Symphonic Dances From West Side Story Program Notes Haydn

In 1957 Leonard, together with choreographer Jerome Robbins and lyricist Stephen, created the work which was to assure his reputation as a composer: West Side Story. A modern-day, big-city adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, this 'social music drama' moves the tragic tale of the lovers of Verona to the once-impoverished west side of Manhattan. West Side Story was premiered in Washington DC in August 1957 and repeated the following month in New York, where its success ensured a run of almost two years (772 performances) and a national tour.

Opening Night Program Notes. Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. A new piece for the 100th Anniversary Season of the Melrose Symphony Orchestra.

In 1960, Bernstein drew from it an orchestral suite of Symphonic Dances which follows the principal episodes of the drama. The score brings together the musical's most famous songs ('Somewhere,' 'Maria'), dances ('Mambo,' 'Cha-cha,' 'Rumba') and orchestral sections ('Meeting Scene'), from the opening confrontation of the Jets and Sharks ('Prologue') to the recapitulation of the 'Finale.' With a kaleidoscopic range of moods and emotions, the suite is a marvel of stylistic diversity and compositional skill. Especially notable are the score's rhythmic intricacies, as classical techniques (i.e.

Fugue) blend with dance rhythms and jazz syncopations. Yet the most prominent ingredient appears in the opening melodic figure of 'Maria' (C-F sharp-G) with its characteristic tritone interval. Bernstein pinpointed this as the kernel of the entire score: '.The three notes pervade the whole piece, inverted, done backwards.

I didn't do all this on purpose. It seemed to come out in 'Cool' and as the gang whistle [in 'Prologue']. The same three notes.' Indeed, like the musical, the suite ends on a tense, unresolved, and haunting chord containing the same interval.

The Symphonic Dances were premiered at a 'Valentine for Leonard Bernstein' gala concert by the (a fund-raiser for the orchestra's pension fund) under the direction of Lukas Foss on February 13, 1961. The suite remains one of Bernstein's most popular works.

Parts/Movements • Prologue • Somewhere • Scherzo • Mambo • Cha-Cha (Maria) • Meeting Scene • Fugue (Cool) • Rumble • Finale Appears On.

Shall We Dance? January 12, 2013 PROGRAM NOTES by Jim Yancy Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) Symphonic Dances from West Side Story Prologue: Allegro moderato “Somewhere”: Adagio Scherzo: Vivace leggiero Mambo: Presto Cha-Cha (Maria): Andantino con grazia Meeting Scene: Meno mosso “Cool”, Fugue: Allegretto Rumble: Molto allegro Finale: Adagio West Side Story, with a book by Arthur Laurents and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, opened at the Winter Garden Theater on September 26, 1957. It was, of course, famously adapted from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Unlike the unsuccessful Broadway run of Bernstein’s Candide a year earlier, this show ran for 772 performances and 253 more when it returned to New York after a tour. Jerome Robbins was both director and choreographer. Some commentators felt that West Side Story was the great American opera that composers had been trying to write for decades, but Bernstein felt the work was not an opera, but a bona fide Broadway musical, even though it did break new ground in many ways: “So much was conveyed in music, including the enormous reliance upon dance to tell plot – not just songs stuck into a book.” The Symphonic Dances were first performed on February 13, 1961, by the New York Philharmonic under Lukas Foss.

The Prologue depicts the growing rivalry and rising violence between two New York street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. Download Anime Saint Seiya Omega Sub Indo Full Episode more. A dream sequence envisions the two gangs joined in peaceful friendship “Somewhere” beyond the city walls united in a realm of space, air, and sun (Scherzo).

Real life breaks in at a high school gymnasium dance where the two gangs compete in a Mambo. Here too the two young lovers, Tony and Maria, see each other for the first time, dance together (Cha-Cha) and speak for the first time (Meeting Scene). The Jets try to control their nervous violence (“Cool,” Fugue), but their hostility breaks out in a climactic gang battle (Rumble) where the rival gang leaders are killed. The Finale is based on Maria’s “I Have a Love” which recalls the death of Tony and the other young men and the vision of “Somewhere.” Morton Gould (1913-1996) Tap Dance Concerto Ever since the time of Antonio Vivaldi, concerti have been written for almost every conceivable kind of instruments or instruments with orchestra. Not until Morton Gould wrote his Tap Dance Concerto, however, was a composition ever created that made use of the sound of a dancer’s feet as a “solo instrument” in a concerto with orchestra.

The Tap Dance Concerto received its premiere at a concert of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra on November 16, 1952. The concerto is in four relatively short movements. The first is an animated “Toccata” that includes an extended solo cadenza near the end.

This is followed by a slower, quietly subdued “Pantomime”; a graceful, somewhat restrained “Minuet,” and a brilliant, rapid-fire “Rondo.” Gould has said that he “utilized the tap-dance medium as an integrated rhythmic and dynamic part of the orchestral texture,” adding that the tap-dance patterns notated in the score “may be elaborated upon by the individual tap-dance soloist, it being important, however, to keep the basic rhythmic designs so that the work has an organized and formal consistency.” Serge Prokofiev (1891-1953) Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 2 Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet is one of the most popular evening-length ballet scores after the big three of Tchaikovsky ( Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker). Although at first reluctant to tackle the project, fearing a ballet could not encompass the intensity of the dramatic content of the story, Prokofiev put his best into it, and the result is so dramatic that the music actually does as well in concert as in the theatre.

While waiting for the finished score to reach the stage, Prokofiev arranged three symphonic suites derived from the complete score. However, the order of music in these suites does not always follow the dramatic plan of the ballet. The suite heard most often is the second one, comprising seven selections. The second suite opens with a brilliant description of “The Montagues and the Capulets” in the height of their feud and an ominous feeling of doom before the music brings us a picture of the Veronese noblemen. Parts two and three are portraits of the characters indicated in the respective titles—the capricious, innocent, tender “Juliet, the Maiden,” and the properly thoughtful “Friar Laurence.” The fourth part is animated music entitled “Dance.” This is followed by a contrasting mood in “The Parting of Romeo and Juliet” – tender and deeply poetic music with Romeo’s song of love heard in solo viola.

Another dynamic dance takes place in the “Dance of the Five Couples,” a lively picture of a street scene during a passing festival or carnival. This is followed by a slow movement of great depth and beauty, “Romeo and Juliet Before Parting.” A short interval, “Dance of the Maids with the Lilies,” brings us to “Romeo at Juliet’s Tomb” from the final scene of the ballet. Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor The famous Polovtsian Dances occur in Act II of Borodin’s epic opera when the big-hearted Khan of the Polovski, Konchak, entertains the captive Igor and his son with a feast, chorus, and ballet. The first section of the dances, after a short woodwind introduction, is a lyrical tune used in the operetta Kismet as “Stranger in Paradise.” The next section, a wildly exuberant movement, offers two melodies in counterpoint, both familiar from the Kismet score.

Yet more primitive revelry follows, first a rude waltz, then a kind of war dance. “Stranger in Paradise” returns with a new melody played high over it in the flute. Salsa Afro Cuban Montunos For Piano Cd Rates. Earlier material now returns leading up to a furious ending that is brilliant in color and dynamic in rhythm.