César Cui, to whom the score is dedicated, has thus commented on the music:
"First Part: Antar is in the desert—he saves a gazelle from a beast of prey. The gazelle is a fay, who rewards her deliverer by granting him three pleasures. The whole of this part, which begins and ends with a picture of the desolate and boundless desert, is worthy of the composer's magic brush.
"Second Part: The pleasure of Vengeance—a rugged, savage, unbridled Allegro, with crescendos like the letting loose of furious winds.
"Third Part: The Pleasure of Power—an Oriental march. A masterpiece of the finest and most brilliant interpretation.
"Last Part: The Pleasure of Love, amid which Antar expires—a delicate, poetic, delicious Andante...."
And Alfred Bruneau speaks of the music's striking depiction of the three primal human passions: "These sentiments, passing severally through diverse measures, tonalities, and rhythms, over which hovers insistently the parent-phrase of Antar, are the faithful reflections of our tormented, vague, and mysterious souls."
"SCHEHERAZADE," SYMPHONIC SUITE AFTER "A THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT": Op. 35
Prefixed to the score of this suite (published in 1889) is the following programme, printed in French and Russian:
"The Sultan Schahriar, convinced of the faithlessness of women, had sworn to put to death each of his wives after the first night. But the Sultana Scheherazade saved her life by diverting him with stories which she told him during a thousand and one nights. The Sultan, conquered by his curiosity, put off from day to day the execution of his wife, and at last renounced entirely his bloody vow.
"Many wonders were narrated to Schahriar by the Sultana Scheherazade. For her stories the Sultana borrowed the verses of poets and the words of folk-songs, and she fitted together tales and adventures.
"1. The Sea and Sindbad's Ship.
2. The Tale of the Kalendar-Prince.
3. The Young Prince and the Young Princess.
4. Festival at Bagdad. The Sea. The Ship is Wrecked
on a Rock Surmounted by a Bronze Warrior. Conclusion."
There is doubt as to Rimsky-Korsakoff's precise intention in the programme of this suite. Which one of Sindbad's voyages is described, which of the three Kalendars is referred to, and what adventure of what young prince and princess, the composer leaves to his hearers to decide. Moreover, the event mentioned in the last number of the suite—the wrecking of the ship upon a rock surmounted by a warrior of brass (not "bronze")—occurs in the story of the third Kalendar, while the wreck of Sindbad's ship occurred under different circumstances. The truth seems to be that Rimsky-Korsakoff has aimed at translating into music the spirit and atmosphere which unifies the various stories, and has not troubled himself about the accuracy or the consistency of his paraphrase. Like Scheherazade herself, he has strung together, without regard for continuity or coherence, whatever incidents and fragments suited his purpose. Thus his music is to be taken as a gloss on the tales as a whole—on their general and underlying mood, their color, their imaginative essence.
I. THE SEA AND SINDBAD'S SHIP
The first theme of this movement, heard at the opening, has been identified both as the motive of the Sea and of Sindbad. Later we hear (solo violin, with harp chords) the motive of Scheherazade. An undulating arpeggio figure has been called the Wave motive, and a theme first sung by the solo flute that of the Ship. The Sea motive forms a climax of the full orchestra. There is a tranquil close.