Fixed Do and Movable Do in Our Eurythmy: Does It Matter?

by Kate Reese Hurd 

Here reposted is the enlargement, now updated, of my autumn 2021 article for our Eurythmy Association of North America Newsletter, “Fixed Do and Movable Do in Our Eurythmy: Does It Matter?” This document completes the first section of Part III of the Singing and Jumping Opens the Way to a Vital Music Eurythmy Foundation report. The second section of Part III will delve into the earliest records of the angle-gestures and consider how these gestures have been applied over the last century. The first half of “Part I: The Archetypal Scale and Its Disappearance” of the Singing and Jumping report was posted in December 2019 and updated in March 2023. And “Part IV: The Singing and Jumping Exercises – Real Sounds Lead to Real Gestures” was posted in March 2022. The rest of the report is in progress and will sooner or later come out as a book.

For the workshop on movable do and the 1915 angle-gestures which I led at the Eurythmy Festival this month (August 2023), I was immersed in the Arioso by J.S. Bach yet more deeply. Because of this, I’ve been able to describe its tonal journey – as well as the tonal journey of Bach’s Air on the G String – even more clearly, and I hope more helpfully. I’ve especially tried to open the doors into tonal music wider for those of you who work with these pieces in eurythmy. The two Bach manuscripts are now found right in the document at the end of it.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Concerning fixed do and movable do
The expression of the scale in eurythmy
Movable do in eurythmy expression
Fixed do in eurythmy expression
Real time consequences of fixed do
Moving toward a movable-do practice:
     J.S. Bach’s Arioso
     J.S. Bach’s Air on the G String
Expressing changes in tonal center in eurythmy 
Closing
References, endnotes and about the author

With warm and cheerful greetings,
Kate Reese Hurd
karehuuu@gmail.com

The article for download (the second page is blank so that two-sided printing will come out correctly for the music manuscripts):
FixedDo-MovableDo+Bach,KateReeseHurd,082323,pdf