Deep Song (ballet)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Deep Song'', a solo modern dance by
Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer, whose style, the Graham technique, reshaped the dance world and is still taught in academies worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over s ...
, premiered on December 19, 1937, at the Guild Theatre in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. Performed to music by
Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher, teacher Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 2022.C ...
, the piece was the second work created by Graham in response to the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
. The first, '' Immediate Tragedy'', was introduced in 1937.


Theme, score, set and costume

According to program notes, ''Deep Song'' was "not meant to be an exact picture of a Spanish woman but presents the torture of mind and body experienced in common by all people who react to such suffering as the Spanish people have faced." When Cowell was composing the music for ''Immediate Tragedy'', Graham requested another movement, which he called ''Cante Hondo'', Spanish for "deep song". In
Flamenco Flamenco () is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the Gitanos, gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and Region of Murcia, ...
music, deep songs (
cante jondo ''Cante jondo'' () is a vocal style in flamenco, an unspoiled form of Andalusian folk music. The name means "deep song" in Spanish, with ''hondo'' ("deep") spelled with J () as a form of eye dialect, because traditional Andalusian pronunciation ...
) are the most serious of the vocal form. Sometimes, Graham used both compositions for ''Immediate Tragedy''; other times, she used only the original
sarabande The sarabande (from ) is a dance in triple metre, or the music written for such a dance. History The Sarabande evolved from a Spanish dance with Arab influences, danced by a lively double line of couples with castanets. A dance called ''zara ...
. ''Deep Song'' was choreographed to ''Cante Hondo'' on its own. The music for both ballets was lost for decades. ''Cante Hondo'' was discovered in 2003 behind a desk at the
Martha Graham Dance Company The Martha Graham Dance Company, founded by Martha Graham in 1926, is both the oldest dance company in the United States and the oldest integrated dance company. The company is critically acclaimed in the artistic world and has been recognized as " ...
's offices. The score for ''Immediate Tragedy'' has never been found. Graham designed both the set and costume for ''Deep Song''. The set consisted of a single long low wooden bench, similar to the one constructed for ''Lamentation''. It suggested both a coffin and mourners' pew, and served as an axis for the soloist's motions. The costume alluded to
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 ...
's powerful mural ''
Guernica Guernica (, ), officially Gernika () in Basque, is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the municipality of Gernika-Lumo ...
'', painted in the same year ''Deep Song'' was made. As Graham danced, the lines of her body in the long striped black and white dress formed graphic strokes of white against the black velvet backdrop.


Choreography

The choreography embodied the suffering of the Spanish people. "It was full of strange, strong creation, full of angular spasms, of Picasso style abstractions in plane and three-dimensional mobility, expressing as no newspaper story with a Madrid date line has done of the struggle..." Program notes for the troupe's 2015 season described "the forms of the dance – its swirls, crawls on the floor, contractions and falls" as "kinetic experiences of the human experience in war... It is the anatomy of anguish from tragic events."


Critical reception

From the outset, the solo was received favorably, although some reviewers thought the piece overwrought. The ''Boston Transcripts critic wrote, "the dancer seemed to be overplaying her hand, so that what began as a moving portrait ended, by overstatement, in losing some of its point." Another reviewer, noted the dance was "exaggerated in delineation and repetitious in content but a highly effective though stylized portrayal of a tortured mind and body." Following a Graham retrospective in 1944, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
dance critic John Martin wrote the work was not among those that "seemed to do most completely what they set out to do," but could be categorized with dances having "aspects, elements, passages of beauty and power." He referred to ''Deep Song'' in particular as an "extraordinary evocation."


Performance history

''Deep Song'' was presented fairly frequently from its premiere to the mid-1940s. In January 1938, Graham performed the solo at the
New York Hippodrome The Hippodrome Theatre, also called the New York Hippodrome, was a theater located on Sixth Avenue between West 43rd and West 44th Streets in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The theater operated from 1905 to 1939 ...
in the second "Dance for Spain" benefit concert. The event may have been where she first met future husband and dance partner
Erick Hawkins Frederick "Erick" Hawkins (April 23, 1909November 23, 1994) was an American modern-dance choreographer and dancer. Early life Frederick Hawkins was born in Trinidad, Colorado, on April 23, 1909. He majored in Greek civilization at Harvard Univ ...
, who was appearing with
Ballet Caravan 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 ...
. During the 1980s, Graham, who disliked revivals, was persuaded to reprise some of her earlier dances. ''Deep Song'' was restaged in 1988. Graham alone had danced the solo role, but did not remember all the choreography. Martha Graham worked with principal dancer, Terese Capucilli, to recreate the work. Barbara Morgan photographs were used to bring the work back to life. Capucilli spent hours alone in the studio with the photographs on the floor in order to find the transitional material necessary for phrasing and emotional content. She would then bring these into the rehearsals with Graham to be reworked and molded. Since the original score was lost at the time, Cowell's ''Sinister Resonance'' was used in its place. Since its reconstruction,
Terese Capucilli Terese Capucilli is an American modern dancer, interpreter of the roles originally performed by Martha Graham. She is one of the last generation of dancers to be coached and directed by Graham herself. A principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dan ...
, Christine Dakin, Joyce Herring, Alessandra Prosperi, Miki Orihara and then Xin Ying, Blakeley White McGuire, Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch, have appeared in the solo role. ''Deep Song'' is in the current Martha Graham Dance Company repertory.


References

{{reflist


External links


Martha Graham, ''Deep Song''
Photo:
Barbara Morgan Barbara Radding Morgan (born November 28, 1951) is an American teacher and a former NASA astronaut. She participated in the Teacher in Space Project as backup to Christa McAuliffe for the 1986 ill-fated STS-51-L mission of the Space Shuttle ' ...
, ''Performing Arts Encyclopedia'', Library of Congress
Deep Song (excerpt)
performed by Blakeley White McGuire 1937 ballets Ballets by Martha Graham Ballets set in Spain