Musical surprises #18: 5/4 isn’t that odd in the 19th century
There’s a fairly common belief that until Stravinsky came along, everything was either in 4/4 or 3/4. When I was at school in the 70s, I remember one music lesson…
Musical surprises #16: The skating in Les Patineurs is nothing new
I wasn’t going to post this since I thought it was no longer surprising, but then I overheard an announcer on Radio 3 only this morning give full credit to…
Musical surprises #13: The male variation in Sugar Plum was originally in C minor
Tchaikovsky has a reputation for bringing high production values to the composition of ballet scores by conceiving them architecturally and symphonically. But in practice, he’s as likely to borrow, copy…
Musical surprises #6: The ‘Theme slave’ in Coppélia is not by Delibes
Friends from Coppélia: a borrowing from Moniuszko Friends from Coppélia, the set of dances in Act 1, usually danced to the Thème Slave varié, is not by Delibes at all.…
Musical surprises #4: There’s a cuckoo in the Nutcracker
Well, a toy one anyway. If you look at the instrumentation for The Nutcracker over at www.tchaikovsky-research.org (possibly the best resource about any composer on the web), you’ll see that…
Musical suprises #3: Tico-Tico is not a rumba
If you’re thinking ‘I never thought Tico Tico was a rhumba’, then don’t read on. But in the rather strange world I work in, it’s very common for dance teachers…