LEO DELIBES Coppelia Waltz
Bridget Mermikides, our resident classical guitar expert, arranges the magical Coppélia Waltz by the fine French Romantic composer, Léo Delibes.
Bridget Mermikides arranges a lovely piece by the composer of the famous Flower Duet.
In this issue we are tackling a piece by the prolific and influential French composer of vocal, ballet and opera music, Léo Delibes (1836-91). His beguiling work was highly respected by such composers as Tchaikovsky who rated Delibes as a “greater composer than Brahms”. Delibes’ music, like that of his contemporaries Grieg and Tchaikovsky, found its way from ‘classical high art’ into broad contemporary popular culture. His Divertissement-Pizzicato from his opera Sylvia, for example, is instantly recognisable, appearing in countless films, TV shows, cartoons and adverts whenever a light, balletic and humorous character is required; and his stunning Flower Duet from his opera Lakmé also manages to intersect ‘high-art’ and wide popularity. It’s a classic of the opera repertoire as well as being used widely in Film, TV and perhaps most famously as the British Airways theme tune since 1989, where its timeless sense of detached, floating comfort is perfectly placed. Here I’ve arranged another of Delibes’ transcendingly timeless and broadly popular works, this time a waltz from his 1870 comic ballet, Coppélia.
The story is one of 19th Century magical romanticism and tells of a Dr Coppélius, who builds a life-size dancing doll Coppélia so convincing that the character Franz falls for her completely. To break the spell, his fiancée Swanhilda dresses and dances as the doll, and shows him the folly of his ways. The choreographer, director and Delibes himself hunted internationally for a suitable performer for Swanhilda before discovering the brilliant 16-year old Italian ballerina, Guiseppina Bozzacchi who premiered the ballet in the presence of Emperor Napoleon III in Paris. The enormous success of the ballet was interrupted by the outbreak of the FrancoPrussian War and the Siege of Paris. This led to food shortages, and Bozzachi’s tragic death from malnutrion and smallpox on the morning of her 17th birthday.
The ballet has however remained a classic of the dance repertoire with lasting influence from Disney to anime, and the Coppélia Waltz which opens Act I, Scene I captures this romantic, magical and bittersweet essence of the story (and indeed of Bozzachi), and has become well known as a piece in its own right.
Eb Originally scored for an orchestra in Major, I have transposed this down a semitone to D, and condensed the orchestral forces into three ‘voices’: melody, accompaniment and bassline. The challenge here is that each of these requires special attention. 1) The melody needs to project and should be played rest stroke where possible. 2) The accompaniment – the chords supporting the melody – should have a characteristic ‘lilting’ waltz feel. To achieve this they should be played long on the first beat and short on the second. 3) the bassline – played with the thumb – should last a beat but no longer, so needs to be muted (usually on the second beat) to stop the over-ringing.
These may feel like overly detailed and fussy concerns, but they are all possible with slowed-down practice, and mean everything when in the flow of performance, capturing the magic of this wonderful piece on one guitar. As ever, enjoy the learning process, use the tab captions for technical guidance, and have fun playing this timeless piece.
See you next month!
NEXT MONTH Bridget arranges Study Op 35, Exercise No 18 by Fernando Sor
“Delibes’ work was highly respected by composers such as Tchaikovsky, who rated him a ‘better composer than Brahms’”