This is an English translation of La Rhythmique Jaques-Dalcroze by Marie-Laure Bachmann, first published in Switzerland in 1984. The book was commissioned by the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva and is the first to give a comprehensive account of the work and ideas of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, 1865-1950, educational pioneer, musician, and creative artist. With its detailed and copious references to archive material the book gives us a fascinating insight into the inception and development of Jaques-Dalcroze's work, from the end of the last century up to the present day. It traces his growing ideas on the use of movement and of improvisation in the process of music learning, and the application of these ideas to the vital experiencing of musical material, both for children and adults. Dalcroze's work begins with the primacy of individual response, the right of all to develop their individual minds through interpretative gesture; this, among other outcomes, enables a process of stringent
