- Title: The Art of Touch
- Summary: There were two scores included within The Art of Touch; Domenico Scarlatti and a commissioned piece by Matteo Fargion, both written for harpsichord. However, the impetus behind the work came from Francois Couperin who composed a series of pieces to form the hand in preparation for touching the keyboard in order to enable musicians to explore the range and colour of the instrument. Davies proposed this idea to the dancers; the quality and weight of the foot against the surface of the floor, the imprint of the body on the surrounding air and the different dynamics of the sense of touch. The dance is made for seven dancers and is composed of seven clear parts, mirroring the musical structure. One of Davies' most celebrated and popular works, it won Davies an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance and an Evening Standard Award for Outstanding Production.
- Work: Film (1998)
- Choreographer: Siobhan Davies
- Choreographer Comments: choreographed for Siobhan Davies and Dancers
- Dancer: Sean Feldman, Paul Old, John Kilroy, Jeremy James, Gill Clarke, Deborah Saxon, David Hughes, Catherine Quinn, Amanda Britton
- Dancer Comments: I wrote Three Elegies for Nine Clarinets in 1993 as a gift to Roger Heaton following a particularly tricky project in France where, as with all my players, he responded without flapping, under great pressure. I had been commissioned to make an installation in the Chateau d'Oiron in South West France. The work involved recording music in different spaces in and around the castle and to then replay them in a "listening room", which would be a kind of acoustic map of the castle. Because of the nature of the space and the environment, the only time when we could record was between midnight and 4 AM. I would write music during the day and record that night, but I felt a little guilty about the pressure that this placed on Roger and Dave Smith, the two members of my ensemble who worked with me. Afterwards I said, rashly, "I owe you a piece" - which is the Three Elegies. Roger liked the piece and planned to include it on a CD of clarinet music he was preparing. Once the piece existed, however, he mentioned it to Sue, with whom he was working, and she wanted very much to use it for her dance. In writing the piece its length was not a consideration - it was a freestanding piece of music - but, at 19 minutes duration, it was about 4 minutes too short for the purpose of the dance (which I had never envisaged of course). Roger explained this to me, and felt a little awkward about asking for more - rather like feeling iffy about an unwanted Christmas present. But rather than have the dance start with 4 minutes of silence before the start of the piece (even though the clarinet entry at the beginning is almost from nothing) I was happy to add an extra section at the beginning for unaccompanied solo clarinet, and to dovetail this into the piece, where the last long note of this prelude overlaps and cross fades into the opening note of the original work. So this four-minute prologue was written specially for Sue's piece - and is not included in the version that Roger recorded for Clarinet Classics.
Ironically, some time afterwards, Roger told me that this solo was one of the hardest pieces of mine he had ever played. I said "it serves you right..."
Gavin Bryars, Billesdon, June 5 2009 - Music: Matteo Fargion, Domenico Scarlatti
- Composer: Matteo Fargion, Domenico Scarlatti
- Sound Score: Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) five keyboard sonatas: K141 in D minor, K87 in B minor, K122 in D major, K18 in D minor, K204a in F minor/major. Performed by Pierre Hantai on Astree Records; Matteo Fargion: Sette Canzoni, commissioned by Siobhan Davies Dance Company
- Musicians: Carole Cerasi (harpsichord)
- Designer: David Buckland
- Lighting Design: Ian Beswick
- Sound Engineer: Ron Thomson
- Costume Designer: Sasha Keir
- Costume Maker: Sasha Keir
- Film Director: Ross MacGibbon
- Editor: Ross MacGibbon
- Contributors: Gavin O'Curry
- Contributors Comments: Steel Construction NB for 1997 tour: Metalwork by Dovetail Specialist Scenery Set painted by Liz Reed
- Other TV/Film/Radio Credits: Cameras: David Gopsill, Steve Hall, Paul Jenkins; Executive Producer: Bob Lockyer Producer: Stephany Marks
- Other TV/Film/Radio Credits Comments: BBC Production for Dance Night, broadcast on BBC2, 28/12/98
- Analysis: 'Davies’ decision to combine Scarlatti’s pre-existing music with Fargion’s music is somewhat unusual. Although she has always been interested in a range of musical styles, since 1988 and until that point she had only worked with music by contemporary composers. Scarlatti’s music sets a frenetic, frenzied pace at the start and then Fargion’s music, in the latter half, is at a more moderate, gentler pace, peppered with pulsing, shuddering, spasmodic moments, underlining the contrast in sound and texture between the two composers’ music. Besides the music, inspiration for Davies also came from the anatomical ‘stop start’ frames of man moving from the work of the nineteenth century scientist and photographer, Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) who used multiple pictures to record and reveal the movement of people and animals. One structural device that Davies used in shaping the dance is accumulation; the ‘same’ movement is returned to, extended and remade to explore contrasts in dynamic variation and spatial orientation. The exploration of fragmentation and accumulation, as linked ideas in The Art of Touch, reveal how Davies has brought together her primary interest in choreographic structure, which shaped her work prior to 1988, with her fascination with bodily structure, which has continued to inform her work since 1988' (Sarah Whatley, 2002).
- Production Date Original: 1995
