Music that would make great short ballets

[red911sc]

As a choreographer, your ballet's success depends, partly, on the music that you choose. Also, I'm sure, you are aware of the large amounts of $$$ that are spent on finding the "right" piece of music. I'm wondering if you have any suggestions that you might share so that we can save a little dough. Next season is right around the corner!

Here are my suggestions: (Contempo/Classical, common & a little obscure)

Prokofiev - Classical Symphony (A little too common, but fun)

Bach - all Brandendburg Concertos

Block - Concerto Grosso #1 & #2

Corelli - Christmas Concerto

Tchiakovsky - Variation on a Rococo Theme

I'll add more later...got class.

[carbro]

You might try looking here.

You might also want to post this on BalletTalk for Dancers. That's where you'll find fellow choreographers. Our discussions here are from the viewpoint of fans and audience members, not practitioners.

I've also moved this post from the Ballet Music forum, which deals with specific music from specific ballets. This is a more general query.

[Andre Yew]

I have too many ideas about this, so I'll just mention a few of my favorites:

1. The chaconne from Bach's partita no. 2 in d for solo violin. Busoni took this and expanded it out for a piano, resolving many interesting harmonic questions the piece raises. It may be an interesting exercise for a choreographer to do something similar visually.

2. Someone set a ballet to Britten's Prince of the Pagodas already. It's such beautiful music composed for a ballet that it's shame it isn't better known or used.

3. Something set to spoken word (poem, etc.) or silence. I don't think this has been explored enough, and it's cheap!

4. Someone should further explore what Balanchine did when he staged an entire opera as a ballet, with the singers in the pit, and dancers conveying all the visual action. This has so many obstacles that I'm not sure we'll ever see this again.

--Andre

[Guest nycdog]

Has anyone ever choreographed Wagner's Siegfried Idyll to great affect? This is a magnificent 'love' piece about 20 minutes long that can be performed by a small group of players or full orchestra. I'd like to see it as a duet with a chamber group of musicians onstage.

At the Pacific Northwest Ballet someone named Paul Taylor used the Idyll in a work called 'Roses,' along with Heinrich Baermann's "Adagio for Clarinet and Strings." I have no idea what the Baermann is, but I doubt it's on the level of the Wagner.

[Guest nycdog]

I would also suggest the Bach Violin Concerto in E Major bwv 1042. I wish that Balanchine had chosen that instead of the d minor BWV 1043 for Concerto Barocco (1948). I say the E Major is the better work among the 3 violin concerto masterpieces of Bach, the 2nd movement is particularly great.

[oberon]

I'm not sure if you were pulling our collective leg when you spoke of "someone named Paul Taylor" choreographing ROSES to the Siegfried Idyll. Taylor is a major force in American dance, has had his own Company for years; I've seen ROSES and it's beautiful.

Am I mistaken or did Taylor dance briefly with NYCB when he was young?

ROSES, as I recall, uses about a dozen or more dancers. The Idyll would be a bit long for two dancers alone to sustain, in my opinion.

[carbro]

The Paul Taylor Dance Co. is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary -- quite gloriously.

Roses comprises five (seven?) couples. The ensemble, dressed in off-black, dances to the Idyll as a whole and in pairs. The final duet, for a man and woman dressed in white, is a deeply romantic duet (unusual for Taylor) to the Baerman Adagio for Clarinet and Strings. Roses is a beautiful, lyrical work, but no one's yet done justice to the role originated by the fleet Linda Kent.

[sandik]

Am I mistaken or did Taylor dance briefly with NYCB when he was young?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

While Taylor was a member of Martha Graham's company he performed in the joint Graham/Balanchine production of Episodes. Balanchine made a solo for him, descibed initially as "insect-like" -- it was dropped for a time after the Balanchine half of the work entered the regular NYCB repertory, but was rechoreographed/revived in the 1990's (can't remember the exact year and can't reach the right book at the moment)

[Helene]

Balanchine made a solo for him, descibed initially as "insect-like" -- it was dropped for a time after the Balanchine half of the work entered the regular NYCB repertory, but was rechoreographed/revived in the 1990's (can't remember the exact year and can't reach the right book at the moment)

It was revived in NYCB's Spring Season of 1986 and performed again in Winter Season 1987. I saw Peter Frame dance it five times in those two seasons. I do have one performance on 18 June 1986 listed with no dancer for the role, which leads me to suspect that Frame couldn't dance that performance. I don't know if he had an understudy.

Sallie Wilson was the NYCB "guest" in Graham's half of Episodes.

[Ari]

According to Taylor's memoir Private Domain, Balanchine invited him to join NYCB after working with him on Episodes. Taylor was flabbergasted and flattered, but knew he wasn't a ballet dancer or choreographer, and turned the offer down.

[Anthony_NYC]

At the Pacific Northwest Ballet someone named Paul Taylor used the Idyll in a work called 'Roses,' along with Heinrich Baermann's "Adagio for Clarinet and Strings."  I have no idea what the Baermann is, but I doubt it's on the level of the Wagner.

The Baermann piece was for many years attributed to Wagner. If I remember correctly, Taylor knew it wasn't by him but used it anyway because it was on the same LP as the Siegfried Idyll and because he liked the stylistic inconsistency with the Wagner.

[Guest nycdog]

I got an mp3 of the Baermann piece it's rather odd to be paired with the Idyll, as a musician I would never listen to this myself, whereas I've studied the Idyll 500 times. The emotional world of the Idyll is so enormous.

Anyway, Paul Taylor is 'modern.' :rolleyes: Did he do a good job with the Idyll? I would like to see!

[Guest nycdog]

red911sc mentioned the Prokofiev Classical Symphony to start off this thread.

I would second that as a good short piece for a ballet, I guess if Mr B and Mr P had gotten along better we'd have 'Classical Symphony' instead of 'Symphony in C.'

[carbro]

Tudor's Gala Performance is to Prokofiev's Classical Symphony. Whenever I hear it, the ballet in my head invariably is a poor cousin of Balanchine's to Bizet.

Yes, nycdog, Taylor's treatment of the Idyll is very good. I'd recommend it next time they perform Roses.