whoo i'm behind. just fyi, for anyone who reads regularly - when/if i ever get to the point where i am caught up in terms of entries for the month, i will be backdating the entries so that there are the correct number of entries per month (this is the easiest way to keep track).
here's something fairly easy - rimsky's symphonic poem is one of his two original orchestral masterpieces, the other being his capriccio espagnole. it displays characteristic verve, color, orchestration, and the obligatory huge violin solo; it's also pretty much textbook program music. for anyone who played this piece in youth orchestra, as i did, it pretty much becomes one of the biggest representative experiences of the young musician's early career. it is just one of the most universally adored pieces out there.
this orchestral fantasy was conceived as rimsky worked to finish borodin's prince igor score, part of which was blogged here. summer of 1888, rimsky finished this as well as his russian easter overture, op. 36.
rimsky actually disliked overly programmatic tendencies, so rather than trying to tell four stories from the books, he named his movements after themes to be found in the tales. (originally the names were even more vague - prelude, ballade, etc; but his colleagues prevailed upon him to give more detailed names.) he wanted the fantasy to be a russian take on oriental/arabic themes, so you get 1. large usage of the harp and an extended percussion and wind section which included: piccolo, snare/bass drum, tambourine, cymbals, and tam-tam 2. huge russian sounds and 3. lots of implication of "oriental" music (from the european sense) like the pentatonic scale.
i have waded through lots of youtube youth orchestra debris to bring you the below recording, which is celibidache/swr stuttgart (if it is not really cooperating with you, just pause and wait; it's worth it i think). but if you have the time make sure you check out this other fascinating recording featuring david oistrakh as the concertmaster. in many places the ensemble and sometimes the intonation is kind of atrocious, but it is quite worth it to hear those few violin solos.
we open with a grand dramatic unison line in a sort of modal E, allowing the curtain to rise. the violin solo, some form of which flanks every movement, is of course, none other than scheherazade herself, telling her stories. the harp interjections lend that misty quality of sending us back on a "long long ago" type of journey. it's basically a big recitative for the violin, who gets to take pretty much as much time as s/he wants. (in instrumental terms we call this a cadenza, but it is really quite a bit more operatic than that, especially when we consider the "character"-ness of the solo.)
we're off and immediately rimsky paints a huge picture of rolling waves with the lower strings arpeggiating back and forth as per the rocking of water and the presumed ship. sinbad the sailor receives 7 tales in the original arabian nights, and they are all about his sea voyages (with i think one exception). i think in the original writing they are all encased in one tale that a post-voyage sinbad tells to another poor guy who also just happens to be named sinbad (the tale of "how i became rich," basically). almost all of the tales involve him getting shipwrecked in some fashion, but his ingenuity always prevails and allows him not only to defeat whatever monsters are in his path but to return home with even more riches as well.
this movement is basically two parts, the second part of which is almost an exact reflection of the first part except in a different key. we have the sea motif - grand, windy, soaring, played by all the strings over a full wind and brass chorale, and rising all the time. this is in E major.
3:47 is a soft wind chorale introduction to the development of that grandiose motif, which we might be able to think of as scherazade's actual storytelling - the whole grand scene sort of recedes into a "storytelling" level, the solo violin comes back to soliloquize, in b minor, and its music gets expanded into the actual story. the motif here is full of triplets, a bit more flowing, much more quickly moving, and gets twined with the waves and the theme from the beginning. notice the big brass entrance around 5:33. we reach a head at 5:53, which is a big cadence in E major. the section rounds off with a similar trailing off into the chorale figure, but this time given by six violin solo and with a bit of wind ornamentation, at 6:58.
from here to the end of the movement is basically a repeat of 3:47 on, with a different instrumentation - solo cello instead of horn, use of different wind shadings, but the same violin solo (this time in e minor). it is compressed, but contains all the same motifs.
at 9:17 we hit a tranquillo, which begins the downward ramping of this movement, as if the story has reached its apex and is just wrapping up. all the motifs seem kind of tired.
for some dumb reason the recording cuts off only like two minutes before the end of the movement so for the rest of it take a look at the next blog entry.
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