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The Golden/Bronze Idol Variation from Bayadere


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What ballet does the music for this variation come from? I know its by Minkus, but I forgot which ballet it was.

As well, I know that there is a march by Minkus of some kind that I have read was used by the White Army in Imperial Russia.

Also, I think it was Balanchine that said it in one of his books, that the Czar was prepaired to pay for the Imperial Ballet's expenses as long as he could hear (I think) a particular number from some ballet - Im not sure which - I think it was from "The Little Humpbacked Horse"

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I may be mistaken, but I don't think that variation is by Minkus. For one thing, it didn't appear in the ballet until 1920, and Minkus died in 1918 in Vienna. He had been on "the other side" during WWI and was sent back to Austria when war broke out between that country and Russia. For another thing, it's in 5/4, but not a 5/4 waltz. I don't recall Minkus working in that time signature.

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I may be mistaken, but I don't think that variation is by Minkus.  For one thing, it didn't appear in the ballet until 1920, and Minkus died in 1918 in Vienna.  He had been on "the other side" during WWI and was sent back to Austria when war broke out between that country and Russia.  For another thing, it's in 5/4, but not a 5/4 waltz.  I don't recall Minkus working in that time signature.

No....it is Minkus' composition. Just because he had been dead for some time (he died in 1917) before the number was put into "La Bayadere" doesnt mean that he didnt write it. The number comes from one of his ballets, but Im not sure which. It is perhaps the only number Minkus ever wrote in 5/4.

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unfortunately the little monograph i have entitled NIKOLAI ZUBKOVSKY (as in the choreographer/dancer of today's so-called 'golden/bronze idol') says very little but here's how the solo divertissement appears in zubkovsky's chronology:

1948 (the year the solo was choreographed and danced by zubkovsky)

BAZHOK (i.e. little god) - NOMYER V SOBSTVYENNOIE POST. (a number added to a production?) - "BAYAKDERKA" L. MINKUSA. POST. M. PETIPA ("La Bayadere" L. Minkus. Production M. Petipa).

one can't even say that the listing intends to suggest minkus's authorship of the solo itself, rather than just as composer of the prod. of LA BAYADERE into which it was inserted.

i've combed the various passages of text that make up the book but nowhere in the sections referring to BAZHOK is There a sense of minkus's name or of the title of a potential ballet/source candidate for the solo's music. i've also combed the background materials gathered around the time of the kirov's new/old BAYADERKA and see no specific ref. to the zubkovsky solo with regard to its music.

someone in russia must know but that knowledge has not been conveyed in any of the literature in my possession.

the attached publicity card from the soviet era is the same image on the cover of the zubkovsky book i obtained in st. petersburg in 1995.

post-848-1134324523_thumb.jpg

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Thanks, rg, that's neat!  I didn't realize that the interpolation came that late.  Another thing for me to go a-digging for!   :innocent:

what an awesome pic rg! Maybe it was your book, Ballet 101, where I read what ballet the Bronze Idol/Little God solo came from.

I swear, I have read and have heard from SOMEWHERE that the music was written by Minkus, and was a piece from one of his ballets - It was a march/procession of sorts from one of his ballets.

any info on these questions? -

As well, I know that there is a march by Minkus of some kind that I have read was used by the White Army in Imperial Russia.

Also, I think it was Balanchine that said it in one of his books, that the Czar was prepaired to pay for the Imperial Ballet's expenses as long as he could hear (I think) a particular number from some ballet - Im not sure which - I think it was from "The Little Humpbacked Horse"

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there may have been some posted information here during the time of the kirov's presentation of the 'reconstituted' 1900 BAYADERKA in nyc, regarding the music for the bazhok interpolation, but i don't recall it.

if i come across the information anywhere i'll post it.

i'm still trying too to pinpoint the 'source' referring to bessone and petipa's giselle solo.

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unfortunately the little monograph i have entitled NIKOLAI ZUBKOVSKY (as in the choreographer/dancer of today's so-called 'golden/bronze idol') says very little but here's how the solo divertissement appears in zubkovsky's chronology:

1948 (the year the solo was choreographed and danced by zubkovsky)

BAZHOK (i.e. little god) - NOMYER V SOBSTVYENNOIE POST. (a number added to a production?) - "BAYAKDERKA" L. MINKUSA. POST. M. PETIPA ("La Bayadere" L. Minkus. Production M. Petipa).

i've combed the various passages of text that make up the book but nowhere in the sections referring to BAZHOK is There a sense of minkus's name or of the title of a potential ballet/source candidate for the solo's music. i've also combed the background materials gathered around the time of the kirov's new/old BAYADERKA and see no specific ref. to the zubkovsky solo with regard to its music.

the attached publicity card from the soviet era is the same image on the cover of the zubkovsky book i obtained in st. petersburg in 1995.

rg,

Thanks for the info. There are probably a lot of details that have just fallen through the cracks over the years and I guess there will always be gaps.

But still, even though I'm not much of a fan of character dances, I find the Bronze Idol very mesmerizing to watch, whatever the source for the music. So thanks for

your comments. .....and thanks , too to Solor for starting the thread. Even if there is no more information I have found this fascinating.

:thanks:

Richard

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Is the Bazhok music Minkus's march from Petipa's 1878 ballet "Roxana, the Beauty of Montengro"?

The 'Golden Idol' (bazok) music is by Pavel Emilievich Feldt(1905-1960) composer and conductor who worked at the Kirov and Maly Theatres. Feldt assisted on the realisation of a number of important ballet scores for Leningrad companies from the 1930's to the 1950's.

Ps. Feldt also conducted the first performances of Shostakovich's. 'The Limpid(Bright) Stream' and Khachaturian's, 'Gayane' and 'Spartacus'.

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The 'Golden Idol' (bazok) music is by Pavel Emilievich Feldt(1905-1960) composer and conductor who worked at the Kirov and Maly Theatres. Feldt assisted on the realisation of a number of important ballet scores for Leningrad companies from the 1930's to the 1950's.

Ps. Feldt also conducted the first performances of Shostakovich's. 'The Limpid(Bright) Stream' and Khachaturian's, 'Gayane' and 'Spartacus'.

Thanks a whole lot for letting us know Leonid! Where/how did you find this out by the way? Interesting......

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The 'Golden Idol' (bazok) music is by Pavel Emilievich Feldt(1905-1960) composer and conductor who worked at the Kirov and Maly Theatres. Feldt assisted on the realisation of a number of important ballet scores for Leningrad companies from the 1930's to the 1950's.

Ps. Feldt also conducted the first performances of Shostakovich's. 'The Limpid(Bright) Stream' and Khachaturian's, 'Gayane' and 'Spartacus'.

Thanks a whole lot for letting us know Leonid! Where/how did you find this out by the way? Interesting......

This information came from a biographical study of Nikolai Zubkovsky published in St.Petersburg in 1993. It also contains the choreography for the variation in a written out form. Elsewhere it contains a full written description of the classes he taught. Zubkovsky, I first heard about in relation to his wife Inna Zubkovskaya. She was an absolutely outstanding dancer who appeared with the Kirov in 1961 at the Royal Opera House. She along with perhaps another 7 or 8 dancers from across the world, helped to strike down a defenceless teenage boy with an infection called balletomania.

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without trying to veer hopelessly off-topic from the bazhok solo, but to add to the mentions of inna zubkovskaya (nee izraeleva), let me note that the comment above about being turned into a balletomane by zubkovskaya recalls ashton's telling of his own 'conversion' to ballet and its world by seeing anna pavlova, and noting how the ballerina 'injected [him] with her poison' & leading him to make his own career in ballet.

i wasn't fortunate enough to see zubkovskaya dance, but i have noted others' enthusiasms for her, arlene croce among them, having been taken with zubkovskaya as lilac in the kirov's NYC debut season performances of SLEEPING BEAUTY.

i've seen zubkovskaya as a pedagogue on film in various documentaries about the kirov ballet.

meanwhile i'm frequently struck by how much of her 'magic' seems captured in photos of her.

here are two with which i am particularly taken:

the photocard on the left was pubished in 1964.

the one on the right has no identifications but is undoubtedly earlier.

post-848-1145726746.jpg

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Is the Bazhok music Minkus's march from Petipa's 1878 ballet "Roxana, the Beauty of Montengro"?

The 'Golden Idol' (bazok) music is by Pavel Emilievich Feldt(1905-1960) composer and conductor who worked at the Kirov and Maly Theatres. Feldt assisted on the realisation of a number of important ballet scores for Leningrad companies from the 1930's to the 1950's.

Ps. Feldt also conducted the first performances of Shostakovich's. 'The Limpid(Bright) Stream' and Khachaturian's, 'Gayane' and 'Spartacus'.

A HA!

While looking through the info on the "La Bayadere" reconstruction, I FINALLY saw where it was that I had read the reference to Minkus being the composer of the infamous Bazhok variation.

It was Marc Haegeman who had stated - "The music for the golden idol is the Persian March from Le Papillon by Minkus."

"Le Papillon" (The Butterfly), ballet in 4 acts. Minkus/Petipa. January 6, 1874 @ the Bolshoi Kamenny, w/ Ekaterina Vazem & Pavel Gerdt in the leads

To me the music sound Minkus all the way, but I was wondering where Marc heard this? Perhaps if the variation is really by Minkus than maybe Pavel Emilievich Feldt arranged the music from the march?? Surley if it is a March from an old ballet it was way longer than the short variation that is the Bazhok solo (just a theory!).

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"The 'Golden Idol' (bazok) music is by Pavel Emilievich Feldt(1905-1960) composer and conductor who woked at the Kirov and Maly Theatres.(Leonid quote)

It was Marc Haegeman who had stated - "The music for the golden idol is the Persian March from Le Papillon by Minkus."

"Le Papillon" (The Butterfly), ballet in 4 acts. Minkus/Petipa. January 6, 1874 @ the Bolshoi Kamenny, w/ Ekaterina Vazem & Pavel Gerdt in the leads.

To me the music sound Minkus all the way, but I was wondering where Marc heard this? Perhaps if the variation is really by Minkus than maybe Pavel Emilievich Feldt arranged the music from the march?? Surley if it is a March from an old ballet it was way longer than the short variation that is the Bazhok solo (just a theory!).

I am in agreement with Mel Johnson's view " The melodic progression of intervals and harmony sounds far more like mid-20th century composition than Minkus ever would have thought of." and accede to the possibility that you posit re: "Le Papillon" as the melodic original. Feldt also, as a composer, could easily have met the challenge of producing a pastiche of Minkus in an original meter to meet Zubkovsky's choreographic vision. And so, the conundrum lives on.

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