Pas de deux

composer's note

My working title, “Evas and Adam’s dance fight at 288 beats per minute,” points to the central importance of pulse as the driving force of this intense, twelve-minute orchestral ballet, Pas de deux. Carried by an amplified double bass positioned at the center of the orchestral landscape, the omnipresent pulse of 288 bpm becomes the focal point of our rhythmic wandering across the dance floor. Pas de deux is an interplay of two forces: Adam and Eve, you and me, she and we … an ebb and flow, a swaying and turning, a pushing and pulling. The piece traces social interaction in its most fundamental – and at the same time most joyful – form: as dance, as it is celebrated in all cultures of the world. The audience is invited to join in dancing, or – like a dancer who briefly steps out of the celebration – to let their gaze wander: at times focusing on individual couples, at times widening out to the crowd, thus experiencing the event as a large-scale soundscape. I would compare the genesis of Pas de deux to a lizard’s tail growing back – except that here an entirely new body grows back onto the tail. In reference to the classic four-part ballet form of the same name – Entrée, Adagio, Variations, and Coda – our two protagonists, solo violin and solo cello, whirl through the first three sections. In the Coda, the body that has grown back onto the tail, they circle, romp, and reel, entangled in a dynamic struggle over positions and perspectives, ideas and dreams, until they finally draw the entire orchestra along with them. As a culminating point, I paraphrase the final scene of my opera Adam und Eva: a proclamation of individual freedom, responsibility, and creativity, with the mantra “love, beauty, serenity, novelty, mischief, and mirth” – a wild, unbridled dance. — Mike Svoboda, January 2026

Instrumentation

Instrumentation
2 Flutes
2 Oboes
2 Clarinets in Bb
2 Bassoons
2 Horns in F
2 Trumpets in C
Percussion (one Clave, Vibraphone, Hi-hat, Kick-Drum)

Strings 6.5.4.3.2 (the 2nd with amplification and live-electronics)

Performance notes
The four sections — Entrée, Adagio, Variations, and Coda — are to be performed attacca, proceeding from one to the next without pause and without any change of underlying pulse.

All tempi are derived from a common unit of 288 beats per minute, heard throughout Pas de deux (most often in the solo double bass). The relationship is as follows: Tempo 58 has 5 impulses, 72 (4), 96 (3), and 144 (2).

Trumpets
The trumpets should play from behind the orchestra, positioned left and right to maximize the stereo effect.

Solo double bass
The solo double bass is positioned centrally behind the orchestra and amplified locally, so that the sound remains clearly localized there for the audience. In Variations, a delay patch is required. Otherwise, effects may be used moderately to enrich the sound, while keeping the sound of the double bass as clear as possible. The amplification and live electronics (effects) should be simple enough for the player to control independently.