Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Venues and the Shows
- 2 Music Halls for Tout-Paris
- 3 Creative Artists: Authors, Composers, and Choreographers
- 4 The Ballet-Divertissement
- 5 Real Pantomime-Ballets: The Choreographic Conventions of 1890s Music-Hall Ballet
- 6 Music as Storyteller: The Musical Conventions of 1890s Music-Hall Ballet
- 7 As Pleasing to the Ear as to the Eye: A Popular Musical Style
- 8 The Stories of Music-Hall Ballet: Romance, Flirtations, and Other Pleasures
- 9 A Delight to Behold: Glitter, Glamour, and Girls
- Appendix A Tables of Ballets Staged by the Folies-Bergère, the Olympia, and the Casino de Paris
- Appendix B Synopses of Ballets Staged at the Folies-Bergère, the Olympia, and the Casino de Paris
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - As Pleasing to the Ear as to the Eye: A Popular Musical Style
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 June 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Venues and the Shows
- 2 Music Halls for Tout-Paris
- 3 Creative Artists: Authors, Composers, and Choreographers
- 4 The Ballet-Divertissement
- 5 Real Pantomime-Ballets: The Choreographic Conventions of 1890s Music-Hall Ballet
- 6 Music as Storyteller: The Musical Conventions of 1890s Music-Hall Ballet
- 7 As Pleasing to the Ear as to the Eye: A Popular Musical Style
- 8 The Stories of Music-Hall Ballet: Romance, Flirtations, and Other Pleasures
- 9 A Delight to Behold: Glitter, Glamour, and Girls
- Appendix A Tables of Ballets Staged by the Folies-Bergère, the Olympia, and the Casino de Paris
- Appendix B Synopses of Ballets Staged at the Folies-Bergère, the Olympia, and the Casino de Paris
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In a review of Henri José's Le tzigane for Gil Blas in 1899, Gaston Serpette encapsulated the essential qualities of a great music-hall ballet score. M. Henri Jose, he writes, “has perfectly understood that in a music hall, one needs above all to capture the attention of a public that comes far more for its own amusement than in search of great art. Also, all of his pieces are always melodically and rhythmically clear. One effortlessly follows this music that accurately underlines all of the libretto's situations.” To be a success, ballet music needed to be entertaining and functional. Although creativity and the ability to write arresting dramatic scenes were valued, music-hall composers earned the highest praise if they were able to write music that followed the contours of the plot and that was upbeat, danceable, colorful, and melodically appealing. The excerpts of reviews included below represent only a small sample, but their similarity is revealing.
M. G. Pfeiffer's music, which is clear, dancelike, rhythmic, and melodious, offers the ear a plethora of delicious motives.
M. Ganne's score is full of color, with a delicate orchestration and demonic and fantastic sonorities, and in which the Dies Irae is integrated in a most curious fashion. But the composer has not forgotten the dance tunes and punctuates the ballerina's light steps with the liveliest of melodies.
M. Diet's music is elegant and dancelike. Lovely waltz tunes are particularly pleasant. Charming and voluptuous motives underline the expressive miming of M. Thalès, Helene Chauvin (La belle aux cheveux d’or), Louise Willy.
M. Ed. Diet's score is elegant and carefully crafted. The dance tunes are properly dancelike, which is occasionally lacking in ballets. They place choreographic virtuosity at the forefront.
Popular ballet music was light music. It was written for commercial venues as ephemeral entertainment that would appeal to as large and diverse an audience as possible. Music-hall scores were not intended for concert-hall performance or intellectual contemplation but rather as supports for pantomime and dance. Ballet music fit in with other types of music heard at the halls: polkas, waltzes, and marches played by the orchestra between circus or theatrical performances, music for song-and-dance routines, and exotic musical acts presented during intermissions. Music-hall ballet music was therefore closely tied to its function: its form was dictated by generic requirements and its tone by performance context and audience expectations.
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- Parisian Music-Hall Ballet, 1871-1913 , pp. 133 - 160Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2015