Eurodressage F.O.C.U.S.

The Making of "Il Passeggiato"

April 25, 2005

Today, a new client came to visit us, Wayne Channon, a rider on the British team. Our project is to design a new freestyle and the assignment is very clear. Wayne has already chosen the music, but Vic and I have to work out the theme. The horse, Lorenzo CH, is beautiful, a son of Ferro. To me, Lorenzo is a bit less heavy than Ferro, who I considered beautiful but too massive. There is only one horse that I find really impressive and that is Partout, but Lorenzo has that look as well, and he has something mystic.

Because there is deadline, Wayne will videotape his choreography himself so that we can download it from his server. He wants to ride the kur in Lipica and if all goes well, it should be ready by then. Fortunately, the third project we are working on has been put on hold, which gives us more time. For us, it's better to work on different projects at the same time, because when you get stuck with one job, you can work on the other the next day. We are not machines who can make music roll off the assembly line. It is a creative process which means that sometimes you are just thinking about it and sometimes you have to put it out of your mind.

One of the choices in music Wayne and Debra have made was the soundtrack of The Godfather, so we gave the new assignment the working title "Cosa Nostra, The Italian Job." We tried to get more music out of the movie, but it didn't work, so we decided to make it a completely Italian story. Not such an innovative idea, because there is this one rider who is scoring pretty decently with a French inspired kur, L'Esprit Chanson. I forgot her name as well as the makers of that kur, but we can do a better job anyway ;)

We're keeping the theme of The Godfather for the intro and the walk. It is clear and beautiful. For the passage and piaffe we use Andrea Bocelli, a very passionate melody which matches the bold passage of Lorenzo, who has that little Italian touch because of his black coat. For the flying changes and half passes we chose the melody of 'Marina' and the Tarantella. It can't get anymore Italian than that

These tunes are difficult to work with because they all have strong vocal lines which we have to make instrumental, but some fit well. It is also hard to find the right colour of sound and the setting of the orchestra. Sometimes the sound has much body, sometimes it's too combo like, too futile. It'll be a challenge to fix that.

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