Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade, Op. 35 Honors Essay
First it starts off with a hook (just like an essay), which captures the listener. Then the piece goes into a quiet solo by the violin, which is very longato, and then soothes the listener, and then makes the piece more and more forte and appassionato. The theme of the piece is played. Rimsky-Korsakov is a Russian composer, and uses very Russian-like technique, for example, the beginning, which is very dark and gloomy, but strong like Russians. The piece gets very thrilling which is why it is so famous. When the piece is played, it experiments in different tones and volume at surprising times; at one moment is very soothing and longato, but at the next moment, it will be very thrilling and …show more content…
This made people love it more, and were intrigued by it. All of these things make the piece very famous since this piece is mainly romantic, however, the first two movements are not mainly romantic, but guttural and very strong. However, there are some parts of the piece that are romantic, for example near the beginning right after the deep dark start where the violin has its solo and a little after that when the whole orchestra comes in including the harp. Another part that includes a romantic twist is about 20 minutes in where the harp comes in and right before that when the strings (mainly violins) play their little soli. That romantic section plays up through the winds and violin solo and french horn solo up to the end of the movement. Another romantic section is the very beginning to the third movement, up to where the snare drum is where the dance-like section comes in; however, the romance come back after that 2nd theme with the snare drum . These are romantic because they use basic chords, are very longato at most romantic parts, which make the listener feel almost a happy feeling, loving feeling. The harp is a constant reminder of romance, same with the solo violin and the winds, which play in all movements at different times. This piece is Russian, making the theme very fast, dark, gloomy, but this piece has …show more content…
This piece really contrasts the fortes and sforzandos from the pianos which I adore. I also like it because the percussion is more influenced in this adaptation; they are more pronounced and the cymbals are used much more with more glory. In other adaptation, for example, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performs the piece with mostly strings and woodwinds, where the Berliner Philharmoniker uses more brass and a lot more percussion, and less strings which I like because they are not over played since when instruments are overplayed, it makes the group a little bit of show-offs, which isn’t good. Another performance (conducted by Leif Segerstam) is more longato, and a little more soft compared to the other versions, which doesn’t contribute to the time period, Russian imperialist. The word romantic era is sticking in their minds and not contributing to the fact that this is in fact a russian piece that is depicting Arabian Nights, which is romantic, but also has many fast and crazy parts. I am sorry Leif Segerstam, but your version of this piece is not the best. Also, Leif Segerstam does understand the force of the instruments to a point, but I prefer there to be more fortes and more percussion which Segerstam does not do well. I would approach much like Michel Schwalbé, Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker because