“THE DON QUIXOTE PROGRAM HAS BEEN MADE CLOSER TO JUMPS AND ELEMENTS.” TARASOVA ABOUT MUSIC IN FIGURE SKATE

– What is created first of all – music or the skeleton of the program?

— First of all, I come up with the idea of a program or dance. Then I look for a musical equivalent for it. Often the idea comes from the music itself. In general, its search is an unpredictable process. Sometimes you look for a week, a month or two, but what you hear in your head is never found. And sometimes you hear music and immediately shout: “We take it!” And the issue is closed.

True, it happened that such a decision turned out to be wrong at the rink. The sound at home, in the car or somewhere in the studio is completely different than at the skating rink. And it happens that the music on the skating rink sounds great and the theme is good, but with sports tasks in its original sound – in contradiction. In such cases, you need a music expert who understands what we need and what can be done without losing the quality and content of the music.

You can also start from the finished program skeleton (that is, the arranged elements) without thinking about music. But only if the musician understands all the purely sporting technical tasks, the duration of the elements, their features and tempos. This can be successful when you speak to a musician in a language that he understands perfectly – without much explanation of what is being said.

I worked a lot with the composer Alexander Goldstein, who throughout his entire creative career gave and still gives some of his time to figure skating. He was the first professional musician to work with skaters, brought many new ideas, expanded his musical repertoire and made a huge amount of music in all types of figure skating. These programs have won the Olympic Games, World and European Championships. Alik is now working with the whole world. But here he was awarded the title of Honored Coach of the Russian Federation for his serious contribution to figure skating, although he only deals with music.

As an example, Goldstein wrote the music superbly based on Daisuke Takahashi’s finished short program skeleton, and nothing needed to be changed regarding the movements. It was hip-hop with elements of the main theme of the Swan Lake ballet.

Perhaps not everyone knows that Alexander is still working on music for Daisuke since he started performing in ice dancing. This year, together with Kana Muramoto, they became the champions of Japan. And the couple trains with Marina Zueva, with whom Goldstein has been working, one might say, her entire sports life.

– Describe, please, the process of creating music for figure skating from your point of view, from the point of view of a coach. How do you select a composition together with a composer?

– At first, we – coaches – discuss music with choreographers and musicians. We are all from different creative worlds, so it is always interesting to exchange impressions and information with them. This is the only way to find and achieve the right solution. Of course, athletes also take part in this.

Once the music has been selected and everyone agrees on it, the linking process begins. Sometimes the process of editing music can take no more than an hour. Sometimes longer, but still fast. For a competent musician, there are no countless options: only one or two are correct.

During the production process (and sometimes even in the middle of the season), we return with crazy requests to lengthen or shorten certain places in the program. We definitely need to do this, otherwise we won’t be able to skate cleanly. For a musician, such a request is a disaster, but the same Goldstein always finds such solutions that the music does not suffer and no one notices that the original has been changed. That’s why he is a composer with rich experience in film and television! And you in “Well, wait a minute!” did you see his last name?

– I read that the free program “West Side Story” by Irina Moiseeva and Andrey Minenkov is the first performance in figure skating to music from one work, with a single storyline. How did the idea for this solution come about?

– I always wanted to do something unified and move away from the then traditional three- or four-part form of free dance, where contrasting music was combined – sometimes even from different genres. I am glad that the world of figure skating has positively accepted the departure from the traditional form to the idea of ​​a story dance, and now this is also a tradition.

Irina Moiseeva and Andrey Minenkov / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Yuri Somov

It is impossible to explain how an idea comes. One fine day it appears and you start to realize it. If the idea is bad, a dead end quickly ensues, and if it’s a good idea, everything gets done. But sitting and waiting for an idea to come is wrong. This, it seems to me, is the result of a long reflection on a given topic. As far as I remember, the idea of a free dance to the music of West Side Story is definitely not a reaction to watching a movie or a ballet.

– Tell us how the legendary “Winter” by Alexei Yagudin was created.

– We were working then in America, and just a new disc of the female quartet “Bond” appeared. It was a new, interesting sound, a combination of classical string instruments with a good modern rhythm. There was everything just for Yagudin, given his strength and expressiveness. The play was called “Winter Sun”.

There were, of course, a couple of options for compositions, but this one won. Goldstein did the musical editing according to my outline of the elements. We managed to create fresh choreography with the famous “Yagudinskaya path”. Lesha not only fulfilled all the tasks set for him, but also made a masterpiece out of it!

— Have you ever specially recorded music for your athletes?

– Once I decided to make for Natasha Bestemyanova and Andrei Bukin a free dance to the music “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” by Sergei Rachmaninov. But somehow everything didn’t work out correctly, didn’t fit together in accordance with our plan. Then Alexander Goldstein made a special score for us, and my husband, winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition, pianist Vladimir Krainev, brilliantly recorded this arrangement with the All-Union Radio and Television Orchestra. She remained on the radio, stock recording. And the future Olympic champions Bestemyanova and Bukin took a huge step forward and performed everything perfectly.

Natalia Bestemyanova and Andrey Bukin / Photo: © PA Images Archive / Contributor / PA Images / Gettyimages.ru

– Figure skaters often take the same music: Carmen, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, etc. Why do judges give little encouragement to innovative musical solutions?

– If you decide to take music that someone already had – especially very famous, performed by outstanding skaters – you need to be at least 1000% sure that it will be performed better than it was, and with new choreography.

I understand that not everyone is capable of innovation. For educational purposes, you can repeat something for development. But taking athletes to serious competitions with previously used masterpieces is very risky. The judges, of course, are primarily busy evaluating the elements, they are not very interested in music, but emotionally and subconsciously they draw their conclusions. Perhaps the judges do not punish the old things much, but innovation is sometimes encouraged, although they do not have enough leverage for this.

“Now many are taking, as they say, to “cut” the music. What do you think about it?

– Terrible! Everyone wants to train with the best coaches, put on programs with the best choreographers, and ride on the best skates and boots. People spend a lot of money on costumes, and suddenly… save on music! Or they self-confidently consider themselves experts in such an important component of success as music. It seems to many that it is easy to mold different pieces, but in fact this requires a serious education, talent and, most importantly, an understanding of figure skating.

I saw a lot of failures of athletes due to frankly illiterate or, from the point of view of figure skating, simply incorrectly made music. Why is it so? People simply do not hear or do not understand their mistakes. Those who hear shortcomings often even believe that it will do with imperfections. And the audience feels everything.

The paradox is that the cost of preparing music is in last place in the annual budget of the skaters. And if you ask how important music is in figure skating, then most put it in one of the first places. You can’t save on music!

“NOW IN COMPETITIONS YOU CAN HEAR DIFFERENT MUSIC GENRES WHICH PREVIOUSLY AVOIDED”

– What musical accompaniment to the programs of figure skaters of recent years impressed you most? What didn’t you like?

– I liked Alina Zagitova’s program to music from the ballet Don Quixote. It was possible to make it the closest to jumps and other elements. All the semantic accents of the music miraculously coincided with the movements, and what was rarely achieved was the complete unity of the figure skater with the music.

At the last Olympic Games, I really liked Nathan Chen’s program on the music of Elton John’s songs. Everything was done very competently and prudently, including with music. Nathan was able to jump all quads and show himself at his best as a brilliant dancer. I can foresee that now there will be many different programs with Elton John songs. Previously, they were bypassed.

Unfortunately, there is now a big tendency to take music that “doesn’t get in the way”. That is, it does not require a specific choreography, without a plot and the coincidence of musical phrases or accents with program elements. Music sounds separately and skating separately. It is not interesting. This is where we lose our dear audience. Therefore, I would like the judges to pay more attention to such programs.

– A young choreographer Nikita Mikhailov once told me a curious phrase: “Now there is such a trend: they release few new soundtracks that would be suitable for figure skating. That is, it is precisely “skating” music that is lacking. I think that after some time, if the popularity of our sport continues to grow, composers will begin to write music specifically for figure skaters. At least top athletes will be able to afford such orders.” Do you agree with this assessment of the situation? What is the peculiarity of “skating” music?

Nikita Mikhailov / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Alexander Vilf

– I do not agree with the novice choreographer. Music has always been difficult to find, it takes a lot of time and patience. Now at competitions you can hear different musical genres that were previously avoided, but now they are being used with might and main, and this is very good. This means that the circle of music search is expanding significantly. In addition, a lot of new songs are released every year. Listening to them and choosing something worthwhile for us is a long process.

It is difficult to cope with this matter alone, and therefore competent assistants are needed who know how, where and what kind of music to look for, what to offer. Without their participation, knowledge and opportunities, it may seem that everyone has already been listened to and there is nothing more. Now is such a time, such a level of training of athletes that you can put programs on almost any music, if it corresponds to the technical and expressive capabilities of the skaters. Very wide scope for creativity for choreographers and coaches! And those who do not want to search complain, copy someone or repeat everything old.

To compose new music for skaters, you need a fairly large budget. Where to take it from? Our sport is so expensive! Plus, not every composer will be able to understand our specifics. And if the money is found, it is still a very risky undertaking. What if, in the end, you don’t like the result? Start again from scratch? But of course you can try. You just need to have a very good idea of the final result and clearly formulate it to the composer.

By the way, Goldstein’s website has a huge amount of new interesting music specially selected for figure skating. Searching for it is very easy: everything is already divided by topic. I was even surprised that you can send your finished music to the site for verification and get a comprehensive musical, technical analysis of the program for free. Alik knows how to create original music, and his great advantage is that he does not like to repeat himself, he goes ahead all the time.

– What is your final advice about music to readers and athletes?

– Try new things if you want to avoid the beaten track of music and don’t want to be compared to someone all the time! Work with professional musicians and don’t waste your time on amateur stuff – independent or someone else’s! Remember that the music must be of the highest quality. This is the key to your victory.