Invitation to dance (Weber)
The invitation to dance is a rondo for piano solo composed by Carl Maria von Weber in 1819 . Weber himself described it in the subtitle as Rondo brilliant for the pianoforte .
plant
The work is in D flat major and has the opus number 65 or the Jähns index number J 260. The playing time is 9-10 minutes. Weber dedicated the piece to his young wife Caroline von Weber .
As salon music of the Biedermeier was an invitation to dance often arranged for orchestra. The best known is the version by Hector Berlioz , who was commissioned by the Paris Opera in 1841 to rewrite the Rondo for a ballet performance after the Freischütz opera . This orchestration was well received by the audience, so that the invitation to dance was inextricably linked with the Freischütz for a long time.
Leopold Godowsky wrote a counterpoint arrangement in 1905 , which he dedicated to Ferruccio Busoni .
Program of the piece
The play tells the story of a couple at a ball in which a man politely asks a girl to dance and after they have done a few laps they politely separate from each other.
Weber based the piece on the following program:
- Bars 1–5: first request of the man to dance
- Bars 5–9: the lady's evasive answer
- Bars 9–13: His urgent request
- Bars 13-16: Your approval
- Bars 17–19: He begins to talk to her
- Bars 19–21: Your reply
- Bars 21–23: He is now speaking to her warmly
- Bars 23-25: Your sensitive answer
- Bars 25–27: Talk to her again about the dance
- Bars 27–29: Your answer
- Bars 29–31: You go to the dance floor
- Bars 31–35: They wait for the dance to begin
- The dance
- The end of the dance, he thanks, her answer, they part
ballet
In 1911 the choreographer Michail Fokine created the ballet " Le Specter de la Rose " to Weber's piece of music. It was premiered at the Ballets Russes in Monte-Carlo, the main roles danced Vaslav Nijinsky as the spirit of the rose and Tamara Karsavina , who was reading in a chair and dreaming.
Popular culture
In Jamie Uys' humorous animal documentary The Funny World of Animals , the piece is used effectively to underline the reaction of the animal desert dwellers after the long-awaited rain.
Edits
Gregory Stone and Josef Bonime used the theme (melody and harmonization) of the waltz in the swing piece "Let's Dance", which became the signature melody of the Benny Goodman Orchestra.