arts & ideas lyre twice weekly as part of this endeavor, as did others in our school community who sang, told stories, played recorded music, and offered massage. At first, I focused on sounding beautiful melodies, but I eventually settled on certain scales connected with the planetary tones, ordered in accordance with what is known as the ‘ incarnation sequence’. Shortly following our session one afternoon, months after his stroke, he quite unexpectedly ‘came back’. I continued my work with him after he returned home, and once he had reclaimed his ability to express himself, he told me of his experience of being ‘elsewhere’, though aware of the care he was receiving at his bedside. Although he knew that he had surely been supported by all of the other offerings made on his behalf, he shared with me that during those months, the only thing that he actually experienced was the tone of the lyre – not any melody or harmony – simply the lyre tone, and he fully believed that this was what had ‘called him back’. We close with words of Christof-Andreas Lindenberg, penned over 60 years ago, but echoing and confirming what has been shared out of contemporary experience about the centrality of the heart in connection with the experience of the lyre tone:
The heart in us is a true lyre. Tuning and sounding at the same time, it sings the changing melos of our daily existence. Its very position suggests the attitude of listening as well as the attitude of sounding; an axis neither horizontal nor vertical, taking all dimensions into its force – right-above-back to left-below-front. That is the secret of its seat. And the fourfold structure of its chambers is the secret of its purpose, its beat. Only at times, and not more than dimly, are we aware of its rhythm, and systole and diastole never become fully conscious to him who tries to hear the heart’s polyphonic harmonies, resounding as they do in head and limb: it remains a secret! Revelation is not given through anatomical study nor through the stethoscope or electrocardiogram. Nor is it possible to check the music of the heart by theories on vibrations and sound-waves. The heart may begin to reveal its sound when two people meet in unison and harmony, tenderly prompting: they know – now it is the beat of the bar, now of the melos..... The modern lyre is an example of the highest achievement in combining form and sound. We can feel it as a revelation through this instrument of warmth, and we know now that this is a step to unite – a true communion of hearts.
A Look at the Path of Professional Development in Eurythmy by Beth Dunn-Fox Eurythmy Spring Valley Stepping onto the path of becoming a eurythmist begins an unimaginable journey. As in earlier times, when an apprentice worked for years to build the myriad skills under the tutelage of a master, so does the eurythmy student train rigorously to embody the skills that will allow them to bring eurythmy to others. This process must happen at every level, penetrating down to the limbs, beyond the fingertips, through the whole of the self. The journey of development in eurythmy draws one progressively deeper into the substance that lives in human speech and song, the basis for eurythmy as an art. Each day one slips into the skin of sound – slowly discovering that each tone, vowel, or consonant is a universe, with a form that comes into being out of the 34 • being human
movements of the creative forces from which all forms in the world arise. One soon learns in the eurythmy training that the key for entering these sound worlds is found in the element of time; the time given to practice. Practice here means – making space (time) to be in the presence of what we want to know, continuously, so that it begins to speak to us. For the eurythmy student this encompasses the rich moments of learning with teachers, rehearsals with fellow students, and, critically important, the time regularly spent alone in the practice room. Through these different forms of practice, a conversation is initiated with the ground elements of eurythmy that will progressively open the ability to embody them. In this first phase of professional development, the student begins to work with the different qualities of time as structured by the training. Through the rhythmic engagement in classes, peer rehearsals, and