Stories Within Stories in Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade
I. The Sea and Sinbad's Ship
Scheherazade, Op. 35
I'm Rimsky-Korsakov, and I'm about to explain the I. The Sea and Sinbad's Ship movement of my Scheherazade. You'll listen to the music travel from a stern E minor to a radiant E major, and once you notice it, the whole voyage becomes easy to follow. Here on this site, my fellow composers and I teach you to recognize our pieces whenever they play, so take a turn at the Trainer .
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Hold On to Two Characters and You Won't Get Lost
Before you press play, I'd ask you to remember just two voices: a heavy, commanding tune in the low instruments, and a solo violin with a harp beside it. The first is the Sultan Shahriar and the second is Scheherazade, who tells him stories, and you can follow almost the whole movement by noticing when each one appears. Around them, the strings and woodwinds make the sea move, and I'd like you to hear them as the water rather than as a melody to hum. If you lose your place, wait a minute, because the Sultan's tune and the violin both come back, and they work like signposts.How a Sea Got Its Name
My first plan was quite plain, because I meant to call the four movements Prelude, Ballade, Adagio and Finale. Then, with advice from friends such as Anatoly Lyadov, I changed my mind and chose titles taken from the Arabian Nights, and that is how this movement became The Sea and Sinbad's Ship. Later I removed the titles altogether, since I wanted you to hear fairy-tale music with an eastern flavour and not follow a fixed story. So please take the name as a friendly nudge toward the waves and not as a map.Six Sections and One Big Round Trip
The form of this movement was a puzzle I enjoyed, and the answer is that it isn't a strict rondo or a textbook sonata. I laid it out as A B C A′ B C′, which is similar to the shape of a classical symphony, and the music travels from E minor to E major along the way. In plain words, you hear three ideas, then you hear them again in changed form, and the second time round they end somewhere brighter. I'll walk you through the six sections one at a time, so you'll know where you are at each step.Section 1: The Boss Clears His Throat
The movement begins at a broad, stately pace, marked Largo e maestoso, and it is in E minor. The Sultan's bold motive comes first and sounds like a door closing behind you. Then soft woodwind chords arrive and make room for the solo violin, and the mood changes from a command to a gentle invitation. I wanted you to feel straight away that a strong man is listening and a clever woman has found a way to hold his attention.Section 2: The Ship Leaves the Harbour
Now the sea begins to move, and the strings rock in long, rolling lines that I imagined as waves lifting the hull. Notice the low, solemn motive of the Sultan, which has not gone away and now sounds beneath Sinbad's ship. That detail matters to me, because the motive is not the sea itself but the listener in the story, who is still there while the tale carries him away. The pace is relaxed here, so you can settle in and let the swell carry you.Section 3: The Water Gets Ideas
In the third section the energy rises, and the music turns livelier, with a brisker feeling that I marked Allegro non troppo somewhere along the way. The waves seem to gather and swell, and the tunes pass quickly between different groups of instruments. The key stays unsettled and the colours keep shifting, so you may sense the story growing more adventurous. Try to follow the way the sound builds and then pulls back, because that rise and fall is the sea breathing.Section 4: Old Friends Return
This is the first A′, and the opening ideas come back in a changed form, so what sounded stern at the start now has new colour around it. The Sultan's motive returns and the violin answers it again, only now you recognize both and know their roles. I like this moment because it shows how a good storyteller repeats a phrase to make you lean in a little closer. If you felt lost earlier, this is a good place to find your footing again.Section 5: The Second Voyage
Next the B material returns, and the ship sails out once more on the same rolling sea. It feels familiar, though I have changed the setting, so the same tune sounds a little different around the edges. You will probably notice the low motive beneath the ship again, and by now it should feel like an old companion on the journey. The mood is steady and confident, and the movement is gathering itself for its last stretch.Section 6: Calm Seas at Last
The final section, C′, brings the third idea back and carries the music from E minor into E major, and the whole sound grows warmer and brighter. By the end I wanted the sea to settle, so the closing tempo marking is Tranquillo, which simply means calm and quiet. The violin and the gentle instruments around it fade into a peaceful, shining stillness, as if the voyage has ended well. That is my favourite way to leave a listener, with the water smooth and the story ready to continue in the next movement.Your Turn at the Helm
Now it's your turn, so find a comfortable spot, press play and let the sea carry you. While you listen, keep in mind the two characters, the Sultan's low tune and the singing violin, and see if you can catch them each time they return. You don't need to know any music theory, because the waves will do most of the work for you. I hope you enjoy sailing through this movement as much as I enjoyed writing it.---
Did you enjoy getting to know the first movement of my Scheherazade, The Sea and Sinbad's Ship, as much as I enjoyed writing it? I hope the Sultan's stern tune and the voice of the solo violin now feel like old acquaintances, ones you can greet each time they return. The sea in this movement moves from E minor to E major, and I like to think of that as a slow brightening, as if clouds were parting over the water. There is still a great deal more of Scheherazade to explore, because three more movements are waiting, each with its own character and its own story. You could also look into the ballet that Michel Fokine made to this music in 1910, which my widow did not welcome at all. If you'd like to go further, please click on the links on this page and carry on exploring Scheherazade at your own pace. Whenever you come back to this music, I think you'll find something new in it, because a sea like this one never looks quite the same twice.