The world is still cold. At first the hero rages, but resignation and
content soon take possession of his soul. The bluster of nature reminds
him of his old days of war. Again he sees the beloved one, and in peace
and contemplation his soul takes flight. For the last time the hero’s
theme is heard as it rises to a sonorous, impressive climax. And then is
solemn music, such as might serve funeral rites.
IGOR FEDOROVITCH
STRAVINSKY
(Born at Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg, on June 5, 1882)
As for Stravinsky, we personally prefer the Stravinsky of the _Sacre du
Printemps_ to the Stravinsky who of late has been attempting to compose
in the manner of Bach. To begin with, we do not hear music now with the
ears of the earlier centuries, and the old idiom today has no pertinence
except when it has been handed down to us by a master of it, who broke
through the idiom and made a universal language of it for many years to
come. Stravinsky’s feeble echo is simply dull, boresome. His “Muscovism”
is greatly to be preferred.
SUITE FROM “L’OISEAU DE FEU” (THE FIRE-BIRD)
A Danced Legend
I. Introduction: Kastcheï’s Enchanted Garden and Dance of the
Fire-Bird
II. Supplication of the Fire-Bird
III. The Princesses Play with the Golden Apples
IV. Dance of the Princess
IVa. Berceuse
V. Infernal Dance of All the Subjects of Kastcheï
VI. Finale
In the summer of 1909 Diaghilev asked Stravinsky to write a ballet
founded on the old Russian legend of the Fire-Bird. The score was ready
in May, 1910. The scenario was the work of Fokine.
The first performance of _L’Oiseau de Feu_, a _Conte dansé_, in two
scenes, was at the Paris _Opéra_ on June 25, 1910. The Fire-Bird, Tamara
Karsavina; The Beautiful Tsarevna, Mme Fokina; Ivan Tsarevitch, Fokine;
Kastcheï, Boulgakov. Gabriel Pierné conducted. The stage settings were
by Golovine and Bakst. Balakirev had sketched an opera in which the
Fire-Bird was the central figure, but nothing came of it. Kastcheï (or
Kostcheï) is the hero of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera _Kastcheï the Immortal:
an Autumn Legend_, produced at the Private Opera, Moscow, in 1902. He
also figures as “the man-skeleton” in Rimsky-Korsakov’s _Mlada_, a fairy
opera-ballet (St. Petersburg, 1893) and, by implication, Moussorgsky’s
symphonic poem, _A Night on Bald Mountain_.
Mr. Montagu-Nathan[50] says in his sketch of Stravinsky: “In identifying
the literary basis of _The Fire-Bird_ with that of Korsakov’s
_Kastcheï_, it should be pointed out that the latter work is but a
_pastiche_ of episodes derived from legendary lore, with the monster as
a central figure. In Stravinsky’s ballet, the ogre is an accessory
character, so far as concerns the dramatic action, but his presence in
the scheme is nevertheless vital to it.”
“Ivan Tsarevich, the hero of many tales, wandering in the night, espies
the Fire-Bird attempting to pluck the golden fruit from a silver tree,
and, after a chase, succeeds in capturing her. But receiving the gift of
a glowing feather he consents to forego his prize. As the darkness of
night lifts, Ivan discovers that he is in the grounds of an old castle,
from which thirteen maidens presently emerge. They are observed by the
concealed youth to make play with the tree and its fruit. Disclosing
himself, he obtains possession of a golden apple. With the approaching
dawn the maidens withdraw into the castle, which Ivan now recognizes as
that of the fearsome Kastcheï, captor of decoyed travelers, over whom he
tyrannously wields his magic power. Ivan resolves upon entering
Kastcheï’s abode, but on opening the gate he is confronted first by a
motley horde of freakish monsters and then by the ogre himself, to whose
court they belong. Kastcheï seeks to bewitch the young adventurer and to
turn him to stone, but Ivan is protected by the glowing feather.
Presently the bird comes to his aid and nullifies Kastcheï’s threatened
spell, and, after demonstrating its power by causing the frightful
company of courtiers to break into a frenzied dance, reveals the casket
in which Kastcheï’s ‘death’ is hidden. From the casket Ivan takes an
egg, which he dashes to the ground; the death it contains unites itself
with its owner, and the dread wizard dies. His castle vanishes, his
victims are liberated, and Ivan receives the hand of the most beautiful
of the maidens.”
The score, which was later revised with a smaller orchestration, calls
for piccolo, three flutes (one interchangeable with a second piccolo),
three oboes, English horn, three clarinets in A (one interchangeable
with a small clarinet in D), bass clarinet, three bassoons (one
interchangeable with a second double bassoon), double bassoon, four
horns, three trumpets, three trombones, bass tuba, kettledrums, bass
drum, cymbals, triangle, bells, tambourine, xylophone, celesta,
pianoforte, three harps, sixteen first violins, sixteen second violins,
fourteen violas, eight violoncellos, six double basses.