Eurythmy lighting at the time of Rudolf Steiner - 1
A talk by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer
at the Goetheanum
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It is perhaps quite a good thing to be reminded, just biographically, of how the whole art of stage lighting for eurythmy came about. The stage in the Schreinerei (workshop building) had footlights and two overhead battens (of coloured bulbs) - as we have it here in the Grundsteinsaal. (lower hall used by eurythmists for rehearsals) There was a small switchboard with old-fashioned switches that one turned by hand. (MHW: I think this means the old rotary type of knurled switch.). Fräulein Mitscher worked with the operation of the switches. These were of the good old type that gave out a slight click each time. With the various changes it was often rather like machine-gun fire and quite audible everywhere in the hall! Now, I shall move on to the actual lighting.
To begin with, the first part of the programme would merely have one mood of lighting, the second part another mood; that was all at the time. The situation in those days was that I was a student and had been studying physics and electrical technology. Since I had to earn something to pay for my studies, I had worked for various firms in my spare time and had learnt something about stage lighting. When Rudolf Steiner heard of this he asked: Would I not like to come to Dornach and see to the installation of equipment at the (first) Goetheanum? What is quite certain is that he already had some definite ideas, but had not spoken to anyone about these because the technical problems had not been solved. So our first consultation solely addressed technical matters.
We immediately set to work to examine the problem of lighting for eurythmy performances. There was the whole space under the smaller dome, with the place reserved for the Statue and, of course, the huge wooden columns. The (inclined floor) area itself would remain as it was. Nevertheless, there would have to be lighting which could fill the whole staging with light. The difficulty was that in the space, high up under the dome, there was hardly any room for lighting units (lanterns). One would have had to hang these up very high. There was only one other possible place and that was out of sight, in the shadow of the columns, and even then only in as far as they could not be seen from any seat in the auditorium. That was a problem to be solved on the drawing board.
Now, light behaves in a particular way for it loses intensity in direct proportion to the square of the distance. This is an important law in physics without which one cannot work in the technique of lighting. Supposing we have a certain distance from here to the floor: the square of any increase in this distance will result in a reduction in the intensity of the light at the floor. Thus, if we double the distance, we should require not twice the amount of light-source but four times as much so to retain the same intensity. That sounds all very well on paper but in real life it presents the greatest of difficulties.
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There was simply not enough power available to produce the intensity of illumination Dr Steiner wanted. The supply of electric current was not nearly enough to be able to realize his ideal. The solution we came to was this. We concealed the lighting units behind each column - regardless of the direction from which the light would come for Rudolf Steiner took the view that light could also come from behind. If light comes only from the front, it works two-dimensionally, producing flat shadow-like forms, whereas Rudolf Steiner wanted the figures to be completely enveloped in an aura of light, just as when in nature a tree that receives the full light of the sun from one side, there is also diffused light on it from the shadow side.
In these matters Rudolf Steiner was something of a genius and had a wonderful way of meeting objections. He would say: "The light should be distributed". When it was pointed out that the lanterns were only in this or that position - and therefore this wasn't possible, he would say: "Well, you will soon find out how to do it. It is wonderful to be able to work in this way as long as one reaches one's goal." I always appreciated answers of that kind, even though I would be quite taken aback at first.
In the (first) Goetheanum it was necessary to find a distance for the lanterns at which the light-intensity would be the same above and below. We had to find an intermediate position so that the middle part of the columns did not stand out with excessive brightness. I could not calculate this, and so we had to try by experiment. The position was found to be 6 metres from the floor. 'Here is one of the old lanterns, which to my surprise still exists. What a monstrous thing, you may think!' Rudolf Steiner wanted diffused light, like the effect of sunlight. On earth there is no electrical device of any kind that will produce light similar to the sun's light. I realised at once – and I say this for pedagogical reasons – that however stupid one might be, what Rudolf Steiner said awakened something within one so that the picture of the solution stood before one. One sensed, one knew, what he wanted.
It was impossible. I had to say to myself, to work with the usual kind of stage lanterns. We needed lanterns that would spread light rather than concentrate it. And for the spreading effect we would need the right kind of reflectors with the right kind of substance, which again would not concentrate the light. Therefore, we would not have glossy enamel colours, nor anything that shines, but diffuses.
Here, one has to know something about the sun. According to physics there are different layers around the sun. The light-emitting layers contain calcium vapour, because these move contrary to gravity. I was aware of this and so it occurred to me to use calcium with a transparent binding medium which would thereby give out an extremely diffuse reflection. It was a paste of very finely ground chalk. One might think that this would absorb the light, but such was not the case. The lanterns were painted with this inside and the painted surface did not behave in the same way as a flat colour. With violet light we could see the whole space was violet. After many attempts, we at last succeeded.
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Then came the day when the installation was ready. The lanterns were set up in the strategic position, at the right distances and with the right intensity. And now came the dress rehearsal: Dr Steiner didn't want anyone else present. The rehearsal was between him and me. Fräulein Mitscher, who was very busy running around everywhere and was a bit curious to see what was going on, was sent out. However, she kept finding some reason as to why she should just happen to come in again!
This dress rehearsal was a pure dialogue, not so much as between Dr Steiner and me, as between the stage and the lighting. It was about
Rudolf Steiner wanted an intensity of light such as was never later achieved. The technical questions simply had to be solved. That was the problem. One can see the diffuse spread of light in a lantern slide, taken at the time, of the inside of the (first) Goetheanum – it is quite remarkable. The picture was taken without the top lights (the house lights), that is, only with the stage lighting. Yet the problem of the intensity, as Rudolf Steiner had imagined it, was never achieved again, neither in the Schreinerei, nor here on the big stage of the second Goetheanum, since the whole configuration of the space is not as it was in the first Goetheanum.
Next, a chair was placed on the stage and a veil laid over it. This was the cue for Fräulein Mitscher to fetch a veil. Dr Steiner was wanting stage lighting such as would make the veil disappear altogether.
It is an interesting principle in mathematics that like repels, and unlike attracts. And it is fact that with red light a red veil or a red cloth, according to the intensity of the coloured light, can be made to appear black, or white, or even to 'disappear'. The same will happen with blue on blue, and with green on green.
This was the next task: to find a combination of light intensities which would make such a figure dissolve from sight and reappear again at will simply through the lighting. Only on the stage of the first Goetheanum did this succeed. (aside to Fräulein Sarvitch) "Do you remember, Fräulein Savitch, a red veil became invisible, in spite of all the movements?"
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Dr Steiner did not say that it must disappear and appear again; but that the play of colour should create something with the very striking changes and transitions, that the
colours of the figures and the veils become something very living. The colour itself does eurythmy; it lives, and through the various nuances something is created in addition to the
eurythmy. I can say this out of my own experience. Rudolf Steiner wanted an intensity of light such that the eurythmist would be bathed in an 'aura' of colour. When she had a veil of mixed colours, then it would go through continual changes; it would be quite relative, dynamic - not fixed – because the colour of the veil would only give the basis which would be continually varied by the light.
Rudolf Steiner also wanted that we should use the seven colours of the spectrum. I think that we did proceed strictly according to the spectrum, and had white in the middle.
In lighting technique, it is important to find the right proportions of colours. Dr Steiner left it entirely to me to find the right proportions of colours. All I was told was "half light" or "below half" or "above - full". The indications for eurythmy and music were very meagre. Perhaps no more than "moderate white - below". That meant that the colours above were dominant while the white below was only a kind of counterpoint which should not interfere with the colours. "Everything - white" meant: Extinguish all colours and have only brightness.
In such matters it is essential that technician and artist work together. The artist must know what he wants, Rudolf Steiner was quite clear that he wanted more light than we could give him. But he also understood that he was merely indicating the effect that he was wanting and that it was up to the technicians to create the technical means whereby the effect could be achieved. He gave us a bit of help in that he said: "Don't go to the theatre people; don't ask for their advice. Find something for yourself."
As regards the actual lighting I cannot say very much. They are known and preserved. But it was mostly like this: Dr Steiner would sit on a chair at the dress rehearsal. Immediately beforehand, he had given me the lightings. My problem was how I should manage to translate the whole thing into technical terms in the few minutes that remained before the dress rehearsal began.
There would be the book with the poem or verse, or the page of music, and he simply wrote in it with a heavy pencil what should happen: "blue - above, red - below" etc. Since the intensities of light were seldom indicated, this was my problem and here I was completely free, for he hardly ever interfered. I had to feel my way into the eurythmy in order to choose the right intensity of light which would produce the effects he wanted. In the music pieces Dr Steiner also had very cleverly, I think, written in the groupings of the bars of music (and lines of verse), yet what sort of lighting there should be in this or that place he said nothing; he just made movements of his hand: one movement for red, one
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for blue, another for green, another for yellow. What you find in the notes of the lightings is written down by me according to what Rudolf Steiner had indicated, for I couldn't say
to my successor just with my hand "like this or like that". Those movements showed a very deep understanding for the music.
What Rudolf Steiner did was completely undogmatic. On one occasion it would be one colour for major and another for minor; the next time it could have already be mixed up. For a crescendo it would be darker and for a diminuendo be lighter. It would never be what one would expect. It was assumed that one knew the piece of music, understood it, lived oneself into it – and then performed it. But there would be no preparation. Whereas the eurythmy had been rehearsed endlessly, for the lighting the dress rehearsal was the only opportunity for practising.
Now came the great question: What actually determines the lighting? I have heard many speculations about this. However, I think that these speculations must all be reduced down to what was actually said. I once asked Rudolf Steiner: How do you actually find the right lighting? Has it do with the content, or with the dresses, or the veils? He answered: "With the dresses and the colours of the veils it has absolutely nothing to do, but it does have to do with the inner mood of the poem, or a verse, or even of a line."
From myself I would add that with music it is much the same. Listen to the mood of a poem. It depends upon the fact that each verse or stanza, or even just in one line, there is a basic mood. Dr Steiner would say: "This one is entirely based on U, F and M." But I remember very well that in one verse that was based on F, there was hardly a single F. This left me standing like an ox before a barn door! It required a tremendous amount of study to understand what Dr Steiner had in mind.
With the thought-content of the feeling content of the poem, it had nothing to do. With the colours of the dresses and veils it had nothing to do. But with the intrinsic mood, which Dr Steiner experienced in himself, when he looked at the verse or called it to mind, it had everything to do.
So now I should like to help you to understand this a little better. I will use an example that does not come from Rudolf Steiner, but one I have used to help my own understanding. It has to do with Goethe who describes how for a certain poem he wrote; he had heard a melody and then translated this melody into words. It is like this with the discovery of the lighting in connection with the poem and the eurythmy: out of the poem, there sounds something into one's ear – something one hears first, and then translates into colour and intensities of light.
This is really possible. I shall not enlarge on how it is possible; I will only say that anyone who has taken Rudolf Steiner's work really seriously – and especially his inner
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path of training – will not find it difficult to sense this mood-content, which is an objective reality – and then to find the corresponding colour.
I have to admit that later on (several years later) it was not easy, for when Rudolf Steiner was no longer there we had many different opinions – and we fought each other hard. One person would think that the lighting must be like this, while in my own view, trained in Rudolf Steiner's lightings, would feel it differently. I have come to the conclusion that although I usually objected strongly at first I always gave way. This was very painful, so that in the end I decided not to do the lighting for eurythmy any more.
However, I would put before you the task to work together towards this, that at all events you are able to translate the mood-content of the words into colour by listening to the speech, which is the foundation of eurythmy; to translate what first arises in one as hearing. One must learn to hear, and for that which one hears, to find the corresponding quality of colour. There are not many possibilities for this because it is based on inner law; one will find the one objective lighting. It is certainly nothing subjective.
Dr Pfeiffer then invited questions.
One question is about the cut-out eurythmy figures. Steiner said that the lighting has nothing to do with this. Another is about the colours belonging to the Zodiac. Here again, this would be something that would be thought out. One must inwardly listen for the mood.
Another question: Could we not have learned more from the drama lighting? Here again, what would apply to drama would be based on what he had given for eurythmy. But in drama there would be fewer changes.
This talk by Dr Ehrenfried Pfeiffer was published in German in a booklet by Georg Wurmehl, stage lighter at the second Goetheanum during the 1950s and 1960s
'Bühnenbeleuchtung zur Eurythmie
Studienmaterial der Freien Hochschule für
Geisteswissenschaft GOETHEANUM 1969
Translated by MHW
MHW are the initials Michael Wilson
Retyped and slightly clarified by Peter H Reeve 4th June 2008
The questions to Dr Steiner are to be added in a further translation.
PHR had his copy directly from Georg Wurmehl in 1969 at the Goetheanum
Peter Reeve was the stage lighter for eurythmy for Marguerite Lündgren's London Stage Group in 1969-70
Peter H Reeve: The above is a word for word translation from the first few pages of the booklet by Georg Wurmehl, who personally gave me a copy of it on my visit to see him by appointment at the Goetheanum in 1969. This is the first posting on a new blog opened on 13th March 2009 which will be dedicated to the art of eurythmy lighting, strictly in accordance with the indications of Rudolf Steiner and with explanations of his intentions, as communicated to Dr. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer. To access this new blog, ask Google for Eurythmy Stage Lighting - Reeve. My personal e-mail address is preeve@hotmail.com
The stage lights that head this site are four battens of footlights folded together. They are merely a demonstration set using the purest colours obtainable in theatre colour filters: primary red, yellow, green, primary blue, light red, white, magenta and light blue. The yellow of course has a mixture of red and green wavelengths. This experimental set was demonstrated at Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, London on Monday 18th February 2009 to the co-chairpersons of the AS in GB. This 8-colour lighting set, comprising 35 and 50 watt halogen lamps are set 6.5 cms.from centre to centre. Thus, in footlights they minimise shadows on backgrounds.
I personally have been passionately interested in stage lighting since a boy in the 1940s. I have lit any number of amateur dramatic productions as my major hobby since the 1950s. I attended Emerson College from 1968 to 1970. Whilst there I engaged in talks with Michael Wilson and visited Sunfield Home to see his work there with therapeutic colour. In 1969 I overhauled the stage lighting equipment at Rudolf Steiner House, London, putting in pure colour filters. I subsequently found these were indicated by Dr Pfeiffer, as wanted by Rudolf Steiner I worked with Ms Marguerite Lundgren, lead eurythmist of the London Stage Group, in a purist attempt to have the transformation effects on dresses and veils as particularly indicated by Steiner. These will be further described.
At the special occasion of the coming together of the two anthroposphical societies in Great Britain, the AS in GB and the English Section of the general Anthropsophical Society, at which the Foundation Stone Meditation was twice performed, I was the lighting technician. This important meeting was attended by the entire Vorstand from the Goetheanum, several of whom commented very favourably on the rich colours on the stage, the reason being that on the vast stage at Dornach they have used lighter shades of colour, as well as subject to other limitations.There is a great deal more to be described about this which I will be posting on this blog.
Since that time I have worked without a break as a class teacher both at Michael House School, where I was put in charge of the school's lighting system with its alt water dimmer tanks, and then at a small Steiner School established by myself and my wife, Roswitha, situated in Norfolk for the last 23 years at Wroxham, where I built a school stage complete with lighting equipment. I have produced any number of school class plays, at least 80 of them, as well as working for five years as the stage lighter for the East Norfolk Operatic Society. Now semi-retired, I am renewing my interest in the stage lighting of eurythmy at Steiner House in London.
Other pieces will follow, including a further extract from Dr Wurmehl's booklet, in which it states that the background curtains in the carpentry workshop, as requested by Rudolf Steiner, were blue. There is nothing ambiguous about that. More will follow about this subject because this is not invariably understood. Also arising is a newly developed form of stage lighting for eurythmy using low-wattage LED lamps. These of course use less power, but the quite pretty red and blue colours produced by the diodes are colour mixtures and not very deep, so they do not give the same intensity of effect suggested by Rudolf Steiner.
LEDs lights tend to be used indirectly in theatres and television studios as they are not actually very powerful, yet at the same time they have a narrow beam-angle and tend to look over-bright in the eyes. Thus, batched together, LEDs need to be at a minimum distance of at least 15ft away and not suitable, as so far developed, for ordinary footlights. For the stage lighting of eurythmy, LEDs are not in my view suitable, for a combination of reasons which will be further explained on this site. Maybe better colours will be produced in future and a broader beam-angle, as well as scattering so that less clear shadows thrown, and an altogether better yellow.
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