Jonathan Still, ballet pianist

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Jonathan Still, ballet pianist

Jonathan Still, ballet pianist

  • Home
  • Writings
  • A Year of Ballet Playing Cards
  • About me
    • Transcription services
  • Contact
  • Tamara Karsavina on music

  • On-screen commentary from pianist Joshua Piper during YouTube ballet class

  • Tchaikovsky’s hairpins

  • Ballet pianists on film

  • “They would have…” — Coppélia, Scotch snaps and class (the social kind)

  • Diamond fairy variation: new piano arrangement

Latest Articles

  • Dance LegendsMusic

    Madge Gillings and Mrs Bagot Stack on record

    By Jonathan Still
    January 26, 2021 7:16 pm
    The Women's League of Health and Beauty Exercises—music from the early 1930s, and a beautiful documentary, all online.
    Read More
  • DanceMusic

    Which was the first ballet to be rehearsed to piano?

    By Jonathan Still
    December 11, 2020 1:53 pm
    It's hard to find out when people first rehearsed ballet with piano rather than violin. An article from 1963 might have the answer.
    Read More
  • IT

    OCR errors and ballet

    By Jonathan Still
    December 2, 2020 11:35 am
    Optical character recognition (OCR) errors in pdfs can cause some pretty fundamental problems of understanding. Here's one from ballet.
    Read More
  • Music

    Brahms, Tchaikovsky and the polysemic hairpin

    By Jonathan Still
    November 24, 2020 6:41 pm
    Following on from an earlier post about Tchaikovsky's hairpins, today I learned about the Brahmsian hairpin too.
    Read More
  • MusicMusicologyPlaying for ballet class

    More background on the party scene song in The Nutcracker

    By Jonathan Still
    November 2, 2020 7:58 pm
    Since writing about Bon Voyage Cher Dumollet nine years ago, I've found out a lot more. Here are some sources.
    Read More
  • Plaster drying on a wall.
    DanceDance LegendsPeople

    Kostrovitskaya’s career as a plasterer

    By Jonathan Still
    October 9, 2020 5:50 pm
    In these days when artists are insulted by the idea of having to retrain as something else, let's take a moment to remember Vera ...
    Read More
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Welcome

Welcome to my site. I’m a pianist for ballet, a researcher, slightly obsessed with IT some of the time.

I’ve had this blog for 17 years. The further back you go, the more pointless and random the posts become, so I don’t recommend it. More lately, I’ve focused more on the work of making music for ballet.

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More ballet musicians

  • Andrew Holdsworth Music
  • Andy Higgs Music
  • Ballet Music (in Russian)
  • Christopher Hobson (balletpiano)
  • Ho Wen Yang
  • Karen McIver's "The Art of Class"
  • Karen McIver's "The Art of Class" YouTube channel
  • Nicki Williamson
  • Pioggia di note
  • Rudy Apffel CDs
  • Rudy Apffel's Czerny for Ballet Class
  • The Ballet Piano Podcast

Shopping

  • All my CDs (except for #2)
  • Biblio.co.uk
  • Hive Books
  • My Amazon Wishlist

The Other Jonathan Still

  • The other Jonathan Still

Tune searching

  • Global Chant Database
  • Hymnary
  • Midomi
  • Musipedia
  • Peachnote

A year of playing cards: latest

  • A Year of Ballet Playing CardsPlaying for ballet class

    A year of ballet playing cards #39 (KC): “Spanish waltz” medley

    What is a Spanish waltz? Is there such a thing? No, but here is one all the same, in case you're asked.
  • A Year of Ballet Playing CardsPlaying for ballet class

    A year of ballet playing cards #54 (Red Joker): Odalisques from Le Corsaire

    Download Odalisques piano score (free PDF) Read  more about my Year of Ballet Playing Cards It’s that time of year again, ballet summer schools season, when teachers are supposed to tell ...
  • A Year of Ballet Playing CardsPlaying for ballet class

    A year of ballet playing cards #38 (QC): Prague Waltzes: Soft, strong and very long.

    Download piano sheet music for Prague Waltzes by Dvořak (free pdf) Read  more about my Year of Ballet Playing Cards When is a waltz not “a waltz”? Most of the time  ...
  • A Year of Ballet Playing CardsFree sheet music for ballet classMusicPlaying for ballet class

    A year of ballet playing cards #37: A grand polonaise by Nápravník

    Download the Polonaise by Nápravník  (free pdf) Read  more about my Year of Ballet Playing Cards You’d think that if ballet teachers have a mental model of how a polonaise goes, ...
  • A Year of Ballet Playing CardsFree sheet music for ballet classPlaying for ballet class

    A year of playing cards #23: A fruity waltz by Tcherepnin / Cherepnin (10h)

    Download Grande valse by Cherepnin—free pdf Read  more about my Year of Ballet Playing Cards What a difference an e makes: the difference between a grand waltz and a grande valse ...
  • A Year of Ballet Playing CardsFree sheet music for ballet classPlaying for ballet class

    A year of playing cards #5: An operatic adage by Dvořák

    Download the score of “Song to the Moon” (pdf) Read more about my Year of Ballet Playing Cards The curse of the operatic adage  I think I only have about three ...
  • A Year of Ballet Playing CardsFree sheet music for ballet classPlaying for ballet class

    A year of ballet playing cards #36: A triple meter ballad by Tárrega

    Download the free piano score of this Tárrega piece  (pdf) Read more about my Year of Ballet Playing Cards A Tárrega ballad, the perfect plié music? When I say “perfect” what ...
  • A Year of Ballet Playing CardsFree sheet music for ballet classPlaying for ballet class

    A year of ballet playing cards #50: A chameleon-like march by Granados (DJ)

    Download the score  of the Military March by Granados  (pdf, free)  Read  more about my Year of Ballet Playing Cards The march that isn’t a march: one of the perennial problems of music ...
  • A Year of Ballet Playing CardsFree sheet music for ballet classPlaying for ballet class

    A year of ballet playing cards #35: A mazurka by Hubay

    Download piano score of Hubay’s mazurka (free pdf)  Read  more about my Year of Ballet Playing Cards Slow, mazurka-like exercises from the corner for multiple pirouettes are a staple of all the company ...
  • A Year of Ballet Playing CardsFree sheet music for ballet classPlaying for ballet class

    A year of ballet playing cards #53 (Black Joker): Reel from La Sylphide

    There's nothing like the reel from La Sylphide to perk up little jumps in a ballet class. Here's the piano score, nicely typeset.
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