wedding night, and of Scheherazade who
so beguiled him with her 1,001 tales that
he kept postponing her execution until
finally she won his love. But Rimsky
does not tell any of her stories in detail.
And he urged audiences not to take his
movement titles too literally: “I meant
these hints to direct slightly the hearer’s
imagination on the path which my own
fancy had traveled, and to leave more …
particular conceptions to the … mood of
each [listener].”
Rimsky used only a few exotic melodies to build this lengthy work, and,
depending on their context, tempo, and
orchestral guise, they play different roles
in different movements. He did, however, set a framework around the work.
At the beginning, we hear the Sultan
gruffly ordering Scheherazade to begin
her first story in a loud, harsh orchestral
unison. After “once-upon-a-time” chords
in the woodwinds, the solo violin enters
as the voice of Scheherazade. Rimsky
again returns to the violinist/heroine to
open the second movement, and, as he
begins the final one, we hear the Sultan’s
voice, now rapid and impatient, begging
for another story. At work’s end, the
Sultan’s theme has been transformed: he
is putty in Scheherazade’s hands as she
floats a harmonic high E at the top of the
violin’s range.
The four movements are essentially
self-explanatory. In the first, after Scheherazade’s introduction come surging
arpeggios in the cellos and violas: we are
on the high seas with Sinbad the Sailor.
The second movement, “The Story of the
Kalander Prince,” is built around an exotic
Middle Eastern-style melody introduced
by the solo bassoon; kalanders were
magicians in Middle Eastern courts. The
fourth movement is the most complex: it
begins with the riotous color and swirling
activity of “The Festival of Baghdad,”
and then, at the festival’s height, sends us
suddenly back to Sinbad’s seas, as the low
strings billow and a fierce storm screams
overhead in the woodwinds. With a huge
timpani crash, the ship is wrecked, and we
return to the Sultan ready to live happily ever after with Scheherazade and her
marvelous stories.
50th Annual Delaware Antiques Show
NOVEMBER 8–10
Chase Center o