Alexander Truslit – Materials to his music pedagogy and research

Biography

The music teacher and music researcher Alexander Truslit (1889-1971) focussed on the connection between music and motion. He developed his own body and movement method which focuses on kinaesthetic movement experiences of music perception and music-making. He illustraded musical motions in round lines in order to communicate corresponding physical experiences.

With his holistic approach, he taught all kinds of instrumentalists, treated playing problems and helped to become successful and happy musicians.

Since 1993 his work inspires the performance studies, a part of the empirical music psychology interested in the skills of musicians.
 
Truslit studied piano with Elisabeth Caland in Berlin and in 1929 became the director of the Elisabeth-Caland-School and its research institution for artistic piano playing. In this function he studied human anatomy, physiology and the connection of musical and physical motion. He published in journals (1919-1967) and the book “Bewegung und Gestaltung in der Musik” (Motion and shaping in music, 1938). In 1942 he produced the educational film “Music und Bewegung” (Music and motion, Premiere 1946).