Jacques-Dalcroze, Émile

(real surname, Jacques). Born July 6, 1865, in Vienna; died July 1, 1950, in Geneva. Swiss composer and pedagogue.

Jacques-Dalcroze studied music in the Geneva Conservatory and went on to Vienna to take advanced courses with R. Fuchs and A. Bruckner and to Paris to study with L. Delibes. Jacques-Dalcroze taught at the Geneva Conservatory during 1892–1910. He created eurythmics, a system of rhythmic musical education (rhythmic gymnastics), and devised a system for developing musical and rhythmic abilities (creative freedom and expression and the development of a perfect ear and capacity for musical improvisation). During 1911–14 he taught eurythmics in a special school in Hellerau, and from 1915, in the institute he had founded in Geneva. Similar institutes and schools were started in Stockholm, London, Paris, Vienna, Barcelona, and other cities by Jacques-Dalcroze’s followers and pupils, who included M. Wigman, R. St. Denis, M. Rambert, and V. F. Nizhinsky. Eurythmic institutes, based on Jacques-Dalcroze’s method, were founded in Moscow and Petrograd in 1920. The Soviet school enriched his method by adding an emotional content. Jacques-Dalcroze’s compositions include seven operas, works for symphonic orchestras, three cantatas, and two concerti for violin and orchestra.