Music And Movement

MUSIC AND MOVEMEI P by ANN DRIVER with illustrations drawn by MOLLY MACARTHUR and a preface by DR L. P. JACKS OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON HUMPHREY MILFORD PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY HENDERSON AND SPALDING LTD SYLVAN GROVE CAMBERWELL LONDON S E 15 First Impression November 1936 Second Impression January 1938 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Foreword ix Preface x I Rhythm I II Movement 5 III Music 25 IV Music and Movement for Boys 6 1 V The Appreciation of Music Through Movement Design 91 VI The Teachers Approach to Music and Movement 105 VII Wider Incentive from Music and Movement 114 FOREWORD The chapters of this book follow a definite sequence of Ideas. Chapter I contains a short description of Rhythm . Chapters II, III and IV contain all the material from which the lessons can be planned, together with the general and underlying principles necessary to its right use. Though these three chapters can be classed as practical, the teachers presentation of the work to children has been withheld until Chapter VI, since success in the teaching of Music and Movement depends primarily upon a thorough understand ing of principles as well as a careful knowledge of the material. Chapter IV on boys work has been specially made complete in itself, avoiding as far as possible too much reference to the rest of the book. Chapter V deals exclusively with Movement Design. Chapter VII shows one application of the work to the study of the piano. It could equally well be applied to any other musical Instrument, as it could to an art other than music. I wish to offer most grateful thanks and acknowledgement to Miss Emily Pike for a comprehensive technical revision of the utmost value, and warm appreciation of herunfailing support of the work from the beginning. Also to Mr T. O. Y. Davies for his courage and fine co-operation which made it possible to experiment in work with boys. And to the poet, Mr Trevor Blakemore, for invaluable help by suggestions and criticisms through every stage of this book. A. D. 1936, PREFACE This book has much to tell us about Movement, a thing which all are familiar with but few understand. Our bodies, when they are not resting or asleep, are incessantly moving in endless ways, and even when they are resting or asleep, interior movement of many kinds is going on. But how many of us can say what movement really is How many of us know that for every movement we make there is a right way and a wrong How many of us have realized that by moving in the wrong way we are constantly wasting our energies, irritating our nerves, disturbing our tempers, lowering our vitality, and interfering with the proper action of our minds How many of us have made the discovery that the movements of our bodies, when they move as nature intends them to do, and has constructed them for doing, are just as joyous and delightful and refreshing as they are irksome and irritating and fatiguing when unnaturally done The writer of this book has made that discovery. But she has done something more. She has worked out a way of applying this discovery to the education of boys and girls, so that they may start life with right habits of movement firmly established. And not only worked out the way, but practised it with beneficent results both on the bodies and minds of her pupils. I have myself seen the results. They are certainly very remarkable. In the description of them given by Miss Driver in thisbook, I can find no trace of exaggeration. I am convinced that what is here described has great value. Though Miss Driver is not a philosopher, she has a truer insight into what movement really is than many philosophers who have written on the subject. She is a musician, and it is through music that she has gained her insight into the true nature of movement and its wonderful possibilities as a means of education both for mind and body...