Top Ten Current Warhorses

[Vagabond]

I'm also a fan of Kronos Quartet and loved their Requiem For A Dream theme back when the movie/soundtrack came out, but nowadays it just sounds like overused skating music to me and I'm like anytime I hear it anywhere.

I think Requiem isn't as ubiquitous nowadays than it a couple of years ago, though. (Am I right?)

I think you're right, but whenever I read the word "warhorse" on FSU, I hear Requiem for a Dream in the back of my mind.

 

[nimi]

whenever I read the word "warhorse" on FSU, I hear Requiem for a Dream in the back of my mind.

Are you already familiar with this rather, eh, avantgarde version of the piece? (I don't know if I can recommend listening to it but I find it perversely therapeutic...)

 

[quartz]

Endless repition and over warhorses is a warhorse itself.

 

[Vagabond]

I find it perversely therapeutic...

You poor thing!

 

[nimi]

You poor thing!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Spun Silver]

Nobody's named The Mission? Or Nutcracker? Or Take Five?

 

[Plusdinfo]

For me, this thread (and others) highlight something that cannot be repeated often enough... the fact that music is repeated too often! Skaters "steal" music from each other all the time, and at this point in my "time" watching the sport, it really has gotten old and sometimes frustrating. The fact that things keep getting reused points, for me, to a lack of imagination and research on the part of skaters, coachers, choreographers, parents, whoever you want to throw on the list. There is so much music in the world and I can't help but wonder if at one point (or many times) federations/judges made comments about which music to use/not use and then people went on auto pilot and thought the guidelines for music selections was set in stone.

I understand that the issue is not black and white. Some people want to do "their" version of a song. Some skaters may be reasonably ignorant of what's been used in the past and they just nod when a coach suggests something. There can be many more reasons for the use of reused music... but it's really increasingly grated on me as a fan of the sport. I wonder how much judges silently and maybe subconsciously take warhorse vs. original music into account when giving marks... some may "approve" and mark higher for songs they like, and some may deduct a bit for lack of originality. I can't say, as I am not in their minds.

It would be great for me if the ISU would address this and release a tweet, hold a small lecture at an event, or somehow declare: "There is lots of music to be used. Don't be afraid of branching out." That's me, though. I can't fathom being in the "skating circle" and playing into a narrow scope of music. Far too limiting and uninteresting.

 

[bardtoob]

A song from Shrek is a Warhorse of figure skating

 

[Barbara Manatee]

Can we include exhibitions? Then I'd say every song by Adele and Sam Smith.

 

[Willin]

I recall reading that at least a couple of skaters, not necessarily top-level U.S. men, have Hamilton programs this season. No time to do the research on it right now, sorry.

I don't consider anything a warhorse unless it's been done by a lot of top Senior skaters. There are hundreds if not thousands of non-top-level competitive skaters, which means there's lots of opportunities to repeat in local/regional/National competitions. Heck, if you were going off what's popular with the non-senior crowd in the US as warhorses Disney Princess movies, Cats (the ALW musical), and Wicked would all be warhorses.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Evita - particularly Don't Cry for Me Argentina.

 

[Dobre]

Just heard Hallelujah at a store and my first response was, 'great, this crap again?' I used to love that song! Thanksalot FS!

La Vie en Rose. I used to think it was quite innocuous & charming (a la Tomas Verner). But since the lyrics came in, I find it much more difficult to ignore how many times I have seen it done. Must every charming French SP be to this song. Is it not possible there are other charming French pieces of music--with a little life--that one might fit into the correct time slot?

 

[Maximillian]

A song from Shrek is a Warhorse of figure skating

For some of us, it wasn't about Shrek, but about Jeff Buckley's superior version.

 

[bardtoob]

For some of us, it wasn't about Shrek, but about Jeff Buckley's superior version.

Yeah, but, as far as I know, Jeff does not have an annoying talking jackass

 

[Seerek]

It's kind of sad how our life-long obsession with skating can ruin brilliant artists like Nina Simone even if it's just one song.

It's interesting that FG was brought up in this thread, as it's now reaching the OES Junior ranks, as evidenced by Guzide Bayir's freeskate to Feeling Good this weekend at JGP Brisbane (she even has a bowtie in her costume, just another demonstration on how the song's original context is completely lost in skating circles).

 

[emason]

Nobody's named The Mission? Or Nutcracker? Or Take Five?

You beat me to it. Take Five was the first one I thought of.

 

[moebius]

Riverdance

 

[MsZem]

Nobody's named The Mission? Or Nutcracker? Or Take Five?

The Mission was a warhorse maybe a decade ago; it's not nearly as popular now. The Nutcracker doesn't seem to be a warhorse at the moment, at least not at the senior international level. Have many skaters used Take Five in recent years?

 

[Dobre]

The Nutcracker doesn't seem to be a warhorse at the moment, at least not at the senior international level.

It was used by Denis Ten, Guignard & Fabbri, Tobias & Tkachenko, Alexia Paganini, Misha Ge, and Foresti & Sforza last season. Most of them at the senior international level. Plus, if Morozov is giving it to his athletes--combined with R&J no less--it's pretty much a sure sign the music is a warhorse.

 

[MsZem]

It was used by Denis Ten, Guignard & Fabbri, Tobias & Tkachenko, Alexia Paganini, Misha Ge, and Foresti & Sforza last season. Most of them at the senior international level. Plus, if Morozov is giving it to his athletes--combined with R&J no less--it's pretty much a sure sign the music is a warhorse.

I guesd I've forgotten or repressed all memories of this. Other than T/T, I don't recall any of the programs.

 

[Dobre]

I don't recall any of the programs.

Another sign that it's a warhorse.

 

[clairecloutier]

As much as fans are tired of warhorses, there are also many complaints when skaters use more unusual music that fans don't like. If it's warhorses, fans complain; if it's Prince, people complain; if it's cover versions, sometimes people like them (J/C's Sound of Silence), but more often they complain .... it's kind of a no-win situation for skaters. They're not really encouraged to be creative because fans don't overall respond any better to more unusual choices than to warhorses. And who knows what role the judges play.

 

[MsZem]

Another sign that it's a warhorse.

More a sign that I missed Worlds and most of Euros

 

[chapis]

As much as fans are tired of warhorses, there are also many complaints when skaters use more unusual music that fans don't like. If it's warhorses, fans complain; if it's Prince, people complain; if it's cover versions, sometimes people like them (J/C's Sound of Silence), but more often they complain .... it's kind of a no-win situation for skaters. They're not really encouraged to be creative because fans don't overall respond any better to more unusual choices than to warhorses. And who knows what role the judges play.

True, when someone says ¨oh, there are many songs, many pieces of music, why they don´t use.. (insert any random song/piece)?¨, usually when I heard their suggestions, I am like , and I am pretty sure that is the same reaction people have with my suggestions .
But one thing bothers me about warhorses is that I think that some figure skaters ruin music for me, I know this is harsh of me to say, but I think some skaters don´t deserve certain music.
I was watching Alexandra Trusova, aka the new FS prodigy, and when she was doing her step seq I was , because that part of the music is my favorite, and almost everyone can appreciate The four seasons, all people agree that it is great music, but her step seq was not designed to match the music https://youtu.be/-qj1m5dsJDA?t=79, I know she is only 13 years old, but in that part she was really ruining the music for me. I adore to Mao, but honestly I always hated her Carmen (competitive and exhibition), she was 14 or 15 yo, at that point in her career, she was not up to that music, artistically. So after seeing countless mediocre programs with warhorses, I can not help associating that music with those mediocre programs.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

The Mission was a warhorse maybe a decade ago; it's not nearly as popular now. The Nutcracker doesn't seem to be a warhorse at the moment, at least not at the senior international level. Have many skaters used Take Five in recent years?

Wow, I agree on all you said..

I thought Mission probably 10 yrs ago, Nutcracker is probably not on a current warhorse list and maybe its being used on junior circuit or something but I don't have any Take Fives recently that stick out in my mind.

However I do think "Chaplin" is well on its way to becoming a modern day warhorse.

 

[Dobre]

Nutcracker is probably not on a current warhorse list and maybe its being used on junior circuit or something.

See post #98. If it isn't being used this season, my guess is that it is because most of us were overdosed by the repeated head-to-head battles between Guignard & Fabbri and Tobias & Tkachenko's Nutcracker at least three times last season and because none of the six Nutcrackers we had last year won anything. Four of them were by well-known senior international athletes, as I listed already. (Guignard & Fabbri did win Lombardia).

I count three The Missions and two Take Fives on Doris's list from programs last season, none of them by top competitive athletes except Carreira & Ponomarenko's SD (which had Take Five as one of three pieces in it). We also had a Take Five at the JGP this week.

 

[Vagabond]

Take Five should take five.

 

[Spun Silver]

I still havent recovered from all the Take Fives and Missions of the 2000s. Patrick Chan's unending T5 from 2010-2012 was enough to kill it for this decade. (I already hated it.)

 

[bardtoob]

I still havent recovered from all the Take Fives and Missions of the 2000s. Patrick Chan's unending T5 from 2010-2012 was enough to kill it for this decade. (I already hated it.)

Take Five from Patrick Chan is not as bad as I remember it. At 2011 Worlds everything was effortless

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHOMvzABdO8 (NBC)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rli8z8Yv78Y (British EuroSport)

. . . There was so much ahead of him at that time

 

[Vagabond]

Hey, Donald Jackson did his famous triple lutz to Carmen. That doesn't mean everyone else has to do his to the same music.

 

[briancoogaert]

I don't think I heard an Astor Piazzolla program pre-2000; now they're here, there and everywhere.

Really ?
Lu Chen 1998 SP to Adios Nonino
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1XaKf3ssiM