Brahms, Tchaikovsky and the polysemic hairpin
Following on from an earlier post about Tchaikovsky's hairpins, today I learned about the Brahmsian hairpin too.
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 19th century quadrille generator
I remember inwardly eye-rolling when I heard a teacher many years ago claim excitedly that her pianist “never played the same thing twice.” Call me cynical, but if you’re a…
Little Humpbacked Horse thesis online
Great to read Aaron Manela’s masters thesis “Arthur Saint-Léon’s The Little Humpbacked Horse in Context,” which is available online. Here’s the abstract: In this study I examine representations of antisemitism, fantasy,…
Sources for the “Esmeralda” pas de deux
One of the oddities about the ballet repertoire is that the more famous and frequently performed the piece, the more tricky its musical history, like the “Black Swan” Pas de…
Do marches really have to have dotted rhythms?
Nice to see an article about marching music, one of the weird, esoteric topics that perplex ballet pianists like me: a 2018 conference paper byNiels Hansen, Nicholas Shea & David…