What are the three worst musical themes in figure skating?

[jgg220]

Of up-and-coming warhorses, my least favorite is "Leave a Light On."

Of the last ten years, my two least favorites were Papadakis and Cizeron's Forest Blakk program and anything by Mumford and Sons.

Instrumental classical warhorses with added vocals generally make me want to scream.

I could go on for 100 more pages, but those come to mind at the moment.

 

[Isk]

Also, I don't understand the love of Nocturne no. 20. Chopin wrote 21 of them, no.13 is generally regarded the best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX7RCisoCxo. Much as I like this piece, I think it would be very hard to cut it well even in faster tempo. Here are some other choices, which should be pretty skatable:
Grieg's Op. 54 no.4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpU-gnkIFRo
Tchaikovsky's October Autumn song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_faR8r8k4g
Glinka's in E flat major: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur6OzHIttyY
Clara Schuman, Op. 6 no. 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6pmgqOmPBU
Even Czerny wrote them, and they are not bad.

 

[Isk]

On the other hand who would guess the Mahler's fifth symphony would be anything that you could do an ice dance to -- yer Virtue and Moir made it their iconic masterpiece.

Marina used it before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X9wP8-D63o&t=45s
You can find similarities in the choreography e.g: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/J96IjlmVCxk, and some others. But Mahler is hardly used, some music is just too big.

 

[Isk]

I quite agree that these are completely different questions. There is a reason why skaters flock to Swan Lake, Carmen. Turandot and the like -- the musical structure supplements with sound what skaters try to produce visually. (Not so much Phantom of the opera, though -- a little too schmaltzy).

What is a more precarious choice is blockbuster classical music that overwhelms any mere skater. Fumie Suguri is an example of a skater (choreographed br Lori Nichol) who presented one classical masterpiece after another, such as Bach's Toccata and Fugue and Mozart's Piano concerto 23. and then was faced with the challenge of filling the ice surface as completely ar the music fills an auditorium. (Surguri is still very active in skating activities, by the way.)

On the other hand who would guess Mahler's fifth symphony would be antything that you could do an ice dance to -- yer Virtue and Moir made it their iconic masterpiece.

I've been thinking about Mahler. Hearing his symphonies would be quite an endeavour for young busy people, but his piano quartet is quite short and seems in the style that skaters tend to like nowadays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFjkRRTc3VI, although not exactly repetitive or minimalistic. Out of piano quartets a in romantic style perhaps one could make work a couple of andantes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyAiXNAZ5WE&t=833s (from Brahms's no.3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu8tUCvBN34&t=735s (from Schumann's no.1)
I think skaters flock to Swan lake etc. partly because they don't want to risk, but it also might be inertia and some lack of knowledge. It's not so difficult to go on-line and type in: "pieces similar to Liebestraum" or "the best ballet music" and sites like Brilliant Classics will suggest some, another site users will be happy to give a lot of ideas (just go to music sections, not FS). People usually don't feel comfortable with things they don't know much about. Also, many choreographers lack choreo education. A choreographer like Marina Zoueva, Lori Nichol or Sandra Bezic can take a new piece of music and have a vision how to work with it. Lori skated in John Curry's show, Sandra worked for many years in SOI and other productions, David Wilson worked in Ice Capades, Marina graduated from Russian Institute of Theatre Arts, the class of Rostislav Zaharov who choreographed for places like Mariinsky and Bolshoi theatres, Natalia Bestemianova worked in TAT's All-Stars and her husband's Ice Miniatures. Marina's tendency is to do man-woman quite a bit, like with GG, VM. Even her neutral dances are a boy in an elegant costume and a girl in a ballroom dress, and they study ballroom choreo. I guess that's the way she sees, it's OK, in other groups e.g. Dubreuil and Lauzon's they don't necessarily see it this way. But even her cheesy stuff is high quality cheese: choreo phasing to music phrasing, style, extension, overall movement culture, attention to nuances.
Here is what other people do: Sinitsina-Zhiganshin: 2011 Samson and Delilah, 2012 POTO, 2013 tango, they are following Davis-White's program themes year-for-year with a two year time lag. Or they do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTHNemzaEsY. Here is what Walpurgis Nacht actually looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q3mTBtTOZ8
Or they skate romantic love to a song about a tender childhood memory of one's mother: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrkEsb3RpKo&t=164s
Or skate romantic love to "the best of FS" track then attach a Paganini caprice and do a gypsy dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqouSzBZtoI&t=347s
You can't explain the lack of taste or vision by some music being less skatable that other. I'd say, music without rhythm is not very supportive, or some of the atonal music might not be very appealing, but there is a lot of music that has these qualities, and it's been proven in ballet that you can do cool stuff to all sorts of unorthodox music. Take Mozart's 23rd concerto for example, it's not been written for ballet. It's gained some popularity in FS. The 21st concerto is literally on the surface, but nobody uses it.

 

[frompolandwithlove]

El tango de Roxanne. I hate this piece of music with a passion, especially if it's performed by a teenage girl (but Junhwan Cha also broke my heart by picking it for his free this season). It's not only over-used (there is always at least one every year), it's also almost always beyond the expressive abilities of the skater. We surely must have some other tango music in the world, right? Why oh why are we so persistent to use this particular one? I swear one more tango de Roxanne and I will cry.

Also, I don't know if it's a theme per-se, but every weird mix of random music that's just don't go together. Like what Shaidorov did last season - Moonlight sonata changing out of nowhere to party pop song in his free. It's so common and it's such a cheap tactic. I know the purpose is to have "easy" music as a background noise for jumps and then something energetic so that half a minute of Steps and choreo can have a lasting impression, but come on. At the very least try to have some integrity within the program. If you can't skate to one song, at least pick two that have something in common so they are not as jarring to the viewer. Otherwise it just looks like two programs glued together, which is not cool and if you ask me it ruins the whole perception of the program.

 

[Silevril Ilumire]

El tango de Roxanne. I hate this piece of music with a passion, especially if it's performed by a teenage girl (but Junhwan Cha also broke my heart by picking it for his free this season). It's not only over-used (there is always at least one every year), it's also almost always beyond the expressive abilities of the skater. We surely must have some other tango music in the world, right? Why oh why are we so persistent to use this particular one? I swear one more tango de Roxanne and I will cry.

I agree 100%. In fact, I was coming here to say the same thing. Not only is it about a prostitute (do NOT let juniors skate to this), it has to be the ugliest tango music I have ever heard. I had a co-worker who was a competitive skater at the domestic level. I asked her some questions about music she liked, and she promptly said that the music she most wanted to skate to (but never did) was Tango de Roxanne. Because one of her heroes skated to it. I sometimes think that skaters must have a different perspective on skating music than people who have only ever been in the audience.

 

[RafaelAstro]

Never enough
La la land
Sexyback, yes that's the reason I never watched Donovan sp that season

 

[kitadog]

Voila
La La land
anything by Muse
Experience
anything French similar to Voila

 

[FaustinaF]

This is an interesting thread!! A good place for figure skating's music debate!! Your comments are very interesting.
I believe there's a mix here of what we really don't like and what we're tired of listening to.
I think Carmen, Bolero or other classic and contemporary music choices could be still great pieces by themselves, the fact is how the piece is used.
For example, I didn't believe I was going to like certain programs since they made use of music I didn't like, but then I realized the programs were very well build anyway even if I wouldn't had used certain kind of music.
I mean, if a program is badly built, then everything (even music that might be in our "not so favorite" list is included as the first influent factor) would seem inappropriate.
Lets clarify this, however: yes, there's music and music, some of it will probably be very, very bad, but I guess we're very influences by how many times we listen to that music. I love classic music, I don't dislike Carmen, but if I'm going to hear Carmen four, five times, well then it's going to be quite boring. The music itself it's good and valuable; but when it comes to hear it too many times, I believe it's not the music's fault, but the fault is to be found in also other factors, like boring choreography, boring program in general, lack of interpretation, ect. all these stuff contributes to create a sense of "bad music" I guess. Yes, there is bad music, of course, but I would't apply this term on what we're accostumed to hear more and becomes boring that way.
We should separate the two things, and try to value the music by itself. I don't like myself many of the music you listed above, too, and I also share many of the thoughts you expressed here, but even if I'd heard these music just once I still didnt' like them, not just because I listened to them too much. I don't know if I espressed myself clearly anyway, or it's more confusing than before!! What do you think about it?

 

[noskates]

Ahhhhh - very good point! It's not so much the music (other than Roxanne....) but how it's used. Totally agree. This is never more apparent than some of the junior programs where the music just overwhelms the skater. I also think there's a trend these days to find the most discordant and least melodious or tuneful music to skate to. Heavy breathing, wind sounds, shrieking horns, dirge-like music. Why? If they're trying to be chic or "with it" they're failing miserably.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

"Rain, In Your Black Eyes" way overused and TBH I hate it.

 

[Joan1940]

After watching the road to Milano in ice dance,I wonder how many Olympic contenders are going to use Ricky Martin music for their rhythm dance. By the third time I was ready to throw up
.

 

[Isk]

I also think there's a trend these days to find the most discordant and least melodious or tuneful music to skate to. Heavy breathing, wind sounds, shrieking horns, dirge-like music. Why? If they're trying to be chic or "with it" they're failing miserably.

There was baroque with the fanciful flowery figures drawn on the ice; uplifting classical period of pure, clear freestyle skating under 6.0; romanticism of 2000-2010s; now it's time for avant-garde?...

 

[viennaskater]

I swear one more tango de Roxanne and I will cry.

I swear one more Exogenesis by Muse and I will cry.

 

[msteach3]

I know I’m probably in the minority, but I really don’t like Firebird.

 

[Diana Delafield]

I know I’m probably in the minority, but I really don’t like Firebird.

My pairs partner would agree with you. Our coach and I did talk him into using the finale in one program (can't remember now what we used for the rest of it) because pull Arabians were big in our era and that had some well-timed crashy chords for them. But otherwise he said, "Oh no, not the whole program. Get her up in a lift where I can't see her and she's going to start flapping her wings in time to the music!"

And I'd had such a great costume idea, too .

 

[Silevril Ilumire]

My pairs partner would agree with you. Our coach and I did talk him into using the finale in one program (can't remember now what we used for the rest of it) because pull Arabians were big in our era and that had some well-timed crashy chords for them. But otherwise he said, "Oh no, not the whole program. Get her up in a lift where I can't see her and she's going to start flapping her wings in time to the music!"

And I'd had such a great costume idea, too .

Do you think some people want a certain music because of the type of costume that comes with it? Like a Firebird dress, Swan Lake/Black Swan dress, maybe a pretty green dress for Riverdance . . . If so, I guess I could understand this!

I believe there's a mix here of what we really don't like and what we're tired of listening to.

I think this is a good point! Before I started watching skating I was always happy to listen to Bolero or Swan Lake. Although I wish that in general there was more variety and diversity of music in skating (and not so much reliance on English pop and Western classical), if the program is well made and the skater performs well enough then I will probably like it even if it uses a warhorse. That is why there are very few warhorses I never want to hear again. But hearing them less would be fine.