structure is observed in mm. 54-57 of Martin’s
Prélude VII (Musical Example 6.30). This passage closely matches the concept of
Dalcroze’s interrupted canon exercises where the teacher begins the pattern (measure 54) and the student follows with imitation of the pattern (measure 55). In Prélude VII, the teacher and student parts of the interrupted canon exercise are identified through the alternation of low and high registers of the piano (Musical Example 6.30).
89
Musical Example 6.30. Interrupted canon in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VII, mm. 54-57.
Dalcroze included canon exercises in his eurhythmics method to help students develop independence of the limbs. One of the exercises he suggested in Rhythm, Music and Education is a three-part canon with voice and bodily movements: students sing the first part, clap their hands for the second, and march for the third.123 Dalcroze also provided numerous canon exercises in La Rythmique. A canon exercise is illustrated in
Musical Example 6.31. The teacher starts the rhythmic pattern and the students begin the canon one measure later. Dalcroze also included an advanced canon exercise with the teacher beginning the first part of a three-part canon, students realizing the other two canon parts with their feet one measure later and their arms two measures later (see
Musical Example 6.32). A further canon exercise provided by Dalcroze applies the rhythmic exercise to piano technique (see Musical Example 6.33).
Musical Example 6.31: Canon exercise, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, volume 1, p. 51.
123 Dalcroze, Rhythm, Music and Education, 134. 90
Musical Example 6.32: Canon exercise, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, volume 1, p. 67.
Musical Example 6.33: Canon exercise on piano, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, volume 2, p. 94.
Martin’s Prélude VI is a two-part canon that shares similarities with Dalcroze’s canon exercises (Musical Example 6.34). In Prélude VI, the right hand begins the theme and the left hand enters two beats later forming a canon at the fifth below. Martin’s
Prélude VI also recalls Dalcroze’s canon exercises with regard to expression, where a teacher begins a theme played with expression and students must realize the canon a measure later imitating the dynamics, articulation and nuances. In Musical Example 6.35, a canon theme with expression markings is provided by Dalcroze as part of an exercise activity. Martin, in measures 5-7 of Prélude VI, carefully marks the expression in both parts of the canon revealing his direct experiences in Dalcroze Eurhythmics classes.
91
Musical Example 6.34: Canon in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude VI, mm. 1-9.
Musical Example 6.35: Theme of a canon with expression, Dalcroze’s La Rythmique, volume 2, p. 68.
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Eurhythmics-Based Activity 10: Canon in Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, Prélude IV.
Number of participants: two or more
Procedure:
1. Individual A improvises in 12/8 at the piano (moderate tempo), and Individual B
steps to the beat of four.
2. Individual A improvises a melody using the same meter and tempo as step 1, and
Individual B imitates the rhythm of the melody two beats later by clapping,
resulting in a modified two-part canon.
3. Individual B improvises a melody on the piano (RH) using the same meter and
tempo. In the left hand, individual B imitates and taps the rhythm that was
improvised by the right hand two beats later (Figure 6.19).
Figure 6.19. Canon exercise
4. Individual B improvises a melody on the piano (RH) using the same meter and
tempo and the left hand imitates the melody two beats later.
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CHAPTER VII: CONCLUSION
Frank Martin and Émile Jaques-Dalcroze established a close collegial relationship beginning in 1928 and supported and admired each other’s works throughout their lives.
Even though Martin’s strong interest in rhythmic experimentation began before his involvement with Dalcroze Eurhythmics, the years spent as a student and professor at the
Institut Jaques-Dalcroze deepened his experiences and understanding of rhythm. Through the eurhythmics method, Martin’s treatment of rhythm in various compositions became more sophisticated and potent. Specifically, within the 8 Préludes pour le piano, the foundational eurhythmics elements of irregular measures, unequal beats, polyrhythm, rhythmic counterpoint and canon are evident as they make vivid contributions to the musical affects. Moreover, through his many publications, Martin became a consistent advocate for Dalcroze and eurhythmics; it is in his writings that Martin was able to fully elaborate upon his understanding and support of Dalcroze’s educational method.
This research demonstrates the connection between Martin and Dalcroze through a variety of observations: 1) their close collegial relationship; 2) the influences of
Dalcroze Eurhythmics in Martin’s approach to rhythm; and 3) Martin’s writings on rhythm as connected to Dalcroze Eurhythmics. A close examination of Frank Martin’s major piano work, 8 Préludes pour le piano, reveals a strong connection between these composers and Martin’s fascination with the expressive power of rhythm. This research provides a deeper understanding of Martin’s rhythmic manipulations within this 94
composition and, in turn, enriches the experience of learning, interpreting and performing his music.
Madeline Bruser, author of The Art of Practicing, reminds readers that in learning and performing music: “We cannot possibly give music to others without first receiving it ourselves.”124 This idea resonates with Dalcroze’s belief in expressing oneself through music. He states:
The aim of eurhythmics is to enable pupils at the end of their course, to say, not “I know,” but “I have experienced,” and so create in them the desire to express themselves; for the deep impression of an emotion inspires a longing to communicate it, to the extent of one’s powers, to others….“Receive and give!” is the golden rule of humanity; and if the whole system of rhythmic training is based on music, it is because music is a tremendous psychic force…125
The approach to learning music using Dalcroze Eurhythmics is a process of receiving and internalizing music with all parts of the body before sharing it with others through performance. Critical listening, immediate response, and the internalization of rhythm through bodily movement are all fundamental components of this approach. These activities have increased my connection to Martin’s 8 Préludes pour le piano, and have allowed me to express the demanding and pervasive rhythmic elements with more conviction and greater fluidity. These newly-found preparation experiences have created a discipline that has moved my performance to higher levels.
Frank Martin’s compositions are certainly deserving of attention from performers and listeners today. Much like composers such as Igor Stravinsky and Béla Bartók in the
124 Madeline Bruser, The Art of Practicing, 14.
125 Dalcroze, Rhythm, Music and Education, 119.
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early 1900s Martin was attracted to rhythmic experimentation. However, Martin’s rhythmic experiences with Dalcroze Eurhythmics not only enhanced his compositional writing, but also set him apart from other composers of his time.
In his writings, Dalcroze argued that rhythm was often neglected by musicians when making comparisons to the elements of harmony and tone.126 He believed rhythm to be an essential element of music, indispensable to all musical performance. Dalcroze expounded on rhythm in relation to other components of music:
Musical rhythmics is the art of establishing due proportion between sound movement and static silence…according to the nuances of time and dynamics that constitute the individuality, and the nuances of tone, pitch, and intensity of sound which create in music that higher element of mystical and impersonal nature, that connects the individual with the universe. 127
As a performer and teacher, one of my goals is to inspire a myriad of different perspectives in experiencing and learning music through Dalcroze Eurhythmics. It is essential that performers and listeners be encouraged to remain open to alternate ways of understanding music and performance. Recent research provided by Carla Hannaford further illuminates the teaching philosophy of Dalcroze and stresses the significance of learning through movement at all levels.128 In Smart Moves, she elaborates on the connection between human mind and body:
Rhythm provides important patterning that allows the brain to take in the sensory-motor patterns of our world. Rhythm begins in utero with the
126 Ibid., 145-6.
127 Ibid., 149.
128 Carla Hannaford, Ph.D. is a biologist and highly experienced educator. She is the author of Smart Moves.
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sounds of the mother’s heartbeat, breathing and her moving patterns….rhythm becomes even more important as they begin to put together words in language, reasoning, logic/time sense, and mathematical functions.129
Hannaford expands the discussion of rhythm from a musical context into its influence on nature, humans and the universe. This bears profound similarities to the ways in which Dalcroze viewed rhythm as an integral part of life. Perhaps with a heightened awareness of rhythm and movement in our surroundings, we might discover new ways of internalizing rhythms and connecting to music.
Dalcroze’s contributions are invaluable especially in reinforcing the significance of internalizing rhythms through his innovative method, eurhythmics.
129 Carla Hannaford, Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All in Your Head, 88. 97
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A: LETTERS FROM ÉMILE JAQUES-DALCROZE TO
FRANK MARTIN
98
Translation
My Dear Friend,
I deeply regretted that the state of my health impeded me from attending the last committee session of our Institut. I am writing to thank you for the interest you show for our efforts. Your moral support comforts me and constitutes a great relief for me. I follow you with a fierce interest in your magnificent career and in addition, I feel the beautiful memories beating from the time of your valuable collaboration...I am deeply happy about your great success and I wish you to--like the Vaudois say, “keep it up!” I hug you with all of my heart, dear Frank, and I love you with all of my heart.
Your loving old friend, E. Jaques-Dalcroze
99
100
Translation My Dear Friend,
Thank you for your beautiful letter. I understand that the question I asked you is difficult to solve, but I absolutely would like to tell you that when I am obliged to leave my job, I want to assure that the Institut stays a musical center and that its director is not only a creative artist but also someone that deeply knows eurhythmics and can progress it forward. Needless to say, you are the ideal man!
I will thus let you calmly think about this and I thank you for having left me the hope.
Your loving old friend, E. Jaques-Dalcroze
101
APPENDIX B: IRREGULAR MEASURES EXERCISES IN ÉMILE JAQUES-
DALCROZE’S RHYTHM, MUSIC AND EDUCATION (1921)
102
APPENDIX C: PERMISSION LETTERS FROM PUBLISHERS
From: Aygün Lausch [email protected] Date: Wed, April 13, 2016 at 23:47 Subject: Re: Permission request for dissertation To: Chiew Hwa Poon [mailto:[email protected]] Dear Chiew Hwa Poon, Thank you for your e-mail. We are pleased to grant you permission to reprint short excerpts of this work in your dissertation. Our copyright-lines should read: Frank Martin “8 Préludes|für Klavier” © Copyright 1949 by Universal Edition, Wien/UE 35753 Kindly send/e-mail us a complimentary copy of your dissertation.
With kind regards, Aygün Lausch Copyright [email protected] Universal Edition AG Bösendorferstrasse 12 A - 1010 Wien Tel.: + 43 / 1 / 337 23 - 112 Fax: + 43 / 1 / 337 23 – 400 www.universaledition.com
On Apr 13, 2016, at 11:41 PM, Chiew Hwa Poon
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Bauer, William R. "Radical Departure: Where did Emile Jaques Get the Idea of Rhythmic Education?" American Dalcroze Journal Vol. 39 No. 2 (2013): 6-19. http://www.dalcrozeusa.org/uploads/ADJ_V39No2_EXCERPT.pdf. (accessed June 11, 2015).
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Haward, Lawrence W. and Ring, Reinhard. "Jaques-Dalcroze, Emile." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy1.library.arizona.edu/subscriber/articl e/grove/music/14181. (accessed June 11, 2015).
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Books Bachmann, Marie-Laure. Dalcroze Today: An Education Through and Into Music. Oxford University Press: New York, 1991.
Bruser, Madeline. The Art of Practicing. Three Rivers Press: New York, 1997.
É mile Jaques-Dalcroze; Fred Rothwell; Cynthia Cox. Eurhythmics, Art and Education. New York: Barnes, 1930.
Findlay, Elsa. Rhythm and Movement: Applications of Dalcroze Eurhythmics. Summy- Birchard: Secaucus, NJ, 1950.
Green, Douglass M., Forms in Tonal Music. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc: New York, 1965.
Hannaford, Carla. Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All In Your Head. Great River Books: Utah, 2005.
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Martin, Frank. Écrits sur la rythmique et pour les rythmiciens, les pédagogues, les musiciens. Geneva: Éditions La Papillon, 1995.
Martin, Frank and Jean-Claude Piguet. Entretiens sur la musique. Neuchâtel: Éditions de la Baconnière, 1967.
Martin, Frank et al. Émile Jaques Dalcroze: L’homme, le compositeur, le créateur de la rhythmique. Neuchâtel: Éditions La Baconnière, 1965.
Spector, Irwin. Rhythm and Life: The Work of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. New York: Pendragon, 1990.
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Papers and Dissertations Collins, Geraldine T. “The Eight Preludes for Piano of Frank Martin: A Lecture Recital, Togethernwith Three Recitals of Selected Works of J.S. Bach, L.V. Beethoven, J. Brahms, F. Chopin, I. Albéniz, R. Schumann, A. Scriabin, F. Liszt, and K. Szymanowski.” DMA diss., North Texas State University, 1980. Martin, Donna Sherrell. “The Piano Music of Frank Martin: Solo and Orchestral.” DMA diss., University of Cincinnati, 1993. Pak, Jooeun. "Invention through Synthesis: Former Composers Observed in Frank Martin's Huit préludes pour le piano." D. Mus diss., Indiana University, 2014. Rubinoff, Daniel I. “Émile Jaques-Dalcroze's Influence on Frank Martin: 1924-1937.” PhD diss., York University, 2011. Rubinoff, Daniel. “Frank Martin’s La nique à Satan: The Dalcroze Connection.” Sacre Celebration, Society of Dance History Scholars, Special Topics Conference, York University, Toronto, April 20, 2013. Tupper, Janet E. “Stylistic Analysis of Selected Works by Frank Martin.” PhD diss., University of Indiana, 1964.
Scores Kavaldjiev, Ivan. “Dilmano, Dilbero.” http://www.europacantatutrecht.nl/download/BladmuziekB05_Dilmano_Dilbero3 .pdf (accessed July 21, 2015).
Martin, Frank. Etude rythmique. Charles Dobler. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1980.
Martin, Frank. 8 Préludes pour le piano. Austria: Universal Edition, 1949.
Sound Recordings Martin, Frank. Frank Martin interprète Frank Martin. Frank Martin. Jecklin disco. JD 563-2. CD. 1966.
Martin, Frank. The Complete Piano Music. Julie Adam. ABC Classics 4762601. CD. 2005.
Martin, Frank. Complete Works for Solo Piano. Daniel Spiegelberg. Gall AAD 636. CD. 1995.