You’ll hear the clicking of castanets, which are pairs of shell-shaped wooden percussion instruments. Carmen began life as an 1845 novella by the French author Prosper Mérimée. When we hear the name Carmen, we now immediately think of Georges Bizet’s 1875 opera however, by the time Bizet set it to music, the story of Carmen had already been around for 30 years. Elizabeth Raum (born 1945)įlamenco Dance from The Passion of Carmen These strong chords grow louder, towards the triumphant end of the piece. The repetition of the dance is interrupted by 15 accented major chords in an uneven rhythm, evoking the powerful strumming of a Flamenco guitar.Ĭandela and Carmélo can be together, at last. Candela and Carmélo kiss, breaking the spell and causing the ghost to be drawn into the fire, where he disappears. However, this time, another dancer joins in.Ĭandela and the ghost dance together, faster and faster, until the ghost is distracted by Candela’s charming friend Lucia. Halfway through this short piece, at about the 2-minute mark, the piece begins again, repeating the first half, complete with pulsing trills. It’s much like part of the orchestra posing a question and another part of the orchestra answering it, usually more quietly. The orchestra tosses this and other tunes back and forth. First an oboe, then the high strings, join in, with an enticing, sinuous dance tune. They all join forces, in an attempt to draw the ghost out.
Candela, surrounded by friends and family, is dancing the Ritual Fire Dance around the campfire. This is the Jealousy Motif, which recurs throughout the ballet. The unusual opening of this piece musically sets the scene, with half a minute of trills, which swell and recede in the high strings and are joined by an ominous rising and falling bass line in the low strings, setting the rhythm of the dance. When the Ritual Fire Dance scene of the ballet begins, Candela, an Andalusian Romani girl, is in love with Carmélo, but is being haunted by the ghost of her jealous husband.
0 kommentar(er)
