462 



The Review of Reviews. 



RHYTHMICAL MUSICAL 

 GYMNASTICS. 



In the current number of the German Arena, 

 the first part of a new volume, there is a short 

 article on the new Jaqucs-Dalcroze Training 

 School for Rhythmical Gymnastics at Hellerau, 

 near Dresden. There is also an article on the 

 same subject in the Musical Times for Sep- 

 tember. 



THE DALCROZE SCHOOL. 



One writer describes the school, with its 

 festival buildings, as the Bayreuth of Dancing, 

 but it is not, and does not profess to be, a 

 school of dancing. Designed by Herr Heinrich 

 Tessinow, with the assistance of Herr 

 Alexander von Salzmann, the painter, the 

 festival hall, in its clear, simple proportions, 

 does not pretend to be anything but an en- 

 closed space. The lighting of the stage and 

 the auditorium has been most ingeniously 

 arranged, producing a result of ideal simplicity. 

 It is an evenly distributed, not directly visible, 

 and absolutely shadeless light, which can be 

 increased and decreased at will. The border 

 between the stage and the audience is occupied 

 by the space for an orchestra of sixty per- 

 formers. There is no stage curtain. 



INTERESTING RESULTS. 



Rhythmically regulated movement, says M. 

 Jaques-Dalcroze, is in itself an element of joy. 

 .4t the end of June the school held its first 

 annual festival, and gave interesting demon- 

 strations of rhythmical gymnastics m simple 

 and highly applied forms.. After simple exer- 

 cises, graceful dances, and march-like move- 

 ments, the students proceeded to give inter- 

 pretations of emotions, such as joy, brightness, 

 pain, sadness, etc., but the climax was reached 

 by movements associated with the performance 

 of a Prelude by Bach, a three-part fugue, which 

 was beautifully represented by twelve girls and 

 six youths. Bach's Invention in G minor and 

 the Prelude and Fugue E minor by Men- 

 delssohn were also represented. Magnificent 

 also seems to have been the musical and plastic 

 presentment of the first part of Act II. of 

 Gliick's " Orfeo," with its choruses and 

 dances of the Furies. M. Jaques-Dalcroze, 

 who had himself composed several items, was 

 the recipient of enthusiastic o\'ations ns the im- 

 portance of his idea and work for the musical 

 education of the individual was demonstrated ; 

 for the exercises are intended Inrgelv as a pre- 

 liminary to the study of music, being designed 

 to impart the instinct of time and measure and 

 the sense of rhythm. 



In connection with the recent Festival an in- 



teresting handbook was published, describing 

 the buildings and setting forth the aims of the 

 institution. A hostel for students is part of the 

 scheme. M. Emile Jaques-Dalcroze is a well- 

 known Swiss composer, and at the time of his 

 invention of the system he was a professor at 

 the Geneva Conservatoire. It was a great dis- 

 appointment that he did not come to England in 

 the spring, as was anticipated, to giye demon- 

 strations of his interesting method. 



THE WAR SONG. 



The October Pall Mall contains a finely illus- 

 trated paper on war-songs and their singers. 

 T. H. Manners-Howe, the author, says the war- 

 song, or battle-hymn, whatever the form of its 

 expression, is essentially sentiment in its most 

 dynamic form, and we should be as foolish to 

 ignore its importance as to refuse to recognise 

 one of the laws of nature. A British general 

 officer has told how, during the Franco-German 

 War, he heard the whole of the German in- 

 fantry, when lying under the fire of the French 

 batteries, burst forth into that most pathetic 

 of war-songs, " Der gute Kamarad." It sus- 

 tained them under the most arduous test to 

 which infantry can be put, and carried them 

 on to eventual success. In spite of the attempt 

 of the Naval and Military Musical Union, the 

 popularising of a better class of song among 

 our fighting men has proved a failure. Tommy 

 and Jack are hymn singers. The author draws 

 a vivid picture of Sunday evening service on 

 a battleship one stormy night : — 



As the strong voices of the seamen were lifted ic the 

 f.imiliar strains of the old hymn, 

 " Hark, hark, my soul, angelic songs are swelling 



O'er earth's green fields and ocean's wave-beat shore," 

 it was not the ship's harmonium which proved the real 

 accompaniment. There was a mightier music abroad in 

 the deep diapason of tlie elements, in the roar of the 

 gale, and the backward surge of the great seas as they 

 vainly pounded the steel sides of the warship. And 

 through this Atlantic accompaniment of winds and waves 

 the men sang on, as though stimulated to competing 

 heartiness : 

 " Far, far away, like bells at evening pealing, 



The voice of Jesus sounds o'er land and sea." 

 As the great ship drove onwards through the gathering 

 shadows of that Sunday evening there were many for 

 whom the familiar poetry of the words in this ctrange 

 and dramatic setting were invested with an unwonted 

 meaning and reality. 



Mr. Gladstone used to tell how an English 

 lady, a friend of his, chartering a cab for the 

 day in Dublin, said to the driver, " You won't 

 mind if I take you for the day? " " Is it vie 

 mind, me lady? " was his gallant reply. " Sure, 

 I wouldn't mind if ye tuk me for life ! " — Mrs. 

 E. Lyttelton in the Nineteenth Century. 



