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"Haunting" ballet melodies.


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Have you found yourself humming over and over a certain ballet tune right post performance and for many days after...? Do you find that you can't get it out of your head...? Is it a very catchy, "dansante" melody...? Could it be that you're even able to get a hold on any Stravinsky's ballet tune...? (not me certainly...)

My "regulars" are usually:

1-Adagio from Sugarplum Fairy Grand PDD.

2-Rose Adagio

3-Waltz/duet from Chopiniana.

3-The tune that goes along the peasant cross formation-(or a single line as in Cuba)-dancing in Giselle's Act I

4-Glinka's main theme of Valse Fantaisie

5-Coppelia's mazurka

6-Giselle's "Initiation" scene.

7-Aurora's first entrance music.

8-Swan Lake overture.

I'm sure there are many others, but those are my top picks...

Which are yours...?

tiphat.gif

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Absolutely - and not just after a performance. Often while driving something pops into my head and sometimes it's already there when I wake up.

Frequent ones are:

Reconciliation duet from Two Pigeons

Mazurka from Coppelia

Rose Adagio

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Have you found yourself humming over and over a certain ballet tune right post performance and for many days after...? Do you find that you can't get it out of your head...? Is it a very catchy, "dansante" melody...? Could it be that you're even able to get a hold on any Stravinsky's ballet tune...? (not me certainly...)

My "regulars" are usually:

1-Adagio from Sugarplum Fairy Grand PDD.

2-Rose Adagio

3-Waltz/duet from Chopiniana.

3-The tune that goes along the peasant cross formation-(or a single line as in Cuba)-dancing in Giselle's Act I

4-Glinka's main theme of Valse Fantaisie

5-Coppelia's mazurka

6-Giselle's "Initiation" scene.

7-Aurora's first entrance music.

8-Swan Lake overture.

I'm sure there are many others, but those are my top picks...

Which are yours...?

tiphat.gif

When I read the title of this thread, I thought the OP meant actual "hunting melodies," as for instance the Hunters' Choruses from Der Freischutz, and Charpentier's Acteon :)

Melodies I often hum:

(1) Le Spectre de la Rose (Weber/Berlioz - Invitation to the Dance)

(2) Giselle - all of Myrtha's music

(3) Swan Lake - grand adage from Act II

(4) Mazurka in D from Les Sylphides

(5) Swanilda's Act I entrance

(6) Pas d'esclave from Le Corsaire

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When I read the title of this thread, I thought the OP meant actual "hunting melodies," as for instance the Hunters' Choruses from Der Freischutz, and Charpentier's Acteon smile.png

Maybe someone could kindly change the title of the thread to "haunting" which is what I assume it should be?

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When I read the title of this thread, I thought the OP meant actual "hunting melodies," as for instance the Hunters' Choruses from Der Freischutz, and Charpentier's Acteon smile.png

Maybe someone could kindly change the title of the thread to "haunting" which is what I assume it should be?

Done! Thanks Kerry and Aurora for pointing out the typo.

In the meantime, it's a good topic, and one that gives us the chance to think about melodies that stick in the mind. In my case, most of these tend to be slow rather than fast. For example:

-- the adagio from the Second Movement of Bizet's Symphony in C.

-- the berceuse (supplication dance) from Stravinsky's Firebird.

I associate both with the Balanchine choreography.

Am I right in thinking that "haunting" melodies can include those that drive us mad, taking over the auditory memory and pushing out almost everything else?. If so, I would have to include a bouncy 3/4 passage early in Act I of Giselle. It accompanies Giselle as she skips around the stage. When THAT little passage enters my brain, it's almost impossible to retrieve the rest of the Adam score, including the initiation scene which Cristian has put on his own list.

It goes: DUM di DUM di DUM di DUM ... di dah dah dah d-a-a-h ... di DUM --- followed by a series of fast little dahs. After a weekend of Giselles recently, it was with me almost continuously for nearly a week.

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The music for Siegfrieds Act 1 variation ( I believe the Royal Ballet version) of Swan Lake I think is haunting, also the pas de deux in Macmillian's Manon and most of the score in his Mayerling. The tune I can't get rid of in my head is the melody right after the Black Swan pasde deux.

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Am I right in thinking that "haunting" melodies can include those that drive us mad, taking over the auditory memory and pushing out almost everything else?. If so, I would have to include a bouncy 3/4 passage early in Act I of Giselle. It accompanies Giselle as she skips around the stage. When THAT little passage enters my brain, it's almost impossible to retrieve the rest of the Adam score, including the initiation scene which Cristian has put on his own list.

I completely agree about bouncy 3/4 passages: a little after Zulma and Moyna's variations, Myrtha returns to some really bouncy music that can play in my brain for days on end. In fact, I'm thinking it right now. Arghh!

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When I read the title of this thread, I thought the OP meant actual "hunting melodies," as for instance the Hunters' Choruses from Der Freischutz, and Charpentier's Acteon smile.png

Maybe someone could kindly change the title of the thread to "haunting" which is what I assume it should be?

Sorry about it, Aurora. I haven't mastered the foreign language completely.

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The violin solo in Act II, White Swan scene

The piano solo in parts of Camellias

Several parts of Giselle, especially Act II entrechats

bart said:

"Am I right in thinking that "haunting" melodies can include those that drive us mad, taking over the auditory memory and pushing out almost everything else?."

Sometimes the visual remains, and sometimes it does not.

"Drive us mad?" - no, to tears

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In addition to those mentioned, I would add to the haunted category: the Elegie from Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3 (actually, the first three movements are pretty "haunting"), the Sleepwalkers theme from La Sonnambula, the "Gold and Silver Waltz" from Vienna Waltzes, and the ending of Baiser de la Fee.

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Some of my favorites include:

1) Adagio from The Sugar Plum Fairy Grand PDD

2) The "Growing Tree" theme from The Nutcracker Act I

3) Act II Adagio from Swan Lake

4) The Lilac Fairy theme in all its guises in Sleeping Beauty

5) The Pas d'Action with the cello solo from Act II Sleeping Beauty

6) The Panorama from Act II Sleeping Beauty

7) Adagio from Spartacus

8) The first Pas de Six from Act II Raymonda

9) The Overture to Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet

10) Farewell PDD from Act III Romeo & Juliet

11) Amoroso from Act III Prokofiev's Cinderella

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Lots of music, gets me humming, depending on the most recent DVD I have watched, or performance I have seen.

Currently Variations from Manon (Massenet)

Le Baiser de la Fee (Stravinsky in the form of Tchkaivosky) " None but the lonely heart" & other themes. "De da dee dar dar, la da da da " la la laa la la and so on.

Les dame aux Camellias (Chopin)

Le Corsair pas de deau (which my mother loved and was played at her funeral)

Nutcracker pas de deux (Sugar Plun Fairy and Prince )

Lots more I cannot bring to mind!!!!

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When I read the title of this thread, I thought the OP meant actual "hunting melodies," as for instance the Hunters' Choruses from Der Freischutz, and Charpentier's Acteon smile.png

Maybe someone could kindly change the title of the thread to "haunting" which is what I assume it should be?

Sorry about it, Aurora. I haven't mastered the foreign language completely.

Hey Cristian - I wish I were as idiomatic (and articulate) in ANY foreign language as you are in English :)

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Generally it's whatever I've seen recently, so right now it's Apollo and Carmina Burana. The tricky part is when I start to put them together...

Sounds like a fascinating combination, sandik. I am imagining two orchestras on opposite sides of the stage. The Apollo orchestra is in tails; the Carmina Burana orchestra looks like it just got home from an all-night party. They duel. The Apollo orchestra seems about to be overwhelmed, but is victorious in the end, when the Carmina Burana orchestra stops playing and just listens all the way through the apotheosis music.

Agree with Makarova Fan as to the Adagio from Spartacus; it's very hard to keep from humming along with that.

Also want to add the Hungarian variation (with the balalaika) from Raymonda.

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Generally it's whatever I've seen recently, so right now it's Apollo and Carmina Burana. The tricky part is when I start to put them together...

Sounds like a fascinating combination, sandik. I am imagining two orchestras on opposite sides of the stage. The Apollo orchestra is in tails; the Carmina Burana orchestra looks like it just got home from an all-night party. They duel. The Apollo orchestra seems about to be overwhelmed, but is victorious in the end, when the Carmina Burana orchestra stops playing and just listens all the way through the apotheosis music.

Either that or they march through each other, like the Charles Ives, and I'm sitting on the center line.

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Sandik, I like your use of movement across big empty spaces. Much better for a ballet audience than my own static vision. Are we talking marching bands here? Possibly with diagonals, criss-crossing, and moving wheels (a la Balanchine) to reflect the complex rhythms and inevitable dissonances?

Still ... It WOULD be nice to have Apollo win in the end. Such gorgeous music.

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Sandik, I like your use of movement across big empty spaces. Much better for a ballet audience than my own static vision. Are we talking marching bands here? Possibly with diagonals, criss-crossing, and moving wheels (a la Balanchine) to reflect the complex rhythms and inevitable dissonances?

Still ... It WOULD be nice to have Apollo win in the end. Such gorgeous music.

Oh, your vision is much better than my single pass-by! This sounds like the description of the early court ballets, with their elaborate processions and dressage!!

And since Louis XIV was the Sun King in Le Ballet de la Nuit, Apollo would have to prevail.

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The first that springs to mind is the Waltz Girl's Waltz from Serenade

Swanilda's first waltz

the entr'acte from Sylvia (o GOD, I love that)

The cancan form "Orpheus in the Underworld"

the third movement from 'Symphony in C'

'Breadcrumb Fairy' from Sleeping Beauty, and Panorama

'Simple gifts' from Appallachian Spring

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When I read the title of this thread, I thought the OP meant actual "hunting melodies," as for instance the Hunters' Choruses from Der Freischutz, and Charpentier's Acteon smile.png

Maybe someone could kindly change the title of the thread to "haunting" which is what I assume it should be?

Sorry about it, Aurora. I haven't mastered the foreign language completely.

Hey Cristian - I wish I were as idiomatic (and articulate) in ANY foreign language as you are in English smile.png

flowers.gifflowers.gif

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I tend to have melodies haunt me when I am in the middle of listening to a ballet in preparation for a live performance. For example, I am re-watching various Bayadere videos I own in preparation for my trip to NY. So when I am walking my dog sometimes I can't get a piece out of my head. Same when I prepared for the live Coppelias in Miami. I found myself humming sections from the third act a lot!!!

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When I was small, I would hum the entire score to Swan Lake. Now, whenever I'm stressed or nervous about something, I'll find myself humming (sometimes subconsciously) the Act3 waltz of the princesses from Swan Lake. It's like a pause--a serene center--in between 4 acts of highly emotional drama and dramatic music. And therefore, it helps to calm me too.

I will add more later. Suffice it to say, I ALWAYS have ballet music in my head whether I am consciously aware or not.

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Nothing better fits the category of haunting ballet music for me than the adagio pas de deux in Symphony in C. Every time I hear it (and my classical radio station in Toronto plays it regularly) I picture Suzanne Farrell and Peter Martins dancing it. It is achingly beautiful - and the only piece of music I don't mind hearing on the radio as often as it is presented.

(On the other hand, I'd like to sneak into the station and do damage to the hunting music from Giselle, which seems to be the only Giselle music the station owns, and many other pieces that are played ad nauseum, like the Mozart used for the theme from Elvira Madigan.)

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Ear worms I don't mind being haunted by:

-Swan Lake pdd from Act II violin solo

-Opening from Petrouchka

-Nutcracker Waltz of the Flowers

Ear worms I could live without:

-Sylvia Pizzicati (sp?) -- da DA da DA da DA da DADADA plink plink – that one can drive me crazy for hours

-Not a ballet, but ballet music from La Gioconda -- The Dance of the Hours – once that one starts, there’s no getting rid of it (although it does bring back fond memories of lines of double piques in ballet class many, many years ago).

Ear worm that makes no sense:

Giselle Act II when the Wilis do their arabesques sautés lines across the stage – with all the lovely music from Giselle to be haunted by, for some reason this is the one that won’t go away. It’s perfect music for that choreography, but out of context, there’s really nothing to hum, and it really goes nowhere – ARGH.

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