Eurhythmics at a College of Social Pedagogy - Moritz Hartung

English: Subtitles in German and English are available for this video. Just hit play and then click on the two icons to the left of the YouTube button.

Deutsch: Für dieses Video stehen Untertitel auf Deutsch und Englisch zur Verfügung. Klicken Sie auf Start und dann auf die beiden Symbole links neben dem YouTube-Button.

Eurhythmics for educators

The video provides insights into my specialist teaching of ‘Music/Eurhythmics’ within the vocational module ‘Professional Design of Educational Processes’. We are in the second year of training at the Birkenhof Education Centre in Hanover, at 9 a.m. on a winter day during the coronavirus pandemic.

Eurhythmics lessons generally promote students' self-competence on a self-experience level through language and voice, instruments, movement and common eurhythmics’ materials. However, the lesson content can also be directly applied in social pedagogy practice. Both self-experience and application are visible in the video.

In the eurhythmics lessons, I continue a thematic learning situation (e.g. methodical introduction of instruments/songs, composition of pieces of music/dances, sound games) or the students perform rhythmical-musical learning arrangements they have developed themselves and we reflect on them. Beyond the classroom, project days are organised, usually involving other subjects, to present the work, e.g. in the form of musical theatre. ‘Neustart’ (New Start) in the video is a project theme formulated by the students. Cooperation with other disciplines is a typical feature of eurhythmics with its interlinked and cross-disciplinary methodological principles.

Educational value of music and movement in technical colleges

Eurhythmics lessons encourage and equip students to design targeted educational activities using music and movement. Technical college students acquire the basic willingness and necessary skills to interact musically and rhythmically with different target groups.

With the support of media such as music, movement, language and materials, communication and creative processes arise within the learning and experiential situations. This provides an opportunity for intrinsically motivated and self-determined learning. Students experience themselves as self-effective, curious, uninhibited and participatory, and recognise the importance of later promoting their target groups in their holistic development in a co-constructive and participatory manner.

Specific skills related to the video

Professional knowledge/skills: The students...

• learn to use eurhythmic’ props in a targeted manner in a methodological and didactic context
• recognise musical parameters in language and can transfer them into movement, music and material
• experience their vocal expressiveness
• gain knowledge about the function and character of a wide variety of sound generators
• acquire skills in coordination, dexterity, relaxation, mobility, reaction, balance and awareness of movement
• become familiar with and be able to evaluate various songs and can apply methods of song introduction
• learn different improvisation rules and methodological implementation options
• differentiate between sound production with the body, with objects and materials, as well as small percussion instruments and natural and Orff instruments
• discover different ways of handling and playing instruments and use them in a variety of ways
• learn to express and shape metre, rhythm and time signatures in movement
• accompany simple songs instrumentally in the form of melody playing or harmonisation
• try out musical parameters in relation to time, space and power (rhythm, tempo, timbre, dynamics, pitch, etc.) on different sound generators
• are familiar with the content and objectives of rhythm and the function of music/movement/rhythm

Personal competence - social competence/independence: The pupils...

• discover their musical desires and abilities and learn methodological approaches for various social and educational institutions
• make music in a group, listen to each other, play together (tempo, dynamics, etc.)
• classify themselves musically (in terms of rhythm, harmony, phrasing), play together with others, listen, accompany and develop their own ideas
• are open to creative interaction whose outcome is unpredictable
• respond to a partner or the group in instrumental improvisation
• are aware of the wide range of possible uses for instruments, from toys to building materials to sound generators, etc.
• learn techniques for designing specific activities and projects involving rhythm and music
• are able to play instruments according to simple instructions such as written notation, graphic notation, pictures, and material constellations
• perceive themselves in the context of group music-making
• modify stories, images, movements, everyday actions, etc. in instrumental playing
• discover personal rhythms and creative spaces for themselves
• develop a willingness to analyse their own musical behaviour and express themselves musically

→ Some of the learning objectives are formulated based on ‘Musik und Bewegung’ (Music and Movement) by E. Danuser-Zogg, Academia-Verlag 2009.

Moritz Hartung

Moritz Hartung studied eurhythmics at the University of Music, Drama and Media in Hanover with Prof. B. Steinmann and Prof. R. Ring and has been working for over 20 years in the vocational training of educators at the Birkenhof Education Centre.

His professional experience focuses on young adults, but he also works with all target groups from toddlers to elderly people with and without disabilities, and has many years of experience in further education for nurseries and schools. His activities also include organisational development, school quality management, founding a cultural workshop and the ‘Rhythmik-Update’ further education series, as well as representing the interests of his school's employees as MAV chairman for many years.

His artistic interests lie in improvisation with instruments and movement, for example in the improvisational jazz orchestra of the ‘Tonhalle Hannover’ and the sound and movement group ‘Let's Improvise’, which he co-founded. He attaches great importance to the pedagogical and artistic design of musical theatre projects, as well as to singing in the choir of the ‘Hannover Jazz Singers’, which has qualified for the national competition.

He is a member of the ‘Musical Education’ committee of the Lower Saxony State Music Council and a long-standing board member of the "Landesverband Rhythmische-Erziehung Nds./Bremen e.V.‘ and through the creation of competence-oriented learning situations ’Music in Educator Training" as part of an innovation project of the Ministry of Culture, Moritz Hartung is also politically and publicly active in the field of eurhythmic and musical education.