The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Speech Course for Participants in the Dramatic Course I

Different peoples have varying degrees of ease with speaking “in front” depending on their language: Romance speakers, especially French, then German or Russian. With German in particular, a distinction must be made between Germans who are more western or more eastern in their orientation.

This general course will consist of five hours. The various methods of speaking and singing used today will be mentioned, including head, nose, and chest resonance. “Yes, and what is new about our method is that we see the soundboard in the air.” We will recall the story of creation, how the breath of life was breathed into man. The living breath blows outside of us.

The exercises that are now beginning will be about gaining a relationship to the sound, to the essence of each sound. To the vowels, originally native to the planets, to the consonants, originally native to the signs of the zodiac. The special features of the Finnish language will also be touched upon.

Simple articulation exercises

That he lied to you is not something to be praised.

With the air within us, we grasp the air outside us. The air as such is the sounding board, nothing else. The consonants contain “Columbus' egg.”

Do not take nuns into tireless mills

Only guess several riddles correctly

Honestly advisable
Equips gloriously
Huge revenge
Quiet rolling
Repentant steeds

Ostentatiously praising
Baths rutting
Rattling cute
Boring tinkering
Powder smearing
Mountainous boasting

Exercises that can master the flow of breath

Fulfillment goes
Through hope
Goes through longing
Through wanting
Wanting blows
In weaving
Blows in trembling
Weaves trembling
Weaving binding
In finding
Finding twisting
Announcing

Fulfillment goes

f = know that I know something, for example: know something inside out, ll = such repeated ll = the spirit that grasps matter and

Through hope

Nuance of feeling; understanding of sound necessary.

Goes through longing

only apply the sound at the front; A=most beautiful sound for modeling; s= arousing some fear in us. Through willing

w = bringing our innermost being to the outside world; this is remodeled by o and /= willing; for example, with the word “why,” everything comes from within.

Wanting blows
In the weaving blows
In the trembling
Weaves trembling
Weaving binding
In finding
Finding twisting
Announcing

Each line with a full breath; breathe after each line; let the whole breath flow out freely at once. With the e, you can learn to grasp the nerve flow; ä=grasp at the front: announcing.

Reversible, good exercise.

Wanting nellow
Longing nenhes

With the air flowing out of us, we grasp the air outside. Breathing exercise that gives us the opportunity to let the breath flow out and distribute itself through rhythmic flow.

In the immeasurably vast spaces,
In the endless times,
In the depths of the human soul,
In the revelation of the world:
Search for the solution to the great mystery.

The first four lines flood out of the cosmos; the last line as a thought from the head.