Audio Library volume 5 “natural movements”

by Françoise Lombard

THE PEDAGOGICAL GUIDE is included
in the purchase of the volume.

It contains explanations and suggestions for the pedagogical development of each musical track.

TRACK 4 EDUCATIONAL CONTENT from the guide

– Note the structure of the piece and point out to the students the major and minor elements.

– To underline the phrases and to avoid getting tired, each pupil in turn gallops while holding an object (small stick) that he hands to a classmate at the end of the phrase (7 gallops and 1 beat to give the stick); this person takes the object and gallops towards someone else during the next phrase.

– Two groups each with a leader : group A gallops behind their leader on the minor phrases and group B on the major phrases. Change leader after each phrase. Next, group B takes the minor phrases and group A the major phrases. Children can also pretend to be wearing a helmet (by making the shape of the helmet above their head) while galloping freely around the room.

5 years and up

This material is intended to promote the learning of music through body movement, but it does not constitute a professional “music and movement” training. Therefore, its use does not authorise one to use the title of Dalcroze teacher. However, the experimentation of the Library could inspire and motivate a person to pursue a more advanced training of Jaques-Dalcroze Eurhythmics, with the option of obtaining, after several years of study, professional recognition.

Improvisations : Françoise Lombard 
© Les Éditions Adragante, Canada

Recording : Michel Comeau, Northmount Studio, Montreal
Mastering : TrueSound Louis Morneau
Cover photos : David Tucker    © ICDS
Cover photos : Michel Comeau    © Dalcroze Canada
Cover graphic design : Michel Comeau

This volume addresses natural movements in the most simple of ways : the music offered invites you to move freely, without any particular reflection process. The concept of complicity between the music and the student’s movement is the base of Dalcroze Eurhythmics. This means that what the body is doing is exactly coherent with the music the student hears. This complicity actually nourishes both the movement and the musical sense.

Each musical track will invite students to adapt their gait and movements instinctively. This adaptation allows the students to integrate both the style of the music – because of how they want to move their bodies – and the form of each piece.

These natural movements mostly involve movement in space, and thus a varied use of straight lines or curves, circles or lines, depending on the music and the mood. We integrate musical forms through natural movements; there is a direct contact between musical form and the possibility of instinctively creating forms in space.