A pièce d'occasion () like the word ''pièce'' meaning preparing and ''d'occasion'' meaning for special occasion suggests pis a composition, dance or theatrical piece composed, often commissioned, for a festive occasion.

Examples

* ''

The Dying Swan ''The Dying Swan'' (originally ''The Swan'') is a solo dance choreographed by Mikhail Fokine to Camille Saint-Saëns's ''Le Cygne'' from ''Le Carnaval des animaux'' as a '' pièce d'occasion'' for the ballerina Anna Pavlova, who performed it abo ...

'', ballet by Mikhail Fokine (to

Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...

's cello solo ''

Le cygne ''Le cygne'', , or ''The Swan'', is the 13th and penultimate movement of ''The Carnival of the Animals'' by Camille Saint-Saëns. Originally scored for solo cello accompanied by two pianos, it has been arranged and transcribed for many instru ...

'') for the ballerina

Anna Pavlova Anna Pavlovna Pavlova ( , rus, Анна Павловна Павлова ), born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova ( rus, Анна Матвеевна Павлова; – 23 January 1931), was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th ...

(1905) * ''Fanfare for a Prince'', ballet by John Taras (1956) * ''

Dance Preludes ''Dance Preludes'' was a ballet made by Miriam Mahdaviani of New York City Ballet to Witold Lutosławski's 1955 music as a ''List of French phrases#P, pièce d'occasion'' for the Dancers' Emergency Fund Benefit on 24 February 1991 at the David H. ...

'',

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

Miriam Mahdaviani Miriam Mahdaviani is a choreographer, a former New York City Ballet dancer and a '' repetiteur'' for the George Balanchine Trust. She has created ballets for NYCB's 1988 American Music Festival and its Diamond Project in 1992, 1994,1997, 2000 and 2 ...

(1991) * ''FOR 4'', dance by

Christopher Wheeldon Christopher Peter Wheeldon OBE (born 22 March 1973) is an English international choreographer of contemporary ballet. Life and career Born in Yeovil, Somerset, to an engineer and a physical therapist, Wheeldon began training to be a ballet dan ...

(to

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

's '' Death and the Maiden'') (2006) * ''

Silla Silla or Shilla (57 BCE – 935 CE) ( , Old Korean: Syera, Old Japanese: Siraki2) was a Korean kingdom located on the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula. Silla, along with Baekje and Goguryeo, formed the Three Kingdoms of K ...

'',

opera seria ''Opera seria'' (; plural: ''opere serie''; usually called ''dramma per musica'' or ''melodramma serio'') is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to abo ...

Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...

(1713) * ''

Elvida ''Elvida'' is a ''melodramma'' or opera in one act by Gaetano Donizetti. Giovanni Schmidt wrote the Italian libretto. The opera was written as a ''pièce d'occasion'' for the birthday of María Isabella of Spain, Queen Maria of the Two Sicilies. ...

'',

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...

(1826) * ''Entrez, messieurs, mesdames'', pièce d'occasion by Offenbach (1855) * ''Les dragées du baptême'', pièce d'occasion by Offenbach (1856) * '' La statue retrouvée'' (1923), an entertainment for a private costume ball in Paris with 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 ...

, scenario by

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...

, designs by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

and choreography by

Leonide Massine Leonide or Léonide is a masculine given name which may refer to: * Leonide or Leonid of Georgia (1861–1921), Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia * Leonid Berman (1896–1976), Russian Neo-romantic painter and theater and opera designer * Léoni ...

. * ''

How He Lied to Her Husband ''How He Lied to Her Husband'' is a one-act comedy play by George Bernard Shaw, who wrote it, at the request of actor Arnold Daly, over a period of four days while he was vacationing in Scotland in 1904. In its preface he described it as "a samp ...

'', playlet by

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

(1905).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piece D'occasion Musical composition Ballet terminology

Examples

See also

References