Checkmate : a ballet in one scene with a prologue

Bibliographic Information

Checkmate : a ballet in one scene with a prologue

by Arthur Bliss

Novello, c2007

Printed Music(Full Score)

Other Title

Echec et mat

Schachmatt

Checkmate : complete ballet

Available at  / 1 libraries

Search this Book/Journal

Note

MUSIC:Study score

For orchestra

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Arthur Bliss was already a major composer when he was commissioned by the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1937 to provide a score for Checkmate. Although replicating something of the form of the conventional one-act ballet in being an episodic sequence of ensembles and solos within a basic non-narrative theme, Ninette de Valois' ballet used the classical divertissement to create a work of darkness and foreboding. With its striking Prologue, depicting the fateful game of good versus evil, and its violent, martial climax, it was uniquely a ballet for its time. Bliss, fresh from writing the score for the Wells/Korda film Things to Come, would have seemed the perfect choice it depict in music the contradictions of the 1930s and the Machine Age: the promise of scientific progress, aviation, mass communication and the menace of totalitarianism and world war. The score of Checkmate is engraved and published complete for the first time, with preface by Bliss scholar Andrew Burn.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

  • NCID
    BA8743288X
  • ISBN
    • 9781847720245
  • Country Code
    uk
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    und
  • Place of Publication
    London
  • Pages/Volumes
    1 score (267 p.)
  • Size
    35 cm
Page Top