Stories Within Stories in Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade
The Backstory
Scheherazade, Op. 35
I'm Rimsky-Korsakov, and this is the backstory of my Scheherazade. You'll find out how the piece had to wait through a winter of work on Borodin's Prince Igor before it finally reached the page in the summer of 1888. If you'd like to recognize our pieces the moment they begin, my fellow composers and I will teach you here on this site, so give the Trainer a go .
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From Navy Deck to Music Desk
I didn't start out as a composer, because my career began in the Russian navy. Only afterwards did I become a musician, and in time I was best known for my operas. I even ended up heading the St. Petersburg conservatory, which is a funny place for a former sailor to find himself. So when I tell you the first movement of Scheherazade is about the sea, please believe that I knew a little about what I was doing.The Piece Had to Wait Its Turn
In the winter of 1887–88 I was busy finishing and orchestrating Borodin's unfinished opera Prince Igor. That work was not mine, but I felt I owed it to my friend, and it filled my desk completely. My own orchestral idea had to sit quietly in the corner until summer. When the summer came, it was ready to step out.A Summer House by a Lake
I wrote the piece at the Glinki-Mavriny dacha in Nyezhgovitsy, on Cherementets Lake near Luga. The autograph score shows that I worked on it between 4 June and 7 August 1888, so the whole thing took about two months. That same summer I also wrote my Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the two were among my last purely orchestral works for roughly twenty years. The dacha itself is gone now, because the Germans destroyed it in World War II.Four Titles, Then None
At first I planned to call the movements Prelude, Ballade, Adagio and Finale, which sounds rather like a plain menu. Then, after advice that included Anatoly Lyadov's, I switched to titles drawn from the Arabian Nights. Later still, in a new edition, I took the titles away again. I wanted you to hear fairy-tale music with an oriental flavour, not to follow a fixed story line by line.Four Chapters, One Storyteller
The word movement simply means a big section of a piece, much like a chapter in a novel, with its own mood and its own pace. In the first, The Sea and Sinbad's Ship, the sea rocks you along, and in the second, The Kalendar Prince, the tales turn more colourful and restless. The third, The Young Prince and The Young Princess, is the gentlest and simplest of the four, a love story told warmly. The last, Festival at Baghdad, brings back tunes from the earlier chapters, crashes the ship against a cliff topped by a bronze horseman, and then settles into a peaceful ending.Oriental, but Made at Home
You might assume I borrowed real Arab melodies for this music, but I didn't. In my earlier work Antar I did use genuine ones, whereas here every tune is my own invention, written to have an oriental flavour. Even the tales are a little mysterious, since nobody knows for certain which stories I had in mind for each movement. After all, there is more than one Prince Kalendar in the Arabian Nights, so you can choose the one you like.The Orchestra Gets to Show Off
People often say the piece is popular because of its colourful orchestration, and I won't argue with them. I used piccolo, cor anglais, harp, tam-tam, tambourine and many other colours, so there is always something new to listen for. I also like keys that sit a major third apart, and the outer movements travel from E minor to E major, like a room where somebody has opened all the curtains. Fresh melodies and a lively rhythm do the rest of the work.Opening Night and Beyond
I conducted the first performance myself on 28 October 1888 in Saint Petersburg. Some programme notes give other dates, such as 9 November or 15 December 1888, but 28 October is the best-supported one. The score was published by M. P. Belaieff in Leipzig, with an edition dated 1889. The Boston Symphony first played it under Emil Paur on 17 April 1897, so the tales had already travelled far across the ocean.The Ballet My Widow Didn't Like
On 4 June 1910 the Ballets Russes premiered Michel Fokine's ballet to my music at the Paris Opéra Garnier. Léon Bakst designed it, and Nijinsky and Ida Rubinstein danced the leading roles. My widow protested against the whole idea, which tells you she took my music very seriously. You may also hear stories about Nijinsky being painted gold or spinning on his head, but those have no solid source, so I leave them as gossip.The Tales Keep Travelling
Long after I finished the piece, other artists kept finding new uses for it. Prokofiev wrote a piano Fantasia on Scheherazade in 1926, and Kreisler made violin arrangements of the second and third movements. Gene Kelly used it in his film Invitation to the Dance. Figure skaters also love it, so you may well have heard my solo violin while somebody glided across the ice.---
Did you enjoy learning about the story behind my Scheherazade? I hope you did, because I have loved telling it to you. Looking back, it still amazes me that a former navy man, busy finishing another composer's opera, found a summer to write this music. What stays with me most is the voice of the solo violin, patiently telling its tale night after night. There is still a good deal more to discover in Scheherazade. You can follow how the Sultan's stern motif returns in surprising places, and how each movement paints its own scene. You can also find out what happened when Michel Fokine turned the music into a ballet in Paris in 1910, and why my widow protested against it. Please click on the links provided here to keep exploring Scheherazade. I'd be happy to have you listen along with me a little longer.