Lugubre was a modern dance solo choreographed byMartha Graham to music byAlexander Scriabin. The piece was originally part ofFive Poems, a ballet divided into five solo sections:Fragilité,Lugubre,Poeme ailé,Danse Languide andDésir (first performed in 1926). Each of the sections appears in various programs as individual solos.Five Poems premiered on October 16, 1927, at theLittle Theatre inNew York City.[1]
Other works on the program wereChoral;Adagio (from second Suite);Scherzo, Op. 16 No.2;Tanzstück;Deux Valses;Danse;Tanagra;Esquisse Antique;Lucrezia;Alt-Wein;La Cancion;Ronde;Two Poems of the East andBaal Shem. Graham performed with her small company of dancers: Evelyn Sabin, Betty MacDonald and Rosina Savelli.[1]
As with many of Graham's early pieces, the choreography and other details of the ballet are lost. It is known, though, that her approach to making dances during this time wasDelsartean. Rejecting her teachers' Denishawn (Ruth St. Denis andTed Shawn) forms, Graham initially drew on older, simpler dance concepts. These "pure objective Delsarte vignettes, depictions of moods and emotions" were "not quite camouflaged by their foreign titles and modern music." The mostly late-1920s works includeFragilité,Lugubre,Scherza andFour Insincerities.[2]