1.Music, Anyone? Raising Craft to Art

There are not many horses in the world whose sponsors will commission arrangement or original composition of music for Freestyle performance. Anticipating the spectacular extravaganza that will be London 2012, I am as much interested in the preparation process as the eventual performances. So I wanted to embed these vimeos, which I found on Eurodressage recently. The first is about making of a score by Cees Slings for Tinne Vilhelmson Silfven and Favourit (SWE) owned by Antonia Axel Johnson

It’s Broadway! Part I -Trailer from Cees Slings on Vimeo.

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And the second is MA Rath visualizing his ride on Sterntaler UNICEF to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue arranged by Cees Slings.

Visualising a freestyle from Cees Slings on Vimeo.

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Of course, in the realm of Dressage for the rest of us, we’re not hiring Cees Slings to accompany us. But we are resourceful, are we not? Let our lives mimic art, eh? Strike up the band!

1 responses to “1.Music, Anyone? Raising Craft to Art”

Cees Slings
October 15th, 2011 at 15:13

Thanks for showing our little video teaser here; there’s more to come. About rider, horse, choreography and how we made it. Within 12 days we had over 2000 viewers for this vid; not amazing, at least not for us. Before leaving any comments or questions (which are always welcome by the way) one should consider one thing at first; in the 16 years I’ve been involved in writing musical freestyles (composing, arranging, re-arranging and producing) I always tried to explain how, what, why and when. Nothing obscure, nothing is hidden and anybody who wanted to know more and who was seriously interested, always found an open door at my studio. I’ve held lectures and seminars all over the world for judges, riders, coaches, trainers; and for FEI, and associate members like IDRC and IDOC. For musicians, music students, conservatory’s and many other stakeholders. With one intention only; to improve the quality of freestyle dressage.

Dressage audience is paying serious money for tickets, and we, riders, horse owners, show organizers and freestyle music producers have the responsibility to give something in return; at least one thing: value for money.

In my case this means producing a professional piece of music, at least tailor made to all the movements and tempi of the horse’s gaits and choreography; 6 minutes of joy, drama and delight.
Musical taste is subjective; musical production is a skill. This freestyle took us 5 months to create; sometimes I can do it faster, sometimes not.
Before writing down any silly remarks about how much it costed, one should consider first how much joy, fun and delight it gave when watching it. For me and my team it was ‘just’ five months; any idea how much time it costed for the rider to have her/his horse on this level of top equestrian sport?

Enjoy and admire the rider and horse, and their performance, have fun watching this and following video’s and ask yourself: who does the same as we do?

Best wishes to all,
Cees Slings

Cees Slings
October 15th, 2011 at 15:13

Thanks for showing our little video teaser here; there’s more to come. About rider, horse, choreography and how we made it. Within 12 days we had over 2000 viewers for this vid; not amazing, at least not for us. Before leaving any comments or questions (which are always welcome by the way) one should consider one thing at first; in the 16 years I’ve been involved in writing musical freestyles (composing, arranging, re-arranging and producing) I always tried to explain how, what, why and when. Nothing obscure, nothing is hidden and anybody who wanted to know more and who was seriously interested, always found an open door at my studio. I’ve held lectures and seminars all over the world for judges, riders, coaches, trainers; and for FEI, and associate members like IDRC and IDOC. For musicians, music students, conservatory’s and many other stakeholders. With one intention only; to improve the quality of freestyle dressage.

Dressage audience is paying serious money for tickets, and we, riders, horse owners, show organizers and freestyle music producers have the responsibility to give something in return; at least one thing: value for money.

In my case this means producing a professional piece of music, at least tailor made to all the movements and tempi of the horse’s gaits and choreography; 6 minutes of joy, drama and delight.
Musical taste is subjective; musical production is a skill. This freestyle took us 5 months to create; sometimes I can do it faster, sometimes not.
Before writing down any silly remarks about how much it costed, one should consider first how much joy, fun and delight it gave when watching it. For me and my team it was ‘just’ five months; any idea how much time it costed for the rider to have her/his horse on this level of top equestrian sport?

Enjoy and admire the rider and horse, and their performance, have fun watching this and following video’s and ask yourself: who does the same as we do?

Best wishes to all,
Cees Slings

Dressage Underground