Symphonic suite

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, 2 piccolos, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, tambourine, snare drum, cymbals, big drum, tomtam, harp, strings ...

History of creation

“In the middle of winter (1887-1888. - L. M.), among the works on "Book [ide] Igor" and others, I had the idea of ​​an orchestral piece based on the plot of some episodes from "Scheherazade" ... "- we read in the" Chronicle "of Rimsky-Korsakov. The composer spent the summer of 1888 with his family in Nezhgovitsy - the estate of his friend in the Luga district of the Petersburg province. From there he wrote to Glazunov: “I decided to perform at all costs the orchestral suite for 1001 Nights, which was started long ago; remembered everything I had and forced myself to do it. At first it went hard, but then it went pretty quickly and, in any case, albeit ghostly, but filled my meager musical life. "

The unhappy tone of the letter is due to the fact that the 80s were a difficult time for the composer. A family grew up that needed to be supported. An extraordinary number of different duties - professorship at the conservatory, performance of the position of assistant manager of the Court Choir Choir, participation in the publishing business of M.P. Belyaev, in the concerts of the RMO, editing the music of friends who had passed away - all this left almost no time or mental strength for creativity. Nevertheless, it was during these years that he created wonderful works, including "Scheherazade", which became one of the heights of the composer's symphonic creativity. The autograph of the score retains the dates of writing each of the four parts of the suite: at the end of the first part - July 4, 1888, Nezhgowice. At the end of the second - on July 11, at the end of the third - on July 16, at the end of the entire score - on July 26. Thus, the entire work was written in less than a month.

Rimsky-Korsakov based his suite dedicated to V. Stasov on some of the Arabic fairy tales from the collection “1001 Nights”, widely distributed in various (both in full and in abbreviated and adapted) editions. This collection is a monument of medieval Arabic literature, the sources of which go back to the Persian legends of the 9th century, was finally formed in the 15th century, and since the 17th century it has spread quite widely in the East in lists. In 1704-1717, his first translation into French by A. Gallana appeared. The translation into Russian from the French edition was first carried out in 1763-1777. Thus, for more than a hundred years, Russian readers have been widely familiar with tales based on Indian, Iranian and Arabic folklore, united by the image of the formidable Shahriar and his wise wife, daughter of the Sultan's vizier Sheherazade.

The composer prefaced the score with a program that he himself had compiled at the beginning of the collection: “Sultan Shahriar, convinced of the treachery and infidelity of women, gave a vow to execute each of his wives after the first night; but Sultana Scheherazade saved her life by being able to occupy him with fairy tales, telling them to him during 1001 nights so that, prompted by curiosity, Shahriar constantly postponed her execution and finally completely abandoned his intention.

Scheherazade told him many miracles, citing poems of poets and words of songs, weaving a fairy tale into a fairy tale and a story into a story. "

Initially, the composer gave the title to each part: "The Sea and the Sindbad Ship", "The Fantastic Story of Tsarevich Kalender", "The Tsarevich and the Princess", "The Baghdad Holiday. Sea. The ship crashes against the rock with the bronze rider. Conclusion ”, but nowhere did he give instructions to which fairy tales the listeners were referred to. Subsequently, he decided to remove these additional explanations to the program: “The undesirable for me search for a too definite program in my composition made me subsequently, at the first edition, to destroy even those allusions to it (program - L. M), which were in the titles before each part ... "Following the composer's wishes, researchers of his work have never been engaged in updating the program based on the tales of" 1001 Nights ". According to the most authoritative researcher of the composer A. Solovtsov's work, “it remains unclear exactly which episodes of the famous publication of Arabic fairy tales inspired Rimsky-Korsakov and how and in what musical images they are embodied in the suite.<...>Rimsky-Korsakov quite reasonably emphasizes ... that "Scheherazade" was based on "separate, unrelated" episodes ... Indeed, the paintings chosen by Rimsky-Korsakov are not united by a common plot, this is not a story about any from the heroes of The Thousand and One Nights.

The first performance of "Scheherazade" took place in St. Petersburg on October 22 (November 3), 1888 in the first of the Russian symphony concerts, held at the Assembly of the Nobility under the direction of the author.

Music

Prologue The suite opens with powerful and formidable unison, depicting, as is commonly believed, the image of Shahriar. After the soft, quiet chords of wind instruments, a whimsical solo violin melody enters, supported only by individual harp arpeggios. This is a wonderful Scheherazade. The violin sounded, and against the background of the measured figurative movement of cellos and violins, the initial theme reappears. But now she is calm, dignified and depicts not a formidable sultan, but endless sea expanses, the unsurpassed singer of which was the author - a sailor who made a round-the-world voyage and, like none of the composers, knew how to embody the images of the water element. The second theme, sounding in the chord presentation of the wind instruments, for a moment (four bars in total) interrupts the measured movement of the rolling waves. The gentle flute solo is sustained in the same movement. It glides smoothly over the waves of Sinbad the Sailor's ship. Excitement gradually rises. The elements are already raging menacingly. Previously sounded themes are intertwined, string figurations become alarming. The picture of the storm is complemented by the exclamations of the brass, full of despair. But the storm dies down. The first section of the part (reprise) is repeated. In her conclusion, the theme of the sea sounds calm and gentle.

Second part the theme of Scheherazade begins, followed by the solo bassoon performing a whimsical oriental melody, richly ornamented, developing in variations in the timbres of other instruments. This is a tale of oriental wonders, more and more thrilling and captivating. The central section draws the events narrated by the narrator. A picture of the battle unfolds, in which the main theme is the former theme of the Sultan, now no longer connected with the original image. The rhythmically sharp exclamation of trombones, intonationally similar to her, is the theme of the battle. The battle episode is interrupted by an expanded clarinet cadence. With a shrill whistle of tall wooden instruments, the sound of which is overlapped by a piccolo flute, the next episode begins: the fabulous bird Rukh flies by. The picture of the battle is repeated, and in the final section, the theme of Tsarevich Kalender is interrupted by cadences. “It seems that the listeners cannot contain their excitement and are passionately discussing the events described” (A. Solovtsov).

The third part at a calm pace, Andantino quasi allegretto has two main themes: the Tsarevich - lyrical, flowing, danceable character with simple harmonies on a sustained organ point, with suddenly intruding gamma-like passages, and Princess, similar to the first intonation, but more lively, flirtatious, with the characteristic accompaniment of a snare drum, beating out whimsical rhythmic figures. These themes are repeated, varied, enriched with new orchestral colors. The development is interrupted by the theme of Scheherazade, performed by a solo violin, but her story about the Tsarevich and Tsarevna continues, which ends with the fading of sonority and a gentle arpeggiato of strings.

Fourth part- the longest lasting and richest in various images. Its introduction is the first theme of the Prologue, which here again changes its meaning. This is no longer the formidable Shahriar and not the sea, but a joyful signal for the start of the holiday. After a general pause, his last tune sounds. Another general pause. And the capricious, complicated cadence of Scheherazade in the solo violin is not in monophonic, as before, but in two, with chords in the conclusion. The first theme enters even more violently, frantically. Now it sounds more prolonged, expanded. The second conduction of the Scheherazade theme also becomes more agitated (in the three- and four-part chords of the solo violin). And then, on the ostinata rhythm, a picture of the holiday unfolds with various themes replacing one another. Previously sounded themes are also intertwined with the general movement: a motive from the story of Kalender, the melody of the Princess, the warlike exclamation of the battle scene - as if familiar characters flicker among the cheering crowd. Suddenly, at the culmination of the holiday, the picture changes: a storm begins. The waves rise even more formidable than in the first part. Passages of harps soar and fall, chromatic scales at tall wooden ones. The theme of the battle from the second part sounds. A powerful, fortissimo, brass chord, supported by the booming sound of a tom-tam, depicts the moment when the ship crashes against the rock. The movement of waves calms down, everything gradually calms down. The violin performs Scheherazade's cadence thoughtfully and calmly. On the pianissimo, the strings are playing the once formidable, but now softening theme of Shahriar. And the theme of the beautiful sultana finishes the suite, which has arisen not completely, but with echoes, gradually dissolving in the upper register.

There are many different genres in classical music: concerts, symphonies, sonatas, plays. They all differ from each other in terms of their structure, the method of unfolding the material, and also the type of artistic content. One of the most interesting genres is the suite, a combination of several pieces of different character, united by one idea. Suites are instrumental (for one instrument) and symphonic (for an entire orchestra). What is a symphonic suite in music? In this article, we will talk about this with the example of one of the finest works in this genre.

The history of the genre of the suite. Clavier suites

We owe the phenomenon of the appearance of the suite to the French harpsichordists. It was in their work that this genre became most widespread. Initially, the suites were of an exclusively applied nature - it was a set of dances, where the fast alternated with the slow one. There was a certain sequence - alemanda, chime, saraband, gigue. Moreover, the tempo difference between them looked like this: calm / mobile, slow / fast. After the chime, sometimes one or several insert dances could follow - a minuet, an aria.

JS Bach brought a slightly different meaning to the interpretation of this genre. In his French and English suites, danceability remained only as a metric basis. The content has become much deeper.

What is a symphonic suite?

Romantic composers, known for their love of reviving old genres, very often turned to suite forms. There was no longer a trace of dance in them, but the principle of contrast remained. Only now he touched, rather, the content of the music, its emotional fullness. Answering the question of what a symphonic suite is in the works of romantics, it is important to emphasize that, first of all, it began to be based on programmaticity. Combining the parts with the main idea gave integrity to the symphonic suites and made them close to the genre of the poem. This genre was especially widespread in the work of Russian composers.

What other symphonic suites are there?

Sometimes symphonic suites were written by composers as an independent work, for example, PI Tchaikovsky's suite “Romeo and Juliet”. Very often they were composed of numbers of some major work, for example, S. Prokofiev's suite based on his own ballet Romeo and Juliet, again. There were cases when a symphonic suite was the result of a transcription of an instrumental composition by another composer. This happened with M. P. Mussorgsky's cycle Pictures at an Exhibition, which M. Ravel subsequently orchestrated. Most often, the basis of the programmatic nature of the suite was a literary work. This is how Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic suite was written.

Arabian Tales in Orchestral Performance

Russian composers had an unquenchable love for oriental themes. Oriental motives can be found in the work of almost every one of them. N.A.Rimsky-Korsakov was no exception. The symphonic suite "Scheherazade" was inspired by the collection of fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights". The composer chose several unrelated episodes: the story of Sinbad the sailor, the story of Tsarevich Kalender, the holiday in Baghdad and the tale of the love of the prince and the princess. "Scheherazade" spilled out from the composer's pen during one summer of 1888 in Nezhovice. After the very first performance, this work became extremely popular with the audience, and is still one of the most performed and recognizable compositions.

Musical material "Scheherazade"

Leitmotif is a term coined by romantics. It denotes a vivid, memorable theme attached to a specific character, idea or character. Recognizing it among the general flow of music, it is easier for the listener to navigate the literary outline of the work. Such a leitmotif in Rimsky-Korsakov's suite is the theme of Scheherazade herself. The enchanting sound of a solo violin depicts the slender waist of the wise sultana, bending in a graceful dance. This famous theme, which, by the way, is a very serious challenge to the violinist's skill, serves as a unifying thread for the entire work. She appears before the first, second and fourth parts, as well as in the middle of the third.

The theme of the sea is a very bright musical material. The composer managed to convey the movement of waves with the help of orchestral means so successfully that we just visually feel the breath of the ocean and the breath of sea air.

Form and content: "Scheherazade" symphonic suite

Rimsky-Korsakov did not want the listener to have a certain image when listening to this piece. Therefore, the parts have no program names. However, knowing in advance what images may meet there, the listener will be able to enjoy this magnificent music much more.

What is the Scheherazade symphonic suite in terms of musical form? This is a four-part work, linked by a common theme and images. The first part paints a picture of the sea. The choice of key - E major is not accidental. Rimsky-Korsakov, the owner of the so-called color hearing, saw this tonality in a sapphire hue, reminiscent of aqua. In the second movement, the bassoon solo brings to the stage the proud and brave prince Kalender, talking about his military exploits. The third part is a love story between a prince and a princess. She is full of love delight and sweet bliss. In the fourth movement, Rimsky-Korsakov made full use of all the colors of the orchestra to convey the unbridled joy at the festival in Baghdad.

So, what is the Scheherazade symphonic suite? This is a bright piece with a tangible oriental scent, held together by one idea. Every evening Scheherazade tells her fearsome husband, who has vowed to execute his wives after the first night, another fairy tale. Her narrative power is so great that the enchanted sultan postpones her execution. This continues for a thousand and one nights. Four of them and we will be able to listen if we get to know Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.

ON. Rimsky-Korsakov "Scheherazade" (Scheherazade)

N. Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic suite "Scheherazade" is crowned with a list of fine works of the mid and late 19th century, based on oriental themes. Among them are “ Khovanshchina"Mussorgsky," Ruslan and Ludmila"Glinka, and" Prince Igor"Borodin, and many more chamber-vocal and symphonic works. During this period, Russian composers were especially attracted by the motives of the mysterious East, and they willingly included them in their creations. But Rimsky-Korsakov was able to deeply feel this theme, and to embody its subtlest nuances in his suite.

History of creation

In letters to a close friend Glazunov Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov admitted that the idea of ​​an orchestral suite based on the fairy tale "1000 and 1 Nights" was born to him a long time ago, but he decided to start it only in 1888. At this time, the composer, together with his relatives, was on the estate of a close friend near St. Petersburg. According to the author, the first bars were given to him with great difficulty, but soon he began to get something like what he intended. This could not but rejoice Nikolai Andreevich, whose writing activity has recently faded into the background.

In the 80s Rimsky-Korsakov took the position of one of the most authoritative and demanded musical figures. On his shoulders lay the work of a professor at the conservatory, and participation in the management of the Court Choir Choir, and cooperation with the publisher M.P. Belyaev. In addition, he could not ignore the unfinished works of many of his musician friends, and undertook to finish writing them.

There was not always enough time for their own creativity, but, nevertheless, the suite was successfully started and completed in less than a month. It is easy to establish by the dates indicated by the author on the score: 1st movement - July 4, 2nd movement - July 11, 3 and 4 - July 16 and 26, respectively. Initially, each part had a title that partly revealed its content, but in the first edition the titles disappeared at the request of the composer himself. Thus, it still remains unclear exactly which fragments of Scheherazade's tales underlie the parts of the suite.

For the first time, Scheherazade was presented to the public in October 1888 at the first Russian Symphony Concert. The orchestra was conducted by the composer himself.

Interesting Facts

• The "Scheherazade" suite became one of the works presented in the "Paris Seasons" of the Russian ballet school in 1910. The performance conquered French connoisseurs both with its musical structure and with the oriental flavor that was perfectly conveyed with the help of L. Bakst's costumes.
• After the second staging of the ballet "Scheherazade" to the music of Rimsky-Korsakov in the "Paris Season" of 1911, V.A. Serov created an incredibly large curtain measuring 12 by 12 meters for subsequent performances.
• The ballet production received a second life in 1994 with the light hand of Andris Liepa. Not only the choreography of M. Fokine was completely recreated, but also the costumes of the heroes were re-sewn according to the sketches of L. Bakst. Since then, Scheherazade has been regularly staged at the Mariinsky Theater and other leading theaters in the world.
• Oriental motives of "Scheherazade" excited the minds of musicians in the XX-XXI century: there are several options for processing excerpts from it. For example, in 1968 the legendary group Deep Purple presented a version of the performance of the first movement on an electric organ in one of their albums. In 1971, a revised version of the suite was released as part of the Collegium Musicum album. In 2005, "Scheherazade" was adapted for wind instruments and presented in this form by M. Patterson's orchestra. In 2010, at the jazz festival in Moscow, "Scheherazade XXI" was performed - an adaptation by jazzmen I. Butman and N. Levinovsky.
• The source of the plot for "Scheherazade" is a monument of Arab literature, based on the folk tales of India, Iran and the Arab peoples, became widely known in the 17th century. “1000 and 1 Night” was translated into Russian from French in the 1760s - 1770s. Rimsky-Korsakov became the first composer who was not afraid to turn to this plot - he frightened off many with his cruelty and excessive frankness in some episodes.
• Rimsky-Korsakov was a participant in a round-the-world sea voyage, and this allowed him to become a master in creating the image of the water element by musical means. Scheherazade also presents this unsurpassed skill of his.
• Initially, "Scheherazade" acquired the classical form of a suite under the pen of the author, because each part of it received its own programmatic commentary and title. But after the composer abandoned the naming of the parts in favor of their simple numbering, the work became more like a symphony. This is where the current full name of Scheherazade comes from - a symphonic suite.
• In the Olympic Park in Sochi, you can see a show of dancing fountains to the music of Scheherazade. A fragment of this suite was also performed at the closing ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
• In the creative heritage Prokofiev there is “Fantasy on the Scheherazade Theme” based on the composition of his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov.
• Maurice Ravel was always proud to say that his reference book is the score of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, from which he often learns instrumentation. In 1903 he wrote his Scheherazade, a vocal cycle of three poems for voice and orchestra.
• In 1907, the German astronomer A. Kopff discovered an asteroid called Scheherazade.

Content

The suite consists of four parts, which are completely complete separate episodes, but united by some leitmotifs. For example, the theme of Sultan Shahriar, as it is commonly called, is represented by harsh and formidable unison of brass and string instruments. The Scheherazade theme, on the other hand, is voiced by a solo violin accompanied by a harp - it charms and bewitches, forcing one to listen to oriental sound intricacies. Both themes will change in the course of the plot, but will remain recognizable even at the end, when Shahriar's heart softens along with the strings that have switched to pianissimo.

First part was named by the author of "The Sea and the Sindbad Ship". The introduction is marked by the appearance of Shahriar, and then the narrator herself - Scheherazade. Then comes the turn of the nautical theme - the strings are complemented by wind chords that transmit the rolling waves, and then a gentle flute depicts the running of a ship across the sea. The storm develops with the disturbing sound of the strings, with the harsher cries of the wind instruments, the interweaving of themes in the chaos of the storm. But soon the serene calmness returns.

Second part- “The Tale of Tsarevich Kalender” begins with the theme of the main character, and gradually turns into a bright oriental melody. It is quite intricate - the author plays with timbres, imitating a tense and exciting story. In the middle of the part, the theme of a battle appears, reminiscent of the theme of Shahriar, but in no way connected with it. The flight of the legendary Rukh bird appears against the background of the battle scene with the sound of a piccolo flute. The end of the part is a transition from the theme of the battle to the theme of the prince, interrupted by cadences.

At the heart of third part, bearing the name "Tsarevich and Tsarevna", there are two themes that characterize the main characters of the story. One of them, the theme of the Tsarevich, is more lyrical, melodic, the second complements it with playful intonations with an intricate rhythmic pattern. The themes develop, intertwine with each other, acquiring new bright colors, but at one point they are interrupted by the Scheherazade theme performed by a solo violin.

Part four, named by the composer “Baghdad holiday. Sea. The ship crashes on the rock with the bronze rider ”includes a combination of almost all the main themes of the suite from the previous parts. Here they are intricately intertwined, filled with new shades, and create a picture of frantic fun. The holiday is replaced by a sea storm, in the image of which Rimsky-Korsakov has reached perfection. In the conclusion, the theme of Shahriar appears, but it is clearly not as harsh and harsh as at the beginning - the formidable sultan nevertheless succumbed to the spell of the beautiful Scheherazade.

The use of music in cinematography

Rimsky-Korsakov's magnificent imitation of oriental motives to this day remains one of the great musical works, which filmmakers take as the main theme. Almost everywhere it sounds quite appropriate, giving a film or a separate episode depth and a certain understatement.

List of films in which you can hear excerpts from "Scheherazade":

• El Baisano Jalil - Mexico, 1942
• Lost in a Harem - USA, 1944
• "Song of Scheherazade" - USA, 1947
• "The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb" - Great Britain, 1964.
• "Prisoner of the Caucasus" - USSR, 1967
• A Clockwork Orange - Great Britain, 1971
• "Nijinsky" - USA, 1980
• "The Man in the Red Boot" - USA, 1985.
• "Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown" - Spain, 1988.
• "Shadow Dances" - USA, 1988
• "Tom Tumbas Meets Thumbelina" - USA, 1996
• "The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky" - Australia, 2001.
• "The Master and Margarita" - TV series, Russia, 2005.
• "Gradiva is calling you" - France, 2006
• "Cleanliness Beats Everything" - Denmark, 2006.
• "Trotsky" - Russia, 2009
• "Towards the last moment" - Germany, 2008.

Abstract on the topic:

Scheherazade (suite)

Scheherazade tells tales to King Shahriyar

Musical theme by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade

Scheherazade- symphonic suite "Scheherazade", one of the best symphonic works of the Russian composer N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, written in 1888. Rimsky-Korsakov created Scheherazade under the impression of the Arabian tales of A Thousand and One Nights. The work falls within the framework and traditions of the "East" in Russian music, going from "Ruslan and Lyudmila" by M. Glinka. Creating an oriental flavor by quoting oriental melodies, creating themes in an oriental spirit, imitating the sound of oriental instruments and tones of the Scheherazade in its form and style is a symphonic suite, that is, a multi-part cyclical piece of music written for a symphony orchestra. Also, the form of "Scheherazade" as a suite is due to the fact that the composer, in the process of working on it, created parts of a piece of music, each of which had its own programmatic character and its own name. But in the future, "Scheherazade", as a suite as a whole, acquired more and more the character of the form of a symphony. As a result, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote a unified general program for the "Scheherazade" symphonic suite, removing his own names for the parts of the symphonic suite and making the latter numbered.

• In 1910, Mikhail Fokin staged the ballet Scheherazade to the music of Rimsky-Korsakov, with sets and costumes by Bakst.

Consists of 4 parts:

1. The sea and Sinbad's ship - Sonata form with an introduction and a coda (no development).

2. The story of the Kalandar prince - A complex three-part form with an introduction and a coda.

3. The young prince and the young princess - sonata form with coda without introduction and development.

4. Festival in Baghdad (Festival at Baghdad) - Rondo (Alternation of all parts from the first three parts).

Scheherazade is one of the most popular works of Rimsky-Korsakov. It is not only performed by academic musicians, but has also gone through many adaptations by pop artists.

• The English rock group Deep Purple has processed the first part of "Scheherazade" in the form of an electric organ composition " Medley: Prelude to Happiness", Solo on Hammond organ was performed by John Lord. The composition was included in the 1968 album Shades of deep purple.
• An adaptation of the suite is included in the 1971 album Konvergencie by the Slovak group Collegium Musicum
• The Merlin Patterson Symphony Brass Orchestra (Houston, TX, USA) created an unusual arrangement of Scheherazade for wind instruments, presented in 2005.

A fragment of "Scheherazade" used in the film "Prisoner of the Caucasus"

One of the brightest "oriental" scores by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, "Scheherazade", plunges us into the atmosphere of the sound of oriental music with its characteristic intonations and whimsical melodic curves, with instrumental timbres that recreate a fabulous, almost fantastic musical flavor.

During the summer of 1888, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote "Scheherazade" and was first performed under the direction of the author in the season 1888-1889 in one of the "Russian Symphony Concerts" organized by the music publisher and philanthropist Mitrofan Belyaev. Since then, this work has gained great popularity among listeners.

The source of inspiration for the creation of the suite was the literary work "Tales of a Thousand and One Nights".

Rimsky-Korsakov prefaces his work with a short programmatic introduction:

Sultan Shahriyar, convinced of the insidiousness and infidelity of women, gave a vow to execute each of his wives after the first night; but Sultana Scheherazade saved her life by being able to occupy him with fairy tales, telling them to him during 1001 nights, so that, prompted by curiosity, Shakhriyar constantly postponed her execution and finally completely abandoned his intention. Scheherazade told him many miracles, citing verses of poets and words of songs, weaving a fairy tale into a fairy tale and a story into a story.

Some of the most striking episodes of Sheherazade's miraculous tales became the basis of Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic work. Despite the fact that the suite contains many independent episodes, heroes, musical themes, the suite is united by a single concept, which is subordinated to the image of the main storyteller - Scheherazade. After all, she, possessing great erudition and the richest imagination, managed not only to save her life, but also to create a huge magical world full of incredible miracles and adventures.

Rimsky-Korsakov names the episodes he used as a program for separate parts: "The Sea and the Ship of Sinbad", "The Fantastic Story of Kalendera the Tsarevich", "The Tsarevich and the Princess", "The Festival in Baghdad and the Ship Crashing on the Rock." Perhaps that is why the musical narration is built as a series of fairy-tale pictures and main characters with their characteristic musical themes.

But Scheherazade's theme is tender and languid, performed by a melodious violin solo... In it one can hear the magic of the Arabian night, and the enchanting voice of a young storyteller, and the color of wondrous oriental stories full of mystery.

In the epilogue of the suite, the theme of Shahriyar becomes soft and calm, because the cruel Sultan is pacified. For the last time, as the completion of a fairy tale, the theme of the young Scheherazade sounds. The suite ends with it.

"Scheherazade" is one of the brightest works depicting the world of the musical East. It uses the principle of picturesqueness, comparing episodes of different nature, united by the theme of Scheherazade, reminding us that all this is the story of one person - the charming storyteller Scheherazade. The program of the suite does not have a consistent plot, and there are no explanations for the content of the tales.

This suite is one of the examples of Rimsky-Korsakov's epic symphony. It manifests the same principles of epic musical drama (contrast, juxtaposition of images) as in the composer's epic operas. These principles are manifested both in the structure of the suite as a whole, and within individual parts of the work.

Oriental motives

When Sergei Diaghilev was thinking over the program for the first "Parisian Seasons" of Russian ballet in 1910, he chose this particular work, along with "Polovtsian Dances" by A. Borodin and "Khovanshchina" by M. Mussorgsky. Putting his plans into practice, he was well aware of what specifically might appeal to the public and that the French were very attracted to oriental trends. In 1910, Mikhail Fokin staged the ballet Scheherazade with Vaslav Nijinsky and Ida Rubinstein in the lead roles. The magnificent costumes and sets were designed by Leon Bakst.

And in 1911 V. A. Serov, seeing "Scheherazade" in the program of the second Russian ballet season of Sergei Diaghilev in Paris, was so delighted with the colorful singularity of music and action that he created a huge (12 x 12 meters) curtain for the ballet.