The World of Art:

Those who scored for ballet

GWEN HERAT

Swan Lake - Tchaiakovsky

The Dying Swan - Stravinsky

They are the great Masters who made ballet come alive in perfect visual effect. From the great Tchaikovsky to Beethoven; from Mozart to Bach; Chopin to Haydn; Wagner to Strauss trio; Paganini to Handel; Rachamaninev to Schoslakovich; Rossini to Greig and the list is endless.

They are the composers who immortalised ballet and whom I picked at random. The rich and wonderful world of classical music was to prove a source of inspiration to the choreographers who would ultimately put music and dancing together and produce some of the world's best loved ballets in the process, enhancing the virtuosity of the Masters.

With their scores, musicology became lively indulgent and irresistible not only to the choreographer but the dancer as well.

There were some composers who synthesised with folk and formal classical discipline. The musicianship of many evolved orchestral symphonies that were ideal in the early centuries when ballet became positive and accepted by the audiences.

People became so obsessed with their music that no one could have picked a composer and say 'he is my favourite' because the field was so large and equally prodigious. The suites they created not only for ballet but for concert halls were simply magical. The symphony orchestra exploded with intensity and swirled around the globe bringing people together in their ardour for classical music. Even in Sri Lanka, there is a growing appreciation and a passion for classical music which was not there two decades ago.

The names and scores I remembered of the Masters when I studied the piano, ceased after I left school until they stirred up in our country with a modest beginning. Thanks to the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka who was mainly responsible to what it is today.

Leaders like Joseph Rohan de Saram, Dr. Earle de Fonseka took it upon themselves to give a kick start and followed by the ever-green Ananda Dabera and impresario Mano Chanmugam etc. Those who study ballet must have a fair knowledge and musicality towards scores written by these composers when they study, dance and perform.

Raymonda - Prokofiev

The musical legacy left behind by them and its potential to dance, the power to lift them to mid-air are totally fused and unfettered. There is a clarity of expression for the choreographer to work upon his fantasies and realities. What would ballet be without music or for that matter; drama without dialogue?

Some composers were very romantic in their passionate emotional content and in their pure musical spirit.

Most of them employed flowing melodies with octaves higher when they had ballet in mind. Some were inspired by events and visions. Take Tchaikovsky for example.

He wrote the full-length musical suite for Swan Lake because of the swans he watched over every evening in the lake beside his sister's house.

The birds inspired and fired his imagination by their antics. Then there was Bach who saw sheep grazing from his bedroom window and scored the immortal Sheep May Safely Graze.

Its melody was the theme for a ballet excerpt choreographed by Rudolf Nureyev. Most ballet music was written for the strings and were lyrical, romantic and passionate.

A glimpse

Bach:
Etuda - 1931
Concerto Borocoo - 1931
Night and Silence - 1958
Actus Tragicus - 1966
Opas Lematre - 1971
St. Mathew's Passion - 1981

Beethoven:
Ritterballet - 1791
The Creatures of Promotheus - 1801
Apassionota - 1975

Haydn:
Clock Symphony - 1948
Ballet to this music - 1965

Handel:
The Gods go abegging - 1928

Mozart:
Les Petitsrians - 1778
Ascanio in Alba - 1771
Idamenco - 1781
Konzart fur Flote and Hafa - 1966
Secret Places - 1968

Prokofiev:
Ala and Loly - 1914
La pas d'acier - 1927
The prodigal son - 1929
Cinderalla - 1945
Stone Flower - 1945
Estro Arguto - 1957
Deuxieme Concerto - 1970
Anthony and Cleopatra - 1971
Ivan the Terrible - 1975
Tsar Boris - 1976

Tchaikovsky:
Swan Lake - 1877
Sleeping Beauty - 1890
Nutcracker - 1892
Mozartina - 1933
Anastasia - 1971
The Manfred Symphony - 1979
War and Peace - 1981

Chopin:
Les Sylphedes - 1909
Autumn Leaves - 1918
Lady of the Cammilias - 1978

Wagner:
Tannhouser - 1961
Tristan and Isolda - 1944
Vainquers - 1969
Remembrances - 1773

Rachmaninov:
Theme of Pagnani - 1939
Winter's Night - 1948
Three Preludes - 1973
The isle of the Dead - 1976
Stravinsky:
The Firebird - 1910
Pulcinella - 1920
Apollo Masagete - 1928
Ballustrade - 1941
Orpheus - 1948

Verdi:
The Lady and the Pool - 1954
Vittorio - 1955
Cammilla - 1957