Skating music you can't stand | Page 3 | Golden Skate

Skating music you can't stand

Joined
Aug 16, 2009
To me this is two questions. Are there pieces that we're sick of because they've been used and used and used, and are there pieces we just don't like. Scheherazade is a favorite piece of mine, but I think it's been done to death by skaters, for example, and I also wish that choreographers would use other Rachmaninoff pieces besides the Second Concerto although it's something I love. Likewise I continue to love Swan Lake, Carmen, and many of the other warhorses, but I too would like to see a moratorium declared on them.

On the other hand, I disliked Otonal (or as I called it to myself, Atonal) the moment I heard it, although I liked Maria B's program that she skated to it. Part of the problem was that the recording she used was a bit distorted and off-key. And, as Doris points out, it's so dirgelike.

The Rachmaninoff Prelude in C sharp minor (Mao's Bells of Moscow) is my least favorite piece by one of my favorite composers. It's a dirge to the nth degree. Even Rachmaninoff got sick of it, and he was always asked to play it at recitals.

I agree that Minkus's Don Quixote is on the insipid side, though for John Curry it was a heavenly piece, and he made it look like diamonds.

There are a lot of pop music standards that I dislike, usually slow and sung by blaring voices, including Whitney Houston's song about "The Greatest Love" (or somesuch), which seems to be delivered on just two notes. She had one of the great voices of our time, but some of her songs had no structure whatever. A lot of Andrew Lloyd Webber stuff and Les Mis stuff can end up sounding overwrought too, but there are other songs by these composers that are charming (and are not used nearly enough). One wonderful song by Lloyd Webber is "Seeing Is Believing" from a lesser known musical, Aspects of Love. Maybe for an exhibition piece....
Seeing Is Believing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyM9Hj_uukc

I have no problem with Vivaldi, and I love tango and Brubeck's Take Five, so those I can't agree with, but they need to be done right. Not every skater is a great interpreter.

As for Bond, I hate to vote against it because I love John Barry so much, and there's lots of Bond music. Look how Gordeyeva interpreted (appropriately) From Russia with Love with Valeri Bure in Battle of the Blades and tell me you never want to see something like this again. As Christopher Dean says in his critique, "Shaken, stirred, and still standing." It's short because it's for a competition piece with a non-figure skater, but I think it's relevant to our discussion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWl47OkisCA
 

surimi

Onward and forward, Sota!
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2013
Anything that's temporarily or continually overused/trending starts to get on my nerves. A few years ago it was Memory, Don't Cry for Me Argentina, Liebestraum and La Vie En Rose, now it's the Phantom of the Opera. My Fair Lady gets close except for when Davis & White are skating to it. ;) I haven't got tired of Swan Lakes and Carmens yet though; as far as I am concerned, keep them coming. I love watching the individual takes on them.

The only thing that annoys me are rehashes of pop songs- not just in skating but in general.
 

Peach

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 30, 2013
I'm very sick of Carmen and would be happy if I never had to listen to it again.

Wailing Christina Aguilera... ;) (I'm looking at you, Sotnikova!)

LOL you read my mind. I'm sick of Carmen and I literally could not watch Sotnikova's performance with my speaker on.
 

RobinA

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 4, 2010
Almost any music from a movie soundtrack, with double emphasis on anything Bond. Booorrring. Almost anything rock watered down for competition. Look, I'm a huge hard rock fan, but there is a time and a place, and the ice rink is neither. Generic female ballads, which I don't like on or off the ice. I'm sick of Spanish stuff, but if everybody stopped doing it I could probably like it again in about five years.

Other than that I'm good. I don't mind swans, but firebirds must be good cuts. I also don't think that just because you are doing certain music you have to dress that part. Sleeping Beauty music stands on its own and doesn't require a cute pink costume. Not that I have anything against cute pink costumes, but I think the cliche costumes to certain music (I'm looking at you, feathers) is part of what annoys people about that music. Is there some LAW that requires Phantom of the Opera (music I love) costumes to be black and white?
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
LOL you read my mind. I'm sick of Carmen and I literally could not watch Sotnikova's performance with my speaker on.

Part of the problem is that most young skaters can't really summon up the forcefulness or charisma to evoke this music. I'm not saying that everyone who skates to Carmen has to portray the character of Carmen, but it would be nice if the skater could portray the essence of the music itself, which is intense and commanding. A pout and hands on the hips will not do it.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Part of the problem is that most young skaters can't really summon up the forcefulness or charisma to evoke this music. I'm not saying that everyone who skates to Carmen has to portray the character of Carmen, but it would be nice if the skater could portray the essence of the music itself, which is intense and commanding. A pout and hands on the hips will not do it.

Evan got the intensity.
 

blue dog

Trixie Schuba's biggest fan!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 16, 2006
The sad thing about skating music you can't stand is...it will always be around, not because the skaters really choose it, but because of the new system. There are only so many pieces of music that can be used for skating effectively.

Edited to add: One piece I wish more skaters would use is the String Quartet #2 by Borodin. Josee Chouinard used it in 1996 when she returned to amateur competition. A lot of people have used the beginning music in the program (Polovetsian dances), but rarely do we hear String Quartet #2:

http://youtu.be/MxIndK3URY8
 
Last edited:
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Evan got the intensity.

Evan is older, and I think that helped him. Also, he had Lori Nichol giving him pointers. But when the little ones come out and attempt to smolder, it generally falls flat.

(And then there's the matter of Boitano, Witt, and Orser...but I know it's cheating to bring them up, because that was a fully dramatized performance. However, it's the one that spoiled me for many future interpretations.)
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Evan is older, and I think that helped him. Also, he had Lori Nichol giving him pointers. But when the little ones come out and attempt to smolder, it generally falls flat.

I don't know that 21 (he debuted the program in 2006) is that much older than a teen girl trying to skate to it... ;) but he definitely had fire in that program
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
The sad thing about skating music you can't stand is...it will always be around, not because the skaters really choose it, but because of the new system. There are only so many pieces of music that can be used for skating effectively.

Edited to add: One piece I wish more skaters would use is the String Quartet #2 by Borodin. Josee Chouinard used it in 1996 when she returned to amateur competition. A lot of people have used the beginning music in the program (Polovetsian dances), but rarely do we hear String Quartet #2:

http://youtu.be/MxIndK3URY8

I love love love the Borodin quartet! Possibly the most sublime piece of chamber music ever to have come out of Russia. Every movement is gorgeous, and that third movement is one of the jewels of all music. It would indeed be splendid to see that piece used somehow, even if just as an exhibition program.
 

BlackPack

Medalist
Joined
Mar 20, 2013
I do get tired by overused music, but what tires me more is the poor and inadequate interpretation of the music. Some skaters just skate through the most powerful and emotional moments of a musical piece with no lyrical acknowledgement at all. D&W is a good example of skating to overused music, but they do it brilliantly, so I have no problems with that.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Or, for that matter, V&M skating to Carmen, and even C&L skating another interpretation of Carmen in the same final flight of ice dance.

War horses are war horses for a reason. They can carry you when you're in the midst of battle ;)
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
I do get tired by overused music, but what tires me more is the poor and inadequate interpretation of the music. Some skaters just skate through the most powerful and emotional moments of a musical piece with no lyrical acknowledgement at all. D&W is a good example of skating to overused music, but they do it brilliantly, so I have no problems with that.

That's it in a nutshell. Especially these days, when so many skaters just mark off the checklist of necessary elements, it's easy to leach a piece of music of its meaning and its emotional impact.
 

qwertyskates

Medalist
Joined
Nov 12, 2013
I wish skaters would be rewarded for creative music and choreography, I particularly like Radionova's SP 5th Element and Gold's SP this season.
 

KKonas

Medalist
Joined
Oct 31, 2009
Overused Music I Want Retired
Spartacus, J C Superstar, Requiem For a Dream, Otonal, Carmen, Malaguena, The Feeling Begins, Four Seasons by anyone, and Swan Lake.
This season the music I especially cannot tolerate is Chock & Bates vocal Les Miz, and Weaver & Poje’s FD vocal tango music (and I like tangos).
 

lady_bee

Medalist
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
I never liked "Blues for Klook," (although it worked for Daisuke), so that would be on my list.

Don’t worry! I don't think no one but Daisuke wants to use that music:laugh:.

Anyway, as like many of you mentioned, Carmen is one the top of my list.
I thought I didn’t like swan either, especially “swan lake”; then I’ve changed my mind.
I like Japanese swans;
Daisuke : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YCuZottNEc
Yuzuru : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYttzwI8nhQ
Mao : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSBzvkeiIXI

(but I admit that watching three swans in a row is too much:rolleye:)
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Overused Music I Want Retired
Spartacus, J C Superstar, Requiem For a Dream, Otonal, Carmen, Malaguena, The Feeling Begins, Four Seasons by anyone, and Swan Lake.
This season the music I especially cannot tolerate is Chock & Bates vocal Les Miz, and Weaver & Poje’s FD vocal tango music (and I like tangos).

Yes, all that stuff about repeating over and over that she is Maria, and from Buenos Aires, is a bit much - but Kaitlyn & Andrew do do a grand job of skating to it. And I really love :love: their 42nd street SD.
 
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