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Hoctor's Ballet
''Hoctor's Ballet'' is a composition by George Gershwin for full orchestra written in 1937, originally from the score for ''Shall We Dance''. Composed by Gershwin specifically for the ballerina Harriet Hoctor, the piece 10-minute piece features string glissandos, rapid shifts in key, and the most extensive parts are written for the harp. It consists of a dramatic introduction followed by a fast waltz, a stately procession, an extended pas de deux, and a climactic reprise (also noted in some books as a separate "Shall We Dance", "Masks" or "Finale and Coda" scene.) This is the only published music from the ''Shall We Dance'' score available besides the '' Walking the Dog'' sequence, and is significant as the last long composition written by Gershwin for the symphony orchestra. The premiere live concert performance of ''Hoctor's Ballet'' took place on July 28, 2007 at the Severance Hall Pavilion in Cleveland, Ohio, with Loras John Schissel conducting the Blossom Festival Orche ...
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George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular music, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swanee (song), Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the orchestral compositions ''Rhapsody in Blue'' (1924) and ''An American in Paris'' (1928), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930) and the opera ''Porgy and Bess'' (1935), which included the hit "Summertime (George Gershwin song), Summertime". His ''Of Thee I Sing'' (1931) was the first musical theater, musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody. He began his career as a song plugger but soon started composing Broadway theater works with his brother Ira Gershwin and with Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris, intending to study with Nadia ...
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Shall We Dance (1937 Film)
''Shall We Dance'' is a 1937 American musical comedy film directed by Mark Sandrich. It is the seventh of the ten Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers films. The story follows a Russian-imposter ballet dancer (Astaire) who falls in love with a tap dancer (Rogers); the tabloid press concocts a story of their marriage, after which life imitates art. George Gershwin wrote the symphonic underscore and Ira Gershwin the lyrics, for their second Hollywood musical. Plot Peter P. Peters is an amiable American ballet dancer billed as "Petrov", who cultivates a public image of being a serious, demanding and temperamental Russian, though his employer knows the truth. Peters dances for a ballet company in Paris owned by the bumbling Jeffrey Baird. Baird secretly never wants to blend classical ballet with modern jazz dancing because he thinks it does not look very professional. When Peters sees a photo of famous tap dancer Linda Keene, he falls in love with her. He contrives to meet her (as "Petr ...
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Harriet Hoctor
Harriet Hoctor (September 25, 1905 – June 9, 1977) was a ballerina and actress. Composer George Gershwin composed a symphonic orchestral piece ("Hoctor's Ballet") specifically for Hoctor in the film ''Shall We Dance (1937 film), Shall We Dance'' (1937). Life and career Harriet Hoctor was born in Hoosick Falls, New York, to Timothy Hoctor and Elizabeth Kearny Hoctor. She was one of four children, the others being Martin Francis ("Frank"), John, and Eloise. Harriet Hoctor never married. Early training Hoctor's maternal aunt, Annie Kearney, was a social secretary to a wealthy woman in Hoosick Falls who took an interest in young Harriet. At the age of twelve she was sent to New York City and placed under the tutelage of Russian ballet master Louis Harvy Chalif of the Normal School of Dancing. Stage By the time she was sixteen, Hoctor was touring in vaudeville on the same bill as the Duncan Sisters. She was asked to join their wikt:act, act and became a key player in their ''T ...
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Glissando
In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a wikt:glide, glide from one pitch (music), pitch to another (). It is an Italianized Musical terminology, musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In some contexts, it is equivalent to portamento, which is a continuous, seamless glide between notes. In other contexts, it refers to discrete, stepped glides across notes, such as on a piano. Some terms that are similar or equivalent in some contexts are slide, sweep bend, smear, rip (for a loud, violent glissando to the beginning of a note), lip (in jazz terminology, when executed by changing one's embouchure on a wind instrument), plop, or falling hail (a glissando on a harp using the back of the fingernails). On wind instruments, a scoop is a glissando ascending to the onset of a note achieved entirely with the embouchure, except on instruments that have a slide (such as a trombone). Notation The glissando is indicated by following the ...
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Pas De Deux
In ballet, a ( French, literally "step of two") is a dance duet in which two dancers, typically a male and a female, perform ballet steps together. The ''pas de deux'' is characteristic of classical ballet and can be found in many well-known ballets, including ''Sleeping Beauty'', ''Swan Lake'', and '' Giselle''. It is most often performed by a male and a female (a ''danseur'' and a ''ballerina'') though there are exceptions, such as in the film '' White Nights'', in which a ''pas de deux'' is performed by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines. ''Grand pas de deux'' A ''grand pas de deux'' is a structured ''pas de deux'' that typically has five parts, consisting of an ''entrée'' (introduction), an ''adagio'', two variations (a solo for each dancer), and a ''coda'' (conclusion). It is effectively a suite of dances that share a common theme, often symbolic of a love story or the partnership inherent in love, with the dancers portraying expressions of affectionate feelings an ...
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Walking The Dog (Gershwin)
''Walking the Dog'' is one of many musical numbers written in 1937 by George Gershwin for the score for the Fred Astaire – Ginger Rogers film ''Shall We Dance''. In the film, the music accompanies a sequence of walking a dog on board a luxury liner. In 1960, the sequence was published as "Promenade". Most of the score from the film (composed and orchestrated by Gershwin) remains unpublished and unavailable in modern stereo recordings. On September 22, 2013, it was announced that a musicological critical edition of the full orchestral score would be released, as a result of collaboration between the Gershwin family, the Library of Congress and the University of Michigan. The entire Gershwin project may take 30 to 40 years to complete, and it is unknown when the score to ''Shall We Dance'' (which includes ''Walking The Dog'') will be released. It is unknown whether the critical edition will include the round section heard on the soundtrack. See also *List of compositions ...
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Severance Hall
Severance Hall, also known as Severance Music Center, is a concert hall in the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio, home to the Cleveland Orchestra. Opened in 1931 to give the orchestra a permanent home, the building is named for patrons John L. Severance and his wife, Elisabeth Huntingdon DeWitt Severance. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of Cleveland’s Wade Park District. In addition to serving as the Cleveland Orchestra’s home and as a commencement site for Case Western Reserve University, Severance Hall is available to rent for concerts, weddings, corporate events, and receptions. On Severance Hall’s ground floor is Reinberger Chamber Hall, a separate 402-seat auditorium that is frequently used for more intimate performances and pre-concert lectures. History Founded in 1918, the Cleveland Orchestra first performed at Grays Armory in downtown Cleveland and moved to the Masonic Auditorium for concerts during the 19 ...
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Blossom Festival
The Blossom Festival is a summer music festival of orchestral music located at the Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The festival was originally created to provide a summer concert vehicle for the Cleveland Orchestra and the Blossom Music Center was specifically built to host the festival. The festival's first season was in 1968 and it consisted of six weeks of concerts given by the Cleveland Orchestra intermingled with eight individual jazz/folk music concerts. George Szell conducted the first concert on July 19, 1968. Since then the festival has been expanded to include ten weeks of orchestral music, most of which is still performed by the Cleveland Orchestra but also includes concerts by the festival's own Blossom Festival Orchestra. The Blossom Festival Orchestra is made up of free-lance musicians from the Cleveland area, mostly pulling from musicians of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, Opera Cleveland Orchestra, or Apollo's Fire. The orchestra performs annually for ...
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Library Of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law of the United States, copyright law through the United States Copyright Office, and it houses the Congressional Research Service. Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the oldest Cultural policy of the United States, federal cultural institution in the United States. It is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill, adjacent to the United States Capitol, along with the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, and additional storage facilities at Fort Meade, Fort George G. Meade and Cabin Branch in Hyattsville, Maryland. The library's functions are overseen by the librarian of Congress, and its buildings are maintained by the architect of the Capitol. The LOC is one of the List of largest libraries, largest libra ...
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University Of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Michigan is one of the earliest American research universities and is a founding member of the Association of American Universities. In the fall of 2023, the university employed 8,189 faculty members and enrolled 52,065 students in its programs. The university is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It consists of nineteen colleges and offers 250 degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The university is Higher education accreditation in the United States, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2021, it ranked third among American universities in List of countries by research and development spending, research expe ...
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Compositions By George Gershwin
Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include visuals and digital space *Composition (visual arts), the plan, placement or arrangement of the elements of art in a work * ''Composition'' (Peeters), a 1921 painting by Jozef Peeters *Composition studies, the professional field of writing instruction * ''Compositions'' (album), an album by Anita Baker *Digital compositing, the practice of digitally piecing together a still image or video *Musical composition, an original piece of music, or the process of creating a new piece Computer science *Compose key, a key on a computer keyboard *Compositing window manager a component of a computer's graphical user interface that draws windows and/or their borders *Function composition (computer science), an act or mechanism to combine simple functi ...
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