Music That Would Have Made Wonderful Ballets

[PhiladelphiaOrchestra]

After rehearsal we discussed briefly what music (symphonic, chamber, lieder) copuld be used forr a ballet. There were some insightful, and funny, suggestions, but the following two symphonies seem high on the priority list:

Schubert Symphony No. 5

Hayden Symphony No. 100 (Military)

I can see what would appeal in the music. The Schubert second movement could offer an equisite pas de deux, and the Haydn finale could really bring down the house.

I am surprised that no choreographer has ever used these symphonies. Perhaps they don't know about them!

[Mel Johnson]

I like the Haydn, and also his #88. I'm less fond of Schubert, but yes, that symphony would make a decent ballet, and I think did for the Atlanta Ballet, Robert Barnett choreographed. I can't remember the title.

[papeetepatrick]

Saint-Saens Piano Concerto in G Minor would be an absolute natural for ballet, and should be claimed immediately by someone. The first movement's grandiosity is then followed by the confection of the 2nd Movement (easily the greatest of the three) and the 3rd is a marvelous Tarantella that is just begging to be danced.

[Mashinka]

Benjamin Britten once wrote a one act ballet called Plymouth Town for the old Sadlers Wells Ballet but it was never used. It's quite atmospheric and could still prove of use. The BBC gave away a free CD of it with the Music Magazine a year or two ago, I'd never even heard of it before then and had been under the impression that Britten's only ballet was Prince of the Pagodas.

[Mel Johnson]

It seems to be still available, one way or another. Check the Amazon link.

[Ray]

After rehearsal we discussed briefly what music (symphonic, chamber, lieder) copuld be used forr a ballet. There were some insightful, and funny, suggestions, but the following two symphonies seem high on the priority list:

Schubert Symphony No. 5

Hayden Symphony No. 100 (Military)

I think Haydn would be tough for a choreographer, in my opinion. All of that exposition. Would hate to hear it as aural wallpaper for a "funny 18th-century manners" ballet.

[Ray]

Some randon pieces from the Western canon (mostly German) that get me thinking of movement:

Bruckner String Quintet

Mozart String Quartets

Schubert German Dances for piano (orch. Webern or played on pianoforte)

Music of Carl Maria von Weber

The "other" Shumann Piano Quartet (i.e., other than the one that Mark Morris used in V)

Mahler orch. of Schubert Death and the Maiden quartet

Schubert Octet (give the Mendelssohn a break!)

Beethoven trios

Petrouchka reconceived as abstract dance

There are some fabulous instrumentalists out there who are playing pieces on unorthodox instruments, such as Mozart's fabulously theatrical organ works played on accordian. Musicians, in my opinion, are far more creative in terms of working/playing with the past than choreographers are. Sorry, it's just something that I notice more and more with the passing of time: music concerts, even very small-scale ones, often give me more to think about--and impress me more with a high level of thoughtful presentation and preparation--than the biggest ballet production.

Also, would love choregraphers to show that they care HOW a particular piece sounds--played on original instruments? Old crackly recordings? Live? Arranged for other instruments? Not just grabbing the recording with the tempos that fit the steps (and then not crediting it in the program notes).

[papeetepatrick]

music concerts, even very small-scale ones, often give me more to think about--and impress me more with a high level of thoughtful presentation and preparation--than the biggest ballet production.

Also, would love choregraphers to show that they care HOW a particular piece sounds--played on original instruments? Old crackly recordings? Live? Arranged for other instruments? Not just grabbing the recording with the tempos that fit the steps (and then not crediting it in the program notes).

These are good ideas, I think. And made me think of Harry Partch and the concert I heard about 10 years ago with most of the original Partch instruments. Can't remember now the name of the guy who conducted and has control of these, but it was a full-time dedication. This sort of thing used to suggest modern dance more than ballet, but things seem to have changed enough so that many more kinds of music could be used. If people want to dance to Ives and Glass and call it ballet, then I would say anything could be considered.

As, for instance--Kylian's use of 'la cathedral Engloutie' is one of the most arresting uses of Debussy I've seen, with all those wind-sounds (whether the desert of 'immorality' I don't know, but than hadn't known that the cathedral had sunk because of all the Roman-style indulgence till I saw the silent-movie type intro-paragraph to this)--much more beautiful and mysterious than 'Six Antiques Epigraphes'. But this Kylian in particular was definitely more impressive to me than anything I've seen in almost any new one-act ballet works in the last 30 years. He has had some great dancers too, of course.

The Bartok Second Piano Concerto comes to mind as a possibility with that boisterous opening, but then there are obviously thousands of pieces.

[Looked up the guy who is custodian of the Partch instruments--Dean Drummond.]

[Ray]

The Bartok Second Piano Concerto comes to mind as a possibility with that boisterous opening, but then there are obviously thousands of pieces.

And yet, every year brings another Carmina Burana! This of course raises the issue of how young choreographers come to their music, and reminds us of the extraordinary nature of Balanchine's choices--I mean, where did he hear Faure's incidental music to Shylock? (Of course as a pianist, he could pick up scores and play them--tho' I wonder if he did as part of his "research" process.) Ironic that most everything is available on CD now and yet the range of choices choreographers (not only ballet ones) make seem very limited.

[papeetepatrick]

And yet, every year brings another Carmina Burana!

And OMG (as the MySpacers say), Carmina Burana was over for me the first time I heard it. Pianists like Balanchine and Aurelie Dupont are naturally going to have greater access to certain music than other dancers, although I don't know enough about her to know if she's a choreographer yet. She would know how to use the French repertoire, perhaps even things like 'Le Marteau sans Maitre', as she is one of the most musical of all dancers. I can see her knowing what to do with many of the Preludes and perhaps some of the Etudes even (of Debussy).

Anyway, 'research process' is not always a deliberate thing, you just run across things sometimes by happenstance. I picked up this VHS with the Kylian I mentioned above at the library, but had no idea that someone I had known quite well was in it till I was watching her all of a sudden. Things like that, random ways of discovery, but I definitely must reiterate that I think Kylian's use of 'Cathedral Engloutie' is one of the most fantastic moments of dance genius I've ever seen (HOW did he know to do this?), easily equalling almost anything I've seen of Balanchine--and light-years beyond everything i've seen of Peter Martins ballets, among most others. It's also just being curious to look through old scores, isn't it? Frankly. I was watching the Kylian just to be 'up on things', never having seen any, so to find this masterpiece all of a sudden with an old friend in it was totally unexpected. So I think method and process on some of these most-inspired things is often less important than just chance. Most artists talk about the 'craftsmanlike daily work of art', but that is because it is the only thing you can say: You can't say, well, I 'get inspiration', even though one does. The workaday persistence is, in fact, one of the things that unearths the 'inspiration', but the inspiration has a life of its own beyond the workaday, otherwise what's the point? just go to the office and do a little accounting.

I mean, what you say about 'discovering the incidental music of Shylock' is true, but how on earth did Menotti think to make an opera about a fake spiritualist, her daughter, and a mute Gypsy boy? That's inspiration as much as it is hard work.

Occurred to me that even 'Pelleas et Melisande' has at least 2 scenes in it that might be used for ballet--there is no reason these characters cannot both be sung and danced (by different performers, of course), and Debussy's opera is just made for the crepuscular world of Arkel, Pelleas, Golaud and Melisande.

[Ray]

[...] So I think method and process on some of these most-inspired things is often less important than just chance. Most artists talk about the 'craftsmanlike daily work of art', but that is because it is the only thing you can say: You can't say, well, I 'get inspiration', even though one does. The workaday persistence is, in fact, one of the things that unearths the 'inspiration', but the inspiration has a life of its own beyond the workaday, otherwise what's the point? just go to the office and do a little accounting. [...]

[Veering off-topic here] I agree that the role of chance cannot be overstated. Yet while I want to agree with you completely, papeetpatrick, it sometimes seems that it's precisely the craftsmanship dimension that's missing from in contemporary choreographers, especially ballet choreographers (who, actually, I hear speak more in public about "inspiration" b/c it makes more interesting copy). Puffing up music at the expense of dance, again, I think this is one area where composers and musicians for the most part (and I am generalizing, to be sure) have a leg up over choreographers and dancers--they seem to be able to merge rigorous process and "inspiration" more productively. And they are usually more articulate about it, too.

[drifting back on topic] Prokofiev wrote dozens of works, but every year brings another ROMEO--not that Mark Morris's choice doesn't sound interesting, but still...