A pièce d'occasion () like the word ''pièce'' meaning preparing and ''d'occasion'' meaning for special occasion
suggests a composition, dance or theatrical piece composed, often commissioned, for a festive occasion.
Examples
* ''
The Dying Swan'', ballet by
Mikhail Fokine
Michael Fokine ( – 22 August 1942) was a Russian choreographer and dancer.
Career Early years
Fokine was born in Saint Petersburg to a prosperous merchant and at the age of 9 was accepted into the Saint Petersburg Imperial Ballet Sch ...
(to
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (, , 9October 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 ...
's cello solo ''
Le cygne'') for the ballerina
Anna Pavlova
Anna Pavlovna Pavlova. (born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova; – 23 January 1931) was a Russian prima ballerina. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, but is most recognized for creating ...
(1905)
* ''Fanfare for a Prince'', ballet by
John Taras
John Taras (April 18, 1919 – April 2, 2004) was an American ballet master, repetiteur, and choreographer.
Early life and education
Born on the Lower East Side of New York City to Ukrainian parents, he was sent at age 16 to study ballet ...
(1956)
* ''
Dance Preludes'',
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 ...
by
Miriam Mahdaviani (1991)
* ''FOR 4'', dance by
Christopher Wheeldon
Christopher Peter Wheeldon (born 22 March 1973) is an English international choreographer of contemporary ballet.
Early life
Born in Yeovil, Somerset, to an engineer and a physical therapist, Wheeldon began training to be a ballet dancer at th ...
(to
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...
's ''
Death and the Maiden'') (2006)
* ''
Silla
Silla (; Old Korean: wikt:徐羅伐#Old Korean, 徐羅伐, Yale romanization of Korean, Yale: Syerapel, Revised Romanization of Korean, RR: ''Seorabeol''; International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) was a Korean kingdom that existed between ...
'',
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 abou ...
by
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 concerti.
Born in Halle, Germany, H ...
(1713)
* ''
Elvida'',
opera
Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
by
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic music, Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''be ...
(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 (born 17 May 18661 July 1925), better known as Erik Satie, was a French composer and pianist. The son of a French father and a British mother, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conservatoire but was an undi ...
, scenario by
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...
, designs by
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...
and choreography by
Leonide Massine.
* ''
How He Lied to Her Husband'', playlet by
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...
(1905).
See also
*
Occasional poetry
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Piece D'occasion
Musical composition
Ballet terminology