The Nutcracker Unbound - Spanish Dance

Late last year I was approach by my friend Tommy Evan Lee -- a Los Angeles-based choreographer -- about writing the score for a reinterpretation of Tchaikovsky's "Spanish Dance." The piece was to be performed as part of the LA Unbound dance company's December production "The Nutcracker Unbound," a retelling of the famous ballet using all new music and choreography. Having collaborated with Tommy before (my 2009 track "Forever and Never Again" was the musical backdrop for one of his works a couple of years ago) I was excited to take part.

The foundational constraints for my reinterpretation were the meter, tempo, and cues of Tommy's choreography. The form and length of the lead-in and lead-out sections were also specifically requested, but otherwise I was given only two requirements for the final product:

1. The piece had to include some recognizable elements of the original score.
2. The dynamics of the music needed to reinforce but not overwhelm the sounds of the dancers' fans, a central feature of the choreography.

My primary challenge as composer was to create a piece that was recognizably related to (and in fact contained some sound from) the original 3/4 score, but in the 4/4 time signature of the new choreography. I chose to use a filtered orchestral sample from the original version as a transitional "bridge" between sections, which allowed for some nice syncopation while evoking Tchaikovsky's work; you can hear this element around 0:56 in my version:



I also wanted to include some recognizable instrumentation from the original version to further tie the two together in listeners' minds. I introduced a castanet rhythm in the second half (starting at 1:34) which nicely evokes the original piece, and used string and woodwind lines to balance out the strictly-electronic elements. Of course, I couldn't help but throw in a few very low 808-style bass notes to accent the chord changes and keep things from getting too organic =).

Overall I'm quite pleased with the outcome of this project. I think the music satisfied all of Tommy's requirements while still being pretty nice to listen to, too. Looking forward to the next one!