Nureyev’s Siegfried solo in the White Swan pas de deux
Maybe I’ve just led a sheltered ballet life, but after 30+ years of playing for more rehearsals and casts of the white swan pas de deux from Swan Lake Act…
Tchaikovsky’s hairpins
The secret life of hairpins In The Secret Life of Musical Notation, Roberto Poli examines a number of notational conventions—hairpins, sforzandi, rinforzandi, pedals, stretti and rhythmic values—that have perplexed him…
More on the Nutcracker party galop
Thanks to Kathie Brobeck who commented on one of my favourite posts, about the origins of the children’s galop in “Tchaikovsky’s” Nutcracker, saying that Steamboat is a Scottish tune. I…
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…
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…
The mysterious case of the Lyrical Waltz
I’ve just had an email from a teacher, asking me what I understand by the term “Lyrical Waltz.” Short answer, I don’t understand anything by it, but the long answer…