THE SOKOL MOVEMENT: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS FOR WELLNESS AND AGING AND... ANTI-AGING...AND THE 19th CENTURY ORIGINS OF MUSIC THERAPY
*The following post is an addendum to a research paper I wrote for Prof. Alton Donnelly's graduate history course at Binghamton University in 1975 while I was completing my course requirements for my MA in American History. The 1975 title of my research paper was "The Sokol Movement in the Binghamton and Southern Tier area of New York."
Those who read this post may possibly recall that members of your family were also members of this gymnastic movement . You may remember having attended the gymnastic activities of an organization called the SOKOLS in the Binghamton area or in other cities and towns throughout the United States.
The intent of this post is to provide additional information and an entirely new perspective on the SOKOLS with regard to information that was not available nor known to me in 1975.
Briefly, the Sokol Movement in both European and American History dates back to 1862 when Dr. Myroslav Tyrs, a Professor of Philosophy and Art History at Karol or Charles University in Prague, met with Jindrich Fuegener(Fugner), a Prague businessman, to create the gymnastice movement known as the Sokols.
The Tyrs Gymnastic System started in 1864, a full 32 years before the first Modern Olympics in 1896. The Tyrs System was very unique in that it was designed, not only for the relatively few gifted athletes of the world, but for everyone-every man, woman, and child in the society of that nation -regardless of their physical abilities. The positive attitude of the Sokol Movement's goals of a healthy mind in a healthy body were uniquely designed to actually develop a person's personal health and strength in order to maintain the health of that person throughout his lifetime. The Sokol goals in today's world would be called "continuing to add to and improve the quality of a person's life, for both the mind and for the body."
Historically, when the immigrants from Europe came to America in the 19th century, the Sokol Movement came with them. The first Sokol lodge in the USA was founded in 1865 in St. Louis and the first Slovak Sokol Lodge was started in Chicago in 1892, a full four years prior to the Modern Olympics in 1896.
Moving forward in history and time, unfortunately, most of the Sokol lodges in the USA have all but disappeared. However, it should be stated that the Sokol lodges in both Europe and the USA , were the first to adopt and practice the philosophy in the true spirit of the ancient Olympians with the emphasis on developing a sound mind and body which would last for a lifetime..and NOT place emphasis on the gifted athlete who competes for fame and monetary gain.
And now the addendum...
Question... How does the Sokol Movement figure into the concepts of music and wellness? For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the Sokol gymnastic activities, the Sokols arranged for the presentation of physical activities for large numbers of amateur athletes called Slets. These large gatherings of Sokol gymnasts were held in open air fields, stadiums, and other locations with the local Sokol lodges acting as the hosts of the Slet.
The large combined gymnastic activities in which all the athletes participated were conducted with musical accompaniment. Today, we would call this activity rhythmic gymnastics, a forerunner of aerobics.There was much more to the rhythmic gymnastics, for the music, designed for the large or small group physical activity, was also used to both train the novice Sokol athlete and then the familiar music would be retained by the amateur Sokol athlete during his lifetime.
These physical activities designed by the Sokols, to actually learn the rhythmic gymnastic/athletic movements set to specific selections of music, to the best of my knowledge and historical research, were the very first attempts in the realm of organized world athletics, to train amateur athletes by using long-term and short-term memory and retention which could be used for a lifetime of maintaining a person's physical and mental wellness.
These proto-type Sokol rhythmic gymnastics activities, originally created by the Sokols for the specific purpose of training the amateur athlete for a lifetime of total physical and mental fitness, can also be viewed as the very first large group and small group music therapy and music wellness sessions. This Sokol method of training of athletes for the Slets with the purpose of using selected familiar music selections as a mnemonic or a memory-retaining activity pre-date the official and original beginnings of music therapy by nearly 75 years.
After extensively researching the music therapy and music wellness books, research papers, and other areas of investigative research, I find no notations or references to the Sokol Movement , Myroslav Tyrs, and Jindrich Fuegener, as being the originators or forerunners of music therapy.
If there are any references to the Sokol Movement in Music Therapy books, undergraduate or graduate research papers, along with other repositories for research on the Sokol Movement and Music Therapy and Wellness, I would like to be made aware of such research. I would also formally apologize to the person in writing and make this post reflect my omissions and errors in my research.
I have deliberately omitted some key areas of research and my research sources which do mot have a significant impact on my post about the Sokol Movement and Music Therapy. My purpose for this is to prevent anyone from copying or plagiarizing my research and then attempting to pass it off as their own research.
Submitted August 12, 2007
Daniel Jan Walikis
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