Toller Cranston on the music chosen by today's skaters for their programs and COP

[choreographer:)]

Mala miss blues for four once upon an untouchable sleeping Giselle mission in paris inthe rain chez?

Ok . . .ahem . . ."Ravel's Once upon a Waltz from Romeo and the Phantom of Sleeping SchaharaCarmenbird Lake Side Love Story in Blue Danube-cracker of the Caribbean in Paris." . . Do we stop here? . . I think so

[aliceanne]

I wouldn't throw the tried and true pieces completely under the bus. Sometimes people come up with interesting variations of the standard. Disco Firebird served Toller well. I've heard Summertime done with everything from a harmonica solo to a full orchestra, and every singer from Peter Gabriel to Billie Holiday.

I think it is hard to experiment with competition music. The judges come from different countries and you don't know who you will get. It's hard for them to appreciate your interpretation if they don't know anything about the music (unless you are truly great).

[Ozzisk8tr]

Instead of Carmen, can't someone skate to Carmen Miranda? I want to see Plush nail a triple axel in a tutti fruity hat without losing his cherry.

[satchelpooch318]

Instead of Carmen, can't someone skate to Carmen Miranda? I want to see Plush nail a triple axel in a tutti fruity hat without losing his cherry.

I will become a Plushy fan in a heartbeat if he incorporates choreography from the following video in his program: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlndNoogYnI

[aliceanne]

One BIG problem with skating music is the acoustics in skating rinks and sports arenas are lousy. You can choose something that sounds fabulous on you personal player, and it's not so great when played over the loudspeaker at an arena.

[sfahrut]

^Exactly! So many times run into this. Thinking 'this is great, perfect music' , then going to the rink and feel totally disappointed. Or sometime even worse- sounds great at training rink and then on a competition total let down.

[snoopysnake]

Instead of Carmen, can't someone skate to Carmen Miranda? I want to see Plush nail a triple axel in a tutti fruity hat without losing his cherry.

How could Carmen Miranda possibly be used by anyone except Florent Amodio?

[RobinA]

Except it also sucked in the same way: skaters often picked tired old pieces that had been used 100x before them.

Pretty much!

A lot of music sucked then, a lot sucks today. Too many skaters then and now skated around while music played. Some skaters aren't compelling to ANY music, some skaters can make any music sound good. Tak's LP this year is to music that I should hate, hate, hate. Most other skaters skating to that music would send me straight to the refrig. But he makes it work in spades. One of the best LPs ever, in my opinion.

[berthesghost]

Except it also sucked in the same way: skaters often picked tired old pieces that had been used 100x before them.

Except that's not what he's saying. Curry for example skated to DonQ in he lp and shez in the exhibition, both tired old chestnuts dragged out of mothballs, yet John made them his, so much so I'm always shocked that anyone after even went there. And they all failb y comparison IMHO: irina and Sarah's donQ LPs and then shez miki aside, even usually great skaters like yuna, mk and Mao made programs with it. With all of his wonderful qualities, is anyone really gonna argue than chan "owns" poto? And sorry, this is not the fault of the music.

[kwanfan1818]

And they all failb y comparison IMHO: irina and Sarah's donQ LPs

While most programs fail in comparison to Curry's "Don Q", Curry's cuts were all from the Act III pas de deux, the most familiar music from the ballet, and for the second half of her program, Slutskaya used cuts that most people had never heard before. Even in the familiar-ish opening cut, she used the extended ensemble version, not the pas de deux version. Hughes did all the recognizable cuts.

[overedge]

Except it also sucked in the same way: skaters often picked tired old pieces that had been used 100x before them.

But we do not have the bits-of-6-pieces-mashed-into-5-minutes hack jobs that were the norm for music back then. Toller's point is still valid.

[kwanfan1818]

Of course we do -- we just spend post after post here mocking them until an occasional one becomes iconic (but usually only if skated by an OES)

[Skate Talker]

Right I think there is a voidy Euro Ice Dance team with a mash up that is totally off the wall and includes let my people go with other unrelated tunes.

[berthesghost]

I don't get why everyone seems to be derailed by this notion that only using "new" music is "creative". Bauil's SL sp from 94, Chen's Rach2 lp from 96, Savoe's Mission lp from 02, Johnny's Swan sp from 06, Witt's Camen lp from 88... all iconic programs where the skater "owned" the music, despite it being horrendously overused. He never said people skate to old music, he said they don't listen to their own music. He's got a point. Even though Robin Cousin's "698 music cuts in less than 5 minutes" LPs used to drive me insane, I'd never accuse him of not relating to the music, and I'm the only person alive who doesn't think he was god's gift to skating! Heck, I'd watch Kadavy's mosh-up of 3 different spanish themed pieces, all 3 vastly overused, from 87 any day of the week before I'd rewatch another horrid lp to malequena, just malequena for the whole lp, where the skater isn't even listening.

[MacMadame]

With all of his wonderful qualities, is anyone really gonna argue than chan "owns" poto?

Yes, they will. I will for starters. For one thing, I forgot he skated to that. So that's hardly an iconic performance.

[Japanfan]

I don't get why everyone seems to be derailed by this notion that only using "new" music is "creative". Bauil's SL sp from 94, Chen's Rach2 lp from 96, Savoe's Mission lp from 02, Johnny's Swan sp from 06, Witt's Camen lp from 88... all iconic programs where the skater "owned" the music, despite it being horrendously overused. He never said people skate to old music, he said they don't listen to their own music. He's got a point. Even though Robin Cousin's "698 music cuts in less than 5 minutes" LPs used to drive me insane, I'd never accuse him of not relating to the music, and I'm the only person alive who doesn't think he was god's gift to skating! Heck, I'd watch Kadavy's mosh-up of 3 different spanish themed pieces, all 3 vastly overused, from 87 any day of the week before I'd rewatch another horrid lp to malequena, just malequena for the whole lp, where the skater isn't even listening.

You've mentioned a few skaters from each era. Do you really think that skaters in the older era listened to music better than skaters today or were more musical than skaters today?

I think the ratio is pretty much the same - that a minority of skaters are truly musical and listen to their music. By that I mean 'musical' in relation to FS, not the average person.

[ItalianFan]

I will become a Plushy fan in a heartbeat if he incorporates choreography from the following video in his program: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlndNoogYnI

No problem ---go Lucy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzZCc5nQ8-E

[aliceanne]

Instead of Carmen, can't someone skate to Carmen Miranda? I want to see Plush nail a triple axel in a tutti fruity hat without losing his cherry.

Well we had a rendition of "Shake, Shake, Shake Sonora" at our rink, compete with a coconut shell bra (real coconut shells).

Much as I love Toller"s skating, I do recall that in one of his books he confessed that when Dick Button required that he skate a different program in 2 different pro competitions, to save time Toller kept the same program but switched the music. So he didn't always put HUGE thought into the music he skated to either.

[Iceman]

Instead of Carmen, can't someone skate to Carmen Miranda? I want to see Plush nail a triple axel in a tutti fruity hat without losing his cherry.

Plush lost his cherry sometime ago

[Iceman]

Peggy skated to gold with Samson and Delilah (although she hardly interpreted Delilah) and Joannie skated to bronze with S and D, again hardly interpreting Delilah. Now if M had done it.......