David Farquhar Photo: Trust Records
This music was originally commissioned by Richard Campion for the New Zealand Players' production of Ring Round the Moon by Jean Anouilh, translated by Christopher Fry. In the second act there is a ball taking place offstage, demanding a large number of dances which are specified in the text.
David Farquhar writes: "The music was first recorded on acetate discs by an ad hoc orchestra led by Alex Lindsay; these small recordings were then played through speakers for the production, sounding very loud to the cast but filtering out more gently to the audience. At the end of the long national tour, the cast knew the music very well and suggested to me that I should do something with it.
The result, some years later, 1957, was a suite of nine dances first performed by the Alex Lindsay Orchestra. This rapidly became my most performed piece and was commercially recorded by the Alex Lindsay Orchestra in the 1960s."
This six movement version omits the first three dances of the original and was arranged for the National Youth Orchestra in 1975 to take on tour to Europe and China.
The six dances are:
- Tango
- Polka
- Waltz
- Two-Step
- Introduction and Waltz
- Finale
Recorded on 18 April 2010 by RNZ Concert
