Plate 6: 2833 2843 2931 (ballet) (1930)
4.09
4.09
‘Plate 6: 2749 2833 2842 2931 (Ballet) (1930)’ provides an interlude. Ballets were often incorporated in French opera to provide a break – a divertissement – from the singing. In the context of the suite, the ballet provides a momentary cessation of otherwise relentless sounds of industry.
The composition is based upon a scene that occurs early-on in the movie, set outside the colliery’s Lamp Room. There, colliers received their mining-lamps; each device having been duly maintained and safety-checked. Each possesses a unique number; those of four mining-lamps are spoken on the soundtrack.
The annunciation of the numbers provides the source material for the composition. The voices were slowed-down considerably, reversed, played in contrary motion against the forward version, and re-equalised to emphasise the harmonic content. The modified output was, then, edited and rearranged to create a sequence of different melodic fragments, some of which are repeated linearly while others, at the close of the composition, looped and superimposed.