Part 1: Ice Charade's Music Suggestions for the 2018 - 2019 Season

If you haven't seen Jessica May's excellent and exhaustive posts: Suggestions for Skating Music, Part I & II – Music In the (Warhorse) Danger Zone on the most overused music in figure skating, click there now and read please.  

I'll wait.  (I hope you come back to this post at some point. please, pretty please.) 

Thank you Jessica for doing all the heavy lifting.

Now that you're back - you'll see I'm offering some suggestions for any skaters and choreography coaches that are looking for something different.  My choices are probably too obscure to ever make it onto the ice at any of the GPF, but, hey, I like these choices.  I hope you will too.  I'm going to take this over to Twitter and I hope others join in with their musical picks.

Let's crowd source a big list so we'll have some fresh music for the upcoming season!!

Since this post is taking a lot longer than I thought (ugh, I have to go to work soon) I'm giving part one of two today.  Stay tuned for pop(ular) songs and movie and Broadway soundtracks in a follow-up post.

Let's see as for my top 3 Classical selections:

Pines of Rome/Fountains of Rome by Ottorino Respighi.  The Pines of Rome itself, is about 21 minutes long, so one has to roll up their sleeves and figure out which 4 - 5 minutes you need.  You may recognize Pines of Rome from the line-up in Fantasia 2000.  If, like me, you're a fan of "Firebird" (thank you Gracie Gold) this could be the new "Firebird" of skating music.  

Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev.  Come on, everyone knows this music, and with very clever editing, this could be a great long program, especially for pairs or dance.

Appalachian Springs by Aaron Copeland.  Another personal favorite of mine, clocking in around 24 minutes, I was glad this was not on Jessica's list.  Sometimes I listen to it at night when I'm trying to fall asleep - which is NOT to say it's boring.  It's elegant and light and would be great for a short program I think.

My top 3 selections, plus a bonus track, from TV theme shows:

Theme song of ER:  Okay, this one is about twenty years old, but it still holds up.  I've always thought someone should skate to this as a short program.  Since most tv theme show songs are short, this one, like others would need to be added to something else or combined with the closing credits.  

Theme song of HBO's John Adams:  If you're a fan of the theme song from Game of Thrones, but you want to stand out from the crowd, this is a beautiful piece.  It's perfect for a short program.  Best for a guy.  Best for an American.  Because history!

Theme song to Peter Gunn by Henry Mancini:  This one goes waaay back.  It's not the more famous Mancini song, The Pink Panther, but it's catchy and familiar.  I would want to scour the internet for a fresh orchestration.  Good for a short program because it's too powerful for a long.  I'm imagining a pair team doing this one.  If you want another similar (read: old tv show) theme song for ice dancers only - how about the theme song to Perry Mason.

Let me know you're thoughts and you're suggestions!  And stay tuned for the second post.