Music in Free Dances

[Bennett]

Surprisingly this was the only program that I was able to find on youtube, my primary source for figureskating, yet another CHOPIN...

Pernelle Carron and Matthieu Jost (France) - 2008 Europeans FD - Chopin Nocturne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfnphn9BBtk

I didn't know about this team until today... and I am really enjoying their skating. This is the fun part of visiting the goldenskate forum

Their Chopin was an arrangement of Cello+Piano and Jazz.
So far, I prefer their arrangement over Asada and Belbin/Agosto.

Among all the Chopin pieces you introduced, I like this the best. It's not only lyrical but also interesting because of the jazz variation.

I thought Alexander Uspenski (2007 EX - Etude Op.10-12 "Revolutionary") such a Chopin type of skater. His looks (the hairstyle, and the slim body) is just like the composer. He is really good at conveying the passion and darkness in this music. I could think of many skating and dance coaches who would be greatly fond of him. He has some atmosphere.

Mao's Chopin is so peaceful and lovely. It's the opposite image from Alexander's. She is very airy and smooth. It's such an angelic, heavenly performance. The fluffy baby-pink costume is perfect for this music.

 

[jyshin]

Among all the Chopin pieces you introduced, I like this the best. It's not only lyrical but also interesting because of the jazz variation.

I am coming back for this... wait... wait... and don't tell

 

[hockeyfan228]

In figure skating... I think Kurt Browing and Ilia Kulik are the only ones who can skate to that kind of improv... someone else? PLEASE

Tomas Verner (Worlds 2008 Django Reinhardt)

Jeffrey Buttle (2006 Canadian Nats, "Sing Sing Sing").

 

[jyshin]

Tomas Verner (Worlds 2008 Django Reinhardt)

Jeffrey Buttle (2006 Canadian Nats, "Sing Sing Sing").

Amazing to be able to see such rhythmic versatility...
Fresh, fun, crisp, complicated, powerful...yet... it flows seamlessly... oh, boy... they are in their zone...

Brilliant!!!

p.s.
...for Jeffrey, especially, even tiny slips and wobbly landings are musical to watch!

 

[Bennett]

I was wondering about this...
I found that Takahashi's "Romeo and Juliet" was edited to count the jumps conveniently in some places.

For instance, the opening triple toe loop, he gained momentum through the string tremolo into the ascending line of the trombones. Then the eight-note trombone line prepared him to jump like this: "One-2-3-4 Two-2-3-4 JUMP"!

My little discovery from Takahashi's program brought my attention to, Lambiel's Vivaldi program from 2006 where his choreographic design was a little more sophisticated.

In the opening, his movement pattern leading into the triple axel follows the harmonic progression lead by the basso continuo’s i-V-i.

The flowing violin line gives him eight long beats (= Takahashi) to gain momentum while the rhythmic pattern of the violin slows down to triplets. His jump preparation begins as the violin triplet notes begin to reiterate a single pitch while the harmony intensifies. Lambiel's preparation goes... "One-2-3-4-prep-JUMP-land-release" (each beat has three notes)....The preparation and the completion of the quad is seamlessly fit into the i-V-i progression.

Wow good catch! It seems that editing music to count the jumps is really worth doing. I heard elsewhere that Mao had trouble with some combination jump and needed to stop listening to that music for a moment and just focus on her jump so that she wouldn't mess up the usual count in her jump. Mao has been trained in ballet and jazz dance since 3 yrs old so that it might be she naturally could not help syncronizing with the music.

 

[jyshin]

Percussion instruments: Part 1 - Xenakis

I am not sure how much of percussion music without melody is allowed in competitions these days. However, I thought I would go ahead and introduce some of the works for percussion instruments by Iannis Xenakis, a Greek composer/mathematician/architect.
(www.iannis-xenakis.org/english/)

My first encounter with Xenakis was at one of my friend's doctoral percussion recital. I am not going to say a lot about my jaw dropping experience... you can watch the clips and decide what to do about it. (BTW, the percussionists in the clip didn't play the solo piece for Timpani that my friend did...)

Rebonds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziQjykdLDVU

Psappha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yge7GNl5p_k&feature=related

 

[jyshin]

Percussion instruments: Part 2 - Korean percussion quartet

I have been debating if I should put this post with 'East meets West,' since the improvisatory style of Korean percussion quartets could easily cross over to the style of jazz .

The first clip that I picked is called "Samulnori", meaning four instruments' play. The dynamic percussion quartet is supposed to perform an acrobatic dance using the ribbons on top their hat, while playing the drums and gongs. Their music is improvised according to certain rhythmic patterns in variety of speed while gradually building a climax to the frenzy finale.

Samulnori
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RenPphQBsMw&feature=related


The second clip is a modern percussion quartet called "Kong-Myung-Yoo-Hee," meaning Kong-Myung(name of the composer) having a blast.
This team uses anything that vibrate. They create their own instruments. In the following clip, they employed eight different kinds of bamboo pipes, each varying in length, diameter, surface coating(paint?), etc. Human voice is used for playful interaction with the bamboo beats. Simple broken chords and scales are inserted in unexpected places.
They are young and hip.

Bamboo Quartet: YES!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCZ1nXjn6So

I especially love the Bamboo Quartet for their carefree easy-going-ness despite of the obviously meticulous preparation. The kind of character that I would like to have as an artist one day. Someone with a sense of humor and innovative mind should be able to pull off a cool program on the ice with their music.

 

[Skye]

Wow good catch! It seems that editing music to count the jumps is really worth doing. I heard elsewhere that Mao had trouble with some combination jump and needed to stop listening to that music for a moment and just focus on her jump so that she wouldn't mess up the usual count in her jump. Mao has been trained in ballet and jazz dance since 3 yrs old so that it might be she naturally could not help syncronizing with the music.

Thank you Bennett for that information. Now I know why Mao's interpretation of music suffers as the difficulty of her jump content goes up. When she debuted her free skate at Skate Canada every move was choreographed to match the nuances of the music, but as the season passed by she seemed to just skate through the program and not really care about the music. This was especially obvious at Worlds when she had to concentrate on landing her jumps after that initial fall. I hope next season she chooses to skate to something more dramatic (like her short program this year) as the music itself would cover up for her when she has to neglect the music at times like that.

 

[Bennett]

Thank you Bennett for that information. Now I know why Mao's interpretation of music suffers as the difficulty of her jump content goes up. When she debuted her free skate at Skate Canada every move was choreographed to match the nuances of the music, but as the season passed by she seemed to just skate through the program and not really care about the music. This was especially obvious at Worlds when she had to concentrate on landing her jumps after that initial fall. I hope next season she chooses to skate to something more dramatic (like her short program this year) as the music itself would cover up for her when she has to neglect the music at times like that.

I totally agree that her Skate Canada performance was extremely beautiful. I agree that technically more challenging jumps would have perhaps affected her attention to the music. Before going into the triple axel, for example, she doesn't necessarily skate to the music. I also feel that spins might have affected her artistry as she needed to create more time for spins to increase the levels. She dropped a couple of beautiful choreos to increase the time for her spins.
But as Nichol said somewhere that nobody uses the programs as she originally choreographed, I guess everyone has to find the way to live with the CoP.
Sorry my response to this thread may belong to another thread.

 

[jyshin]

Now I know why Mao's interpretation of music suffers as the difficulty of her jump content goes up. When she debuted her free skate at Skate Canada every move was choreographed to match the nuances of the music, but as the season passed by she seemed to just skate through the program and not really care about the music. This was especially obvious at Worlds when she had to concentrate on landing her jumps after that initial fall. I hope next season she chooses to skate to something more dramatic (like her short program this year) as the music itself would cover up for her when she has to neglect the music at times like that.

I thought Mao did a great job at the Worlds... to me her music was not artistic enough to enhance her musicality. There was no visible artistic decrescendo in her performance that I've noticed. Actually, the more and more I think who suffered by trying to convey artistry was Lambiel... I really think his LP had a master mind behind. He, on the other hand, should have done whatever Mao did in order to pull off her program after the fall.

In my opinion, who did the best job in terms of musicality and expression was Virtur/Moir... the way how they skated their LP transcended everything and anything...
I am trying to figure out the specifics of their music arrangement.
So far, I know that they mixed Itzhak Perlman & John Williams (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) version with the original movie sound track... I kinda suspect that two or more versions were overlapped in some places, and this is only my speculation.

Can anyone pitch in with more details about the music arrangement of Virtur/Moir's "Umbrellas of Cherbourg"?
I would appreciate it!

 

[jyshin]

Percussion instruments: Part 3 - Castanets

Some of the frequently recurring subjects in the forum...Carmen, Salome, Spanish music and dances... What are the common sound source for their passionate, seductive rhythmic patterns?

I would say... "castanets"... almost... Always!

While directing the attention to the sound of castanets, I also wanted to highlight, what I thought, the most artistic OD during the 2008 Worlds.

Nathalie Pechalat & Fabian Bourzat (France) "Spanish Flamenco"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aEkyA5Y9QM

According to the information from ISU website, they combined three different Spanish Flamenco music:
Le Gitare al viento by Antonio Suarez "Guadiana"
Imagen del recuerdo by José Mercé
Blanca de Plata by Antonio Suarez "Guadiana"

And, was choreographed by Antonio Najarro, who also created Lambiel's "Flamenco."
Unlike Lambiel, Pechalat/Bourzat went with a more traditional version of music. The immediate difference came from the sound of the castanets.
Their version had more individual elements constantly varying the texture of the music. The gypsy style violin peeking in and out with Middle-Eastern influenced microtonal singing added rhythmic dimension... not to mention the Flamenco guitar... The castanets not only played along the rhythm but also contributed to the subtle dynamics in many places. It blended within any combination of the sound source. It was both subtle and dramatic.

In the end, I would like to bring attention to the conclusion (2:55~) of this program, when the castanets take over, to the point where Pechalat pulls out the red fan from her chest...
Tell me how more dramatic it can be!

 

[jyshin]

Chopin - Part 3: Chopin and Cello; about his later composititons

Pernelle Carron and Matthieu Jost (France) - 2008 Europeans FD - Chopin Nocturne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfnphn9BBtk

Their Chopin was an arrangement of Cello+Piano and Jazz.
So far, I prefer their arrangement over Asada and Belbin/Agosto.

What intrigued me here was using the cello line as the melody, that enhanced the expressive quality of the music. Chopin was fond of the melodic expression in the register that cello would normally play. He even wrote a piano study about it (Etude Op.25-7). Also, his last performance before his death was his Cello Sonata in G minor in Paris...
The jazzy part was done by Jacque Loussier. Loussier takes taut rhythmic approach that gives sharp contrasting effect to the Cello arrangement.

The reason why I brought up the Cello Sonata was to remind the fact that the Fantasie-Impromptu, Op.66 was published right after the Cello Sonata, Op.65.
I don't know why Chopin held on to the Fantasie-Impromptu over a decade after it was composed. However, one thing that I know about his later compositions is that the breezy youth had turned into somewhat compassionate depth in his music. I thought this was the part that both Mao and B/A missed the mark in their music selection.

Some composers are finickier than others... and I believe that Chopin was one of the extreme in that department. This is why I think one should pay careful attention to the transcriptions of his music.

 

[jyshin]

East meets West - Part 2: Hip-Hopping B-boyz & B-girlz

What inspired me to discuss about this topic was Virtue/Moir's exhibition program, where she tried to get him into the "Chocolate" Spanish Dance, Nutcracker, and ended up hip-hopping together to "Everybody Dance Now."

This program reminded me one of the black box theater production in Seoul called, the "Ballerina who loved a B-Boy."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOX1nb_WTLo&NR=1

B-boy is a rather recent phenomena in Korea. This is part of my cultural shock that I received during my visit to the country where I considered my homeland. I saw a group of teenage punk kids practicing 'beatbox' and 'break-dance' in the underground parking garages day and night, and later learned that they were called the B-boyz and B-girlz.

The following is somewhat unexpected yet exciting clip of break-dance choreographed to marionette performance by the b-boyz group called
"Expression Crew"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_AHL88VZWI
... I see a good deal of potential ice-dance lifts and moves in this choreography...

a side note...
I could tell the Korean audience at the 4CC was crazy about Daisuke Takahashi hop-hopping through the Swan Lake, and I hope this post explains why.

 

[jyshin]

^
I was expecting some sort of 'interpreted hip-hop' (like Expression Crew's Marionette number) in Belbin/Agosto's FD this past season after reading about them taking hip-hop lessons in LA during the summer. Something tells me they can rock the world with this idea. At the same time, I hope they would put together a program that reflects their interest with the coaching change.

 

[jyshin]

Shostakovich

I hope the following clips of Shostakovich would inspire some ice-dancers.
The music from both clips were not originally intended for such scenes, however, the following clips display how a piece of music can portray a story and carry emotional spectrum.

1> Silent movie Metropolis(1927) set to Shotakovich's Symphony No.11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_021ixZzrk
: I thought showing the different side of 1920s in the FD could be an interesting contrast to the 'fun-dancing' idea of the OD from the same era. More information about the movie can be found in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(film)

2> “Nutcracker” from Fantasia 2000 set to Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No.2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbVDYBIzcXE
: It is a great example of how the story of "Nutcracker" can be set to something other than Tchaikovsky's.