A certain kind of genius…
…can write a masterpiece within the confines of almost any restriction. Tchaikovsky was just that kind of genius.
He was one of the greatest composers for ballet who ever lived, transforming ballet music from the light and inconsequential into the symphonic and timeless.
From the Boston Ballet website, about the music of “Swan Lake”:
One interesting story that survives illustrates both the power possessed by the dancer and choreographer to dictate musical changes and Tchaikovsky’s integrity and perseverance. In 1877, Anne Sobeshchanskaya made her debut as Odette. She distrusted the original choreographer, Reisinger, so she went to the great choreographer Petipa and had him choreograph a new pas de deux for her to the music of Ludwig Minkus, for her to perform in Act Ill of Swan Lake. When Tchaikovsky heard of what was about to happen to his ballet score, he stated that whether his ballet was bad or good, he alone would take responsibility for its music. He offered to write a new pas de deux for her. Sobeshchanskaya refused saying she liked the choreography created for her Minkus score and would not change a step. Tchaikovsky then asked her to send him the Minkus score and promised to send her a new pas de deux that would match the structure and form of the Minkus bar for bar, allowing her to perform Petipa’s choreography to his new pas de deux. She was so pleased with the result that she asked him to write an additional variation. The entire new pas de deux was inserted into Swan Lake and was an immediate success.
How Tchaikovsky managed to write something so beautiful under conditions like that is beyond me. But how Tchaikovsky, or any other musical genius, can write music like that at all is also beyond me. But I’m certainly glad he did.
I was in a production of “Swan Lake” as a teenager at a summer camp for the arts long long ago. I still remember the first time we rehearsed with the full orchestra instead of just the piano. It was overwhelming. I actually shed some tears. To stand up on that stage and hear that music—
I could have selected almost any portion of the score to illustrate the point. But I decided on this pas de deux from the second act, where Swan Queen Odette finally overcomes her fear and she and the Prince dance a love duet.
There were many versions I might have chosen, so you might wonder why I put up this slightly blurry one of a live performance during the 70s. It’s Russian defector Natalia Makarova with Ivan Nagy of American Ballet Theater, a duo I saw many times in person, two of the greatest emotional interpreters of the roles. They were an almost perfect pair, delicate and subtle, and Makarova was technically magnificent for her time as well as combining a sense of magical enchantment and spirituality with a human quality. Compared to dancers today, her legs are not raised quite as high, but they are plenty high enough and I prefer that to the more gymnastic style:
Here’s a much more recent version of the same thing, in the more modern style, and the video is nice and clear. She’s a lovely dancer too, but to me too one-dimensional emotionally:
For those of you who have neither the time nor the inclination to watch the whole clip, here’s my favorite part. It highlights the emotional difference between the two couples, I think:
I think if you recognize it, it’s not beyond you.
It’s part fulfilling and part creating and part most of all loving. That can never be said to be apart.
This requires a bit of background information. When we first met, the lovely Mrs. Firefly and I were only in the same city for about 3 months (we were separated by about 500 miles of distance for the next 3 years, until we wed) (and this was before there were cellphones and e-mail and unlimited long distance). After she left the city where we met I moved back to Chicago to work on a second college degree. I was poor, literally homeless, and had a night job at a hotel. Mrs. Firefly sprung for a plane ticket to come visit for a weekend and a friend who worked at the hotel managed to get her a free room. A few days before her visit the same friend told me, “The Russian Ballet is in town and I have 2 free tickets, if you’d like to take your date.” I had no money and it was something to do so I gratefully accepted.
It became a joke with my friends; we were blue collar, urban kids. There were lots of jokes that Rufus was going to attend the ballet. I expected to be bored and restless, but hopefully it would make an impression on my date.
As we got to our seats (they were great, by the way), I was joking with my date about men in tights, high brow music, etc. Then the performance started. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen humans do. I was completely transfixed. I don’t even think I moved or blinked during the entire performance, and it seemed to end in 5 minutes!
For weeks, as I would remember the performance, I would marvel that Tchaikovsky and the choreographer(s) and the dancers and musicians were able to do that. Everything was perfectly synchronized and perfectly associated. Even the dancers in the background, when they moved their hand, or even a finger, it was completely in congruence with everything else going on. Every note played by every instrument, every movement of every dancer’s limb. And the score! Pure beauty.
Tchaikovsky must have had one of the biggest brains in human history!
One brief point about being homeless: it’s not so bad if you do a bit of planning.* It helped immensely that I had a night job. I didn’t work every night, but I averaged about 4 nights a week, so I had shelter most evenings.
College campuses are very useful. There were several campuses within walking distance of my locus of operations (and I was a legitimate student at one of them). No one looks twice at a person reasonably dressed dozing in a hallway or empty classroom, or outside on a nice day. They also have plenty of showers and bathrooms where you can wash up.
Stay clean. If you’re a man shave every day. Try to keep your clothes relatively wrinkle free and don’t have an odor. In other words, don’t look like a homeless person and people won’t bother you and you won’t be suspected of loitering when you find a safe place to catch some sleep.
I know many homeless people have mental and/or addiction issues and are not in their right minds and truly need outside help, but it can be relatively painless if necessary for brief periods if you think things through in advance.
What a performance. Makarova was magic on stage – just astonishing. And mesmerizing. Watching her, I would hold my breath for fear of breaking her spell. Even in this old video it still comes across.
Thanks for the post, Neo.
@Rufus T. Firefly
What a wonderful story!
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Very interesting story. I would have expected that when the dancer “requested” another composers music be inserted, Peter Ilich would have blurted out “Minkus Schminkus” or something equally appropriate.
I have a record (remember those?) of Tchaikovsky’s music which contains the opening of Swan Lake. It is overwhelming and will literally made your hair stand up. Absolutely gorgeous music.
SNL Cold Open Ridicules Obama on Ebola – ” Probably One of My Greatest Accomplishments ”
http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2014/10/snl-cold-open-ridicules-obama-on-ebola.html
Rufus, always a great challenge to *live on the edge*
fun when it succeeds !!! many can relate & lo & behold we did not embark upon a career as victims !
” White privilege ” Recon how they d use that to diminish ya !
Art under restriction is always better than unrestrcited liberated art… duh.
the constrictions of the religions and so forth made for the art of the rennaisance
the unrestricted open liberated art, has basically converted art from an ability to create beauty, to the art of finding out offensive stuff that has not yet been done yet… over time, becoming more and more offensive, as those things are things left aside for the later faux brave. you know, the same kind of feminist thing that a woman is told to feel if she does something improproper, and socially negative. like exposing herself in public… then she is brave…
oh… and of course you ahve to equalize it, so the kind of stuff Tchaikovsky did is out… its too hard, takes skill, and all that unequalizing talent based stuff which they deny exists..
Artfldgr,
“Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
The Swiss produced mainly military backed safeguards on centralized savings. Thus neutrality was their best export, paired with their military discipline in the old days.
Artists were mainly servants of their patrons. Thus a citizen militia or a free warrior tends to produce a very different export and society than a bunch of painters and artists that only eat if their aristocratic lords deem it necessary for the “work”.
Famous – and accurate – quote:
“Art is limitation. The essence of every picture is the frame.”
Often this is not just a matter of creating within constraints – but of knowing what to cut out.
I understand that Petipa made much use of Tchaikowsky’s abilities, asking him to compose to certain rhythmic patterns.
Along similar lines, I’ve been playing with the idea that John Williams is the greatest composer of the 20th Century. Full Stop.
Tchaikovsky is one of the greats.
Every debate about who is the greatest composer revolves around three or four names. (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and sometimes Wagner.) There are moments listening to the first three at least where you think “there is no better music than this”. I think there are moments in Tchaikovsky with the same feeling. I don’t think Tchaikovsky is quite up there with Bach and the others, but I wish more people would think of him that way. It seems like he’s a generation away from being held in that level of regard.
It’s been said by people smarter than me that over the last 100 years, Tchaikovsky has been portrayed by conductors with a kind of gooey sentimentality. You just wouldn’t think to put him in the same category as the strenuous, exact Germans. He also suffers from the same problem as Mozart: his tunes can be so catchy that you don’t think of them as serious. Then there’s the geopolitical problem: intellectuals tended to follow the Soviet thinking, which dismissed the Romanov-era composers in favor of the party-approved Shostakoviches and Khachaturians (although even they could find support from high officials to be a fickle thing).
The contemporary appraisal of classical composers is always changing, and I do think that Tchaikovsky’s stock is going to surge in the next few decades.
Nick:
My favorite composers are a little idiosyncratic, and somewhat ballet-oriented. I do like Bach very much, but the others are Handel, Tchaikovsky, Chopin (I LOVE Chopin), Dvorak, and Janacek. Note the two Czechs, the Pole, and the Russian. Heavy on the Eastern Europeans, for some reason.
I’m partial to most all baroque; Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Scarlatti…
The Romantic composers are hit and miss with me. I really like Liszt, Chopin, Debussy (was he a Romantic?) and Beethoven has some amazing stuff (but some of his stuff is too Romantic, Wagnery, for my tastes). I keep thinking I should like Mahler, but every time I try to listen I’m bored.
Mozart was truly brilliant. I probably listen to Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky and Rossini most (I tend to like the fast-paced, joyous stuff).
Neo – During the Romantic era, composers put more emphasis on their national roots, and their folk traditions. For Eastern Europe, that meant some great dance influence. It’s not surprising that a lover of ballet would like Eastern European Romantics.
Rufus – Mahler might be the naked emperor. I suspect that one day everyone’s going to admit they don’t like him. Is Debussy a Romantic – Debussy is Debussy. I think that he thought about music completely differently from anyone before him. Stylistically, he’s probably got more in common with the moderns, but that’s only an analogy.
Hello.
Wonderful post. I enjoy your posts about dance.
I just attended my first ballet – saw Joffrey’s Swan Lake about a week ago …. simply breathtaking and sublime.
I’m new to this art form and while “google researching” on it I stumbled on this: http://aballeteducation.com/2014/10/28/some-of-the-ugly-truths-about-ballet-and-then-some/
What do you think, neo-neocon?
GRA:
Old-fashioned ballets from previous centuries have storylines that reflect those centuries and their sensibilities, about gender and otherwise. Much like opera or novels from previous times.
But the male/female differences in ballet are baked into the cake of the physical differences in the male and female body. The physiology (flexibility, strength, pelvis shape, etc.) is very different, and the choreography reflects this. It’s not an equal opportunity politically correct matter.
There are tons of Asian and Hispanic dancers in the US. Black dancers, less so. That is at least in part because, for many reasons, black children just don’t tend to take ballet at the very young ages necessary. Ballet is a game of numbers; only a few make it to the top, so for there to be a pool of excellent ballet dancers in a certain group, a LOT of dancers of that group must take lessons, because the vast majority will be winnowed out, black or white or purple.
What’s more (and this isn’t talked about too much), although there are many black people with bodies suited for ballet, the necessary or ideal body type (especially in the hip/pelvis area, for perfect turnout) is less common among black women. So that makes it a bit harder, although not impossible.
I saw Dance Theater of Harlem many times, from its inception, and enjoyed it. See this for a short documentary.
Nick,
I am a great fan of jazz and I also like the stuff that gets cataloged as “The American Song Book.” I definitely hear some of that in Debussy. I’m not sure who, or what the “Moderns” are vis a vis Classical music, but Debussy was definitely experimenting with chord structures that became popular in many types of jazz music.
Nick,
Also glad to hear my lack of appreciation of Mahler may be justified.
Miles Davis is one of my favorite jazz musicians (among many), and I keep encountering music critics who rave about his, “Bitches Brew” double album. I bought the CD. I played the 1st song. It was awful. I played the 2nd. Same thing. I fast forwarded within songs. Same thing. I put it on a shelf. About 10 years later I was about to go on a long, car trip through an area of the country with poor radio reception. I remembered the “Bitches Brew” CD (and had since read several other, glowing reviews of it) and thought this would be a good opportunity to listen to the entire album. Surely it was great, I just wasn’t able to discern its greatness in the brief, 10 minutes I had listened.
On that car trip I listened to the entire album. It actually got worse as it played on. I wonder if any of the jazz critics who wrote glowing reviews have ever listened to the whole thing. Emperor’s New Clothes, indeed.
“But how Tchaikovsky, or any other musical genius, can write music like that at all is also beyond me. But I’m certainly glad he did.”
Beautifully said.
(The human experience has so much potential. It is a shame we are so destructive, given what we are capable of creating)