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Nov. 17, 2022

December 1, 2022, Noon
Peter Shackleton, clarinet
Ian Hopkin, bassoon
Guy Few, trumpet
Nate Fanning, trombone
Brennan Connolly, percussion
Jeremy Bell, violin
Ian Whitman, bass

L’histoire du soldat, by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

I. The Soldier’s Tale
II. Music to Scene I
III. Music to Scene II
IV. Music to Scene III
V. The Soldier’s March
VI. The Royal March
VII. The Little Concert
VIII. Three Dances: Tango, Valse, Ragtime
IX. The Devil’s Dance
X. The Little Chorale
XI. The Devil’s Song
XII. The Great Chorale

Program Notes

The Soldier’s Tale opens L’histoire and introduces the soldier on his way home on leave; it will recur at several points during the tale. In the first scene, the devil appears as an old man with a butterfly net. He accosts the young soldier and offers to buy his fiddle (the violin symbolizes the soldier’s soul) in exchange for a magic book. The Soldier’s Violin is the music the soldier plays when, while resting by a brook, he pulls an old fiddle from his pack, tunes it up, and plays a propulsive interlude. When the soldier reaches his village, he realizes that he has been deceived: Three years have passed, his fiancée is married to someone else and has two children, and none of his friends can even see him. Disguised as a cattle merchant, the devil reappears and shows the man how the book can make him rich.

The devil next appears as a clothes merchant to the soldier, who has become very successful financially but is unhappy. Seeing that the merchant has his old violin, the soldier seizes it and tries to play, but finds that it will now make no sound; in despair, he hurls it offstage. Now comes the famous Royal March, with its swirling trumpet quintuplets. In this scene, the king’s daughter lies ill, and the king has promised her hand to anyone who can cure her. Encouraged by the devil (now disguised as a violin virtuoso) to try to cure her, the soldier plays cards with the devil, gets him drunk, and wins back his violin. The soldier approaches the sick princess and plays the violin for her. She rises and dances three different dances ―Tango, Waltz, and Ragtime―and then embraces the soldier. The devil appears, this time as his true self with a pointed tail, and the soldier uses his violin to triumph over him. The Devil’s Song, with its promise of ultimate triumph, is framed by two Chorales, somewhat in the manner of Lutheran chorales of Northern Germany.

In the last scene the devil achieves his final triumph. Several years have passed, and the soldier and princess go to visit his home. Once they pass the frontier, the devil, dressed in brilliant scarlet, reappears and gets control of the violin. Defeated, the soldier slowly follows him. L’histoire du soldat began with a march, and now it concludes with another, the Triumphal March of the Devil. Brilliant and animated, this music grows leaner as it proceeds―the other instruments drop out, leaving only the percussion to bring the music to its eerie close. Many have compared this effect to stripping away the extraneous to leave only the music’s skeleton―a fitting conclusion to this tale of demonic triumph.

- Program Notes by Eric Bromberger/edited by Ian Whitman