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Conducting for Dance Author(s): Robert Irving Source: Dance Chronicle, Vol. 15, No. 1 (1992), pp. 72-76 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1567793 Accessed: 23-07-2016 15:13 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms

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Conducting for Dance Robert Irving Editors' Note:

Many great conductors have been associated with ballet companies at one time or another in their career-Monteux, Ansermet, Horenstein, Abravanel, Dorati, and Rozhdestvensky, for example-but few have chosen to devote their lives primarily to conducting for dance. Indeed, only Yury Fayer and Robert Irving come immediately to mind. Their talents would have assured them a brilliant career in concert or

opera, but in the orchestra pits of the Bolshoi Theatre, Covent Garden, and the New York State Theater, they served the art of dance by making the musical performance the full partner to that on stage, raising the ballet to a level not found when lesser artists are on the podium. For forty years Robert Irving worked with the Sadler's Wells/

Royal Ballet (1949-1958) and the New York City Ballet (1958-1989), collaborating closely with Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, and Jerome Robbins in the creation of dozens of ballets. With his firm

yet flexible beat, understanding of musical architecture, and an instinctive feel for dance rhythms and pacing, he provided secure support for the dancers while upholding the integrity of the music. As a result, he and his orchestra were among the heroes of the New York

City Ballet's Stravinsky Festivals (1972, 1982), Ravel Festival (1975), and Tchaikovsky Festival (1981). After meeting Martha Graham during the creation of Episodes in 1959, Irving conducted for her from 1960-

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1965 and again 1974-1977, and also guested with other ballet companies-especially in the Balanchine repertory-as well as occasionally conducting opera, Gilbert and Sullivan, and orchestral concerts. In his last years at New York City Ballet, Irving was often un-

well and his retirement in June 1989 went unmarked. The company planned to publicly acknowledge his long and excellent service at the time that his successor was to be announced, but the unexpected death

of Ashley Lawrence threw those plans into confusion and no public acknowledgment of his retirement or his great contributions to the company was ever made, to the regret of his many admirers. But his legacy remains for all who attended the many performances enhanced by his support and understanding of what music can do for dance-and

in the high expectations we now have for performances to come. We are pleased to have the opportunity to present this previously unpublished essay on Conducting for Dance by Mr. Irving, who died in his native Winchester on September 13, 1991, at the age of seventy-seven. * * * * *

The term "ballet conductor" is of comparatively recent origin. Previously there were simply professional conductors, who were sometimes called on to conduct for the ballet instead of symphony concerts or opera. The tremendous increase in the number of ballet performers and performances in the Western world during the last fifty years has

brought about the situation where there is a great deal of work for musicians throughout most of the year, and the institution of national ballet companies has created a number of resident jobs for conductors instead of temporary engagements. The early years of the Russian ballet invasion of the West, led

by Diaghilev, introduced mostly set pieces of music-some original and some published for the ballet-the outstanding examples being, of course, the early Stravinsky repertoire and the works of other first-

class composers such as Rimsky-Korsakov, Falla, and Ravel. These works required no special qualifications from established symphonic conductors other than high professionalism and basic sympathy for those on stage. It was not until later that the older full-length classical

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ballets took hold in the Western countries, notably Great Britain, and the manifold problems of accompanying the variations and pas de deux from the Tchaikovsky, Delibes, and Adam ballets began to make themselves felt.

The first difficulty for the aspiring conductor is that there is

next to no training available for ballet conducting. Whereas all musical academies provide plenty of opportunity for the student to be initiated into the symphonic repertoire or to rehearse with opera singers, there is no chance of learning about the complexities of working with ballet dancers: and when the opportunity does arrive, speaking from my own experience, one is very likely to be thrust in to perform works without any orchestral rehearsal, which demands a high stan-

dard of professionalism. It is essential for the aspiring ballet conductor to have a basic

interest in the dance, coupled with a well-developed sense of movement, which enables one to perceive when the dancers are being rushed

or, which is worse, being dragged back by too slow a tempo. Most important of all is to have the ability and instinct to set an agreed tempo

without being affected by one's mood on a particular day. The concert conductor is at liberty to bound into a breathtaking presto if he is feeling extra good or to dwell on certain passages if feeling melancholy and introspective. The ballet conductor, however, must develop a sterner self-discipline. It is a great help to be a pianist, as it is very

easy to sit next to an experienced rehearsal pianist, listening to the agreed tempo, but it is quite another matter to sit down and set it oneself.

A tremendous factor is the musicality of the choreographer or the company's artistic director. With new works it is highly desirable to get together with the choreographer before he starts to work. Once he has fallen in love with some of his steps, it is very difficult to persuade him to change them, even though they may not fit with a manageable tempo. Coming in to conduct established works in a repertoire, one is bound to be unlucky in places: some of the ballets will have been set to highly personalized recordings for which one has little sympathy, but it is usually possible to make musical sense with some minor adjustments that will not upset the dancers. Coming in to conduct different versions of the full-length classics is quite another matter, as here the traditional choreography has

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passed through so many hands, and often the distortions in steps and tempo have been handed on by individual dancers, later to be accepted

as "traditional." It is almost inevitable that the aspiring conductor will give in too much to dancers at first: he has not the experience to evaluate the validity of the claims that dancers will make on him and only with experience can he develop this faculty. Unfortunately, some conductors seem to think that a habit of assiduously waiting on hesitant dancers is the sure road to progress, whereas it is the quickest road

to chaos and indiscipline. Of course dancers are creatures of infinite variety and I do not

mean that one should not give full attention and understanding to their individual talents and defects. Their standards of musicality have certainly risen over the years, thanks to the vast diversity of musical

scores used by choreographers. Some dancers move sharply and instinctively with the music, while others are naturally hesitant. The hesitant ones are a problem, as some of them are truly slower movers, while others require to be "led" by the music (at a danceable tempo), and for the conductor to wait upon their feet is usually fatal to their performance. Many quick variations put real pressure on the dancers and demand their maximum effort: to play these variations at a com-

fortable tempo can distort the whole character of the dance. In the classical ballets there is a wide range of visual cues. First there are the variations in which the conductor has to time the start

with the initial movement of the dancer, or to catch him at the end of a step-and sometimes even at the finish of a double turn. There may be sections in the middle of the variation (Giselle is particularly rich in these) in which the music is repeated at a totally different tempo from that at which it was played the first time, and here is where a built-in sense of movement is particularly invaluable. The ends of numbers should be kept as simple as possible and heavy rallentandi of du-

bious duration avoided if possible. If the dancers know in advance what timing to expect, they have something at which to aim, which is far more helpful than a nebulous pause. I think that Princess Aurora's variation from Act I of The Sleeping Beauty contains as great a variety of these problems as any other piece, and I recommend it to the neophyte for study. The Tchaikovsky scores, however, are of such high quality that they take root in one's mind on a much more solid foot-

ing than the lightweight accompaniments of Adam or the Danish

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composers of the Bournonville repertoire, which certainly do not linger long in one's memory and therefore require more effort for the conductor to disentangle on returning to them after an absence. The scope and variety of the modern dance world has increased so tremendously of late that it is difficult to make any general comments about the conductor's problems. On the whole, the more exotic and outlandish the music, the fewer problems there are of cooperation with the stage. It is sink or swim for the dancers, and lifebelts will not help. The repertoire of Martha Graham is perhaps the most substantial musically, ranging from standard Americana to Levantine fantasy, but she is such a strong and clear-headed creator that I never remember having any real difficulties cooperating with the dancers. Their movements have such definition and impact that they stay in one's mind without undue effort.

It would be wrong not to point out some basic defects inherent in conducting for the dance. First is the undoubted fact that the symphonic world is much more lucrative financially than the ballet. And one is all too dependent on the resources and quality of the ballet company. For a long time it was considered of minor importance to provide adequate music for the dance and the impression was prevalent that touring companies were used to subminimal musical standards. Fortunately, there has been a most agreeable increase in communica-

tion between the leading symphony orchestras and the dance, and quite a number of them now include dance items by well-known dancers in their extra-season summer events, the dancers taking the place of instrumental soloists.

At the same time there is still quite an amount of prejudice in the symphonic world against conductors who work for the ballet-and one must accept that one is not going to be gazed at and worshipped in the pit as one might be on the concert platform or before the increasingly attentive television camera. For those, however, who are not dominated by towering egos, the rewards of working with topclass artists are very great. And in my experience dancers are among the most realistic, dedicated, and friendly beings in the whole spectrum of the human race.

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