''Monotones'' is a one-act ballet in two parts choreographed by

Frederick Ashton Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton (17 September 190418 August 1988) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He also worked as a director and choreographer in opera, film and revue. Determined to be a dancer despite the oppositi ...

to music by

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

. ''Monotones II'' was created first as a gala piece for a gala performance in aid of the Royal Ballet Benevolent Fund in 1965. Ashton had long been inspired by the '' Gymnopedies'' by Erik Satie of 1888 and took orchestrations by

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

and

Roland-Manuel Alexis Roland-Manuel (22 March 18911 November 1966) was a French people, French composer and critic, remembered mainly for his criticism. Biography He was born Roland Alexis Manuel Lévy in Paris, to a family of Belgians, Belgian and Jewish ori ...

as the basis of a ''

pas de trois In ballet, ''pas de trois'' is a French term usually referring to a dance between three people. Typically, a ''pas de trois'' in ballet consists of five parts: #Entrée (the opening number for the three dancers, usually preceded by a short i ...

'' for two men and one woman. The premiere was on 24 March 1965 with Vyvyan Lorrayne,

Anthony Dowell Sir Anthony James Dowell (born 16 February 1943) is a retired British ballet dancer and a former artistic director of the Royal Ballet. He is widely recognized as one of the great ''danseurs nobles'' of the twentieth century. Early life and trai ...

, and Robert Mead. The piece was a great success – so much so that in 1966 Ashton enlarged the piece so that it would be long enough to be performed in the normal repertory, by the addition of ''Monotones I'', which formed an overture to the earlier work. This piece in many ways forms a mirror image of ''Monotones II''. Based on Satie's ''

Gnossiennes The ''Gnossiennes'' () are several piano compositions by the French composer Erik Satie in the late 19th century. The works are for the most part in free time (lacking time signatures or bar divisions) and highly experimental with form, rhythm an ...

'', it is another ''pas de trois'', but in this case for two women and one man; the premiere was given by

Antoinette Sibley Dame Antoinette Sibley (born 27 February 1939) is a British prima ballerina. She joined the Royal Ballet from the Royal Ballet School in 1956 and became a soloist in 1960. She was celebrated for her partnership with Anthony Dowell. After her reti ...

Georgina Parkinson Georgina Parkinson (20 August 1938 – 18 December 2009) was an English ballet dancer and ballet mistress. She joined The Royal Ballet in 1957 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1962. Best known for dancing 20th-century works, she was ...

, and

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. Ashton took his cues in choreographing the ballet from the form, structure and inspiration of Satie's music. The ternary structure of the ''Gymnopedies'' and ''Gnossiennes'' supports what has been referred to as a "trinitarian obsession" of Ashton's. The two sections of the work also represent a contrast between the earthiness of the ''Gnossiennes'' in ''Monotones I'' – where the characters wear green costumes, engage in weighty and accented lunges, and shield their eyes from the sun – and the celestial, infinite and seamless qualities of the ''Gymnopedies'' in ''Monotones II'', where the dancers are white-costumed, lit from above, and perform suspended arabesques, the men lifting the woman to "walk on air." The work uses classical language in its choreography and, like his '' Symphonic Variations'', represents a pinnacle of Ashton's own classicism.Cohen, p.156 On his death, Ashton's will left the ballet to the care of

Tony Dyson Anthony John Dyson (13 April 1947 – 4 March 2016) was a British SPFX designer, best-known for working on the R2-D2 droid props used in the Empire Strikes Back and subsequent films in the ''Star Wars'' film series. Life Born in Dewsbury, West ...

, now chairman of the Frederick Ashton Foundation.

References

Sources

* Cohen, Selma Jeanne. International Encyclopedia of Dance, Vol 1. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004. * * * {{Frederick Ashton Ballets by Frederick Ashton 1965 ballet premieres Ballets created for The Royal Ballet Ballets to the music of Erik Satie