Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) & Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz (1878-1947) The Soldier's Tale Igor Stravinsky Concerto in E flat (Dumbarton Oaks) Igor Stravinsky...
Igor
Stravinsky (1882-1971) & Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz (1878-1947)
The Soldier's Tale
Igor Stravinsky
Concerto in E flat (Dumbarton Oaks)
Igor Stravinsky was the son of a
distinguished bass soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, creator
of important roles in new operas by Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. He was
born, the third of four sons, at Oranienbaum on the Gulf of Finland in the
summer of 1882. In childhood his ability in music did not seem exceptional, but
he was able to study privately with Rimsky-Korsakov, who became a particularly
important influence after the death of the composer's strong-minded father in
1902. He completed a degree in law in 1905, married in the following year and
increasingly devoted himself to music. Stravinsky's first significant success
came when the impresario Dyagilev, a distant relative on his mother's side of
the family, commissioned from him the ballet The Firebird, first
performed in Paris in 1910. This was followed by the very Russian Petrushka in
1911 for the Dyagilev Ballets russes, with which he was now closely
associated, leading, in 1913, to the notorious first performance of The Rite
of Spring, first staged, like the preceding ballets, in Paris. Although
collaboration with Dyagilev was limited during the war, when Stravinsky lived
principally in Switzerland, it was resumed with the ballet Pulcinella in
1920, marking the composer's association with neo-classicism. The collaboration
with Dyagilev ended with what the latter described as a macabre present, Oedipus
Rex, with a text by Cocteau, intended to mark the twentieth anniversary of
Dyagilev's career as an impresario, in 1927.
Stravinsky has been compared to his near
contemporary Picasso, the painter who provided decor for Pulcinella and
who, through a long career, was to show mastery of a number of different
styles. Stravinsky's earlier music was essentially Russian in inspiration,
followed by a style of composition derived largely from the eighteenth century,
interspersed with musical excursions in other directions. His neo- classicism
coincided with the beginning of a career that was now international. The
initial enthusiasm for the Russian revolution of 1917 that had led even
Dyagilev to replace the crown and sceptre in The Firebird with a red flag,
was soon succeeded by distaste for the new regime and the decision not to
return to Russia.
In 1934 Stravinsky had taken out French
citizenship but five years later, with war imminent in Europe, he moved to the
United States, where he had already enjoyed considerable success. The death of
his first wife allowed him to marry a woman with whom he had enjoyed a long
earlier association and the couple settled in Hollywood, where the climate
seemed congenial. Income from his compositions was at last safeguarded by his
association with the publishers Boosey and Hawkes in 1945, the year of his
naturalisation as an American citizen. 1951 saw the completion and first
performance of the English opera The Rake's Progress, a work that marked
the final height of his neo- classicism. The last period of his life brought a
change to serialism, the technique of composition developed by Arnold
Schoenberg, a fellow-exile in California with whom he had never chosen to
associate. In 1962 he made a triumphant return to Russia for a series of
concerts in celebration of his eightieth birthday. Among his final compositions
are the Requiem Canticles of 1965-6, which follow his Requiem
Introitus for the death of the poet T.S. Eliot, but prefigure his own
death, which took place in New York in April 1971. He was buried in the
cemetery on the island of San Michele in Venice, his grave near that of
Dyagilev, whose percipience had launched his career sixty years before.
The war years, between 1914 and 1918,
brought inevitable difficulties, accentuated after the revolution of 1917 and
the consequent loss of property in Russia and income. The year brought sorrow
at the death of his beloved governess Bertushka (Bertha Essert), who had for
him taken the place of a mother, and then, in August, of his brother Guri on
the Romanian front, His wife was ill, her illness the original reason for
residence in Switzerland, and there were four children to care for, It was in
these circumstances that Stravinsky turned to the idea of composing a theatrical
work on a small scale, something portable and compendious, In this he
collaborated with the Swiss writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz and his friend, the
painter and designer Rene- Victor Auberjonois, creating the Histoire du
soldat (The Soldier's Tale), derived from the collection of Russian stories
made by Afanasyev that had already served as a source for the burlesque in song
and dance, Renard, There was further collaboration from Georges and
Ludmila Pitoeff, who were to dance the roles of the Devil and the Princess, and
invaluable assistance from Ernest Ansermet, who conducted the first
performances. The piece had its premiere in Lausanne, with two actors for the
dramatic roles of the Soldier and the Devil and a speaker recruited from the
University. The whole production was only made possible by the generous
financial support of Werner Reinhart, to whom the Histoire du soldat is
dedicated. It had been intended to take the work on tour but an outbreak of
Spanish influenza made this impossible. Stravinsky, in his autobiography,
declares himself very satisfied with the Lausanne staging, but later came to
make various changes in the score. Dyagilev, in Paris, was not amused,
resenting, as always, any collaboration between a protege of his and other
people. The resulting coolness was brought to an end with their subsequent
collaboration on Pulcinella.
The Soldier's Tale is
scored for an instrumental ensemble of seven players, violin, double
bass, clarinet, bassoon, cornet, trombone and percussion, the last including
two unpitched snare drums of different sizes, a larger snare drum, a bass drum,
cymbals, tambourine and triangle. The ensemble is to be on the stage, in
accordance with Stravinsky's expressed views on the physical dramatic nature of
musical performance. A speaker, on the other side of the stage, tells the
story, while the Devil appears as an actor and as a dancer. The Soldier himself
is represented by an actor and the King's daughter by a dancer. The story is
that of a new Faust and strangely prefigures the later opera, The Rake's
Progress in some of its elements, its account of a bargain with the Devil
and in the card game in which the queen of hearts defeats the ace of spades, as
the Soldier stakes all in a contest with the Devil.
A soldier returns to his village from the
war. The Soldier's March is heard, as the Narrator starts the tale, the
rhythm of the words matching the marching step of the score, telling of the
journey, for a few days' leave. The curtain rises on a scene by the bank of a
stream. Here the Soldier stops, sits down and searches through his knapsack
from which he takes a medallion, cartridges, a mirror, a picture of his
sweetheart and a cheap fiddle. Now he tunes the fiddle, which always needs
tuning, and starts to play. The curtain is briefly lowered, to rise again for
the appearance of the Devil, in the guise of a little old man with a butterfly
net, who hides and watches, before corning forward, approaching the Soldier
from behind and placing his hand on his shoulder. The Devil demands the
Soldier's fiddle, offering a magic book in exchange. They must go home
together, where the Soldier can teach him how to play the fiddle and he will
show the Soldier how to use the book to win riches. The curtain falls. After
the three days specified by the Devil, the Soldier is transported to his
village in the former's flying coach. The march is heard again, as the Soldier
approaches the village. Here, however, he finds that all shun him. Three years
have passed, his sweetheart has married another and his mother thinks him a
ghost. The curtain rises to show the village, its church bell-tower in the
distance. The Devil stands there, now dressed as a cattle merchant, waiting for
his quarry.
The second scene, the scene of the
knapsack, starts with a Pastorale. The curtain rises to reveal the Devil
standing as before. The Soldier approaches him angrily, thinking himself
cheated of his prized possession, his fiddle. The Devil imposes some military
discipline on the boy and makes it clear that the precious book, which the
Soldier eventually finds again in his knapsack, is his to use, while the Devil
keeps the fiddle. The music of the Pastorale is heard briefly again, as
the curtain falls. The Soldier knows now how to profit from the book, but is
coming to realise the emptiness of material possessions. To the sound of the
earlier music by the stream, he remembers his happier past. The curtain now
rises to show the Soldier at his desk, rich, but dead in his soul. The Devil
approaches, dressed as an old clothes' woman, and finally offering him the
contents of the other's old knapsack, including the fiddle, which is now silent
when the Soldier tries to play it.
The third scene, the scene of the book,
brings again the music by the river bank. The Devil has gone and the Soldier
throws the violin away, returning to his desk, where he seizes the book and
tears it into pieces.
The second part starts with the Soldier's
march resumed, as he tramps on, now without his possessions, seeking another
country. He rests in an inn, where a former comrade tells him of the royal
proclamation offering the hand of the King's daughter, his only child, to the
man who can cure her. He resolves to try his luck. The Royal March takes
him to the palace, where the Devil now appears as a virtuoso violinist. The
Narrator tells of the Soldier's arrival and promise to cure the Princess. The
Soldier sits at a table, with two candles, a jug of wine and a glass, a
reflection of the Narrator's own table, and holds a pack of cards. Telling his
fortune, he turns up hearts, even the queen, a sign of victory. The Devil
appears, holding the violin over his heart and taunts the Soldier, who now
challenges him to a game of cards, planning to defeat his opponent by losing
everything and discharging any debt to his enemy. The Soldier loses and loses,
finally drawing the queen of hearts against the Devil's ace of spades. At this
the Devil sways and falls, weakened still more as the Soldier forces glasses of
wine down his throat. The Devil and the curtain fall, as the Soldier starts to
play his Little Concert.
The curtain rises again to reveal the
Princess lying on a bed. The Soldier comes in and starts to play. The Princess,
now cured, leaves her bed and before the lowered curtain dances the Tango, Valse
and Ragtime. The curtain rises again on the Soldier with the
Princess in his arms, while the Devil, in his own person, crawls in, seeking to
snatch the violin. The Soldier plays and the Devil, bewitched, is forced to
dance, falling exhausted. They drag him away and return, embracing, to the
sound of the Little Chorole. The Devil is not defeated, and is prepared
to wait for the Soldier to cross the frontier into his territory. With the Grand
Chorale the Narrator warns of the danger of seeking to add to the present
the possessions of the past. The Soldier resolves, however, to see his village
again, taking the Princess with him. He goes on ahead, approaches the village,
seeking the frontier post. The Devil waits, dressed now in a splendid scarlet
costume, and plays the violin that he has once more in his possession. The
Soldier reaches the frontier and now meekly follows the Devil, while a distant
voice is heard calling him. The tale ends with the Devil's Triumphal March.
In 1936 Stravinsky set out on concert
tours of Europe and South America, moving, at the end of the year, to the
United States, visiting New York and Hollywood and conducting the first
performance of his newly commissioned ballet leu de cartes (Game of
Cards) at the Metropolitan Opera. During his time in America he had also stayed
at Dumbarton Oaks, the house of Mr and Mrs Robert Woods Bliss in the suburbs of
Washington. It was for his hosts that Stravinsky wrote his Concerto in E
flat for chamber orchestra, commissioned in celebration of the thirtieth
anniversary of their marriage. The new work, for which the Blisses paid a fee
of $2500, was started during the summer of 1937 and the first movement was
completed at the Chateau de Monthoux, near Annemasse, near enough to the
sanatorium where his wife and daughters were under treatment for tuberculosis,
a disease of which symptoms had been detected in him as he left America. The
work (a concerto grosso, of the dimensions, he had suggested, of a Brandenburg
Concerto) was completed by the end of March 1938 and first given a private
performance on 8th May under Nadia Boulanger, who had been involved in the
negotiations with Mr and Mrs Bliss, the latter of whom now commissioned a
symphony to mark the fiftieth season of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In
Paris the concerto had less success, and Stravinsky was to complain of the
growing opposition there to his music, now condemned in Germany, an additional
factor in his decision to emigrate to America.
The new concerto was scored for flute,
clarinet, bassoon, two French horns, three violins, three violas, two cellos
and two double basses, an ensemble similar in numbers, at least, to that
available to Bach in 1717 at Cothen. The first movement opens with a
characteristically Baroque figure, a clear reference to Bach. There is a fugal
section, introduced by the violas, followed in turn by the violins and then the
cellos, to be developed further by the whole ensemble. The movement ends
gently, with the strings, violins and violas now divided, providing a brief
resolution. The second movement makes initial use of its opening figure, in
rhythms that continue to be highly characteristic of the composer. The clarinet
introduces a new element, over an ostinato accompaniment, soon followed by the
flute and bassoon with a return of the opening figure. There is an extended
flute solo, over a lightly scored accompaniment and a solemn chordal ending to
the movement, which is joined, without a break, to the final Con molo, with
its insistently repeated accompanying rhythms, syncopation and
characteristically Stravinskyan iextures.
David Timson
David Timson has performed in modern and
classic plays throughout Britain and abroad, including Wild Honey for
Alan Ayckbourn, Hamlet, The Man of Mode, and The Seagull, He has
been seen on television in Nelson's Column and Swallows and Amazons, and
in the film The Russia House, He has taken part in many recordings for
Naxos AudioBooks, including The Life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Christmas
Collection and The Story of Buddhism.
Benjamin Soames
Benjamin Soames trained at London Academy
of Music and Dramatic Art. He has appeared in the TV series Sharpe and Absolutely
Fabulous as well as the films Heavy Weather and England, My
England. He toured worldwide in the acclaimed Cheek By Jowl production of Measure
For Measure, and has recorded Tales of the Greek Legends, The Adventures
of Odysseus and other works for Naxos AudioBooks.
Jonathan Keeble
Jonathan Keeble trained at the Central
School of Speech and Drama. He has appeared in Coventry, Liverpool, Lancaster
and the West Yorkshire Playhouse, and in a season at Manchester's Royal
Exchange Theatre. He has featured in over 150 radio plays for the BBC and is an
established voice actor.
Northern Chamber Orchestra
Formed in 1967, the Northern Chamber
Orchestra, based in Manchester, has established itself as one of England' s
finest chamber ensembles. Though often augmented to meet the requirements of
the concert programme, the orchestra normally contains 24 musicians and performs
both in concert and on disc without a conductor. With a repertoire ranging from
the Baroque era to music of our time, the orchestra has gained a reputation for
imaginative programme planning. Concerts take the orchestra throughout the
North of England and it has received four major European bursaries for its
achievements in the community.
Nicholas Ward
Nicholas Ward was born in Manchester in
1952, the son of parents who had met as members of the Halle Orchestra, In
consequence, music played an important part in his life from childhood,
allowing him, after less successful attempts as a pianist, to learn the violin,
and at the age of twelve, to form his own string quartet. This last continued
for some five years, until he entered the Royal Northern College of Music in
Manchester, where he studied with Yossi Zivoni and later, in Brussels, with
Andre Gertler. In 1977 Nicholas Ward moved to London, where he joined the Melos
Ensemble and the Royal Philharmonic, when the orchestra worked under Antal
Dorati as its Principal Conductor. He became co-leader of the City of London
Sinfonia in 1984, a position followed by appointment as leader of the Northern
Chamber Orchestra, of which he became Music Director two years later, directing
from the violin. In this form the orchestra has won high regard for its work
both in the concert hall and the broadcasting studio.
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Part 1: The Soldier's March - 1:49 
