Admin at 05:32, 23 May 2015

2015-05-23T05:32:18Z

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	== General Info ==		== General Info ==

	'''Year''': ~~1937~~<br /-->		'''Year''': 1938<br /-->
	'''Duration''': c. 22:00 <br /-->		'''Duration''': c. 22:00 <br /-->
	'''Difficulty''': (see [[Ratings]] for explanation)<br /-->		'''Difficulty''': (see [[Ratings]] for explanation)<br /-->
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	[[Dance]]<br>		[[Dance]]<br>

	~~Orchestral arrangement: 2021, 2221, timpani, percussion, piano, strings<br>~~

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	== Program Notes ==		== Program Notes ==
	~~January 23~~, 1938, ~~Guild Theater~~, ~~New York City; Doris Humphrey~~, Charles Weidman, ~~Jose Limon and Dance Company.~~ Vivian Fine, piano, ~~(percussionist unidentified)~~<br>		August 6, 1938, Bennington College, Fifth Bennington Festival of the Modern Dance, Charles Weidman and members of the Concert and Apprentice Groups, Vivian Fine, piano and Franziska Boas, percussion<br>

	~~Orchestral arrangement: April 27, 1956, Juilliard Dance Theater, New York City; Doris Humphrey and Dance Company, Juilliard Orchestra, Frederick Prausnitz conducting<br>~~

	~~Orchestral arrangement using slides instead of dancers, April 16, 1961, Poughkeepsie, New York, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Claude Monteux conducting.<br>~~
	<br>		<br>
	~~…it was quite a score and quite an experience. She [Fine] was a true collaborator~~ in a ~~field~~, ~~that of composing~~ for ~~dance~~, ~~which is so different from other kinds of program music that it calls~~ for ~~unique qualifications…~~.~~My enthusiasm for James Thurber led me~~ to ~~select one of his series~~ of ~~drawings~~, at the ~~time brand new, concerning~~ the ~~adventures of a middle class American Family called The Race of Life~~. ~~Vivian and I both loved his dry and improbable humor…The scenes were all quite short~~, ~~six~~ of ~~them, and~~ had ~~subject matter with~~ a ~~challenging range: The Beautiful Stranger~~, ~~Night Creatures, Indians, Spring Song, culminating in~~ the ~~achievement of the goal, a mountain top covered with the heart’s desire—gold, jewels and money~~.		Of the five principal works I have written for dance, two are in a humorous vein: “The Race of Life,” written for Doris Humphrey, and “Opus 51,” for Charles Weidman. The problem was to capture the kind of comedy involved, the particular area of the human dilemma. In addition, “The Race of Life” (based on drawings by James Thurber) had a story and definite characters, while Opus 51 had neither. In both works I had to discover the serious musical stance from which humor could be achieved….

	~~Vivian Fine met all these moods with imagination and a full awareness of their Thurberian gaucherie and humor. Even his Beautiful Stranger is no chic adolescent~~, ~~but plainly bears the germ of the full-grown Thurber female~~, ~~rather hard~~, ~~aggressive and blowsy. To catch~~ such a ~~conception in music was a difficult feat~~. ~~She treated the Indians with~~ a ~~very funny version~~ of ~~an authentic pseudo-Indian popular song. Both in the music and the dance our Indians were phony, gaudy cigar-store fixtures~~. ~~Night Creatures~~ was ~~handled with grotesquerie, but still with~~ a ~~dreamlike delicacy~~. ~~At this point she added to~~ the ~~all-piano score a Flexotone whose sliding eeriness exactly met~~ the ~~requirements~~ of the ~~weird scene~~. In ~~its entirety it~~ was ~~a notable score—bright~~, ~~humorous, expert~~.		”Opus 51,” lacking story or characters, was almost pure comedy, if there is such a thing. In it Weidman achieved a kind of collage. No attempt was made to create situations leading to a comic “point.” Instead, we were shown unrelated actions strung together, the ultimate expression of the absurd….Weidman, using illogical sequences of action, succeeded in making us laugh by treating these sequences as seriously as if they were the normal course of events. In this rearrangement of reality, we sensed that reality was perhaps just another arrangement, and we enjoyed the upsetting of the proper order of things.

	….~~in all her undertakings in~~ the dance ~~field, she has an uncanny sense~~ of ~~what~~ to ~~choose as sound and that sine qua none~~ for ~~dance composers~~, ~~a complete understanding of body rhythms and dramatic timing~~. ~~–Doris Humphrey~~, ~~American Composers Alliance Bulletin~~, ~~1958~~<ref>http://www.vivianfine.org/main/compositions.htm</ref>		The music for both these dances was written after the dance was composed, although not after the entire work was finished. I would write a section as each new part of the dance was completed. In composing for choreography there is the problem of developing a musical structure and continuity. I was able to do this by not composing for individual moments or patterns, but by sensing the impulse that moved the dancer.
			–Vivian Fine, Dance Perspectives, v. 16, 1963<ref>http://www.vivianfine.org/main/compositions.htm</ref>


	=== Review ===		=== Review ===
	“Vivian ~~Fine’s music is miraculously right for the romping nonsense it accompanies~~.”<br>		“Vivian Fine has provided Charles Weidman’s ballet with a delightful musical score.”<br>
	~~–Mary O’Donnell~~, The ~~Dance Observer, March 1938~~		–John Martin, The New York Time<br>

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2015-05-23T05:30:28Z

Instrumentation

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	[[Piano]]<br>		[[Piano]]<br>

	[[Dance]]		[[Dance]]<br>


			Orchestral arrangement: 2021, 2221, timpani, percussion, piano, strings<br>

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Admin: Created page with "Vivian Fine

Opus 51 - Revision history

Admin at 05:32, 23 May 2015

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Admin: Created page with "Vivian Fine