of clearly marking all tempi from
two beats in the bar to twelve beats in the bar, including such forms as
5/4 7/4 9/4 11/4, and a system of movements of the body and
lower limbs to represent time values from any number of notes to the
beat up to whole notes of twelve beats to the note. From the first the
work aroused keen interest among the students and their parents, and the
master was given enthusiastic help by them in all his experiments; above
all he was loyally aided by his assistant, Fraeulein Nina Gorter. The
Conservatoire authorities, however, were not sympathetic, and it became
necessary to form a volunteer-experimental class, which worked outside
official hours and buildings.

The first public recognition of the method was at the Music Festival in
Solothurn in 1905, where a demonstration was given which made a
striking impression on those present. The value of the method for the
elementary education of musicians was immediately recognized and some
slight idea obtained of the part it might play in general elementary
education. It has been made clear that the method had its origin in the
attempt to give life and reality to musical education, to give a
foundational development on which specialized music study could be
based, and that it had grown naturally and gradually as the result of
observation and experiment. Now it began to be apparent that something
still greater than the original aim had been achieved, that the system
evolved was one which, properly used, might be of enormous value in the
education of children. With characteristic energy Jaques-Dalcroze,
inspired by the new idea, took up the study of psychology, in which he
was helped by his friend, the psychologist Claparede, who early saw the
value which the new ideas might have in educational practice. The change
of outlook which now took place in the master's mind can best be made
clear by a translation of his own words.[1]

[1] Address to students, Dresden, 1911 (_Der Rhythmus_,
vol. i, p. 33).

"It is true that I first devised my method as a
musician for musicians. But the further I carried my
experiments, the more I noticed that, while a method
intended to develop the sense for rhythm, and indeed
based on such development, is of great importance in
the education of a musician, its chief value lies in
the fact that it trains the powers of apperception and
of expression in the individual and renders easie