A Footstep Of Air
Creative Team
Choreographer
Eliot Feld
Lighting Designer
Costume Designer
Running Time
31 min
Music
Composer
Composition
“Ye Shepherds of this Pleasant Vale” and “Duncan Gray Came Here to Woo” from 12 Scottish Songs, WoO 156
“Music, Love and Wine,” “Behold My Love How Green the Groves,” “Could this Ill World Have Been Contriv’d,” “Sally in Our Alley,” and “Come Fill, Fill My Good Fellow” from 25 Scottish Songs, op. 108
“The Pulse of an Irishman” and “Put Round the Bright Red Wine” from 12 Irish Songs, WoO 154
“Peggy’s Daughter” from 26 Welsh Songs, WoO 155
“O Charlie is My Darling” from 12 Songs of Various Nationalities, WoO 157
“Since Greybeards Inform Us That Youth Will Decay” from 20 Irish Songs, WoO 153
Notes
Most of Beethoven’s folk song arrangements, which number more than 170 all told, were commissioned by George Thomson (1757‑1839), for many years secretary to the “Board for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures in Scotland,” who saw it as his life’s work to collect Scottish, Irish, and Welsh folk songs. He enlisted the aid of distinguished poets (Burns, Lord Byron, Hogg and Scott) and well‑known composers (Haydn, Koseluh, Pleyel, and Beethoven). Beethoven accepted this work from 1809 until 1823 in order to improve his financial position. These songs were originally scored for violin, cello, and piano. The ballet uses an orchestration by Sol Berkowitz for chamber orchestra.
Premiere
Date
March 12, 1977Location
City Center (New York, NY)Company
The Feld BalletPremiere Cast
Credits & Notes
A Footstep of Air has also been in repertory at the National Ballet of Canada.
A Footstep of Air was originally made possible with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, and private funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.