John Habron-James | Royal Northern College of Music (original) (raw)

Books by John Habron-James

This is the programme of the 5th International Conference of Dalcroze Studies that was held onlin... more This is the programme of the 5th International Conference of Dalcroze Studies that was held online in 2021.

The 4th International Conference of Dalcroze Studies brought together more than 220 delegates fro... more The 4th International Conference of Dalcroze Studies brought together more than 220 delegates from all over the world to share their work in the overlapping fields of pedagogy, performance, therapy and research.

Following successful conferences in Coventry (2013), Vienna (2015) and Quebec City (2017), ICDS4 continues to be the premiere platform for exchange in Dalcroze studies, an evolving transdisciplinary endeavour. Over five days, delegates from twenty-five countries engaged with a wealth of papers, workshops, symposia, roundtables, posters, research training seminars, keynote addresses, talking circles, discussion groups and performances. In 2019, the Eurhythmics speciality at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music celebrated its 30th anniversary, making it a very fitting host.

Following the success of the conferences in Coventry (2013) and Vienna (2015), ICDS3 took on the ... more Following the success of the conferences in Coventry (2013) and Vienna (2015), ICDS3 took on the role of presenting the best practice, theory, research and debate within the growing interdisciplinary field of Dalcroze studies. Being outside Europe for the first time, this conference established ICDS as a truly international event.

Over five days, delegates from more than twenty-five countries and every corner of the globe shared a wealth of papers, workshops, symposia, roundtables, posters, research training seminars, keynote addresses and performances. For the first time, the conference included keynotes focused on showcasing practice, allowing delegates to participate and highlighting the embodied, experiential nature of the knowledge that Dalcroze studies investigates.

With its long tradition of Dalcroze training, Université Laval was a fitting host and, being in the beautiful UNESCO World Heritage city of Québec, ICDS3 was a conference to remember.

The 2nd International Conference of Dalcroze Studies (ICDS2) took place at the University for Mus... more The 2nd International Conference of Dalcroze Studies (ICDS2) took place at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria, 24-26 July 2015.

Dalcroze Eurhythmics: Bridging the gap between the academic and practical through creative teaching and learning, 2016

In book: Creative teaching for Creative Learning in Higher Music Education: Chapter 15 Dalcroze E... more In book: Creative teaching for Creative Learning in Higher Music Education: Chapter 15 Dalcroze Eurhythmics: Bridging the gap between the academic and the practical through creative teaching and learning. Publisher: Routledge. Editors Elizabeth Haddon and Pamela Burnard pp. 211 - 226

Papers by John Habron-James

International Journal of Music Education

Although there is considerable research from Australia demonstrating that work-integrated learnin... more Although there is considerable research from Australia demonstrating that work-integrated learning (WIL) helps higher music education (HME) students develop their professional skills, there is little evidence from Europe. WIL involves the integration of theory and practice and workbased experiential learning is an important component of this process, giving students opportunities to become self-reflective in their application of theoretical principles in a work context. The aim of this project was to understand how practicums were implemented in European conservatoires and what political drivers and pedagogies underpinned them. A survey of conservatoires and semi-structured interviews with staff, students and placement hosts were analysed. Survey results show that 74.3% of respondents said their institutions offered undergraduate placements. Themes relating to the educational and political drivers, ethical issues, barriers to provision and challenges were derived from the interview ...

International Journal of Education & the Arts, 2024

Dalcroze Eurhythmics is a way of teaching and learning music through exploring music-movement rel... more Dalcroze Eurhythmics is a way of teaching and learning music through exploring music-movement relationships. Recent qualitative research contains rich insights into participants' experiences and sometimes discusses them in relation to well-being. However, it remains to be seen to what extent the discipline of positive psychology, in particular Martin Seligman's PERMA model of well-being, can help us to understand these experiences. This integrative literature review examines the findings of 51 qualitative studies of participants' experiences of Dalcroze, using the PERMA model as an analytical framework. As a result, it reconceptualises experiences of Dalcroze as experiences of well-being, and argues that engaging in Dalcroze may contribute to the flourishing of participants.

Frontiers in Education, Feb 21, 2020

This qualitative study presents an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the lived experien... more This qualitative study presents an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the lived experiences of three flute players who practice Dalcroze Eurhythmics, an approach to teaching, learning, and understanding music through exploring various music-movement relationships in social, creative, and rigorous ways. Our research seeks to understand how these individuals make sense of their lived experiences of Dalcroze Eurhythmics in learning, rehearsing, and performing contemporary music. Data collected through semi-structured interviews were analyzed and interpreted to create codes and categories in each data set. A cross-case analysis brought to light eight main themes: Body and breath; The body as a 'way in'; Learning through the body overcomes specific technical difficulties; An embodied relationship with the score; Deeper knowledge and connection to music; Clarifying own interpretations; Communication with the audience; A bigger picture beyond the instrument. This study provides new insights into how learning through Dalcroze Eurhythmics can help individuals prepare repertoire for performance. As such, it may be of use to Dalcroze students and teachers, to flute performers and teachers, and to teachers and performers of other instruments who wish to explore the potential of Dalcroze Eurhythmics in learning, rehearsing, and performing contemporary music. The analysis also reveals insights that may be relevant to other repertoires.

Music Education Research, May 17, 2019

This qualitative study presents a theory of spiritual experiences in Dalcroze Eurhythmics generat... more This qualitative study presents a theory of spiritual experiences in Dalcroze Eurhythmics generated from four qualitative research studies by the authors. Two of these are literature-based ('A conceptual model of spirituality in music education' and 'A conceptual study of spirituality in selected writings of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze') and two are based on lived experiences ('Exploring lived experiences of spirituality amongst five Dalcroze teachers' and 'Stories students tell about their lived experiences of spirituality in the Dalcroze class'). The theory is generated by concepts, constructs and propositions that emerged when the data from all four previous studies were revisited and coded for causality. Since the theory of Dalcroze Eurhythmics and spiritual experiences is multifaceted, we used a diamond as a metaphor to show our findings. We propose that if participation in Dalcroze practice can connect us to ourselves, others, the environment, the sacred (that which is made special, set apart, nurtured, loved, enjoyed, respected or considered important), or facilitate transcendent, holistic or transformative experiences, then spiritual experiences may occur. With this theory, we hope to create heightened awareness of the spiritual potential in the Dalcroze class and communicate the pedagogical thoughtfulness and tact that are required when teaching using the Dalcroze approach.

Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 2021

Professional development is an important part of any teaching career. Although it has been invest... more Professional development is an important part of any teaching career. Although it has been investigated within the field of music education, there is limited research on the experiences of mid-career music teachers from a first-person perspective, especially within a conservatory context. In this collaborative self-study, the authors analyze the professional development journey that one of them undertook as she followed a series of snare drum lessons to enhance her practice as a mid-career percussion teacher. Over a period of a year, the first author kept a research journal, working dialogically with a researcher to understand and extend these reflections. Using self-study as a systematic means of inquiry into practice, this article reveals the development of the first author's practical knowledge and subjective educational theory. Five themes encapsulate the findings: (i) although a learner by nature, going back to basics was a challenge; (ii) reflecting on learning prompted re...

In this interview, Bachmann recounts experiences of her childhood and training in Dalcroze Eurhyt... more In this interview, Bachmann recounts experiences of her childhood and training in Dalcroze Eurhythmics. She describes her university studies in Geneva, including her lectures with Jean Piaget, and how she became interested in using the Dalcroze method therapeutically. Amongst others, Bachmann shares memories about working with deaf children and what she learnt from her teacher and mentor Claire-Lise Dutoit. Bachmann also discusses the theoretical and practical aspects of the Dalcroze method, drawing on many years' experience as a practitioner and teacher trainer. Finally, she reflects on the place of Dalcroze practice within European traditions of Rhythmics/Eurhythmics and music therapy. This interview will be of interest not only to those wanting to understand Dalcrozian approaches to health musicking in practice and theory, but also to historians of music education and music therapy wishing to piece together the connections between Dalcroze practitioners and medical profession...

This paper reports the findings of a transdisciplinary project undertaken between Coventry Univer... more This paper reports the findings of a transdisciplinary project undertaken between Coventry University, Manchester Camerata and a small group of older adults. Participants were given the opportunity to compose music interactively with professional musicians. The impact of this on the participants was investigated using an action research process (Roth and Esdaile 2001) and an interpretive interactionism approach (Denzin 2001). In keeping with the empowerment principles of the project, the resultant thematic findings were represented in a group composition written by the participants and performed by Manchester Camerata. The findings demonstrate that group music composition had contributed to a sense of well-being through control over musical materials, opportunities for creativity and identity-making, validation of life experience and social engagement with other participants and professional musicians. It is the focus on music composition as an arts-in-health activity for older peop...

Unveiling a commemorative plaque to Emile Jaques-Dalcroze on the house where he was born in 1865,... more Unveiling a commemorative plaque to Emile Jaques-Dalcroze on the house where he was born in 1865, with street performances and speeches, followed by refreshments (duration approximately 1.5 hours) and then a party at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Singerstraße Monday 27 July Nk (Neuer konzertsaal) Ak (Alter konzertsaal) CO115 CO118 yard / CO110 0800 Registration (Rennweg) 0900 welcome: Dr John Habron (Chair, Angelika Hauser (Chair, Organising Committee) welcome via live video relay 0930 P1 Zugasti: Dalcroze's ideasan opportunity to meet current educational challenges P12 Greenhead & Habron: The touch of sound: Dalcroze Eurhythmics as a somatic practice w1 Nash & Odom: Dalcroze techniques and movement explorations: drawing on early 20th century ideas in action w4 Aleksandrowicz & Sobieraj-Bednarek: Rhythm, dynamics, form... Composite elements in painting and movement on the basis of selected Ignacy Witkiewicz 1000 P2 Dutton: An education in and through music: An exploration of the holistic aspects of Dalcroze pedagogy P13 Croset: Music and time through body motions: new explanations for old intuitions 1030 P3 Petersone: Music integrative perception through rhythmics lessons P14 Juntunen: The role of body movement in 7th-grade music instruction integrating music and movement composition with the use of iPads w2 Parker: The Dalcroze Subjects as the basis for a Eurhythmics lesson w5 Habron-James: Dalcroze by distance-learning: Exploring the legacy of Heather Gell 1100 Refreshments 1130 P4 Merrick: Problems and pedagogies: Dalcroze and the education of boys Getting started in research: From passion to designs, approaches and methods (Van Der Merwe) 1200 P5 Dutkiewicz: Ways of using props in the choreography of music-towards a theoretical approach w3 Pope: They skipped into a new century! w6 Nivbrant Wedin: Sight-reading through movement and patterns 1230 P6 Harris: Dalcroze in the school curriculum: reopening the door to the musical self 9 Monday 27 July Performance: Munaò (piano) lunch & live music k1 Gunhild Oberzaucher-Schüller: Dalcroze Mapping Respondent: Selma Odom k1 via live video relay Refreshments P7 Barnhill: A sparsity-based approach to entrainment: Theory and movement analysis S1 Bogdanowicz, Durlow, Pankowiak & Van Der Merwe: Dalcroze Eurhythmics: some current applications in health and wellbeing John Habron (moderator) P17 Piras, Fortuna & and movement: Dalcrozian perspectives P22 Clement: Musical learning in Esquisses rythmiques pour piano, No. 41 P8 Parente: A skills acquisition lens on movement during a Dalcroze Eurhythmics class P18 Dutkiewicz: Ma Mère l'Oye-music performance for children based on music by Maurice Ravel P23 Pasternak: The role of Plastique Animée in the education of musicians tions on my educational experiences P9 Fiaminghi: Measured time and sense: J.E. Gramani Rítmica Viva in the balance between reason and emotion P19 Przybylska-Angermann: Learning to sing vs "Regietheater": Exploring a problem and a eurhythmic model for the training of singers P24 Drosdek: Rethinking Plastique Animée Tuesday July Nk Ak CO115 CO118 yard / CO110 0830 P26 Fonterrada: CantorIA-25 years of Music Education through voice [presented by Leila Rosa Gonçalves Vertamatti] P36 Sterbenz: Movement-music interactions and the production of masculinity in Tyler The Creator's "Yonkers" music video w10 Bauer: Dalcroze performance practice/Laban Effort-Shape Theory: Bridging the gap w14 Buley: Re-"mind"-ing nature through Dalcroze, Schafer and Greene 0900 P27 of Dalcroze pedagogy on music education in Brazil P37 Davies: The role of Dalcroze in the innovative temporal form of Debussy's ballet Jeux (1913) 0930 P28 Vaillancourt: In search music, Dalcroze Eurhythmics and the Québec schools' training programme P38 Pürgstaller: Pina's Le Sacre du Printemps: An analytical study into Pina Bausch's Le Sacre du Printemps through the means and parameters of rhythmics w11 Hille: Transformation and polyrhythm in 6/8 and 3/4-Latin American feeling through Rhythmic Solfège w15 Taljaard: Music analysis in movement 1000 P29 Buley: Relational aspects of indigenous ways of knowing and the ideas of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze P39 Laakkonen: The rhythm and the body reconsidered: Valeria Kratina and Jaques-Dalcroze's method on stage 1030 P40 Ring: Networking Dalcroze Refreshments 1100 1130 P30 Mayr: Prevention or illusion? Evaluation of the concept of rhythmics with kindergarten aged children Getting started in talking about experience: Phenomenology w12 (+P) Curtis-Jones: From Impressionism to Expressionism: how the Dalcroze method inspired Laban's theories and practice of the dynamic body in motion w16 (+P) Simatovic: Music makes me… 1200 P31 Hille: The Erasmus Symposium Hörraum (2012, Vienna) and the impact of attentive listening on wellbeing (Southcott) 1230 P32 Van Der Merwe: Suffering in Parys: Facilitating a meeting about water problems through Dalcroze-inspired activities 1300 Performance: Munaò (piano) lunch & live music 1400 k2 Marja-leena Juntunen: Towards embodied musical agency & Sally Ann Ness: Choreographies of landscape: Semiotics in Performance in yosemite National Park Moderator: John Habron k2 via live video relay 1530 Refreshments 11 Tuesday 28 July Nk Ak CO115 CO118 yard / CO110 1600 P33 Greenhead: Ysaÿe, the violin and Dalcroze S2 Adler, Odom, Oberzaucher-Schüller & Whyman: Builders and champions of the early Dalcroze method Selma Odom (moderator) w13 (+P) Zaiser: Stravinsky Reloaded: A cross-cultural encounter with The Soldier's Tale w17 (+P) Weise: Writing in space: The interplay of analysis and imagination in William Forsythe's Improvisation Technologies as a basis for movement composition 1630 P34 Schnack: The amateur choir in motion: The innovative choral works of Jean Berger (1909-2002) 1700 P35 Williams & Goves: Dalcroze Eurhythmics, Brian Ferneyhough's Unity Capsule and developing a new collaborative compositional methodology 1730 Eleonore witoszynkyj in conversation with Paul Hille Eleonore witoszynkyj in conversation with Paul Hille via live video relay 1830 2000 Performance (repeat of Monday) See page 99 w18 Owczarek: Polymeter and rhythmics as an inspiration for inventing and executing creative exercise involving music and physical movement 2100 End 22:30 12 wednesday July Nk Ak CO115 CO118 yard / CO110 P41 Pope: E J-D at the Paris 1913 International Physical Education Congress P44 Alperson: A qualitative study of Dalcroze Eurhythmics classes for adults P47 Brotz: A research perspective for applying Dalcrozian principles of music education to learning to play piano w20 (+P) Greenhead & Mathieu: Foundations and principles of movement in Dalcroze Eurhythmics P42 Schaffhauser Jacobi: Placido de Montoliu's instructional approach to Dalcroze Eurhythmics in Pennsylvania in the early twentieth century P45 Habron-James: When words aren't enough: ...

Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy... more Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.

With its long tradition of Dalcroze training, Université Laval was a fitting host and, being in the beautiful UNESCO World Heritage city of Québec, ICDS3 was a conference to remember.

Dalcroze Eurhythmics: Bridging the gap between the academic and practical through creative teaching and learning, 2016

International Journal of Music Education

International Journal of Education & the Arts, 2024

Frontiers in Education, Feb 21, 2020

Music Education Research, May 17, 2019

Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 2021

Exploring the spiritual in music: Interdisciplinary dialogues in music, wellbeing and education.

British Journal of Music Therapy, 2012

London’s book is not always easy to follow. The opening sections have a technical feel, emphasise... more London’s book is not always easy to follow. The opening sections have a technical feel, emphasised by the use of abbreviations such as IOI (inter-onset interval) and milliseconds, rather than ‘beats per minute’, to describe time intervals. However, this is arguably necessary to his project of grounding metre in more neutral empirical research. Once more musical language is allowed to enter the discussion the book becomes more approachable (at least to me as a musician), and the concepts more intriguing and intuitively appealing. I have long felt that there is far more to metre than the time signatures we learn as novices. London’s book offers a sophisticated, if sometimes awkward, language to describe the subtleties of metre. But his real contribution is to remind us of the importance of the phenomenon itself. In the house of music there are indeed many metres.

International Journal of Music Education, 2015

Several authors have noted that one of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze’s aims was to dissolve the mind–body... more Several authors have noted that one of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze’s aims was to dissolve the mind–body dualism, typical of Cartesianism. However, there has been little research on the spirit–body connection, as it appears in Jaques-Dalcroze’s writings. The purpose of this document analysis is to understand how a hermeneutic phenomenological model for spirituality in music education can inform our understanding of spirituality in selected writings by Jaques-Dalcroze. In the adapted model holism, balance, aesthetic experience, and movement in time, space, and with energy emerged as core concepts. This gives us a much richer understanding of the Dalcroze approach than has hitherto been available and adds to a growing narrative about the spiritual as it pertains to Jaques-Dalcroze and the approach he initiated.

Creative Teaching for Creative Learning in Higher Music Education

British Journal of Music Education

This article is a narrative inquiry of the lived spiritual experiences of students participating ... more This article is a narrative inquiry of the lived spiritual experiences of students participating in Dalcroze Eurhythmics training. Previous studies have located Jaques-Dalcroze’s own writings and thought within the context of spirituality and have explored the spiritual experiences of Dalcroze teachers, but students’ perspectives remain to be investigated. We interviewed seven students, broadly defined as anyone currently attending regular Dalcroze training or who have recently attended Dalcroze courses and still consider themselves Dalcroze students. Various strategies for narrative data analysis were synthesised into our own coding scheme. Themes emerged from the data analysis: situation, continuity, personal interaction, social interaction and significant moments. The themes helped us construct a fictive conversation between the participants, using direct quotations from the interviews. Implications for practice focus on what inhibits and promotes experiences of spirituality in t...