Stravinski and Diaghilev, Copland and Balanchine, Mosier and Shipman.

Choreographer Nell Shipman of the Portland Ballet Company laughs at the comparison, but her collaboration with composer Kirt Mosier on “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” ballet is the only such venture in recent years on the Maine scene. And if what I saw at a rehearsal the other day is any indication, it will be a fruitful one, perhaps a Halloween tradition.

Shipman and Portland Ballet executive director Eugenia O’Brien had been thinking of staging “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” for some time, but were unable to find suitable music. During an Internet search, Shipman came across “Two Scenes from the Hollow,” which began with a piece called “Ichabod’s Walk,” and she liked it very much.

She immediately saw the possibilities and eventually agreed upon a price for the entire ballet with the composer, who teaches at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and at a high school.

That was in 2009, but funding for the commission fell through and Mosier, who had been thinking of music based on a synopsis of scenes Shipman had sent him, put the project on the back burner.

But on tax day this year, April 15, the money once again became available. Mosier completed the score by the first week in June, working between classes and late at night.

Although he has published about 50 works, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is Mosier’s first ballet. He wonders what it will sound like live.

“I’m a tinfoil composer,” he jokes, “But if it comes out granite and marble, then fine.”

For him, it was an ideal assignment. “I work away from the keyboard, and see scenes in my head that generate the music,” he said. “Nell sent me a plot of the action, scenes and moods she wanted in the ballet.” That was all he needed.

For her part, Shipman was pleased with the result, which Mosier sent her in the form of a synthesizer tape to be used instead of a piano at rehearsals.

While there was the usual back and forth between the long-distance collaborators, the only major rewriting was in the scene where Katrina, Ichabod’s love interest, enters the schoolhouse. Mosier wanted more space to develop her personality, but Shipman, because of time limits, needed her to appear almost at once in character. The choreographer won that one.

Mosier composes in an eclectic style that he calls “quintal harmony,” built around fourth and fifth intervals with some jazzy idioms and without a key signature. Some of the many dance forms in the ballet music sound quite traditional.

“The children’s waltz could be right out of Tchaikovsky,” says Mosier, “but I can use sound effects of 12-tone (serial) music if I need to.” Most of the score is highly melodic and easy to dance to.

The composer will be in town this week for a rehearsal with a chamber orchestra under Robert Lehmann, which will accompany the ballet at its premiere. I hope the live orchestra will sound as eerie as the synthesizer.

I was impressed by Shipman’s choreography for Katrina Van Tassel, danced by Morgan Sanborn, and especially for the spectres that Ichabod encounters in the forest, who manage to be scary and erotic at the same time.

I would urge anyone who loves ballet to see the new production, which will be presented Friday and Saturday at John Ford Theater at Portland High School. Tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets (www.brownpapertickets.com). 

Christopher Hyde is a writer and musician who lives in Pownal. He can be reached at: classbeat@netscape.net

 

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