Deanna Clement

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Harmonizing a Cours d’improvisation (n.d.) Melody

Émile Jaques-Dalcroze’s (1865-1950) thinking on piano improvisation and harmony remains obscure, even though Cours d’improvisation (n.d.) and Introduction à l’étude de l’harmonie (n.d.) provide documentation on his and his allies’ thinking on and teaching of both subjects. At the same time, neither text provides complete, explicit answers as to how Dalcroze choreographed the leap students made from the solfège activities in the three volumes of Les gammes et les tonalités, le phrasé et les nuances (1906-7) to the Cours materials, which consist of a cappella melodies classified according to an expanding harmonic palate. Rather, a considerable gap exists between the two texts’ contents. However, closely reading Les gammes alongside Dalcroze’s essays collected in two volumes, Rhythm, Music, and Education (1921) and Eurhythmics, Art, and Education (1930), allows us to understand in greater detail the melodic foundation Dalcroze and his allies assert for harmony. I will demonstrate how this understanding operates in practice with a Cours melody. Filling in this theoretical and pragmatic gap not only sheds light on how these texts together represent Dalcroze and his allies’ thoughts about these intertwined skills, but also helps us better appreciate how a series of arm movements represents musical events in Exercices de plastique animée (1916), Exercise 4.22.