Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword by Sir Charles Mackerras
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Glasgow: Kailyard or Coal Yard?
- 2 The Active Society: Bringing the Heroes of Modernism to Glasgow
- 3 Chisholm's Scottish Inheritance
- Interlude: The Love of Sorabji
- 4 A Trojan Horse in Glasgow: Berlioz, Mozart and Gluck
- 5 The Ballet & The Baton as Weapons of War
- Centre-Piece Pictures from Dante & Night Song of the Bards: A Journey from West to East
- 6 From Italy to India and Singapore
- 7 Under Table Mountain
- 8 On Tour in the USA and Europe
- 9 Soviet Ambassador: Chisholm behind the Iron Curtain
- Interlude: The Love of Janáček
- 10 Chasing a Restless Muse: The Heart's Betrayal
- 10 Chasing a Restless Muse: The Heart's Betrayal
- Appendix 1: The Active Society for the Propagation of Contemporary Music
- Appendix 2: Patrick Macdonald Sources for Chisholm's Piano Works
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Discography
- Selected Compositions
- Index
5 - The Ballet & The Baton as Weapons of War
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword by Sir Charles Mackerras
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Glasgow: Kailyard or Coal Yard?
- 2 The Active Society: Bringing the Heroes of Modernism to Glasgow
- 3 Chisholm's Scottish Inheritance
- Interlude: The Love of Sorabji
- 4 A Trojan Horse in Glasgow: Berlioz, Mozart and Gluck
- 5 The Ballet & The Baton as Weapons of War
- Centre-Piece Pictures from Dante & Night Song of the Bards: A Journey from West to East
- 6 From Italy to India and Singapore
- 7 Under Table Mountain
- 8 On Tour in the USA and Europe
- 9 Soviet Ambassador: Chisholm behind the Iron Curtain
- Interlude: The Love of Janáček
- 10 Chasing a Restless Muse: The Heart's Betrayal
- 10 Chasing a Restless Muse: The Heart's Betrayal
- Appendix 1: The Active Society for the Propagation of Contemporary Music
- Appendix 2: Patrick Macdonald Sources for Chisholm's Piano Works
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Discography
- Selected Compositions
- Index
Summary
Dr Chisholm has called a meeting at Cuthbertson's on Thursday at eight of all those interested in the formation of a Scottish Ballet Society … the desire is to produce ballets in style similar to ‘Job,’ but based for the most part on Scottish themes and ‘grafting a semi-classical foundation on to Scottish dances.’ It is hoped to provide annual performances of ballet in Glasgow on parallel lines to the Grand Opera Society's productions of opera. Several native composers are already engaged on the composition of ballet music.
The Scottish Ballet Society was duly formed in the spring of 1937, with Erik as one of a temporary committee of five. He told a Daily Mail reporter:
It will be our object to evolve a new and national type of ballet expressive of the spirit and sentiment of Scotland. Purely classical and operatic themes will be avoided. There is every hope for the society's success because Scots people are great lovers of good dancing. There is a great advantage in the fact that Scotland has definite dancing traditions. A search has been made for suitable folk tunes and folk stories. Musicians, artists, dancers, and art students are among the new society's members.
Scotland and ballet were not regarded as natural companions, but the Scots love to dance and have contributed to the world a number of dance forms – the reel, strathspey, and possibly the hornpipe, and have certainly had a huge input into the jig from at least as early as the sixteenth century – so Scotland and ballet should feel no distrust, as Anna Pavlova commented when in Glasgow:
The news that a Scottish ballet company is to be started by amateurs in Glasgow reminds me of an interview I had with Madame Anna Pavlova on her last visit to this town. The famous dancer seemed a timid creature off the stage. But she became quite animated when she started to talk about Highland dancing.
She told me that she had been studying it carefully and had come to the conclusion that Highland and ballet dancing had the same base. She even demonstrated ballet movements to me and showed the corresponding movement in the Highland fling. With a heritage like that, she said, the Scots ought to be good ballet dancers. It will be interesting to see whether the new Scottish ballet can come up to her opinion.
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- Erik Chisholm, Scottish Modernist (1904-1965)Chasing a Restless Muse, pp. 83 - 101Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2009