 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: rmk54
Date: 2013-05-29 12:13
I'll be thinking of that as I am performing it tomorrow (and the next day, and the next day...)
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Author: rmk54
Date: 2013-05-29 17:50
According to Richard Taruskin, the riot was due to Nijinski's unorthodox choreography, not the music.
Monteux conducted a concert performance a few weeks later where it was warmly received.
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Author: davyd
Date: 2013-05-30 04:24
I wonder how many other pieces provoked riots at their first performances -- but since the pieces didn't become famous, no one remembers the riots.
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Author: Garth Libre
Date: 2013-05-30 10:04
When I was in Princeton Ballet in the late 70's, we had to perform it. It almost caused a riot among the dancers, because the thing is almost impossible to count. I resorted in some spots to counting up to something like 20 if I recall, and this is the way it was taught to the dancers originally too. I hated the feel on my body and how difficult and clumsy it felt. I was not alone. We performed it once and that was too much. No dancer should have to count to 20. Ballet music should either be in 2's, 3"s and 4"s because we don't have scores in front of us and all cues should be telegraphed and easy to hear without having to count maniacally in our heads.
Garth, 305-981-4705. garthlibre@yahoo.com
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Author: rmk54
Date: 2013-05-30 12:15
In Nijinski's original choreography, the dancers had to count to 100.
I suppose you also have a problem with the Danse Generale of Daphnis and Chloe, which is in 5/4.
Man up!
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Author: Garth Libre
Date: 2013-05-30 13:25
I masterd 5/4 when I was 14 years old and I fell in love with Dave Brubeck's take 5, which I would humm for hours while walking to school in NYC. Art Pepper had a piece called Las Cuevas de Maria which was also in 5/4. Counting to 100 is tough while dancing an my opinion is that the music is much more of a success than Nijinski's bizzare choreography. Dancing around flat footed might be accurate as to the way primitive people move but ballet has to be something more than accurately dipicting the way untrained people move.
Garth, 305-981-4705. garthlibre@yahoo.com
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2013-06-01 23:27
Garth- dancers should dance to the music, not to some count click-track in their head. That's what separates musical dancers from mechanical ones.
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Author: Garth Libre
Date: 2013-06-02 17:03
Dancers should dance to the music without thinking about counts or what step comes next. That's why for myself and everyone in the company who was forced to dance this crappy ballet, the choreography was garbage.
Garth, 305-981-4705. garthlibre@yahoo.com
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Author: rmk54
Date: 2013-06-02 17:07
Well, I guess we should all stop listening and attending ballet performances of Rite of Spring, then.
/waiting for the last word/
BTW, it's also the centennial of Pierrot Lunaire...
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2013-06-02 18:55
I love listening to the music. It looks challenging in an interesting and valuable way for the orchestra, too. However, a friend of mine who was a semi-pro classical ballet dancer for many years reacted to it the same way Garth Libre did. She said the soloists probably had fun with it, but if *that* audience had rioted (of course it didn't -- all very prim and proper), the chorus dancers probably would've joined in with glee!
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Garth Libre
Date: 2013-06-02 19:37
You don't train for more than a decade at the ballet barre, just so some choreographer can order you to lumber around the stage like a clumsy savage. Neither would I study clarinet for the same time so some composer would make me play a Bb garden hose.
Garth, 305-981-4705. garthlibre@yahoo.com
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Author: Garth Libre
Date: 2013-06-03 12:53
There is no great art without limitations of what you may not or should not do. When visual artists coat two turds in polyurethane and declare it art, you lose much of the value of painting or sculpture. When dancers roll around the floor like children tumbling down a hill, it is no longer the high art form of ballet. When musicians throw pots from a ladder on to a stage to make random sounds, it takes away the majesty of orchestral music. I don't wish to pass a law that artists can't do what strikes them as interesting, but I didn't want to particiapate Nijinski's crazed "ballet" either. My brother used to say there are musicians and there are "legitimate musicians". He was no snob, but when I see what gets a grammy nowadays or when I hear people say that John Trovolta was a great dancer, it kind of makes me ill.
Garth, 305-981-4705. garthlibre@yahoo.com
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Author: rmk54
Date: 2013-06-03 17:59
So you're equating John Travolta with Nijinsky???
Wow...
BTW, John Travolta *was* a great dancer, just not a ballet star.
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Author: davyd
Date: 2013-06-03 18:31
How does one learn their part in a work as complex as Le Sacre? By listening to recordings, studying the score, getting coaching from those who've played it, lots and lots of practice, etc. The old saw about 'standing on the shoulders of giants' applies.
But how did the original performers learn this work? Notes aside, how did the 1913 orchestra come to terms with the frequent meter changes? Nothing like it had ever been written before (at least nothing else that has become as well known).
I salute the memory of those long-gone musicians and the pioneering work they put into learning this monster of a piece with nothing to guide them.
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Author: rmk54
Date: 2013-06-03 19:48
O come on, it's not *that* difficult (I just played 4 performances).
I can think of works that require a lot more preparation: Mahler 6 (or 9), Miraculous Mandarin, Vaughan Williams 6, etc.
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Author: Garth Libre
Date: 2013-06-03 20:15
"John Travolta was a great dancer". I hope this was said in jest and I'm almost sure it was. People who have real challenges to face, like the people on this board who must learn the clarinet and then have established standards to compare themselves to, should know that Travolta had a world of special effects, cuts and edits, and creative direction to cover up his numerous difficiencies as a dancer. In the 1983 movie "Staying Alive" John played Tony Manero, who fought to take over a major dance role that had previously been held by a character played by Charles Ward. Charles was in his early 30's and suffering from the mid level symptoms of AIDS which soon killed him. Charles was also one of the greatest principal dancers that American Ballet Theater ever had. Even while facing the last year of his life, and wracked with pain, Charles could outdance Travolta in any of John's next dozen incarnations. Even when Mr. Ward was directed to look like an old worn out dancer who couldn't hack it, he still looked like what he was ... a great dancer facing some very bad days. Even given all the advantages, Travolta looked like a muscle bound, recently trimmed down, silly imitation of a dancer. To put it mildly ... he looked like Steve Allan wiggling his fingers and pretending to be Benny Goodman.
Garth, 305-981-4705. garthlibre@yahoo.com
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