If you had free reign to choreograph something, which music would you choose?

I’d choose Josef Suk’s Scherzo.

* Dave Brubreck's "Take Five"
* Mozart's 21st Piano Concerto, 1st movement

The Suk Scherzo Fantastique, Fendrock?

Been there, done that.

Twice actually! In 1995 I used it as a work for three couples, but that ballet has been supplanted by a female trio made in '99.

The music from the old DeBeers Diamond commercials

by Karl Jenkins.

Copland's Appalachian Spring.

Songs by Berlin, Porter and Rodgers (separate ballets).

I believe Appalachain Spring was originally written by Copland for Martha Graham.

The music from the old DeBeers Diamond commercials

by Karl Jenkins.


Calliope, I like this too--
Christopher d'Amboise just did a piece with this and it was very well received--

I'd like Mozart's Div. #11.....

I know about the Graham dance, citibob. I've even seen it. But that's modern dance, not ballet. I don't see any reason it can't be used again.

Yes, Leigh, that is the music to which I was referring.

Interesting that you reduced the number of dancers the second time around -- I'd make it with a corps of at least eight or so...maybe I'm thinking big because the music seems big?

It's huge music, isn't it Fendrock?

For what it's worth - here's the genesis of the second version. The first time around, I thought I had caught the sweep of the music, but missed some of its strangeness. My entry into the music is its denouement, that weird subject that enters at the end with almost no thematic warning. In 1999, I started with that point in mind and built to it; in '95 I felt like I never got there. Amusingly enough, although the first work had three couples and the second three women, there are actually the same number of people in both casts. ;) In '98 I had such hell with the male dancers I worked with that I decided in '99 to make a dance where the male partners in it were invisible. They gave us less trouble.

If you're curious to read more about this dance, go to "A Choreographer's Diary" on this site. The first 8-10 days describe the creation of this work.

I'd very much like to read the Diary, but have been unable to find it on my own.

Could you provide a link?

Thanks!

A Choreographer's Diary

The Faure Requiem-but it's already been done!

Hmm- this might be my fault by mentioning I had worked to the Suk, so apologies.

Just about very piece of music has been used already by someone, somewhere. About the only way to use a piece of music first is to commission it.

So if you would like to see a piece of music as a ballet, go ahead and mention it. Someone else will probably tell you of a ballet they saw to it, and that's OK, too, but it doesn't mean that's the ballet you wanted to see to that music!

Here's something a bit wild but truely I'd love to see a huge chorus with the dance telling a story to something like Honneger's King David.I've seen Carmina Burana with chorus and it stuck in my mind.For me the melding of ballet and a choir is joy!

I love Massenet's Thais-meditation (arr Madden) (originally I had written Faure Pavane..but I got confused for some reason). That would be so beautiful danced by a tall, willowy ballerina.

Has anyone ever used Karol Symanowsky's music? I'm thinking particularly of his "Myths" and "Masques," but there's also the "Chant du Roxanne" from his opera "King Roger" that was effectively transcribed for violin and piano.

I Always thought it would be nice to choregraph a dance to
Carol of the Bells.

I'd like to hear Mickey Hart's Udu Chant set with classical ballet. African rhythms with ballet.I thought of Lamberena with the mix of Bach and African drumming.

Hmmm... I wouldn't know where to begin, I come across so many pieces and find myself thinking "Now this would really be something..." If only I could choreograph. ;) (Guess I'll get round to that after I've learned to play the piano, and compose music too.)

How about Smetana's "Ma Vlast" (Moldau) for starters? Maybe someone's done it already, in which case I'd love to see it.

A.

the Debeers diamond commercial music was also choreographed by Thom Clower,for Alabama Dance Theatre.
It was beautiful, but a killer for the dancers. Ifelt so sorry for them.

Yes, the Moldau! How about Porgy and Bess! I'm getting carried away!

I was just listening to Holst's planets on the radio. That would be interesting to see as a ballet... Or how about Stravinsky's symphony for wind instruments (I'm not sure the exact name)?

Holst's Planets was used by David Bintley for the Royal Ballet about 10 or 12 years ago. It was an utter turkey!

I went to the first night and the curtain was delayed for nearly an hour because of problems with the elaborate set. It was one of the hottest nights of the year, the audience grew restless and the management made the magnanimous gesture of a free drink at the bar - unusual in itself at Covent Garden.

It really was terrible. I don't remember it too well but seem to recall the dancers skipping around a giant apple at one point. Only the dancing of the lovely Bryony Brind in one of the sections, proved a redeeming feature.

Antony Tudor also choreographed "The Planets", pre-1940, but only a couple of sections have so far been recovered.

The title of the Stravinsky is, if I recall correctly, "Symphonies on Wind Instruments". I used to play it during my trumpet days.

PK, Mikhail Lavrovsky, former soloist with Bolshoi, son of Leonid, has choreographed Porgy and Bess. It is not on a video for the public, but I have seen it on film. An interesting piece.;)

I just watched "Casablanca" yesterday with my daughter (her first time seeing it)... and was wondering if it might make a good ballet...? Either way, I'd love to see the song "As Time Goes By" used for a ballet.

Like BW, this reply was inspired by watching something on TV: Raymond Briggs' "The Snowman". The music is by Howard Blake. And it would give us a break from the usual "Nutcracker" at this time of year.

Gershwin's Preludes for Piano (there are three of them). Of course maybe they've been done and I'm just clueless. Also "Drive All Night" and "Racing in the Streets" by Bruce Springsteen. Am I excommunicated now?

Hmnn...has anything ever been done to Django Reinhardt? I'd like to see a "swinging" ballet.

Ballet Chicago did a work about a decade ago by Gordon Pierce Schmidt called "By Django".

Has anyone ever used the music of Philip Glass's Low Symphony for a ballet? In particular the middle section, Some Are, cries out to be danced to.

MommaJambe,
Blake's The Snowman has been staged by the Birmingham Rep, although it's not all about dance, it has some nice sequences. it's available on video but only in the PAL/SECAM format.

I'd like to see Mahler's Wunderhorn Symphonies, along with the 6th and 8th. Also his Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and Grieg's Peer Gynt.

Yes, Ma Vlast, but let's not limit ourselves to Vlavta (The Moldau). The whole piece has great promise as a ballet. The symphonic poem has 6 tones (or movements). Of course, I'm a huge fan of Bedrich Smetana, so I may be completely biased, but here's a rundown on the stories behind the 6 tones, each is 10-15 minutes in length.

Vysehrad, the opening piece, celebrates the ruined castle at Prague. The piece opens with the bard Lumir, playing his lyre, invoking the Muses at the present ruis of Vysehrad, then brings forth the past glory of the place with King Premsyl and Queen Libuse, the seer, who foresaw the greatness of Prague, and their court, and then returns to the present ruins and the sorrow there.

Vlavta (The Moldau), which is the merging of two brooks into the mighty Vlavta, which passes by a hunting party, a wedding party, the nighttime nymphs, bubbling rapids and finally flows majestically past Vysehrad and then joins the sea.

Sarka is the story of an Amazon maiden betrayed by her lover, who lures the faithless lover and his soldiers into the woods, lulls them to sleep and then has her maiden troops come and slaughter them all.

"Z cesýkch luhu a háju" (From Bohemia's Meadows and Fields) is a pastoral scene, a summer's day with shepherds and snatches of country dances in a much-needed respite from the violence of Sarka.

Tábor is the story of Hussites, who religious zealots in the 14th century who defended their stronghold to the death.

Blaník is a mountain where, legend has it, the Hussites from Tábor will sleep until they are needed to defend their people. There is pasture on this site at the time of composition, with shepherds, but an certain tension. The knights emerge with a new hymn to triumph and restore peace. The bard Lumir returns with his lyre to show his approval and a brief march confirms Queen Libuse's vision of a vibrant, beautiful future for Prague.

Total run time 75 minutes, not counting scene changes and intermission. I adore this piece of music and can see these parts (Lumir, Libuse, Sarka, the merging streams as a lovely couple guiding us through Vlavta, the hunting party, the nymphs, the Hussites) being danced. Sadly, I lack the funds to commission a ballet on my own. Any takers?

Me, me, me!

Ma Vlast is beautiful music, full of kinetic impulse. Seems you've given a good deal of thought to your ballet, more than some choreographers whose work I've seen in recent years.

Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 2, 'The Age of Anxiety', with the Auden poem-events as annotated by Bernstein on the album, would be a marvelous dance, modern or ballet--and one of the best story-dances that has occurred to me in a long time.

It already is, or rather, has been. The Robbins setting dates from 1950, but is now probably among the lost.

Was it the entire piece? with all the characters in the 3rd Avenue bar? Did you see it? I'm very interested and didn't know about this. Thanks!

Thanks, dbplanpro, for reviving this thread.

I love the Smetana piece but am having difficulty imagining how it would be presented and (to be frank) how audience interest would be sustained over that amount of time.

Would you approach each section literally? There seems to be a musical unity -- or at least connectedness -- throughout the piece. Would there be something in the choreography to link the parts, or would each stand alone? Please tell us more.

And me! I've been choreographing The Moldau in my head for years, with scenic and lighting designs, and some costumes too, and recently, have started considering the other sections of Ma Vlast. (Unfortunately, without being as knowledgeable about the backstories.) Also unfortunately: No funds to do it, but who knows, maybe I can interest some smaller company some day to consider it.

I'm afraid that this ballet is one from before my time as a viewer. It is, however, described in the first of the Balanchine "Stories of the Great Ballets", my copy of which is not readily coming to hand. In my book, any Robbins/Bernstein collaboration that is out of rep is a really serious loss.

Don't I agree--I'm sure it was worthwhile, and the Bernstein piece is one of the masterpieces of the mid-century American repertoire. And it sounds like it may have gone out of rep very quickly as well from what googling I did last night. If people just listened to this one piece, they'd know what a great composer Bernstein was, not just for his show music--Lukas Foss's piano (and 'pianino') playing are stunning on the old recording. Will try to find the book. Thanks, Mel.

I would love to see a ballet to the soundtrack from There Will be Blood. :-)

*Respighi's "Pines of Rome"
*Elgar's "Nimord" (from "Enigma Variations")
*Saint-Saens' "Danse Macabre"

Elgar's "Enigma Variations" have, of course, already been done by Ashton for the Royal Ballet. I also remember seeing a version (mid-late '70's) by a regional US company that also used the entire Enigma Variations to tell a story rather similar to Tudor's "Jardin aux Lilas". The Nimrod variation of that version was a very beautiful pdd between the male protagonist and the "other woman", or in this case "other girl". The male protagonist did reconcile with his wife at the end, but don't remember offhand which variation was used for that scene.

Ma Vlast for me, too! Everytime I hear it I picture a (Balanchine-style) ballet.

My copy of Complete Stories is right next to my computer. Here is what it says:

Age of Anxiety
Dramatic ballet in six scenes.
First presented at the City Center, New York, February 26, 1950, with Tanaquil LeClercq, Francisco Moncion, Todd Bolender, and Jerome Robbins in the principal roles.



The entry goes on to describe each of the six scenes in detail.

Thanks, Marga. It turns out NYPL has all the editions, so I have ordered the 1954 one. I'm sure it will have a lot of other great things in it, and I don't know how I've missed it this long. Why this piece and the ballet based on it have found little popularity is somewhat understandable, but not entirely. It may be the subject matter, but the music is certainly accessible to anyone who has liked Sessions, Harris, Copland, Wm. Schuman, Barber, Hindemith, etc. It's almost a piano concerto, but still not quite even though it's full of virtuous-piano writing and the piano is definitely as prominent much of the time just as with a concert, but it remains a symphony. I'd like to play it in public myself, and did work on it some in 2004. Somehow I became familiar with it at a very young age. It's Bernstein's New York, and I imagine Robbins only enhanced this poetic vision.

There's a connected sense of 'patromoine' throughout the piece. I'm merely a ballet patron and a music fan, though, not a choreographer and definitely not a dancer. So how these things work and whether ballet audiences would pay to see a full-length ballet based on a piece of music where only one movement is really well-known is another story.

I'm disappointed in my fellow audience members who seem to only want to see things they have heard of or seen before. The Cincinnati Opera has even started doing weeknight productions at 7:30 p.m., which is fantastic if you are retired, but difficult if you have steady employment and have to get home, get changed, get fed and get to the production. The sight of a well-dressed couple RUNNING across the street and heaving a fast-food bag into a dumpster on their way towards the entrance is not what you want to see...

The original cast of 'The Age of Anxiety', Robbins's ballet to Bernstein's wonderful 2nd Symphony based on the Auden poem was Tanaquil LeClercq, Francisco Moncion, Todd Bolender, and Jerome Robbins. The synopsis in the earliest Balanchine 'Stories of the Great Ballets' has much that is fascinating and it was very well-received. All the more bewildering that it has been left to moulder. As in the poem, we have the 7 Ages and the 7 Stages. For example, "the sixth age shows us a reaction to this superhuman condition--disillusionment, a brief effort to rise above it, a danced argument as to which is better: to give in to the determinism of the city or to fight against it fearlessly. The four strangers spklit into two groups and take these differing points of view." In the 7 Stages there is 'The Masque': "The exhausted girl falls against one of the boys. There is silence for a moment. Then carefree music blazes out. The music simulates jazz, and the four characters cavort about the scene forgetting their problem in playful versions of jive. But soon their vigorous efforts to be cheerful begin to pall. One of them stops dancing and stomps in raging despair: it is the kind of protest of the half-intoxicated, the man who knew that drink would solve nothing at all. The girl curls up on the ground."

Bernstein said of his piece "If the charge of theatricality in a symphonic work is a valid one, I am willing to plead guilty. I had a deep suspicion that every work I write, for whatever medium is really theatre music in some way."

Robbins, in pointing out the differences his ballet has from the poem and symphony: "It is a ritual in which four people exercise their illusions in their search for security. It is an attempt to see what life is about."

John Martin said "If you are interested in seeing one of the most sensitive and deeply creative talents in the choreographic field at work, and tackling his most profound and provocative assignment with uncompromising vision, you will find the piece completely fascinating".

Margaret Lloyd said: "because it reflects the tensions of our time, Age of Anxiety is a great and gripping ballet.

Melissa Hayden, Nora Kaye, Hugh Laing, and Roy Tobias also appeared in these roles.

The sounds of all these comments do sound different from anything we hear nowadays, and remind one of the kinds of lively-art goers of the sixties, and particularly the kind of theater reviews we used to read in various New York publications in particular. While there is a 'period feel' about all these quotes I've put, the piece is obviously as pertinent and timely as ever, but I can very clearly see that the kind of ferment which would continue to support this kind of piece is probably long gone. It must have been extraordinary to be at the first performance, and I wish I could imagine the sets a bit better than I can. The original poem is set in a 3rd Avenue bar, and the ballet in 'a public place in any part of a large modern city".

I find this whole entry very touching and a bit melancholy. What surprised me was that it had been as successful in its critical reception, since few mention it anymore. While I'd like to see it revived, I do have a hard time imagining that it will be.

I made a separate post for this, on the off-chance someone reading about this will have seen it, can remember it, and tell us about it.

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...mp;#entry240029