Epiphany Theater Company commissioned me to compose incidental music for their 2006 production of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House in Saratoga, NY. Written in 1889, A Doll House tells the story of Nora Helmer, whose past crime of forging her father’s signature returns to threaten her husband’s social and business standing. In first concealing the crime and later reckoning with its consequences, Nora realizes she has become a “doll” to her husband, and that they do not understand one another despite eight years of marriage.

Ibsen’s description of the Helmers’ residence includes a piano, and in Acts II and III NORA dances a tarantelle accompanied by DR. RANK. These clues made solo piano the obvious choice for both the incidental and “source” music (music played as part of the action). Knowing the music should reference a style of the period, I began with some late Romantic piano conventions in mind but introduced more contemporary harmonic and rhythmic disturbances to suggest unrest and the breakdown of appearances.

The music was conceived as a set of cues rather than as discreet compositions and was recorded with special effects of distance, reverb, crowd noise, etc., to enhance the storytelling.

Cue 1: Opening Act I (Listen)

Cue 5: Opening Act III; Tarantelle as introduction, fading into a waltz that accompanies the conversation between MRS. LINDE and NILS KROGSTAD “(…Dance music is heard in the room above…)” (Listen)

Cue 6: Accompanies the sequence starting from MRS LINDE’s line “Hush! The tarantella! Go! Go!.” The Tarantelle is heard from the floor above. (Listen)

Cue 7: Closing Act III, immediately following HELMER’s line “The most wonderful thing of all–?” (Listen)

In the course of preparing this production I was privileged to have lunch and a long conversation one afternoon in Saratoga with Brian Johnston, a foremost Ibsen scholar and translator who originated what is now known as the Ibsen Cycle. Anyone interested in Ibsen or dramatic art in general will be fascinated to browse Professor Johnston’s website, Ibsen Voyages.

Richard F. Dennis, known to many as Dick Dennis, was a violinist, string teacher, and conductor who worked internationally as concertmaster for touring artists including Henry Mancini. He later led the orchestra program at North Central High School in Indianapolis, IN for 32 years. When he died in late 2005, his school district commissioned a new orchestral work in his memory. It was an honor to be chosen as composer of this work and as a guest conductor for the Dick Dennis Legacy Concert the following year. The orchestra of well over 100 players comprised current students at North Central High School supplemented by professionals including Mr. Dennis’s colleagues, friends, and former students from around the country.

For the memorial composition I decided on a two-part suite in Hungarian nationalistic style. The two movements were a depiction of the two sides of the typical Hungarian character, which Dick Dennis exemplified; one side quiet, introspective, and at times gloomy, the other side playful and exuberant. The second movement was a Hungarian Dance in the spirit of the twenty-four such dances for piano (and later orchestrated) by Brahms, which Dick Dennis loved. Many of Brahms’s dances are based on Hungarian folk melodies; mine is original, but anyone who knows Brahms’s music, or heard Dick Dennis whistling in his office, will notice my indebtedness to these two sources.

I was sure Dick Dennis would not want an “easy” piece written in his memory; this piece observes none of the limits on accidentals, rhythms, tempi, etc., one would usually find in music for a young orchestra. Efforts to get the suite published or otherwise made available have been hampered by this and my limited reputation in the educational music market — built to date, in fact, on this single composition. A score of the Hungarian Dance can be viewed here.

Richard F. Dennis on Lifestory.com

Richard F. Dennis Memorial Endowment