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| 2014:2014-09:2014-09-27 [2014/12/15 20:01] – created randolo | 2014:2014-09:2014-09-27 [2020/06/14 23:54] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1 |
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| ## Notes | ## Notes |
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| After a well-packed morning and afternoon, topped by a stressful drive from Bodega back to Berkeley, we parked and race-walked over to Zellerbach, arriving just in the nick of time to catch the opening moments. Whew! I knew it was going to be tough to swing this scchedule, but we made it! | After a well-packed morning and afternoon, topped by a stressful drive from Bodega back to Berkeley, we parked and race-walked over to Zellerbach, arriving just in the nick of time to catch the opening moments. Whew! I knew it was going to be tough to swing this schedule, but we made it! |
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| My strongest recollection of the opener, _the Muir_ is that the songs were in English. I suppose with a subtitle, _Scottish Songs_, this should not have been a surprise, but with Beethoven as composer, I somehow expected that this was an instrumental suite as opposed to a collection of amusing Scottish folk songs with piano trio accompaniment. The singers were quite good, and the trio also acquitted themselves admirably. Which leaves me blank thinking back to the dancing. Doh! I guess I was still too distracted from the busy day to have paid proper attention. | My strongest recollection of the opener, _the Muir_ is that the songs were in English. I suppose with a subtitle, _Scottish Songs_, this should not have been a surprise, but with Beethoven as composer, I somehow expected that this was an instrumental suite as opposed to a collection of amusing Scottish folk songs with piano trio accompaniment. The singers were quite good, and the trio also acquitted themselves admirably. Which leaves me blank thinking back to the dancing. Doh! I guess I was still too distracted from the busy day to have paid proper attention. |
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| The second collection of dances on tonight's program, titled _A Wooden Tree_, after one of the accompanying songs, was altogether different from the classic opener. In the first place, the company was garbed in some sort of psuedo-pop-Edwardian costumes, as if they were circus rowdys plucked out of a psychedelic Dickensian production. Cute! Secondly, whereas the choreography of the first dances emphasized Morris' connection to modern ballet, the moves here evidenced an almost Broadway-esque quality -- clap hands for Bob Fosse everyone! Now turn and shake a leg! This effect was further enhanced by the use of small props like chairs, as well as costume elements like bowler hats, suspenders and ties -- the incorporation of these elements (synonym!) into the dance served to clearly divide it from the relatively pure presentation of _the Muir_. Finally, and most startling to me, this work relied onaprerecorded musical accompaniment, apparently from the now deceased composer and his cohorts. As hinted at by the costumes, these were English tunes from a period since past -- silly, unsophisticated, and evocative of rural life in simpler, pre-industrial times. Methinks I should learn more about the composer, for both lyrically and musically, he seemed kin to me to more recent musical artists as Syd Barrett and Robert Wyatt. Very goofy. Lot's of fun to watch and listen to. Cock a doodle do! | The second collection of dances on tonight's program, titled _A Wooden Tree_, after one of the accompanying songs, was altogether different from the classic opener. In the first place, the company was garbed in some sort of pseudo-pop-Edwardian costumes, as if they were circus rowdys plucked out of a psychedelic Dickensian production. Cute! Secondly, whereas the choreography of the first dances emphasized Morris' connection to modern ballet, the moves here evidenced an almost Broadway-esque quality -- clap hands for Bob Fosse everyone! Now turn and shake a leg! This effect was further enhanced by the use of small props like chairs, as well as costume elements like bowler hats, suspenders and ties -- the incorporation of these elements (synonym!) into the dance served to clearly divide it from the relatively pure presentation of _the Muir_. Finally, and most startling to me, this work relied on pre-recorded musical accompaniment, apparently from the now deceased composer and his cohorts. As hinted at by the costumes, these were English tunes from a period since past -- silly, unsophisticated, and evocative of rural life in simpler, pre-industrial times. Methinks I should learn more about the composer, for both lyrically and musically, he seemed kin to me to more recent musical artists as Syd Barrett and Robert Wyatt. Very goofy. Lot's of fun to watch and listen to. Cock a doodle do! |
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| The second half of the program opened in sharp contrast to the preceding work with a fairly astringent modern classical piece, Henry Cowell's Sonata for Violin and Piano, of 19xx. Given that Cowell was experimenting with dissonance and tone-clustering techniques, this was obviously NOT going to be a bit of classic ballet, and indeed, Morris choreographed the work in ambiguous fashion, asking the dances to roll or slide or tumble along the ground as well as making the usual leaps and bounds | The second half of the program opened in sharp contrast to the preceding work with a fairly astringent modern classical piece, Henry Cowell's Sonata for Violin and Piano, of 1925. Given that Cowell was experimenting with dissonance and tone-clustering techniques, this was obviously NOT going to be a bit of classic ballet, and indeed, Morris choreographed the work in ambiguous fashion, asking the dances to roll or slide or tumble along the ground as well as making the usual leaps and bounds. Interesting, inventive and strange, but not one for his list of choreographic masterpieces like _V_. |
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| <(wip)> | The final work on today's program, a dance realization of Hummel's Piano Trio of 1819 was stately, swirly and fun to watch. Smart to wrap things up on a strong note! |
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| {{tag>music Mark_Morris_Dance_Group Mark_Morris_Dance_Group_Music_Ensemble Zellerbach_Hall_Auditorium Mark_Morris Sam_Black Rita_Donahue Domingo_Estrada,_Jr. Lauren_Grant Brian_Lawson Aaron_Loux Laurel_Lynch Dallas_McMurray Maile_Okamura Billy_Smith Jenn_Weddel Michelle_Yard Lesley_Garrison Angela_Arnold Wolfram_Koessel Daniel_Pickens-Jones Yegor_Shevtsov Jonathan_Smucker Georgy_Valtchev Michael_Chybowski Elizabeth_Kurtzman Martin_Pakledinaz Nicole_Pearce Stephanie_Sleeper}} | {{tag>music Mark_Morris_Dance_Group Mark_Morris_Dance_Group_Music_Ensemble Zellerbach_Hall_Auditorium Mark_Morris Sam_Black Rita_Donahue Domingo_Estrada,_Jr. Lauren_Grant Brian_Lawson Aaron_Loux Laurel_Lynch Dallas_McMurray Maile_Okamura Billy_Smith Jenn_Weddel Michelle_Yard Lesley_Garrison Angela_Arnold Wolfram_Koessel Daniel_Pickens-Jones Yegor_Shevtsov Jonathan_Smucker Georgy_Valtchev Michael_Chybowski Elizabeth_Kurtzman Martin_Pakledinaz Nicole_Pearce Stephanie_Sleeper}} |
