The rarity of truly triple metre
If you’ve been following this blog recently, you know that I’m a little obsessed with time signature and metre in the 18th & 19th centuries (see Compound errors and Counting…
Yet another French song in The Nutcracker
I don’t know how I could have left this out of my ‘borrowings in the Nutcracker’ posts. The opening tune of Mère Gigogne is the French nursery rhyme Giroflé girofla.…
100 (or rather 32) tips for working with ballet pianists
Seven years ago, inspired by several books with a title like ‘200 tips for teachers’, I thought I’d do a series of posts in the category ‘100 tips for working…
Music for ballet class, circa 1921
Kosloff's "Russian Ballet Technique, as Taught", published in 1921, contains a one-page guide to matching appropriate music to exercises in a typical ballet class of the day. For teachers and…
Playing for ballet class: a page of tips
In December 2012 I posted daily articles about what I've learned about playing for ballet classes over the last 25 years or so. This is a page of links to…
Happy new year: Auld lang syne for your first class of 2014
To download the song, either right-click (Mac: ctrl+click) the player above and select ‘save audio as’, or right-click (Mac: ctrl+click) this link and select ‘save link as‘. I couldn’t resist…