Soundtracks:
Clockwork Orange
Man with One Red Shoe
Nijinsky
Lonely In America
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Scheherazade, Symphonic Suite Opus 35
We all know the stories of "The Arabian Nights".
These tales are indeed world-famous. However Rimsky-Korsakov thought of
them not as fairy-tales but as excellent material for a programme piece.
Being an officer on a ship in the Russian navy, he knew many places around
the world, and he listened to the diverse music of different nations. In
"Scheherazade" he decided to merge the magical sounds of the
orient with some of the stories of the "Arabian Nights".
The story framework is about Scheherazade, the Sultan's
wife. The sultan made it his habit to slay each of his wives after their
wedding night. But Scheherazade tells him a new tale every night, and her
stories are so beautiful that the sultan keeps postponing her execution
again and again. Rimsky-Korsakov incorporates four of Scheherazade's tales.
Thus he creates a symphonic suite that resembles a symphony in its structure,
but one which is also a programme work, telling these four stories:
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1
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Sinbad's
ship at sea
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The sultan and Scheherazade are presented right at the
beginning.
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2
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The story of Prince Kalender
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A movement whose tempo keeps increasing, when from time
to time, the motif of Scheherazade's (the story teller) appears.
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3
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A story of a young prince and a young princess
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A slow movement, in which a charming melody is played
at first by the violins, and later on other instruments which join them.
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4
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A festival at Baghdad. The ship shatters on a rock at
sea.
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In this movement the good Scheherazade will eventually
overpower the sultan. Gradually, her motif will overcome the one representing
him, when the description of the feast in Baghdad and the disaster at sea
are played throughout the movement.
She deserve to live!
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Years later, Rimsky-Korsakov tried to change several times,
Scheherazade's being a programme piece. He argued it was better as a work
with no content external to the music itself, but he was unsuccessful in
that; the story behind it made the piece even more popular. Although he
abandoned the above-mentioned contents (Sinbad, the prince etc.), and he
gave these movements traditional musical titles (prelude, ballade, adagio
and finale), the audience favored the programme offered by the composer
in the beginning.
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