So here's the full conductor score for Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake
and it shows the entire orchestra from top to bottom
you've got the woodwind section then you've got the brass section
then you've got the percussion
then you've got maybe the harp of the piano and then
you've got the strings at the bottom if you notice though
there's one thing that's missing here you don't have the dance steps indicated
so as a conductor you have to figure out what's going on.
You watch videos, you take archival videos if they exist
and you go to rehearsals and you take out your pencil and you take notes
As a conductor I love to be in the studio with the dancers
because I need to know where the dancer jumps
I need to know if the accent is up when the dancer jumps
or I need to know if the accent is where the dancer lands
I just wanted to ask one small thing, so the very first
I'd love to show that big interval
so I make lots of squiggles and notes and draw lots of arrows
just so I know where everything is meant to line up
just the interval the distance between the two notes,
you have to make sense of the music while allowing for all of these variables
I feel at home in the orchestra this is where i feel the most comfortable
and this is where I put together the sound,
the real sound of the orchestra together with the dancers.
The music reflects all of the sensitivity involved
in the first meeting of Siegfried, the Prince and Odette, the white swan.
The oboe is very much attached to Odette,
the vulnerability and the plaintiveness of the sound of the oboe
is so much in line with the emotional content of
Odette's dancing and her character.
The harp is a very important instrument in ballet music
there's a freedom and a romanticism associated with the harp
it's a technicolour marvel when the harp plays
This evokes the lake in some ways
In Act two, we have this very famous pas de deux,
it's a duet between the Prince and Odette
and the solo violin and the solo cello sing together
the soul of violin expresses Odette and the solo cello Siegfried
Tchaikovsky not only sings delicately but roars dramatically and furiously
when the drama requires it
In the third act the music has this darkness of the cellos and basses
and the very dark and toning sounds of the trombone section
which evokes this evil magician Rothbart.
When the battle for Odette comes,
it's a complete symphonic development of the themes of all of the characters
the battle on stage rages on in the orchestra
Tchaikovsky really tells the story, it's not the easy dancing music that a 19th century
ballet company would have expected
they probably found it quite challenging to deal with.
These days we couldn't imagine life without it.