Philip Hale's Boston Symphony Programme Notes

by Philip Hale

SYMPHONIC SUITE, “SCHEHERAZADE” (AFTER “THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT”), OP. 35

I. The Sea and Sindbad’s Ship II. The Story of the Kalandar Prince III. The Young Prince and the Young Princess IV. Festival at Baghdad. The Sea. The Ship Goes to Pieces against a Rock Surmounted by a Bronze Warrior. Conclusion

Rimsky-Korsakov wrote an argument for his score. The music is in illustration of Sindbad the Sailor, the storm at sea, the shipwreck, the tale of one of the three Kalandars, a tale of a prince and a princess. The argument is not wholly clear, and probably this was the composer’s intention. What prince and what princess? There are so many in The Thousand Nights and a Night. Who will be so rash as to name the one of the three Kalandars? In the last movement there is a festival at Baghdad, and lo, suddenly Sindbad’s ship sails to its fate.

In the ballet all this music is wedded to the story that is the prelude to the wondrous tales: the story of the two rulers, their wanton wives, and the resolve of one of the Kings to kill a spouse every morning, until Scheherazade by her charm as a narrator softens his heart. What then becomes of the graphic sea music; or that illustrative of Kalandar, prince and princess? It is not necessary to insist on the incongruity.

Unless a conductor can feel in this music the spirit of The Thousand Nights and a Night, unless he is himself a rhapsodist with admiration for the wild fancy, the humor now grotesque, now cruel, now Rabelaisian, for the sensuousness that is at times sensuality; unless there is understanding, with appreciation of the imagination that peopled the air with slaves of King Solomon’s ring, hideous afreets and space-annihilating genii, his interpretation will be that of a man who complains of endless repetitions without contrapuntal development. The music is not for the academic.

Grant that Scheherazade reeks at times of benzoin and the pastils of the harem; that it suggests:

Lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon;

Manna and dates in argosy transferred

From Fez; and spiced dainties, every one

From silken Samarcand to cedared Lebanon—

grant all this: there remains the superb sea music with the rolling billows, the tossing, laboring vessel, the final crash and wild farewell. There is more than a constant display of fancy or imagination. The wonder is, as a matter of technic, how Rimsky-Korsakov succeeds in casting his spell with analogous themes constantly varied. Nor is this due solely to the surprising, masterly, and entrancing instrumentation.

Scheherazade, with the Easter Overture, was composed in the summer of 1881 at Neyzhgovitsy on the shore of Lake Cheryemenyetskoye. It was produced at St. Petersburg in the course of the following concert season.

The suite, dedicated to Vladimir Stassov, is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes (and English horn), two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, bass tuba, kettledrums, snare drum, bass drum, tambourine, cymbals, triangle, tam-tam, harp, and strings.

The following programme is printed in Russian and French on a fly-leaf of the score:

“The Sultan Schahriar, persuaded of the falseness and the faithlessness of women, has sworn to put to death each one of his wives after the first night. But the Sultana Scheherazade saved her life by interesting him in tales which she told him during one thousand and one nights. Pricked by curiosity, the Sultan put off his wife’s execution from day to day, and at last gave up entirely his bloody plan.

“Many marvels were told Schahriar by the Sultana Scheherazade. For her stories the Sultana borrowed from poets their verses, from folk songs their words; and she strung together tales and adventures.”

Rimsky-Korsakov has this to say about Scheherazade in My Musical Life, translated into English by J. A. Joffe:

“The programme I had been guided by in composing Scheherazade consisted of separate, unconnected episodes and pictures from The Arabian Nights: the fantastic narrative of the Prince Kalandar, the Prince and the Princess, the Baghdad festival, and the ship dashing against the rock with the bronze rider upon it. The unifying thread consisted of the brief introductions to Movements I, II, and IV, and the intermezzo in Movement III, written for violin solo, and delineating Scheherazade herself as telling her wondrous tales to the stern Sultan. The conclusion of Movement IV serves the same artistic purpose.

“In vain do people seek in my suite leading motives linked always and unvaryingly with the same poetic ideas and conceptions. On the contrary, in the majority of cases, all these seeming leitmotives are nothing but purely musical material, or the given motives for symphonic development. These given motives thread and spread over all the movements of the suite, alternating and intertwining each with the other. Appearing as they do each time under different moods, the self-same motives and themes correspond each time to different images, actions and pictures.

“Thus, for instance, the sharply outlined fanfare motive of the muted trombone and trumpet, which first appears in the Kalandar’s Narrative (Movement II) appears afresh in Movement IV, in the delineation of the doomed ship, though this episode has no connection with the Kalandar’s Narrative. The principal theme of the Kalandar’s Narrative (B minor, 3-4) and the theme of the Princess in Movement III (B flat major, 6-8, clarinet) in altered guise and quick tempo appear as the secondary themes of the Baghdad festival; yet nothing is said in The Arabian Nights about these persons taking part in the festivities. The unison phrase, as though depicting Scheherazade’s stern spouse, at the beginning of the suite, appears in the Kalandar’s Narrative, where there cannot, however, be any thought of Sultan Schahriar.

“In this manner, developing quite freely the musical data taken as a basis of the composition, I had in view the creation of an orchestral suite in four movements, closely knit by the community of its themes and motives, yet presenting, as it were, a kaleidoscope of fairy-tale images and designs of Oriental character—a method that I had to a certain degree made use of in my Skazka (Fairy Tale), the musical data of which are as little distinguishable from the poetic as they are in Scheherazade.

“In composing Scheherazade I meant these hints to direct but slightly the hearer’s fancy on the path which my own fancy had traveled, and to leave more minute and particular conceptions to the will and mood of each listener. All I had desired was that the hearer, if he liked my piece as symphonic music, should carry away the impression that it is beyond doubt an Oriental narrative of some numerous and varied fairy-tale wonders, and not merely four pieces played one after the other and composed on the basis of themes common to all the four movements. Why, then, if that be the case, does this name and the subtitle (‘After The Thousand and One Nights’) connote in everybody’s mind the East and fairy-tale wonders; besides, certain details of the musical exposition hint at the fact that all of these are various tales of some one person (which happens to be Scheherazade) entertaining therewith her stern husband.”

A characteristic theme, the typical theme of Scheherazade, keeps appearing in the four movements. This theme, that of the Narrator, is a florid melodic phrase in triplets, and it ends generally in a free cadenza. It is played, for the most part, by a solo violin; sometimes by a wood-wind instrument. “The presence in the minor cadence of the characteristic seventh, G, and the major sixth, F sharp—after the manner of the Phrygian mode of the Greeks or the Doric church tone—might illustrate the familiar beginning of all folk tales, ‘Once upon a time.’”

I. The Sea and Sindbad’s Ship. Largo e maestoso, E minor, 2-2. The chief theme of this movement, proclaimed frequently and in many transformations, has been called by some the “Sea” motive, by others the “Sindbad” motive. It is proclaimed immediately and heavily in fortissimo unison and octaves. Soft chords of wind instruments—chords not unlike the first chords of Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” overture in character—lead to the “Scheherazade” motive, lento, 4-4, played by solo violin against chords of the harp. Then follows the main body of the movement, allegro non troppo, E major, 6-4, which begins with a combination of the chief theme, the “sea” motive, with a rising and falling arpeggio figure, the “wave” motive. There is a crescendo. A modulation leads to C major. Wood-wind instruments and violoncellos pizzicato introduce a motive that has been called the “ship,” at first for solo flute, then oboe, lastly, clarinet. A reminiscence of the “sea” motive is heard from the horn between the phrases. A solo violoncello continues the “wave” motive, which in one form or another persists almost throughout the whole movement. The “Scheherazade” motive soon enters (solo violin). There is a long period that at last reëstablishes the chief tonality, E major. The “sea” motive is sounded by full orchestra. The development is easily followed. There is an avoidance of contrapuntal use of thematic material. The style of the composer in this suite is homophonous, not polyphonic. He prefers to produce his effects by melodic, harmonic, rhythmic transformations and by most ingenious and highly colored orchestration. The movement ends tranquilly.

II. The Story of the Kalandar Prince. The second movement opens with a recitative-like passage, lento, B minor, 4-4. A solo violin accompanied by the harp gives out the “Scheherazade” motive, with a different cadenza. There is a change to a species of scherzo movement, andantino, 3-8. The bassoon begins the wondrous tale, capriccioso quasi recitando, accompanied by the sustained chords of four double basses. The beginning of the second part of this theme occurs later and transformed. The accompaniment has the bagpipe drone. The oboe then takes up the melody, then the strings with quickened pace, and at last the wind instruments, un poco piu animato. The chief motive of the first movement is heard in the basses. A trombone sounds a fanfare, which is answered by the trumpet; the first fundamental theme is heard, and an allegro moto follows, derived from the preceding fanfare, and leads to an orientally colored intermezzo. “There are curious episodes in which all the strings repeat the same chord over and over again in rapid succession—very like the responses of a congregation in church—as an accompaniment to the ‘Scheherazade’ motive, now in the clarinet, now in the bassoon.” The last interruption leads to a return of the Kalandar’s tale, con moto, 3-8, which is developed, with a few interruptions from the “Scheherazade” motive. The whole ends gayly.

III. The Young Prince and the Young Princess. Some think from a similarity of the two themes typical of prince and princess that the composer had in mind the adventures of Kamar al-Zaman (Moon of the Age) and the Princess Budur (Full Moons). “They were the likest of all folk, each to other, as they were twins or an only brother and sister,” and over the question which was the more beautiful, Maymunah, the Jinniyah, and Dabnash, the Ifrit, disputed violently.

This movement is in simple romanza form. It consists in the long but simple development of two themes of folk-song character. The first is sung by the violins, andantino quasi allegretto, G major, 6-8. There is a constant recurrence of songlike melody between phrases in this movement, of quickly rising and falling scale passages, as a rule in the clarinet, but also in the flute or first violins. The second theme, pochissimo piu mosso, B flat major and G minor, 6-8, introduces a section characterized by highly original and daringly effective orchestration. There are piquant rhythmic effects from a combination of triangle, tambourine, snare drum, and cymbals, while violoncellos (later the bassoon) have a sentimental counter phrase.

IV. Festival at Baghdad. The Sea. The Ship Goes to Pieces Against a Rock Surmounted by a Bronze Warrior. Conclusion. Allegro molto, E minor, 6-8. The finale opens with a reminiscence of the “sea” motive of the first movement, proclaimed in unisons and octaves. Then follows the “Scheherazade” motive (solo violin), which leads to the fête in Baghdad, Allegro molto e frenetico, E minor, 6-8. The musical portraiture, somewhat after the fashion of a tarantelle, is based on a version of the “sea” motive, and it is soon interrupted by Scheherazade and her violin. In the movement vivo, E minor, there is a combination of 2-8, 6-16, 3-8 times, and two or three new themes, besides those heard in the preceding movements, are worked up elaborately. The festival is at its height—“This is indeed life; O sad that ’tis fleeting”—when there seems to be a change of festivities, and the jollification to be on shipboard. In the midst of the wild hurrah the ship strikes the magnetic rock.

The trombones roar out the “sea” motive against the billowy “wave” motive in the strings, Allegro non troppo e maestoso, C major, 6-4; and there is a modulation to the tonic, E major, as the tempest rages. The storm dies. Clarinets and trumpets scream one more cry on the march theme of the second movement. There is a quiet ending with development of the “sea” and “wave” motives. The tales are told. Scheherazade, the narrator, who lives with Shahryar “in all pleasance and solace of life and its delights till there took them the Destroyer of delights and the Severer of societies, the Desolator of dwelling places and Garnerer of graveyards, and they were translated to the ruth of Almighty Allah,” fades with the vision and the final note of her violin.