Washington Square Dance

for 2 identical orchestras (2002-2003)
12 minutes | no.23

No matter what side you're on
or where you stand
Take your partner by the hand
And each pair dance
The Washington Square Dance

from the musical Call Me Madam by Irving Berlin

Washington Square Dance is the fourth part of Uptown|Downtown, an urban panorama in six movements, which is thought of as an evening-long dance production about city life in Manhattan.

Scoring

orchestra I: 2.2.2(bcl).2-3.2.2.1-perc(2)-str(6.6.5.4.4)
orchestra II: idem

Commissioned by

Holland Festival

Written for

Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra

Dedicated to

Ilse Schrama

Première

19 June 2004
Holland Festival
Docklands, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra
Pascal Rophé (conductor)

choreography

Conny Jansen
Dutch National Ballet

Press

[...] As with its predecessor Times Square Dance, the composer conceived the rhythm of his new piece first, to which the chords were attached later. However, Washington Square Dance has turned out much more like an explicit dance. The tempo is strict, and there are numerous repeats. The first dance is more enigmatic and varied, the new one is a downright Dutch Le Sacre du Printemps. [...]

Ernst Vermeulen, NRC Handelsblad, 21 June 2004

[...] The Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra presented the première of Rijnvos's Washington Square Dance, accompanied by dancers of the Dutch National Ballet in a choreography by Conny Janssen. Before that, and without dance, the orchestra played Times Square Dance, for which Rijnvos was awarded the [Matthijs] Vermeulen Prize [2000]. [...]

Roland de Beer, De Volkskrant, 21 June 2004

Audio fragments

Performance

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Nicholas Kok - conductor

recording

8 February 2001, Maida Vale Studios, London (UK)
by BBC Radio 3 (reproduced with permission)

Score Excerpts

Part of