Very Serious Duck and Pig Go to the Movies

Ballet Music

What do I mean by ballet? To me a ballet is a piece of music, generally conceived with a specific accompanying story line, without the benefit of vocal narrative or (usually) singing voice, and intended for performance by one or more dancers. Reference to a particular style of dance is not part of my working definition of the term.

As an amateur composer with a day job, I have written chamber music for many years and produced a modest body of work. These days, I concentrate entirely on electronic music, in different non-Western tunings. (There is a whole literature on this so-called "microtonality" which I shall not go into here. Suffice it to say that this music might sound differently tuned, or even out-of-tune, on first exposure. This is intentional. For some other microtonal music, see this Wiki page or Andrew Heathwaite's list.) That is not to say that my music consists of cacophonic beeps and buzzes in confusing disarray, or of massed discordant blocks of befuddling noise, or whatever horror the uninitiated might imagine. I endeavor to produce a "natural" sounding music that pleases me in listening. To produce, in effect, music that could conceivably be played by some rather unusual "Hypothetical Chamber Ensemble" as I call it. In the absence of suitable acoustical instruments and instrumentalists capable of rendering the music in live performance, it is performed by synthesizers.

I do these things mainly for my own amusement, and I'll admit I'm the most avid consumer of my music. I hope, however, that some of it is approachable by ordinary listeners. Sometimes I even fancy that there might be other people in the world, aside from a few close friends, who might be amused or intrigued by some of this music. I would be particularly happy to find it appealing to dancers, because I love dance, and the music was intended for dance production. In moments of wild fantasy, I envision actual dancers producing some of this music on stage, or before the video camera.

I have written several pieces ranging from 20 to 85 minutes in length that could be suitable for stage production. Any style -- from the classical western ballet to "modern dance" to any number of folk traditions, or even animated video -- might be a suitable vehicle for performance of this music.

Are you a choreographer in the San Francisco Bay Area who might want to collaborate on a production? After listening, if you're interested, please drop me a line: rick (at) unicode.org is my e-mail address (of course, you need to smoosh the words together with an "at" sign...).

Very Serious Duck and Pig Go to the Movies

Rather than spend a boring evening at home with the cello, Very Serious Duck & Pig decide to take in a movie. They get ready and take a train downtown, where they are greeted by a long line at the ticket booth. They persevere, and see two moderately amusing art films with sets by Salvent van Rauschol. They exit the theatre into empty streets. They reach Broadway and just as the clock strikes 13, a passing pedi-cab turns into a pumpkin carriage with three white horses to take them home.

Click here for my Narrated Musical Clips in amazing low-fidelity monaural MP3 format (3.5 min, 1.4MB download). Can't play MP3 files? Hmm, well a Google search might help locate an MP3 player.

Notes... The entire ballet lasts about 20 minutes. It is divided into 6 scenes, and is suitable for performance by 2 or more dancers. This recording is old and noisy, in addition to being a low-fidelity monaural version to save space. Much better recording is available for live performance.

Amagahara

You might wish to check out this excerpt from another recent ballet, Amagahara.

"Amagahara" (or more usually Takamagahara) is a Japanese word meaning "heavenly fields" -- the abode where the gods live. The ballet is based on the Japanese creation myth featuring the primordial parent figures, Izanagi and Izanami. Part 2 concerns their children Amaterasu (the sun goddess) and her brother Susano-o. This is scene 9, from the second part, in which the ill-mannered storm god Susano-o, banished from heaven by his father Izanagi, visits his sister's house. While she prepares to rebuff him, he insists that he comes in peace to bid farewell. She is unconvinced of his veracity, and finally leaves with her entourage, looking suspiciously behind her. Susano-o is about to perpetrate some mischief in her rice fields...

The whole ballet runs about 85 minutes, and is suitable for performance by an absolute minimum of six dancers. The excerpt is about a 5MB download, HERE.

In Praise of Gong Culture

By "gong culture" I mean generally the group of musical cultures spanning much of Indonesia where large ensembles of metallophones are used to produce beautiful, shimmering music. This is an abstract work (i.e., without a set story) in three movments lasting about 20 minutes in all. It is composed for electronic renditions of various gongs and flutes, all in a Balinese tuning. An excerpt from the second movement may be heard by clicking HERE. (287k) This could be choreographed for any number of dancers, and any movement could be performed independently.

Delilah and Aladdin (in the ruins of D'sn-yland)

This is a fairy-tale in three movements, lasting about 20 minutes and requiring two (or more) dancers. The plot is thin: Aladdin, having long since lost his magic lamp, wanders in the ancient ruins of an amusement park, meets a talking golden cockroach (Delilah), hears her story. In this excerpt from the third movement, Delilah is narrating her tale in hopes of eliciting the three kisses she needs to break the spell of the evil sorcerer... (The file is about 600k) HERE. This piece would be a grand opportunity for masks and one elaborate metamorphosing costume.

Center Seats in Pandora's Box
an hyperspatial ballet for various extra-terrestrial crustacea and annelids

If you made it this far and are still in possession of your ears, you might be interested in this ballet... It is a microtonal tour de force consisting of some 20 scenes, each in a different tuning for a different ensemble of instruments. The loose and rather slapstick sci-fi plot centers around an interstellar conference held for the first time on the backwater planet "Earth". It runs about one hour and would require elaborate costuming and large-scale staging: the more dancers the merrier; the wilder the better. Or it could be quite suitable for animation. Maybe this picture will give you an idea of what I'm talking about...

There is one sound example from CSPB available HERE (2.8MB download). This is a waltz piece in 14 tone equal tuning.

Three Exotic Dances

These three dance pieces were composed separately over a period of a year (2000-2001) and combined into a three movement dance suite. An excerpt from the second movement is available HERE (1.4BM download); this was originally intended as a setting of a poem by Sarojini Naidu. An excerpt from the third movement is available HERE (1.3MB download); originally intended as part of a ballet treating a Maori folktale.

Check out my Music page for more music samples... or my full works page for some complete works.

[Click me home again Kathleen]