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Ditto. Amazon actually has a decent amount available as mp3s for download. And that's where I found the wonderful "Bells of an Alpine Cattle Herd" recording - now that's found music!

I've read the Pillow Book many times (in translation). It's a favorite of mine too. As for, "she's still not - will never be - one of us": that's a narrower definition of "us" than I would use. It's all just one human to another for me. The rest is just musing of the human mind. Humans not only look for differences constantly, the mind actively manufactures differences. But until a biologist can identify the "Heian aristocrat" in the human organism, or a neurologist find the "modern nation state" in someone's brain tissue, it's all just abstract musings of the mind to me. I think it's a big deal that your students realize their closeness to Shonagon, Li Bai or Sappho (though there's not much text to work with there) and not get hung up on their distance in time. Since we're a ways off topic, I'll just add that I'm not a fan of deliberately removing artworks from circulation (which is essentially censorship) just because they contain objectionable elements. If the issue is makeup (black face/red face, whatever), that can be rectified quite easily. Changing costume designs occurs so often in ballet that it shouldn't be a huge deal to at least try out a change on audiences - it's always possible to revert to the original costume designs. Objectionable 'vintage' choreography and music are going to be a different matter, certainly. There are always copyright issues to deal with there, if the ballet is a faithful reproduction (of say, Balanchine, which will involve approval from the Balanchine Trust). The ballet companies should mention the issues with a particular 'controversial' ballet up front, and use that as a means of audience engagement.

Did that come from watching Circus Polka at MCB? ;) Do you have any links to the music you can share? Wang certainly gets lots of press these days. And so does her concert attire. I watched one of her performances when it was free on Medici.tv - a technical virtuoso, to be sure. I haven't listened enough to have a say about her interpretations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yue6Cb5OULM

Allegra Kent, Tanaquil Le Clercq, Suzanne Farrell, and Nijinsky.

Thanks ClaraFan - I saw your posting regarding the California Ballet Company. I've only gone to see San Diego's City Ballet (the Balanchine programs). It's good that you are able to report on CBC though. Philip Glass is one modern composer who is well known to the ballet world. Lucky him.

Now that's a great story, Vagansmom. ;) The hammer dulcimer has long fascinated me, sound-wise. It was a while before I understood that the Mountain Dulcimer was a different instrument - though there are similarities in the sound quality. I didn't grow up seeing anyone play these instruments - thus the confusion. Fariña's dulcimer playing always appealed to me, and as you pointed out, it was often used as a 'sound effect' on recordings. On a side note, have you ever heard the 'ambient' hammer dulcimer playing of Laraaji on Brain Eno's Day of Radiance? The playing is all Laraaji, with Eno's production effects only.

That must be it then: an opportunity to use the students from the school in a real MCB performance.

I couldn't stop laughing after reading your last comment. ;) Is that really considered to be one of his masterworks?

Well, The Cage is very controversial. ;) (Just read the very first comment in the thread Are there ballets that should no longer be staged? ) But it is admired, by still other people. SFB is also going to be performing The Cage as part of their Robbins program in 2018.

All great choices. And eclectic - I like that. ;) One of the reasons I initially started going to the ballet was because I liked the music so much - much of the classical music used in ballets (which happens to be 'danceable') is really appealing. Otherwise, my classical tastes tends toward the odd, and ethnic (pieces that borrow from a folk tradition). I admire Renbourn, as I've spent years listening to Fairport Convention, Pentangle, Steeleye Span and related people. I'm going to listen to your dulcimer recommendations (I was wondering about Appalachian dulcimer music not long ago)...

I believe you've misunderstood me - "Here's two poems … You'll see how they both fit into the tradition I mention above" does not refer to Qiu Jin as a 'courtesan', but rather her poems. I was referring to the way in which the poems echo the traditional themes and forms, but are also what many Westerners would refer to as 'modern'.

Yes, precisely. Ballads for Night People is one of my favorite jazz/standards night albums (and that fit my original 'night music' theme). It fits in well with my other 'romantic' night jazz favorites: Billie Holiday - Lady in Satin, 1958 [Her penultimate album - the voice is gone but the soul very much remains.] John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman - John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, 1963 [The only time the Coltrane band backed a vocalist. What a shame it is so short.] Ella Fitzgerald - The Cole Porter Songbook CD 1 and CD 2 (from Complete Songbooks), 1956 [Both vocals and arrangements are of the highest level. One of the very best "American Standards" recordings, imo.] INSTRUMENTAL: Stan Getz - Focus (with composer and arranger Eddie Sauter), 1961 [The only time a jazz soloist was backed exclusively by an orchestra and every track succeeded. Getz doesn't play a single bum note.] There's a gazillion other great jazz efforts that I could recommend, but the ones mentioned above fit really well together and all have first rate arrangements and orchestrations. Unusually inspired efforts. There is also a fairly recent re-release titled, Hoagy Sings Carmichael (feat. Harry 'Sweets' Edison, Jimmy Rowles & Art Pepper), originally from 1956, that fits well here too, but not all the tracks are of the level of perfection the above efforts can boast.

Here's an article about his music from The Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/satyajit-rays-signature-scores/article7157997.ece His film music is great background music for work, imo.

Good choices, but try Sam Cooke for a cold. ;) Unless you have a bad sore throat still - then you need something soothing that doesn't require singing along. Debussy? Feel better! One other 'discovery' I made in the last couple of years - the great director Satyajit Ray was also a composer of his own film music. And the pieces are really interesting because they are so short (traditional Indian ragas tend to be very long instrumentals). He was certainly influenced by Western film music structures, but he's using traditional Indian instruments and orchestrations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfdBccSkRvA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cejCQBdqYRo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfg44uXX5oQ

Laura Nyro's The Bells is great too, but I had that in another section and the flow worked well, so it stayed. That's why, when you have a large amount of music to sort through, it turns out to be better to break up the themes into smaller sections. That "bells" section is one of the longest ones I have, and I've mostly left it alone because I just like the flow of the music. When I started collecting musics relating to the the theme of "queen" (royalty), I ended up with a really, really long sequence and had to break it up - it got out-of-hand. ;)

Oh, and the theme to Mozart in the Jungle (an orchestral reworking of the alterna-pop tune Lisztomania) - that's a great one. I keep playing it over and over. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJdYdcf1TvI

As far as musicians who have grabbed a hold of me in the last few years (and won't let go), I keep returning to Mimi & Richard Farina, and these folks: Jonathan Richman - Afternoon, That Summer Feeling, Summer Morning, When Harpo Played His Harp, Astral Plane, Roadrunner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zmy2oBGmPc Neko Case - People Got a Lotta Nerve, I Am An Animal, This Tornado Loves You, Hold On, Hold On, I Wish I Was the Moon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khs_PofcsbQ Charles Trenet - Menilmontant, Boum, J'Ai Ta Main, La Route Enchantée, La Mer, Douce France https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2F1WuMhZsk The Chiffons - Every Boy and Every Girl, Just a Boy, Out of This World, Sweet Talkin' Guy, Just for Tonight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLpMG_UTm6Q Nanci Griffith - Fly By Night, Red is the Rose, The Last Of The True Believers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQbYtBHj4bE The Boswell Sisters - It's the Girl, Was That the Human Thing to Do?, Shout Sister Shout, Rock and Roll, Stop The Sun Stop The Moon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWOLQCSKkRw June Christy - Something Cool, The Gypsy In My Soul, Shadow Woman, Night People, Out Of The Shadows, Softly As in a Morning Sunrise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn8EtaxGJP0 Gérard Souzay's French-Spanish Song Recital CD as well as the "Fauré: Mélodies" CD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_7YVsUafBQ The Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose - "The Story of Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose" CD has most of their output https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRDQtEwk6k8 Many, many tracks by Hespèrion XXI [multi-instrumentalist Jordi Savall and his singer/instrumentalist wife Montserrat Figueras (now deceased)] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQckwdlB5tg Bicinia Hungarica Tricinia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlnhhsfFzb4&list=PLM13trdhAQRP5iOw4Zuz0-AE2WfwG_AC9 EDIT: And if I happen to be depressed, then it's time to break out Swing Out Sister and the 1st Pipettes album. Those always do the trick for some reason. ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIZuT-hG_q0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdyMocLmTNk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoYaSUSycBk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2OBkOfOAZ0

These days I have an actual structure for my music explorations - A massive "mix" that was originally planned to be an Internet radio show, but then Live365 Internet radio went bankrupt. The working title has been 'Midnight Radio: Evening Songs & Things that Go Bump in the Night', but I long ago stopped worrying about using only 'night tunes'. Originally, my mix was eclectic and nothing but eclectic, but I've been exploring various ways to unite the different genres of music tracks - either through aural, thematic or lyrical similarities. And I also quickly discovered that listeners don't really want to hear endless tracks on one particular theme - it's important to learn how to cycle in and out of themes. There are ways to transition from almost any music form into another but it takes some real thought. Example: pair Lost in the Stars, Frank Sinatra and Aquarius - Let The Sunshine In, The Fifth Dimension - both tracks feature remarkably similar orchestral atmospherics (I have a feeling the Fifth Dimension track essentially "steals" the idea from Nelson Riddle's arrangement). And then there is the abrupt change to another style entirely - that can be made to work effectively, but it's tricky. I can tell you that the "change-up" music (my term) par excellence is Doo-Wop. You could have just been listening to Beethoven's 7th Symphony, but if it's followed by The Marcel's singing "Blue Moon", you'll suddenly be transported to another world and instantly forget all other concerns. ;) This type of thing can be a great personal project, so if you want something to keep you busy, a music mix can be used to force you to learn about many, many genres of music. ;) Here's a screenshot of a section of my mix that uses the sound of bells, and lyrics about bells, as a unifying theme, and then it cycles out to other things. Some of the themes I revisit many times because there is now over 15 days of music. http://burntscarlet.com/downloads/ballet_alert/midnight_radio_9_section.png And a couple other random sections to give people ideas for their own mixes: http://burntscarlet.com/downloads/ballet_alert/midnight_radio_5_section.png http://burntscarlet.com/downloads/ballet_alert/midnight_radio_8_section.png [I have a friend who is a San Francisco community radio DJ and he's known for his massive (and ever growing) archive of music. If I run out of ideas, I can listen to his show online for still more…]

I've started seeing more videos of Tan lately - Now and Then PDD (John Neumeier) danced by SFB's Yuan Yuan Tan and Vito Mazzeo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7pOO9OUxt0 Symphonic Dances PDD (Edwaard Liang) danced by Yuan Yuan Tan and Vito Mazzeo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg0kKaqk-E4 Diving into The Lilacs PDD (Yuri Possokhov) danced by Yuan Yuan Tan and Vito Mazzeo [audio track removed due to copyright claim] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK7fYqFE6AM La Dame aux Camélias PDD (John Neumeier) Yuan Yuan Tan and Edvin Revazov (Hamburg Ballet) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9KjMMe4iKU From long ago: Esmeralda GPDD - Yuan Yuan Tan and Felipe Diaz (these days SFB Ballet Master and Assistant A.D.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhUZe88KuHM Swan Lake adagio with Yuan Yuan Tan and José Martinez https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8xPAUm8pts

There's some interesting pairings here that may not have been seen before: De Sola with Greco, YY with Di Lanno, André and Wang. Interspersed with parings that have been great in the past: Chung and Walsh, and Sylve and Di Lanno. Toi, toi, toi. EDIT: I just noticed that the opening piece by Tomasson was for the students - kudos to Helgi.

I'm sorry to hear of this. RIP Ms. von Aroldingen.

Footage of Ana Sophia Scheller and Angelo Greco dancing the Le Corsair PDD at the New Years Gala in Baden-Baden, Germany: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bdqs_Uihrn2/?hl=en&taken-by=la_scheller https://www.instagram.com/p/Bdv1SBOheap/?hl=en&taken-by=la_scheller Scheller preparing to dance a Stars and Stripes PDD for the upcoming SFB Opening Gala: https://www.instagram.com/p/BdtE6Qxhg8r/?hl=en&taken-by=la_scheller

This caught my eye: Masha is back in LA (after being in Russia and Denmark just a few days ago) and working with William Forsythe https://www.instagram.com/p/BdtZXzfh_H2/?taken-by=balletrusse I wonder if this piece might appear at the SFB Gala?

Thank you, Apollosmuse. I just listened to the Sleeping Beauty introduction - that was very professional. ;) A portion of the Ballet Basics class with Max Cauthorn is online too: https://www.facebook.com/sfballet/videos/vb.27923251292/10155717025641293/?type=2&theater [The audio is very quiet so turn up your speakers]

Ballet education reminder from SFB: "Want to deepen your engagement and prep for the season? Then come join us for our Ballet Insights Seminar. In this three-session course, you'll get to watch an up-close rehearsal of an excerpt from The Sleeping Beauty, meet an artist, observe or take a ballet class with Principal Dancer Jennifer Stahl, and get a preview of Unbound: A Festival of New Works. Join us January 22, 29, and February 5 to get an in-depth preview of what's coming up this Season." https://www.sfballet.org/explore/classes-events/ballet-insights-sf-ballet-2018 Free Pointes of View Lecture Series "Company artists and visiting scholars invite you to delve deeper into that evening's performance. You don't have to buy a ticket to attend—all ballet fans are welcome. Join us on January 24 as Dance Educator Mary Wood and Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson share the roster of new artists joining the company and preview the 2018 Season." https://www.sfballet.org/explore/programs/pov Free Meet The Artist Interviews "Our popular pre-performance Meet the Artist Interviews spotlight a work to be performed that evening/afternoon. These informative talks feature artists, including dancers, production staff, and choreographers in conversation with a moderator. Interviews are 30 minutes and take place on the Orchestra Level one hour prior to the performance. They are free and open to all ticket holders!" https://www.sfballet.org/explore/programs/mta Talk about Ballet With Tina LeBlanc "What's it like to be Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty ? Come find out. Enjoy complimentary wine and cheese as former SF Ballet Principal Dancer Tina LeBlanc shares her memories. Join us on January 27 from 5–6:30 pm." https://www.sfballet.org/ballet-talk