"Dansons la
gigue." D major; B3-F5; Tess: M; 6/8, Tres Vite; V/mD, P/MmD; 5 pages.
The
gigue concluded a bravura performance of flawless intonation and articulation.
One Saturday he made two major debuts: as the spunky Faun in the Fall section of Robbins' The Four Seasons and that evening as the refined
Gigue in Balanchine's Mozartiana.
Would Johann Pachelbel be happy to have his Canon &
Gigue advertising woolly jumpers or Irish butter, or would Delibes be happy for his Dome Epais (Flower Duet) to be associated with British Airways?
Initially published as a
gigue for solo piano by Oliver Ditson of Boston, the piece became best known as a regimental march performed by the Band of the Royal Newfoundland Companies and a variety of other military and civilian ensembles active in Newfoundland at the time.
The final movement was a bit mushy with insufficient attack, but the orchestral effect Ma achieved in bringing out the drone was admirable, lending this German
Gigue an Irish lilt.
An unidentified reviewer praised her as an "excellent interpreter" of Bach and lauded in particular her "very beautiful performance" of the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue on the piano and her "extraordinarily colorful" rendition of the
gigue from the Partita No.
On Sunday the Queen's Hall hosts the Hexham Gathering International Concert, a new event at the festival, featuring the hall's very own folk ensemble,
Gigue Fish, as well as The Halsingland Band from Sweden and bands from Italy and France on their first visit to the gathering complete the line up, showing the diversity of traditional music from across our continent.
On Sunday, the Queen's Hall hosts the Hexham Gathering International Concert, a new event at the festival, featuring the hall's very own folk ensemble,
GIGUE FISH, as well as the HALSINGLAND BAND from Sweden and bands from Italy and France.
Bruce, who draws only superficially on traditional folk dance figures, has devised movements from Modern Dance (Martha Graham's technique is surely an influence) with natural pedestrian locomotion, and for such identifiable dances as a
gigue he enriches the vocabulary with a saucy hip wiggle.
Although based on the social dances of the court such as the gavotte, the courante, and the
gigue, these choreographed spectacles were much more elaborate affairs, with spoken verse and music interspersed with balletic entrees performed by professional dancers and select nobles.
