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…
Black Swan, the design of everyday things, and the extended mind
I’ve been very nervous of trying out the orchestral reduction I made in January 2015 of the Black Swan female variation for real-life principals in companies in case I became…
Tia DeNora, affordances, and more on the lyrical waltz
In a previous post about the so-called “lyrical waltz” (a term sometimes used by some ballet teachers) I took a long time to come to the conclusion that perhaps “lyrical”…
“They would have…” — Coppélia, Scotch snaps and class (the social kind)
The Scotch Snap goes to Poland My recent discovery that one of the interpolations in Coppélia for Franz’s variation is from a “Scottish” ballet (Gretna Green, by Guiraud) encouraged me…
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…