First, we have to set the stage for our story about the beginnings of biodynamics at the Threefold Farm in Spring Valley (Chestnut Ridge). In June 1923 a 25-year-old American concert pianist in New York City, Gladys Barnett (later Hahn), sold her grand piano in order to visit the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. While there, she saw a performance of eurythmy (a new art of movement created by Steiner to present visible speech and music on stage, also with therapeutic and educational applications), had several conversations with Rudolf Steiner, and even played piano for him and others at the conference that August in Penmaenmawr, North Wales, titled The Evolution of Consciousness as Revealed through Initiation Knowledge. Gladys had been studying music with and serving as piano accompanist for anthroposophist and accomplished teacher of singing Herbert Wilbur Greene (former founder and director of the Metropolitan College of Music) at his studio on the seventh floor of Carnegie Hall in New York City. More ...
