Wednesday, April 29, 2015

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2015

QUOTE:
"Music with dinner is an insult
 both to the cook and the violinist."
AUTHOR: G. K. Chesterton
MEANING OF THE QUOTE:
"Playing violin and cooking are both performed by artisans
  who deserve the fullest attention of their audiences."








COMPOSER
BERNSTEIN
FANCY FREE
Ballet Music
Leonard Bernstein, Conductor
Ballet Theater Orchestra, 1944
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykGo2FyfkYg
(00:07) I. Enter Three Sailors
Very fast four
(03:00) II. Scene at the Bar
Poco meno mosso
(04:38) III. Enter Two Girls
Fast and hot
(06:02) IV. Pas de Deux
Very slowly
(09:09) V. Competition Scene
Opening tempo
VI. Three Dance Variations:
(12:12) Variation 1. Galop 
Presto
(13:40) Variation 2. Waltz 
Allegretto grazioso
(16:00) Variation 3. Danzon 
Strong, moderate quarters
(18:39) VII. Finale
Tempo come prima
This original illustration art promotes the
"Fancy Free Ball," a 1954 benefit for
the American Ballet Theatre company
named after the famous Jerome Robbins/
Leonard Bernstein ballet premiered
by ABT in 1944.
FANCY FREE
(Complete)
Jerome Robbins, Choreographer
New York City Ballet, 1986
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=31&v=3Ou-O9Awkzo

ARTICLE FROM:
Fancy Free was Leonard Bernstein's first
foray into the world of the ballet, and it
immediately became extremely popular.
The work's timing was significant. It had
its premiere on April 18, 1944, just weeks
after the successful premiere of the
"Jeremiah" symphony
and shortly after his appearance with the
New York Philharmonic on a nationwide
By Richard Strauss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bOVpiuT2kk
This triple shot of Bernstein established him once
and for all as a major player in the musical world.

The story of the ballet is a simple one,
devised by Jerome Robbins.
Jerome Robbins
It takes place in New York City,
where three sailors
are on shore leave. While in New York,
they meet three girls in a bar, dance
with them, fight over them, and then
realize how stupid it is to let women
come between friends. The plot line was
reused by Bernstein in On The Town,

his popular first Broadway musical.

 The music in Fancy Free is based
to a considerable degree on popular
styles of the day. This is heard at
the beginning with "Big Stuff,"
BIG STUFF
Billy Holiday, Vocalist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sklrVjtGSsc
BIG STUFF
LYRICS
So you cry

What's it about, baby?

You ask why

The blues had to go and pick you

So you go

Down to the shore kid's stuff

Don't you know

There's honey in the store for you big stuff

Let's take a ride in my gravy train

The doors open wide

Come in from out of the rain
So you stare

Call it despair baby

Don't you care

I'm on the square about you

Let's have a try

It maybe that you're my guy
(very short bridge)
Let's take a ride in my gravy train

The doors open wide

Come in from out of the rain
So you stare

Call it despair baby

Don't you care

I'm on the square about you

Let's have a try

It maybe that you're my guy
a popular hit Bernstein recorded
as a single later, made famous by
Billie Holiday.
Billy Holiday
The jazzy style of the piece was relatively
new to both Bernstein's writing and to concert
music in general -- it had only been about 20
years since Rhapsody in Blue
RHAPSODY IN BLUE
BY GEORGE GERSHWIN
Leonard Bernstein, Piano
Leonard Bernstein, Conductor
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=327&v=NMCquldAWL0
broke many of the boundaries between jazz
and classical music. Bernstein continued
to explore this influence in many of
his subsequent works.

 The structure of the work is designed with
dance in mind; there is little connective tissue
between the sections, which are bridged
with solo piano music. The sections include
music derived not only from jazz, but also
from styles ranging from Stravinsky to
vaudeville. This kind of combining of styles
is pervasive in Bernstein's writing; it
continues in his later works, such as
Facsimile, the Mass, and Candide.
The music from the ballet was made into
a concert suite for orchestra by Bernstein.
The suite has six movements:
I. "Dance of the Three Sailors"
II. "Scene at the Bar"
III. "Pas de Deux"
IV. "Pantomime"
V. "Three Variations"
(Gallop, Waltz, Danzón)
VI. "Finale"
It was premiered on January 14, 1945,
by the Pittsburgh Symphony under
Bernstein's own baton.
Paul Cadmus: The Fleet's In!, 1934
The inspiration for the ballet, Fancy Free (1944).
Leonard Bernstein's first stage work,
Fancy Free was also the first in a
series of collaborations with Jerome
Robbins which culminated, by way of
On the Town and Facsimile, and in
West Side Story
For the January 1945 premiere of the
concert version Bernstein wrote down
these notes about the piece:
"From the moment the action begins,
with the sound of a juke box wailing
behind the curtain, the ballet is strictly
wartime America, 1944. The curtain
rises on a street corner with a lamp
post, a side-street bar, and New York
skyscrapers pricked out with a crazy
pattern of lights, making a dizzying
backdrop. Three sailors explode onto
the stage. They are on twenty-four-
hour shore leave in the city and on
the prowl for girls. The tale of how
they meet the first one, then a
second girl, and how they fight over
them, lose them, and in the end
take off after still a third, is
the story of the ballet."
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