The Ballet Class (#17) - An Original Piano Score by Stuart Meyer Based on Degas Painting

Описание: Full description and composer's notes below
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Edgar Degas's painting, "The Ballet Class" (1871-1874) provides a glimpse of ballet master Jules Perrot teaching a class in the Paris Opera House.

COMPOSER'S NOTES: This particular Artscore holds special meaning as I spent 10 years making a documentary film entitled, "Born to Love Ballet" which was finally finished in 2018 (note: It took Degas 4 years to complete "The Ballet Class" so I can relate to delays). During production of the film, I spent quite a bit of time capturing ballet classes and performance rehearsals under the talents of legendary choreographer and ballet master Kenneth von Heidecke. Early in production, I began composing music for the film and created a piece which tells the story of the typical ballet class, noting the pace, the rhythm, the various levels of students, dancers sitting along the walls within the studio, plenty of emotion, and Ken moving gracefully through the lines of dancers giving instruction. When I initially selected this Degas painting for Artscores, I sat down to compose a new piece of music; however, I soon kept coming back to the piece I had created for "Born to Love Ballet" and the parallels between Degas's scene in "The Ballet Class" and the studio scenes in my film. The stories matched perfectly, unifying the 19th century with the 21st century, and I decided to set this Artscore to my original piece of music which I composed over ten years ago, adding a new intro to the piece to mimic a ballerina music box and a girl's youthful dream of becoming a ballerina. Beyond the intro, the piece picks up tempo fast setting a chaotic, yet deliberate pace. The left-hand part symbolizes the ballet master keeping the beat with the right-hand responding and trying to keep pace with the ballet master in a somewhat frantic yet poised manner. Purposefully, I left carefully placed mistakes in the repetition of the opening phrases to represent the occasional mistakes a dancer will making trying to keep up with the technique and tempo. The middle section of the piece drifts between moments of graceful beauty along with moments of doubt and imperfection ultimately finding its "moment" as the left-hand represents the corps de ballet' dancing perfectly in unison with the right-hand representing the soloist and the big finish.

"The Ballet Class" is in the permanent collection at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Keeping in tradition, I've had the good fortune to experience this painting during two visits.

I hope you enjoyed your Artscores journey into "The Ballet Class".

Stuart