Eurodressage F.O.C.U.S.

The Making of "Il Passeggiato"

May 24, 2005

Back to Belgium for a second try-out, which proved to be necessary. Vic has been working all night to get it ready and we had some computer problems again. A new error on the hard disk. Misery likes company!

The test ride goes well. On three places changes need to be made, some need a bar extra, others one less. We have the feeling that with a few minor changes we are getting somewhere. Wayne wants to ride the kur in Lipica, so we'll come back in 5 days for another trial. It's going to be a gamble to get it done on time. Normally we do the production, arrangement and orchestration at the end because it's very difficult to put in extra bars when all that is done, but we go for it, because we believe it all fits. Fortunately Wayne is quite the high-tech man (with a professional career in internet technology), so we can send an MP3 or an AIF file of the last version to his server last minute, which he can then burn on a CD at the horse show.

We go to lunch again. Debra has a beautiful voice and is constantly singing along with the music. We ask her if she wants to sing on the freestyle because we want to do two vocal moments in the kur. We will need to add Debra's voice after Wayne gets back from Lipica. Debra's voice and some live brass and woodwinds will give extra elegance, depth and expression to the kur."

Victor Kerkhof, who is the executive musician and composes and arranges alongside Cees, said that in every freestyle you always wrestle with one or two melodies. "In Anky's L'Esprit Chanson we had trouble with the zig zag music. In Wayne's it's the Marina tune. It's like a 'dragon.' You try to fight it and get it into its place, but it just doesn't work. Until one moment you find the right instruments and then you have the nicest tune," Victor explained.

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