WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.700 You know, when we talk about the giants of culture, 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:06.980 like the institutions that completely define 00:00:06.980 --> 00:00:10.119 a century of art, we have this really bad habit 00:00:10.119 --> 00:00:13.679 of looking only at the marquee names. The ones 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:16.739 on the posters. Exactly. We completely fixate 00:00:16.739 --> 00:00:18.800 on the prima ballerina because, well, she's the 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:21.320 one catching the light. Or we obsess over the 00:00:21.320 --> 00:00:23.640 conductor. Or the visionary choreographer. Right, 00:00:23.719 --> 00:00:25.359 because their names are the ones bolded in all 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:28.339 the history books. Yeah. It's basically the... 00:00:28.109 --> 00:00:30.489 The great man theory of history but applied to 00:00:30.489 --> 00:00:33.630 the arts. We just really want a singular genius 00:00:33.630 --> 00:00:36.299 to worship. We really do. But if you actually 00:00:36.299 --> 00:00:38.799 dig into the machinery of these places, if you 00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:40.899 look at the source material, you realize the 00:00:40.899 --> 00:00:44.960 genius isn't usually a solo act. It rarely ever 00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:47.700 is. It's supported by this massive invisible 00:00:47.700 --> 00:00:50.299 infrastructure. And for today's deep dive, I 00:00:50.299 --> 00:00:52.679 want to talk about one specific piece of human 00:00:52.679 --> 00:00:55.700 infrastructure who honestly basically held the 00:00:55.700 --> 00:00:59.359 Royal Ballet together for over 40 years. It's 00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:00.920 an incredible story. And she didn't do it from 00:01:00.920 --> 00:01:03.460 a podium or, you know, center stage. No, she 00:01:03.460 --> 00:01:05.409 did it from a piano bench. We're talking about 00:01:05.409 --> 00:01:08.829 Hilda Gaunt. Hilda Gaunt. It's a name that, unless 00:01:08.829 --> 00:01:11.370 you are a totally diehard scholar of British 00:01:11.370 --> 00:01:13.450 dance history, you've probably never heard. Most 00:01:13.450 --> 00:01:15.650 people definitely haven't. But the picture painted 00:01:15.650 --> 00:01:18.390 of her in these biographical records and historical 00:01:18.390 --> 00:01:22.189 accounts from Wikipedia covering roughly 1906 00:01:22.189 --> 00:01:26.090 to 1975, it's just captivating. It really is. 00:01:26.170 --> 00:01:29.609 Because we aren't talking about some stiff formal 00:01:29.609 --> 00:01:32.150 accompanist in a recital hall. We are talking 00:01:32.150 --> 00:01:36.400 about this change smoking hard -drinking musical 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:39.599 powerhouse who sat at a battered upright piano 00:01:39.599 --> 00:01:43.359 day in and day out yes literally shaping the 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:45.439 way British Ballet actually sounds from the shadows 00:01:45.439 --> 00:01:47.980 and shaping really is the right word here because 00:01:47.980 --> 00:01:50.340 it's easy to look at her title you know rehearsal 00:01:50.340 --> 00:01:52.540 pianist, and just assumed she was background 00:01:52.540 --> 00:01:54.840 noise. Like a metronome with a pulse. Exactly. 00:01:55.260 --> 00:01:56.719 But when you look at the historical accounts 00:01:56.719 --> 00:01:59.560 of her work starting around 1931, you realize 00:01:59.560 --> 00:02:02.000 that rehearsal pianist is a massive understatement. 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:04.579 A huge understatement. In her case, it was a 00:02:04.579 --> 00:02:06.819 lot more like musical director by proxy. That's 00:02:06.819 --> 00:02:08.659 the part that really grabbed me when I was looking 00:02:08.659 --> 00:02:12.479 at the sources. I think we need to dispel this 00:02:12.479 --> 00:02:15.020 idea that a rehearsal pianist just sits there 00:02:15.020 --> 00:02:17.659 and plays plink plonk while the dancers stretch. 00:02:17.780 --> 00:02:20.300 Oh, absolutely not. If you're playing for a company 00:02:20.300 --> 00:02:22.639 on the level of the Vic Wells Ballet, which is 00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:25.340 what eventually becomes the Royal Ballet, the 00:02:25.340 --> 00:02:28.099 job is physically and intellectually brutal, 00:02:28.259 --> 00:02:30.319 isn't it? Oh, it's foundational. Okay. You have 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:33.039 to essentially be a full orchestra reduced to 00:02:33.039 --> 00:02:35.620 ten fingers. Which is wild to think about. It 00:02:35.620 --> 00:02:37.979 is. I mean, think about a classic ballet score, 00:02:38.099 --> 00:02:40.659 something like Stravinsky or Tchaikovsky. You've 00:02:40.659 --> 00:02:43.639 got brass sections. Percussion. Soaring strings, 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:47.259 woodwinds, and a rehearsal pianist has to translate 00:02:47.259 --> 00:02:49.860 all of that texture, all of that weight onto 00:02:49.860 --> 00:02:52.039 a single keyboard. You have to play the energy 00:02:52.039 --> 00:02:54.340 of the orchestra, not just the melody. Precisely. 00:02:54.680 --> 00:02:56.400 And they have to do it with the exact correct 00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:58.479 percussive attacks so the dancers can actually 00:02:58.479 --> 00:03:01.099 feel the beat in their bodies. And you're doing 00:03:01.099 --> 00:03:04.340 this for, what, hours on end? Hours. often stopping 00:03:04.340 --> 00:03:06.759 and starting every four bars because the choreographer 00:03:06.759 --> 00:03:08.979 wants to change a tiny step. That sounds exhausting. 00:03:09.180 --> 00:03:12.060 It requires a level of patience and stamina that 00:03:12.060 --> 00:03:15.180 honestly most concert pianists simply don't have. 00:03:16.219 --> 00:03:19.080 But Hilda Gaunt wasn't just good at this. She 00:03:19.080 --> 00:03:21.780 was the absolute gold standard. Right, because 00:03:21.780 --> 00:03:23.979 she was a serious British pianist who started 00:03:23.979 --> 00:03:26.539 gaining attention in the late 1920s and early 00:03:26.539 --> 00:03:28.759 30s. Yeah, and then she joins the company in 00:03:28.759 --> 00:03:32.139 1931. Right at the foundation. This is the era 00:03:32.139 --> 00:03:34.780 of building something from nothing. And she gets 00:03:34.780 --> 00:03:37.039 paired up with Constant Lambert. The musical 00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:39.539 director. Now, Lambert is a legend in his own 00:03:39.539 --> 00:03:42.860 right. Brilliant, chaotic, totally a genius. 00:03:43.300 --> 00:03:45.300 But the record suggests that Hilda wasn't just 00:03:45.300 --> 00:03:47.620 his assistant. Not at all. She was practically 00:03:47.620 --> 00:03:50.000 his other half musically. She was assisting with 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.659 the musical supervision of classic ballet scores. 00:03:52.740 --> 00:03:55.319 Which is a heavy responsibility. I mean, she 00:03:55.319 --> 00:03:57.520 was making real decisions about tempos, about 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:00.620 cuts. How the music would breathe. Exactly. In 00:04:00.620 --> 00:04:03.439 a lot of ways, she was the bridge between Lambert's 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:06.960 high -level musical vision and the sweaty physical 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:09.759 reality of the dance studio. And that reality 00:04:09.759 --> 00:04:12.740 got incredibly dark, incredibly fast. Because 00:04:12.740 --> 00:04:14.659 we have to talk about the war years now. The 00:04:14.659 --> 00:04:17.819 Second World War. Yeah. Because if managing a 00:04:17.819 --> 00:04:20.740 ballet company is hard in peacetime, doing it 00:04:20.740 --> 00:04:23.680 while the Luftwaffe is dropping bombs seems impossible. 00:04:23.899 --> 00:04:26.959 The war completely dismantled the normal operations 00:04:26.959 --> 00:04:29.470 of the arts in the UK. Right. The government 00:04:29.470 --> 00:04:32.069 realized they needed to keep morale up, so they 00:04:32.069 --> 00:04:34.370 sent companies touring across the country. But 00:04:34.370 --> 00:04:36.509 you couldn't just tour a full symphony orchestra. 00:04:36.750 --> 00:04:40.110 It was considered a luxury. You can't fit 60 00:04:40.110 --> 00:04:42.550 musicians and all their massive instruments on 00:04:42.550 --> 00:04:45.269 a train moving through a blackout zone. It was 00:04:45.269 --> 00:04:48.230 too expensive and far too dangerous. So the orchestra 00:04:48.230 --> 00:04:50.360 had to be cut. Which leaves the ballet with a 00:04:50.360 --> 00:04:52.480 massive problem. You can dance without sets. 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:55.160 You can dance in terrible costumes. But you cannot 00:04:55.160 --> 00:04:57.759 dance without music. Enter Hilda. Enter Hilda 00:04:57.759 --> 00:04:59.980 Gaunt and the two piano arrangement. I love this 00:04:59.980 --> 00:05:02.920 part. For a huge portion of the war, the entire 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:05.199 orchestra for the Royal Ballet's extensive UK 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:09.220 tours was literally just Hilda Gaunt and Constant 00:05:09.220 --> 00:05:11.959 Lambert sitting at two pianos. Sometimes Harold 00:05:11.959 --> 00:05:14.240 Rutland would sub in, right? Yes, sometimes Harold 00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:17.079 Rutland. But Hilda was the anchor. She was the 00:05:17.079 --> 00:05:19.949 reliable one. Just... Try to imagine the acoustics 00:05:19.949 --> 00:05:22.310 of that for a second. You're the listener. You're 00:05:22.310 --> 00:05:25.730 sitting in a drafty theater in some provincial 00:05:25.730 --> 00:05:28.970 town. You're there for an escape from the blitz. 00:05:28.990 --> 00:05:31.009 Right. You want a distraction. And instead of 00:05:31.009 --> 00:05:33.730 that lush, sweeping, orchestral sound you expect 00:05:33.730 --> 00:05:37.810 from Swan Lake, you get this percussive, driving, 00:05:38.290 --> 00:05:41.110 intense piano sound. It completely changes the 00:05:41.110 --> 00:05:43.050 entire character of the performance. It makes 00:05:43.050 --> 00:05:45.529 it so much more raw and immediate. And what's 00:05:45.529 --> 00:05:47.449 incredible to me is that the sources say this 00:05:47.449 --> 00:05:49.670 was done to general acclaim. Which is shocking 00:05:49.670 --> 00:05:51.449 when you think about critics. Critics are usually 00:05:51.449 --> 00:05:53.629 such purists you'd totally expect them to complain 00:05:53.629 --> 00:05:55.790 that it sounded thin or cheap. The fact that 00:05:55.790 --> 00:05:58.629 they didn't complain is a massive testament to 00:05:58.629 --> 00:06:01.470 Gaunt's sheer power and skill. Yeah. Because 00:06:01.470 --> 00:06:04.629 to fill a whole theater with just pianos, you 00:06:04.629 --> 00:06:07.430 have to play with immense physical force. You're 00:06:07.430 --> 00:06:09.769 creating dynamic swells that mimic a hundred 00:06:09.769 --> 00:06:12.490 instruments. It's an athletic feat. She wasn't 00:06:12.490 --> 00:06:14.629 just keeping time, she was carrying the emotional 00:06:14.629 --> 00:06:16.730 weight of the entire production on her back, 00:06:17.110 --> 00:06:19.149 night after night. While living a pretty grueling 00:06:19.149 --> 00:06:22.220 life, let's be honest. Oh, absolutely. Touring 00:06:22.220 --> 00:06:25.819 in wartime meant cold trains, bad food, rationing, 00:06:25.939 --> 00:06:28.899 constant fear, which naturally brings us to the 00:06:28.899 --> 00:06:31.360 vibe of Heldegant. The personality behind the 00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:34.000 piano. Because we have to move away from just 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:37.519 dry dates here. She wasn't this austere, terrifying 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:40.019 matron. The descriptions of her are so vivid, 00:06:40.079 --> 00:06:42.500 they feel like scenes from a movie. Annabelle 00:06:42.500 --> 00:06:44.699 Fargin's description is probably one of the best 00:06:44.699 --> 00:06:47.579 primary sources we have for the atmosphere of 00:06:47.579 --> 00:06:49.199 those rehearsals. She was a ballerina, right? 00:06:49.279 --> 00:06:52.579 Yes. And she describes Hilda sitting at the piano, 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:55.779 usually a battered upright, not some pristine 00:06:55.779 --> 00:06:58.680 concert grand. Naturally. With a cigarette permanently 00:06:58.680 --> 00:07:00.899 drooping from her mouth. I can just see it, the 00:07:00.899 --> 00:07:03.279 smoke curling up into her eyes while she's playing 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:05.639 some incredibly complex passage. And she had 00:07:05.639 --> 00:07:09.199 this husky, smoky voice. Vargen notes that she 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:11.899 was often the only filter through which information 00:07:11.899 --> 00:07:14.420 about a new ballet could be sifted. A gossip 00:07:14.420 --> 00:07:17.240 filter. That is such a crucial insight into how 00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:19.439 organizations actually work. Oh, totally. Think 00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:23.069 about it. In any high -pressure office, and a 00:07:23.069 --> 00:07:25.129 ballet company is definitely a high -pressure 00:07:25.129 --> 00:07:28.949 office, there is always that one person who actually 00:07:28.949 --> 00:07:31.490 knows what's going on. The person you go to when 00:07:31.490 --> 00:07:34.990 you're too scared to ask the boss. Exactly. The 00:07:34.990 --> 00:07:37.149 choreographers, people like DeVille Waugh or 00:07:37.149 --> 00:07:40.610 Ashton, they were terrifying distant authority 00:07:40.610 --> 00:07:42.509 figures. But Hilda was right there in the corner. 00:07:42.709 --> 00:07:45.310 She was accessible. If you wanted to know if 00:07:45.310 --> 00:07:47.569 you were getting a solo, or if the director was 00:07:47.569 --> 00:07:49.970 in a bad mood, you didn't go to management, you 00:07:49.970 --> 00:07:52.649 went to Hilda at the piano. She was the emotional 00:07:52.649 --> 00:07:54.790 hub of the room. The water cooler and the therapist 00:07:54.790 --> 00:07:57.029 rolled into one. And that extended to the leadership, 00:07:57.050 --> 00:07:59.750 too. There's that amazing anecdote from Frederick 00:07:59.750 --> 00:08:02.250 Ashton about why Constant Lambert bonded with 00:08:02.250 --> 00:08:04.329 her so much. Right. It wasn't just her playing. 00:08:04.930 --> 00:08:07.009 Ashton said Gaunt endeared herself to Lambert 00:08:07.009 --> 00:08:09.649 because she was, quote, a tremendous drinker. 00:08:09.850 --> 00:08:12.889 And she was always on tap. Always on tap. It's 00:08:12.889 --> 00:08:14.829 a funny line, but it really points to something 00:08:14.829 --> 00:08:16.829 deeper about the culture of elite ballet. Yeah, 00:08:16.889 --> 00:08:19.490 it shows how they survived it. We shouldn't romanticize 00:08:19.490 --> 00:08:21.990 the alcoholism. It was clearly a coping mechanism 00:08:21.990 --> 00:08:24.850 for the stress. But you have to understand the 00:08:24.850 --> 00:08:27.670 isolation of leadership. Lambert was under immense 00:08:27.670 --> 00:08:30.430 pressure. Exactly. He was lonely. Hilda provided 00:08:30.430 --> 00:08:32.690 a peer relationship. They could drink together, 00:08:32.850 --> 00:08:35.009 smoke together, complain about the dancers together. 00:08:35.210 --> 00:08:38.110 That informality, that camaraderie, it creates 00:08:38.110 --> 00:08:41.549 a kind of trench warfare bond. It cemented her 00:08:41.549 --> 00:08:45.110 position not just as an employee, but as an indispensable 00:08:45.110 --> 00:08:47.870 creative partner. It really humanizes the high 00:08:47.870 --> 00:08:50.580 art. We see the polished performance, but we 00:08:50.580 --> 00:08:52.639 don't see the hungover rehearsals or the stress 00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:56.200 smoking. Hilda represents that gritty reality, 00:08:56.679 --> 00:08:59.620 but I want to pivot back to her creative collaboration 00:08:59.620 --> 00:09:02.500 because there's a story that proves she was way 00:09:02.500 --> 00:09:04.559 more than just a placeholder. You're talking 00:09:04.559 --> 00:09:07.840 about The Quest. The Quest in 1943. This is probably 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:09.799 the most significant example of her invisible 00:09:09.799 --> 00:09:12.259 hand in the creative process. So the company 00:09:12.259 --> 00:09:14.970 is commissioning this new ballet. The music is 00:09:14.970 --> 00:09:17.269 by William Walton. A titan of British music. 00:09:17.470 --> 00:09:19.730 A titan who is notoriously slow at finishing 00:09:19.730 --> 00:09:22.190 things. Which is a nightmare. The premiere is 00:09:22.190 --> 00:09:25.409 fast approaching. The dancers are ruddy. Frederick 00:09:25.409 --> 00:09:28.080 Ashton is ready to choreograph. But the score 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:30.700 isn't finished. You literally can't choreograph 00:09:30.700 --> 00:09:32.700 a ballet if you don't know how long the music 00:09:32.700 --> 00:09:34.779 is or what the rhythm is going to be. So Ashton 00:09:34.779 --> 00:09:37.820 is stuck. He can't afford to wait. So he turns 00:09:37.820 --> 00:09:39.860 the hill to gaunt and essentially says... Make 00:09:39.860 --> 00:09:42.820 something up. Right. He asks her to improvise 00:09:42.820 --> 00:09:45.379 music at the right length and tempo that fits 00:09:45.379 --> 00:09:48.240 the idea of the scene so he can actually start 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:50.220 building the movement. Just pause on that for 00:09:50.220 --> 00:09:53.529 a second. Ashton is choreographing to her improvisation. 00:09:53.769 --> 00:09:55.750 Yes. That means the foundational rhythm of the 00:09:55.750 --> 00:09:58.450 dance, the phrasing, the emotional peaks. They 00:09:58.450 --> 00:10:00.850 are all reacting to Hilda Gaunt's brain, not 00:10:00.850 --> 00:10:03.649 William Walton's. That is the crucial point here. 00:10:04.049 --> 00:10:06.549 Because when Walton's real score finally arrived, 00:10:06.750 --> 00:10:09.690 late as expected, Ashton didn't scrap his choreography. 00:10:09.950 --> 00:10:11.750 He couldn't. It was too late. Right. He just 00:10:11.750 --> 00:10:14.990 tweaked the steps to fit the new music. But the 00:10:14.990 --> 00:10:17.429 skeleton of the ballet was already built. and 00:10:17.429 --> 00:10:20.110 it was built on Gond's musical instincts. It 00:10:20.110 --> 00:10:22.350 totally blurs the line of authorship. The program 00:10:22.350 --> 00:10:24.710 probably said, music by Walton, choreography 00:10:24.710 --> 00:10:27.330 by Ashton. But the structure was essentially 00:10:27.330 --> 00:10:32.129 music by Gond. She acted as a literal placeholder 00:10:32.129 --> 00:10:34.889 for the composer. The person in the room solving 00:10:34.889 --> 00:10:38.210 the immediate crisis often leaves a bigger fingerprint 00:10:38.210 --> 00:10:40.649 on the work than the famous person commissioned 00:10:40.649 --> 00:10:43.149 to write it. And that deep understanding of the 00:10:43.149 --> 00:10:46.309 works is what led to her becoming the institutional 00:10:46.309 --> 00:10:48.929 memory of the Royal Ballet. Let's talk about 00:10:48.929 --> 00:10:50.850 that. The keeper of the repertoire. I was looking 00:10:50.850 --> 00:10:53.950 at the notes on the revival of Sylvia in 1963. 00:10:54.470 --> 00:10:56.970 This brings up a massive issue in dance history. 00:10:57.149 --> 00:10:59.730 which is preservation. Right, because today we 00:10:59.730 --> 00:11:02.549 have 4K video of everything. We have video. We 00:11:02.549 --> 00:11:05.289 have advanced notation systems. But back then, 00:11:05.649 --> 00:11:08.570 a ballet existed almost entirely in the bodies 00:11:08.570 --> 00:11:11.129 of the dancers. So if a dancer retired, that 00:11:11.129 --> 00:11:12.889 knowledge left with them. It could literally 00:11:12.889 --> 00:11:15.149 disappear. Yeah. Sylvie had been out of the repertoire 00:11:15.149 --> 00:11:18.129 for four years by 1963. That's a long time. People 00:11:18.129 --> 00:11:20.730 forget the nuances. Exactly. So when they decided 00:11:20.730 --> 00:11:22.809 to bring it back, they didn't just read a book. 00:11:23.039 --> 00:11:26.220 Director John Field looked to Hilda to help reconstruct 00:11:26.220 --> 00:11:28.460 it. She knew the work when others had forgotten 00:11:28.460 --> 00:11:31.480 it. She was like the backup hard drive for the 00:11:31.480 --> 00:11:34.899 institution. She remembered the exact tempos. 00:11:35.220 --> 00:11:37.700 She knew where a jump needed to be slower or 00:11:37.700 --> 00:11:40.500 where a transition needed a slight pause. She 00:11:40.500 --> 00:11:42.919 was holding the continuity of the royal ballet 00:11:42.919 --> 00:11:46.759 in her head. Without people like her, these great 00:11:46.759 --> 00:11:48.779 works would have degraded over time. They would 00:11:48.779 --> 00:11:50.600 have just become pale shadows of themselves. 00:11:50.759 --> 00:11:53.289 She kept them sharp. And she didn't slow down 00:11:53.289 --> 00:11:55.909 either. You'd think by the 1970s she'd be taking 00:11:55.909 --> 00:11:58.110 it easy. She was nearing the end of her life. 00:11:58.409 --> 00:12:01.830 But in 1974, she takes on what might be her most 00:12:01.830 --> 00:12:04.629 complex musical challenge yet. L 'histoire de 00:12:04.629 --> 00:12:07.509 Manon. Yes. Choreographed by Kenneth McMillan. 00:12:07.750 --> 00:12:09.850 It's considered one of the great dramatic ballets 00:12:09.850 --> 00:12:12.990 of the 20th century. The music is credited to 00:12:12.990 --> 00:12:16.169 Jules Massenet. But the catch is, Massenet never 00:12:16.169 --> 00:12:18.649 wrote a ballet called Manon. Right. So where 00:12:18.649 --> 00:12:21.389 did the score actually come from? It was a compilation. 00:12:21.639 --> 00:12:24.059 Hilde Gaunt collaborated with Leighton Lucas. 00:12:24.500 --> 00:12:26.960 And they basically had to sift through Messonnier's 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:29.799 entire catalog. Operas, orchestral suites, songs. 00:12:30.159 --> 00:12:32.120 They took all this existing music and stitched 00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:34.600 it together to form a coherent narrative structure 00:12:34.600 --> 00:12:36.809 for a three -act ballet. People might hear that 00:12:36.809 --> 00:12:39.009 think, oh, it's just making a mixtape, putting 00:12:39.009 --> 00:12:41.470 one nice song next to another. But it's infinitely 00:12:41.470 --> 00:12:43.970 harder than that. This is real musicology and 00:12:43.970 --> 00:12:46.110 arranging. You have to match keys, right? Exactly. 00:12:46.129 --> 00:12:49.970 You can't just jump from C major to F sharp minor 00:12:49.970 --> 00:12:52.549 without it sounding completely jarring. You have 00:12:52.549 --> 00:12:54.690 to match the instrumentation. And you have to 00:12:54.690 --> 00:12:57.950 create a dramatic arc that rises and falls with 00:12:57.950 --> 00:13:00.269 the story of the dance. If the music peaks too 00:13:00.269 --> 00:13:03.429 early, the choreography feels anticlimactic. 00:13:03.669 --> 00:13:06.179 If it doesn't build enough, the whole scene feels 00:13:06.179 --> 00:13:08.960 flat. So she was analyzing the emotional narrative 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:11.580 of the ballet and finding the exact right bars 00:13:11.580 --> 00:13:14.200 of music from a dead French composer to support 00:13:14.200 --> 00:13:17.019 it. Taking existing music and shaping it into 00:13:17.019 --> 00:13:20.519 dance. It proves she possessed a composer's understanding 00:13:20.519 --> 00:13:23.460 of structure and a dramaturg's understanding 00:13:23.460 --> 00:13:26.159 of story. It's an incredible capstone to her 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:28.789 career. From the battered upright piano in the 00:13:28.789 --> 00:13:31.529 30s to arranging a masterpiece in the 70s, she 00:13:31.529 --> 00:13:34.429 really saw the entire golden age of British ballet. 00:13:34.809 --> 00:13:37.250 She didn't just see it. She was the engine that 00:13:37.250 --> 00:13:40.090 powered it. There is one final credit of hers 00:13:40.090 --> 00:13:42.649 from the source material that I just love. It's 00:13:42.649 --> 00:13:45.769 the ultimate metaphor for her entire life and 00:13:45.769 --> 00:13:47.370 career. You're talking about the film credit. 00:13:47.549 --> 00:13:51.769 Yes. The famous 1948 film The Red Shoes. The 00:13:51.769 --> 00:13:54.110 most famous ballet movie ever made. If you look 00:13:54.110 --> 00:13:57.070 at the credits, Hilda Gaunt is listed as the 00:13:57.070 --> 00:13:59.669 accompanist, but we should clarify for the listener 00:13:59.669 --> 00:14:01.629 if you actually watch the movie. You won't see 00:14:01.629 --> 00:14:05.110 her. No, she is heard but not seen. Millions 00:14:05.110 --> 00:14:07.269 of people have watched that movie and heard her 00:14:07.269 --> 00:14:09.769 playing. They've heard that specific touch, that 00:14:09.769 --> 00:14:11.590 exact attack we were talking about earlier. But 00:14:11.590 --> 00:14:13.669 they're watching the actors on screen. It sums 00:14:13.669 --> 00:14:16.629 up her existence perfectly. She was the audio 00:14:16.629 --> 00:14:19.370 track to the visual spectacle. The audience is 00:14:19.370 --> 00:14:21.629 there for the visuals, the costumes, the leaps, 00:14:21.750 --> 00:14:24.870 the drama, but the entire visual experience rests 00:14:24.870 --> 00:14:27.570 entirely on the sonic foundation that she built. 00:14:27.769 --> 00:14:32.009 High culture so often relies on this gritty unglamorous 00:14:32.009 --> 00:14:35.370 labor. People like Gantt who literally keep the 00:14:35.370 --> 00:14:37.750 tempo so everyone else can shine. We really tend 00:14:37.750 --> 00:14:40.149 to erase the labor from art, don't we? We want 00:14:40.149 --> 00:14:42.129 it to feel like magic. We don't want to think 00:14:42.129 --> 00:14:44.350 about the sweat or the hangovers or the battered 00:14:44.350 --> 00:14:47.169 pianos. But Hilda Gantt forces us to look at 00:14:47.169 --> 00:14:49.570 the labor. She reminds us that high culture is 00:14:49.570 --> 00:14:52.110 actually just really hard work done by talented 00:14:52.110 --> 00:14:54.950 people over a very long period of time. And often 00:14:54.950 --> 00:14:58.190 done without any applause. She did this for 40 00:14:58.190 --> 00:15:01.129 years, mostly in the shadows, not for the fame, 00:15:01.450 --> 00:15:03.409 but just because the work needed to be done. 00:15:05.950 --> 00:15:08.250 holding the Royal Ballet together through war 00:15:08.250 --> 00:15:10.929 and peace. It's deeply humbling. It really is. 00:15:11.269 --> 00:15:14.610 So that is the story of Hildegandt, the invisible 00:15:14.610 --> 00:15:17.230 engine of the Royal Ballet. But before we wrap 00:15:17.230 --> 00:15:20.129 up this deep dive, I want to leave you, the listener, 00:15:20.389 --> 00:15:22.669 with a final thought to mull over. Something 00:15:22.669 --> 00:15:25.269 to explore on your own. Exactly. I want you to 00:15:25.269 --> 00:15:27.629 look at the organizations or the art forms that 00:15:27.629 --> 00:15:29.789 you love. Maybe it's your workplace, maybe it's 00:15:29.789 --> 00:15:32.330 community theater or your favorite sports team. 00:15:32.409 --> 00:15:34.429 Look at the people holding it together. Right, 00:15:34.669 --> 00:15:36.769 who is the heldagant? Who is that person sitting 00:15:36.769 --> 00:15:39.230 at the battered desk or the piano making sure 00:15:39.230 --> 00:15:41.129 the show actually goes on, even if they never 00:15:41.129 --> 00:15:43.210 get the standing ovation? They might be a little 00:15:43.210 --> 00:15:45.350 rough around the edges, but if they left, the 00:15:45.350 --> 00:15:47.370 whole thing would collapse. Maybe it's time we 00:15:47.370 --> 00:15:48.129 finally noticed them.