| Series |
Oxford monographs on music
Oxford monographs on music. ^A256395
|
| Contents |
Introduction. Some traditions. Composer and balletmaster ; The ballet audience ; La Bayadere -- 'Swan Lake' in Moscow. The city ; The libretto ; Composition and collaboration ; Cast and production -- The music of 'Swan Lake' -- St Petersburg. Vsevolozhsky and theatre reform ; Negotiations between the imperial theatres and Tchaikovsky ; Vsevolozhsky, Petipa, Tchaikovsky -- The music of 'Sleeping Beauty'. Thematic unity ; Rhythm and sonority ; Tchaikovsky's transformation of the classical variation ; Tonality ; The music of act III -- 'Sleeping Beauty': the first production. The music of Sleeping Beauty as performed in the imperial theatres ; Petipa's work on Sleeping Beauty ; The first production -- 'Nutcracker' -- 'Swan Lake' in St Petersburg -- Appendix A. Scenarios of Tchaikovsky's ballets translated from the first editions of their librettos. Swan Lake (Moscow, 1877) ; Sleeping Beauty (St Petersburg, 1890) ; Nutcracker (St Petersburg, 1892) ; Swan Lake (St Petersburg, 1895) -- Appendix B. Affiche on the first performance of Swan Lake, in English translation -- Appendix C. Tchaikovsky's harmony. Some typical features of chord grammar and tonality ; The prologue of Sleeping Beauty ; Odette's narration in Swan Lake ; The entrance of the swan maidens ; Tonality in Act IV of Swan Lake -- Appendix D. Marius Petipa's scenarios for Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker. Petipa's instructions to Tchaikovsky for Sleeping Beauty ; The balletmaster's plan for Sleeping Beauty ; Petipa's instructions to Tchaikovsky for Nutcracker ; The balletmaster's plan for Nutcracker -- Appendix E. Metronomic markings in the holograph score of Sleeping Beauty -- Appendix F. Present order of materials in choreographic notation of Nutcracker -- Appendix G. The waltz of the snowflakes from Nutcracker -- Appendix H. The performance scores of Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake in St Petersburg. |
| Abstract |
This book combines a detailed and thorough analysis of the music of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Nutcracker with descriptions of the first productions of these works in Imperial Russia. A background chapter on the ballet audience, the collaboration of composer and balletmaster, and Moscow of the 1860's leads into an account of the first production of Swan Lake in 1877. A discussion of theater reforms initiated by the Director of the Imperial Theaters prepares the reader for a study of the still-famous 1890 St. Petersburg production of Sleeping Beauty. Wiley then explains how the Nutcracker, produced just two years after Sleeping Beauty, was seen in a much less favorable light than it is now. Separate chapters are devoted to the music of each ballet and translations of published libretti, choreographer's instructions to the composer, and the balletmaster's plans for Sleeping Beauty and the Nutcracker are reproduced in appendices. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 414-418) and index. |
| LCCN | 83023843 |
| ISBN | 0193153149 : |
