Chout-ed and booted
Another cautionary tale for choreographers: Alexey Miroshnichenko’s new (kind of )work for NYCB The Lady with the Little Dog is onto its second score (this time around, by Rodion Shchedrin)…
Jumping in Red Shoes
Searching for an online script of The Red Shoes I came across this great page which has all kinds of interesting details about the making of the film. One thing…
Florence Nightingale and the dangers of piano music
There’s a heartening story from the BBC today about how the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery at King’s College, London has been able to hire a composer-in-residence. The…
Musical surprises #22: There’s a psychopomp in my barcarole
Next time you get to a slow bit of a ballet where there’s something a bit wafty and barcarole-ish in 6/8, look out for a psychopomp. A psychopomp, explains the…
Musical surprises #21: If you want to play for children’s ballet, study semiotics
Thanks to the musical semiotician Raymond Monelle and his wonderful book The Sense of Music, I am happily aware that there is a concept in music of a horse which…
Musical surprises #20: The end of Sleeping Beauty is a French song
That’s not the whole surprise, because it’s a fairly well-known fact that the big tune in the apotheosis of The Sleeping Beauty is an old French song, the pre-revolutionary national…