Invitation to the Dance (Weber)
Invitation to the Dance (Aufforderung zum Tanz), Op. 65, J. 260, is a piano piece in rondo form written by Carl Maria von Weber in 1819. It is also well known in the 1841 orchestration by Hector Berlioz. It is sometimes called Invitation to the Waltz, but this is a mistranslation of the original.
Background
Weber dedicated Invitation to the Dance to his wife Caroline (they had been married only a few months). He labelled the work "rondeau brillante", and he wrote it while also writing his opera Der Freischütz.
It was the first concert waltz to be written: that is, the first work in waltz form meant for listening rather than for dancing. John Warrack calls it "the first and still perhaps the most brilliant and poetic example of the Romantic concert waltz, creating within its little programmatic framework a tone poem that is also an apotheosis of the waltz in a manner that was to remain fruitful at least until Ravel's choreographic poem, La valse…".
It was also the first piece that, rather than being a tune for the dancers to dance to or a piece of abstract music, was a programmatic description of the dancers themselves.
Invitation to the Dance
Invitation to the Dance can refer to:
Invitation to the Dance (film)
Invitation to the Dance is a 1956 anthology film consisting of three distinct stories, all starring and directed by Gene Kelly.
The film is unusual in that it has no spoken dialogue, with the characters performing their roles entirely through dance and mime. Kelly appears in all three stories, which feature leading dancers of the era including Tommy Rall, Igor Youskevitch, Tamara Toumanova and Carol Haney.
The movie was filmed in 1952, but its release was delayed until 1956 because of doubts at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer about its commercial viability. The movie was a failure at the box office, but is regarded today as a landmark all-dance film.
Concept
Kelly conceived the film as an all-ballet musical, building on what he had done in his previous films like An American in Paris (1951) and Singin' in the Rain (1952), integrating dance and film. He wanted to use MGM's European offices to give him access to the top European Dance companies. He secured some of the top ballet dancers of the time for the project. He hoped the movie would educate mainstream American audiences about dance as an art form. He himself intended to appear in only one of the sequences, but the studio refused to allow him to make the film unless he appeared in all of them. He and some of the other dancers in the movie felt this held them back from expressing the full potential of the talents involved. There was intended to be a fourth segment titled "Dance Me a Song," which would consist of several popular songs interpreted through dance. This sequence was filmed, but later cut.
Invitation to the Dance (album)
Invitation to the Dance is the debut major release by the nu metal band 40 Below Summer. The album was released on October 16, 2001 via London-Sire Records. Two months after its release, the label went out of business, and the album was re-issued through Warner Music.
Track listing
All lyrics written by 40 Below Summer, all music composed by 40 Below Summer.
Personnel
40 Below Summer
Production
References
