Music talk

[Hannah]

I still believe that he will choose Japanese or Korean composer for his FS : Joe Hisaishi, Yiruma....

[ser22]

Liszt.

 

[Yatagarasu]

1 hour ago, Murieleirum said:

And this is why I don't like Shoma's programs for next year. I already know the judges are gonna give him high Interpretation scores when... well... anyone can get fired up with Vivaldi's Winter and that one theme that goes 'All'alba viiiiiinceróóóóóóóóóóó'. So, smart move, Shoma. Doesn't get my approval tho. 

 

 

It's an excellent move by his team.They're warhorses for a reason, the general public, especially those that perk up once in four years are going to absolutely love it because they know it, and they'll get carried away by it. The music is going to be doing the work for him and for an Olympics year, they're playing totally safe. 
I am not a fan of that either but I understand why they're doing it. 

Driving music, with recognition is a plus in this season. We'll see what Yuzu will choose. 

 

@ser22 you can sell me anything if Kissin is playing it. I'd even sit through yet another Rach 2 if it's his version!

[Murieleirum]

2 minutes ago, Yatagarasu said:

 

It's an excellent move by his team.They're warhorses for a reason, the general public, especially those that perk up once in four years are going to absolutely love it because they know it, and they'll get carried away by it. The music is going to be doing the work for him and for an Olympics year, they're playing totally safe. 
I am not a fan of that either but I understand why they're doing it. 

Driving music, with recognition is a plus in this season. We'll see what Yuzu will choose. 

 

Honestly, this kind of 'intelligence' (I would call it slyness though) is very popular in Italy. Minimum effort, Maximum result. I hate it. And I think it's the complete opposite of Yuzuru's way of thinking. I can understand it, of course... but I hope Yuzuru and his team won't make the same decisions. I want strong pieces, sure, but not easy, or old, or overused. There's plenty of music, out there. You just gotta search a little harder. 

 

(Now that I'm thinking about it, might it be that Shoma's programs were released so early in the off-season because his team and him decided to take the 'music problem' out of the way at the very beginning, to focus on content practice? (meaning: moar quads)
BUT this is Off Topic. Damn, Muriel, focus.)

 

IT'S JUST THAT. Searching for a connection with the music is such a huge job. Finding your own interpretation of a piece of music is such a huge thing. Every time Yuzuru goes on the ice, he creates something new. It's not Seimei, Prince, Chopin, it's HIS Seimei, HIS Prince, HIS Chopin, and in Hope and Legacy he went as far as creating autobiographic poetry on ice. I cannot, cannot accept that this sensitivity is worth the same as 'being in tune with a powerful, familiar, popular tune', which is what both Shoma AND Javier do (Nathan doesn't even do that, since his FS music this year was basically a background soundtrack to his jump performance). Sure, it's interpretation, but the difference in depth must, must be noted.

 

If not, just eliminate "Interpretation". Call it "Personal favourite" and be done with it. 

[unicorn]

I'm very convinced of this supposed bird program for next season!! Swan Lake is a great guess, the more bombastic sections make for great LPs, but I thought I'd look for some lesser used "bird" pieces.
 

I love the idea of him kind of ignoring the Western canon and skating to music composed by Japanese composers  so I suggest Takashi Yoshimatsu. So many bird-themed works to enjoy from him: Prelude to the Celebration of Birds (lots of dynamics and interesting little melodies to explore with a soaring finish) and Ode to Birds and Rainbows (the melody that builds starting around 2:38 is particularly delightful and would make a great step sequence) especially. The Age of Birds is similarly wonderful. And Birds Are Still... is an incredibly touching piece, although maybe too quiet and introspective for the Olympics. A lot of the little melody sections of Yoshimatsu's pieces could be cut together in interesting ways like Lu Chen's The Last Emporer FS.

Perhaps no other piece of music captures the feeling of sun rising in the morning and birds taking to flight as Maurice Ravel's Lever du jour from Daphnis et Chloé. All at once it conveys the grandness of the world and nature and the power of the sun. Ralph Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending is another piece that evokes similar feeling, but it's more tranquil and less epic and transcendent as Lever du jour (plus, Yuna's version is hard to better!).

The black blades make me think of something a bit more devious and sinister though, intriguing to think about! Shostakovich like @Murieleirum and @rozuyu mentioned upthread is someone who has a lot of darker music to play with, I really like his Piano Trio no.2 Allegretto or the even more out of control String Quartet no.8. I think both could easily be interpreted in a bird-theme like Mao's Ritual Fire Dance SP and Akiko's O.

But most importantly, a bird/soaring theme begs for a spiral! Come on Yuzuru!

 

[Smultron]

@unicorn Wow! These are all wonderful pieces! So much amazing music out there... 

My playlist has been getting longer and longer lately thanks to this thread  

One part of me is dying to hear what music Yuzu has chosen for the next season but then another part of me is really enjoying all this guessing 

 

[unicorn]

26 minutes ago, rozuyu said:

@unicorn thank you for introducing me to Takashi Yoshimatsu's music! I'm listening now - sounds great. Simple in terms of harmony, but fascinating nonetheless. And recently I've been on a mission to find more Japanese music to listen to.

Also, String Quartet no. 8 is one of my absolute favorite chamber pieces of all time. People in this thread really have exquisite taste.

As you said, The Lark Ascending belongs to Yuna in my mind. Funny how sometimes skaters leave such a strong impression with their programs that the same music interpreted by anyone else would just feel wrong.

Daphins et Chloe is actually a bit of a warhorse, isn't it? I can recall at least 3 elite programs that used it. Doesn't diminish its beauty, of course!

And if bird-themed... why don't we go with Messiaen? *hides in a corner and never comes back* *the judges throw a fit* 

Daphnis et Chloé is not quite warhorse territory, I think! I can only think of 4 programs off the top of my head going back to Sarah Hughes. Gracie Gold's attempt last season wasn't particularly suited to her I felt (it calls for much more freedom), and was unfortunately hampered by lack of fitness. Then there's Yukina Ota's FS, then the only other one I can think of is a senior ladies competitor at US Nationals, but who never quite made it internationally, I think it's quite underused for men... Actually listing it out, I realize that there's more than I thought Not a warhorse yet, but a warpony. But still, I love it! And I feel nobody has quite done the music justice and "claimed it" as theirs yet, unlike with Yuna's The Lark Ascending as you said.

Hey, I like some Messiaen (and the joke!)

ETA: The guessing is so much fun, @Smultron! I'm also really thankful to people's suggestions here, it really feeds the soul and the ears to hear such great new music.

[EisElle]

What I like the most about this thread is that there are so many suggestions! I'm getting to know a lot of new pieces (well they are knew to me), keep going on guys!

 

4 hours ago, Murieleirum said:

 

Honestly, this kind of 'intelligence' (I would call it slyness though) is very popular in Italy. Minimum effort, Maximum result. I hate it. And I think it's the complete opposite of Yuzuru's way of thinking. I can understand it, of course... but I hope Yuzuru and his team won't make the same decisions. I want strong pieces, sure, but not easy, or old, or overused. There's plenty of music, out there. You just gotta search a little harder.

As a fellow italian, I feel you!

4 hours ago, Murieleirum said:

IT'S JUST THAT. Searching for a connection with the music is such a huge job. Finding your own interpretation of a piece of music is such a huge thing. Every time Yuzuru goes on the ice, he creates something new. It's not Seimei, Prince, Chopin, it's HIS Seimei, HIS Prince, HIS Chopin, and in Hope and Legacy he went as far as creating autobiographic poetry on ice. I cannot, cannot accept that this sensitivity is worth the same as 'being in tune with a powerful, familiar, popular tune', which is what both Shoma AND Javier do (Nathan doesn't even do that, since his FS music this year was basically a background soundtrack to his jump performance). Sure, it's interpretation, but the difference in depth must, must be noted.

 

If not, just eliminate "Interpretation". Call it "Personal favourite" and be done with it. 

I do think, too, that the bravest and hardest choice should be rewarded more, when successful, than the easiest (but given how all the PCS are given these days, this is hopeless dreaming).

Rationally I do understand that Shoma's is a winning (and totally legit, and common, sadly) approach, but I cannot avoid feeling a bit of disappointment for him going for the easiest of the easy ways, in both SP and LP. And I'm telling this as one that when saw FS in 2006 for the first time was caught by Lambiel's Vivaldi... so yes, this kind of choices does win casual viewers (I'm curious to see if Shoma can make me forget that). Though Arakawa's Turandot did not impressed me. Nor  did Sasha Cohen's Romeo&Juliet. Instead I was mesmerized by Totmianina&Marinin's R&J 

 

Yuzuru kind of followed the trend in 2014 for his LP, even if it was bound to a very personal take. But he was younger, and the last years proved he can skate to any kind of music and own it, so I hope he will give us something "different", that will be "easy" for audience and judges but undeniably "his" at the same time.

Given how he managed to make me love almost everything he's skated, I have faith

[Anony]

3 hours ago, unicorn said:

I love the idea of him kind of ignoring the Western canon and skating to music composed by Japanese composers  so I suggest Takashi Yoshimatsu. So many bird-themed works to enjoy from him: Prelude to the Celebration of Birds (lots of dynamics and interesting little melodies to explore with a soaring finish) and Ode to Birds and Rainbows (the melody that builds starting around 2:38 is particularly delightful and would make a great step sequence) especially. The Age of Birds is similarly wonderful. And Birds Are Still... is an incredibly touching piece, although maybe too quiet and introspective for the Olympics. A lot of the little melody sections of Yoshimatsu's pieces could be cut together in interesting ways like Lu Chen's The Last Emporer FS.

Oh my gosh, another Takashi Yoshimatsu fan eeeeeeeeeee

[unicorn]

8 hours ago, Anony said:

Oh my gosh, another Takashi Yoshimatsu fan eeeeeeeeeee

His music is wonderful!

@rozuyu I definitely did not coin warpony, we'll have to search for the person who that trophy emoji really belongs to! Similarly to Ravel who most skaters use for Bolero and occasionally Daphnis et Chloé, Liszt's repertoire is also so underused. We get so many takes on Liebesträume and then maybe the occasional Totentanz (and then it's usually the remix, looking at you, 2007-08 Yuzuru ). Bartók would be quite a bold choice any season, every season

[Murieleirum]

Okay, so, yesterday night I got to work and did something... I'm kinda embarassed to share it but okay 

I don't remember (and I can't find the comment) of who said they wanted to see Yuzuru skate to Saint Saens' Dance Macabre, but I totally agreed, because I loooove Dance Macabre. It's a powerful piece and the story begs to be skated: spirits and ghosts that come out from their graves at night and dance until sunrise? PERFECT skating FS. No wonder it's kind of a warhorse. 

Piecing it together with Hope and Legacy was hard tho. It was kinda painful to cut the music up and in a couple of situations I had to slightly change the video's speed to fit it all together. It's not that obvious, but most of you will notice, I believe. 

 

I think many people could have done a better job than me, but I did my best. I'm particularly proud of most jumping passes (always on a musical accent), how the Step Sequence and the Choreo sequence fit the music quite nicely. 

 

As for the ending... well, the original one was too damn long! So, there you go, it ends directly after the "sun rising" sung by the clarinet. 

 

Enjoy!  I think I'm gonna do another one today because I am having too much fun. 
 

 

EDIT: fujitv blocked the video in Japan. Don't really know how to get around that one! :c

[Anony]

12 hours ago, Murieleirum said:

Okay, so, yesterday night I got to work and did something... I'm kinda embarassed to share it but okay 

I don't remember (and I can't find the comment) of who said they wanted to see Yuzuru skate to Saint Saens' Dance Macabre, but I totally agreed, because I loooove Dance Macabre. It's a powerful piece and the story begs to be skated: spirits and ghosts that come out from their graves at night and dance until sunrise? PERFECT skating FS. No wonder it's kind of a warhorse. 

Piecing it together with Hope and Legacy was hard tho. It was kinda painful to cut the music up and in a couple of situations I had to slightly change the video's speed to fit it all together. It's not that obvious, but most of you will notice, I believe. 

 

I think many people could have done a better job than me, but I did my best. I'm particularly proud of most jumping passes (always on a musical accent), how the Step Sequence and the Choreo sequence fit the music quite nicely. 

 

As for the ending... well, the original one was too damn long! So, there you go, it ends directly after the "sun rising" sung by the clarinet. 

 

Enjoy!  I think I'm gonna do another one today because I am having too much fun. 
 

 

EDIT: fujitv blocked the video in Japan. Don't really know how to get around that one! :c

Well done, I'm impressed, especially with the timing on the 3Lz and the final CoSp

[Murieleirum]

6 minutes ago, Anony said:

Well done, I'm impressed, especially with the timing on the 3Lz and the final CoSp

 

That 3Lz and then the music explodes and YASSS I'm quite proud. I'm glad you liked it! 
(Honestly, I could put any music there and It'd be gorgeous. Yuzuru's skating is very versatile.)

[Anony]

16 minutes ago, Murieleirum said:

 

That 3Lz and then the music explodes and YASSS I'm quite proud. I'm glad you liked it! 
(Honestly, I could put any music there and It'd be gorgeous. Yuzuru's skating is very versatile.)

Really is isn't it? I swear Yuzuru could skate to the Teletubbies' theme song and I would still like it.

[Murieleirum]

6 minutes ago, Anony said:

Really is isn't it? I swear Yuzuru could skate to the Teletubbies' theme song and I would still like it.

... Don't tempt me...