What music is suitable to accompany eurythmy?

Classical or folk music can be used for eurythmy. The important principle is that the music should be live. Recorded music draws on our etheric forces, and so absorbs energy if we would try to practice eurythmy to CDs or tapes. This can be experienced in the way tunes can get stuck in our minds, and repeat endlessly until we can completely digest and forget them. The German term for such a tune is an ear-worm. This effect is what sells popular music, as we hunger to be satiated by repetition of the stimulus. It is the same unsatisfied hunger that makes us go out after electronically amplified concerts and buy the recordings.

Our organism works differently in the case of live music, where we can be fed from the etheric forces that have reverberated into us from the instrument. The etheric forces resonate through the eurythmy and are thus amplified for the audience.

I would not recommend using background or mood music CDs or tapes to accompany eurythmy. It may appear like a good idea, but it is a distraction, and experience shows that reproduced music actually sucks out those very etheric forces that we would wish to enliven.

Most eurythmy music books contain piano music. This is because it has usually been easier to get a pianist to play for lessons and sessions. The piano is a very versatile instrument. Other instruments, well played, are just as good. The lyre is often used in therapeutic sessions. A friend of mine once castigated a symphonic performance of eurythmy in the Goetheanum by remarking that he saw no more than he heard! There is a challenge to every eurythmist who ever raised an arm in song. Should the movement not be lifting the music rather than the other way round?

Discover Eurythmy aims to encourage more interest in eurythmy, dialogue between eurythmists and enthusiasts, and also more questions!