Newsletter from the Section for the Arts of Eurythmy, Speech and Music Michaelmas 2002 1 EDITORIAL Dear Readers, During the preparations before we went to press, the news reached us of the highest floods for a century of the rivers of Germany, Austria, East Europe and Asia – hundreds of thousands are fleeing to escape the flood waters. Tremendous destruction in nature and culture... In the Summer Conference at the Goetheanum we have once again experienced how dra- matically destiny works in the Mystery Dramas, and then how differently in the Theatre Fes- tival, a wrestling and ever again a new beginning on the way towards becoming human. The curtain before the threshold is getting thinner; the involvement with one’s destiny is becom- ing more direct. Artistic presentations are trying to be authentic, spiritually and existentially effective. Theatre on the Threshold 2002 was a festival through the abundance of presentations, of which you could only hope to see a part. Various concerns, intentions, styles and niveaus were perceived in a good mood by small, engaged audiences... As with the lectures during the Mys- tery Drama Conference, “activated thinking” and the workshops in the morning were a very essential contribution bringing fruitful challenges to all participants. The rehearsals for Goethe’s “Faust” begin in October. The cast – the main roles doubled – is as good as clear; all the necessary functions in the team are filled; public relations will begin in the autumn in earnest. The financing depends very much on this work. Patron seats are booked, but there are plenty still available, to make this “Faust”–project ever more grounded. The question of support for our arts, as hitherto, is still an open one. How can the cultural impulse, that can be achieved through the arts, be experienced and become effective in a renewed way, too, at the Goetheanum, the House of the Word? In Section work in all realms burning questions are being working at. The professional description for eurythmy has to be completed; for artistic speech this is work in progress, in order to meet the demands of the times in the professions. For the trainings this means a new orientation with regards to the curriculum and way of working. The spiritual tasks of our arts need to be deepened and widened – especially with regard to an artistic study-of-man and research tasks – in order to meet the needs of the coming generations. This is worked at in conferences, courses and lectures, in working gatherings and meetings at the Goetheanum and many other places in the world. This Michaelmas Newsletter is being sent to those who subscribed for it. Those interested to receive it can send requests at any time. How far we are able to cover costs in future will be seen (for financial reasons we are dropping the coloured titles.) Please send your contributions for the next Newsletter in time. It is clear that articles and work out of individual research-workshops are of a different character. They belong just as much to the task of the Section as do reports on initiatives and announcements of activities. With warm greetings and wishes for a fruitful collaboration Yours, 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Stage Forum Why is Eurythmy in so fundamentally Educational letter from “Wilhelm Meister’s important in the first seven years; and Apprenticeship” by Goethe . 4 how can one enhance its effectiveness? (Elisabeth Göbel) . 42 Eurythmy and Acting from a notebook of Elena Zuccoli . 4 Art of Movement—our Problem Child (Anja Riska) . 45 Observations on the Debate concerning Eurythmy (Alba Maria Sole-Link) . 8 Eurythmy and Dance (Thomas Göbel) . 50 Some impressions from the World Euryth- The Connection between Inner Develop- my Conference on the theme of “The ment and Training the Instrument in the eurythmy indications of Rudolf Steiner” Music-Eurythmy Training, Part 1 Dornach, Easter, 2002 (Hans-Ulrich Kretschmer) . 54 Dorothea Mier . 9 Shaina Stoehr . 9 Research for the Art of Speech as Tomie Ando . 10 understood by Marie Steiner (Johannes Bergmann) . 58 Thoughts on Theatre at the Threshold at the Goetheanum (Christopher Marcus) . 11 Reports Eurythmy Conference, Original Roots, Articles New Flowers (Minke de Vos) . 61 Beethoven and Number – The Diabelli Eurythmy in Education – Education in Variations – Part II (Robert Kolben) . 14 Eurythmy (Tatjana von Toenges) . 62 Character and Conduct in GA 278: A Review after 6 years Further Training for Criteria for Art, conclusion Eurythmy in the Kindergarten (Alan Stott) . 19 (Elisabeth Lüthy) . 64 Impulses of Movement of the Human Report on the Eurythmy Work in Croatia Ether-Body, Part 2 (Rosemaria Bock) . (Vida Talajicc´-Ijacˇic´) . 65 The Three Levels of Being of Musical The Michaelmas Festival, 2001, Eurythmy Sound, Part 2 (Heiner Ruland) . 31 as Manichean Alchemy (Edwin H. Llowarch) . 67 The Sun Sings – A glance at contemporary practice (Alan Stott) . 35 Report on the Conference for Speakers and Actors “Forces from the source of the Adult Education based on the Seven Life- Word – heard and visible movement” Processes (Monica Fingado) . 40 (Magdalene Sommer) . 68 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 The Speech School – Re-baptized mysterydrama.com (Christopher Garvey) . 69 (Christopher Marcus) . 93 A Cultural Impulse in Transition – The Rudolf Steiner “Eurythmy: ist Birth Training in Speech and Gesture in and Development” (GA 277a) Zurich ends its work, Summer 2002 (trans. by Alan Stott) . 93 (Johannes Starke) . 70 Report on the two year, part-time further Reader’s Letters training in artistic speech and therapeu- tic speech practise from March 2000 to Ria Malmus . 94 March 2002 (E. Gast) . 71 “The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity”, its “consonants and vowels” Obituaries (François Gaillemin) . 94 Christa Knapp-Boger (Michael Knapp) . .72 How can eurythmy be used in a stronger contemporary way? Elisabeth Susanne Gärtner (Imme Atwood) . 94 (Mark Gartner) . 74 Miscellaneous Events Eurythmy: a documentary 2001/2002 organised by the Section . 78 (Jurriaan Cooiman) . 96 Request by Johannes Bergmann . .96 Announcements - Eurythmy . 79 - Speech . 87 - Music . 89 - Puppetry . 89 Corrections to Newsletter 36 Book Reviews p. 44, l. 14 after ‘sixth planetary embodiment’ «Exercices d’Art de la Parole» by Evelyne add ‘counting the Earth as Mars-Mercury’. Guilloto (Serge Maintier) . 91 p. 49, 2nd line up: illustration caption. for ‘ecclestical’ read ‘ecclesiastical’. p. 52,l. 15, for ‘the singing’ read ‘singing’. Publications p. 57, l. 5 for ‘joins’ read ‘join’. p. 60, end of l. 23. For ‘c520’ read ‘c5’. “Calendar of the Soul” verses and pictures p. 64, 2nd para. from below: this Steiner for meditation and art quote should be indented. L. 11 from bot- (François Gaillemin) . 92 tom, for ‘in’ read ‘into’. 4 STAGE FORUM Educational letter Eurythmy and Acting from “Wilhelm Meister’s from a notebook of Elena Zuccoli (14th Nov., Apprenticeship” by Goethe 1901 – 26th Aug., 1996) Art is long, life is short, judgement difficult, 30th July, 1955 the opportunity fleeting. Doing is easy, A presentation or interpretation in the art of thinking difficult; it is uncomfortable to act eurythmy is only legitimate when it comes according to thought. Every beginning is about as a natural result of the effort to fun, the threshold is the place of expecta- realise the laws and the life of the word. To tion. The lad stands in awe, the impression allow the presentation to arise out of the determines him, he learns playfully, the seri- word itself and not out of an idea (Vorstel- ous element surprises him. Imitation is our lung). The word is a living being, my ideas birthright; it is not easy to recognize what is have also been part of the word but are no to be imitated. Rarely is the right thing found longer alive. Everything that arises out of the and rarely evaluated. The heights entice us idea can only limit—it can certainly astonish not the steps to them; with the peak in sight an audience but cannot heal it, it only inter- we prefer to walk on the plain. Only a part of ests oneself—and is not effective in general. art can be learnt, the artist needs the whole. A presentation has to arrive out of the He who knows it only in part is always in experience of sentence structure, rhythm, error and talks a lot. Whoever possesses the sounds, etc. The outer thought “…” in most whole only acts and speaks rarely or later on. cases is only the garment for a being. Should The former have no secrets and no I mistake the garments for the being? I would strength—their teaching is like baked bread, be full of illusions and pour old wine into tasty and satisfying only for a day. But one new wineskins [Mk 2: 22, etc.], which is what cannot sow flour and the corn to be sown most of what is called “eurythmy presenta- should not be ground. Words are good, but tions” are. All the individual elements of they are not the best. The best is not revealed what is to be presented is not recognized and through words. The spirit out of which we act it is forced into a foreign form. You produce is the highest. The deed is only understood an illusion which can deceive if you only out of the spirit and then presented. Nobody want to weave in the element of beauty and knows what he does when he acts rightly, but want to give rein to the purely outer visual, we are always conscious of things done aesthetic sense. With the latter you can even wrongly. Whoever merely works with signs is be very clever so that it nourishes the intel- a pedant, a pretender, a quack.