Novelette (ballet)

Novelette is a solo modern dance work choreographed by Martha Graham to an existing piece of music, Op. 99, No. 9 from Robert Schumann's Bunte Blätter, also known as Colored Leaves.[1] The ninth movement from the piano solo, also titled Novelette, is a three-minute long piece in B-minor.[2] The ballet premiered on April 18, 1926 at New York's 48 Street Theater in the first independent concert presented by Graham.[3]

The all-Graham program also featured the solos: Intermezzo, Maid with the Flaxen Hair, Clair de Lune, Desir, Deux Valses, Masques, From a Century Tapestry and A Study in Lacquer, and works for members of the newly-formed Martha Graham Concert Group: Tanze, Arabesque No. 1, The Marionette Show and Chorale, which also included Graham.[4]

In her autobiography Blood Memory, Graham wrote that everything she did that night "was influenced by Denishawn," but added the audience came because she was "such a curiosity - a woman who could do her own work."[5]

  1. ^ "Martha Graham in a Concert Program with Louis Horst, Pianist, assisted by the Martha Graham Concert Group and Mabel Zoeckler, Soprano" (PDF). Performing Arts Encyclopedia, Library of Congress. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  2. ^ "Schumann - Bunte Blätter, op.99". Pianopedia. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  3. ^ "Novelette (Ballet choreographed by Martha Graham)". Performing Arts Encyclopedia, Library of Congress. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  4. ^ "New York Hails Martha Graham as Fine Dancer". Rochester New York Democrat. April 19, 1926. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  5. ^ Graham, Martha (1991). Blood Memory (Paperback ed.). New York, New York: Washington Square Press. p. 110. ISBN 0-671-78217-7.