Scheherazade (Scheherazade, Shihirazade, Shahrazade; Persian. شهرزاد ) is the main character of the frame of the fairy tale cycle “A Thousand and One Nights”, which begins with “The Tale of King Shahriyar and his brother” and ends with “The Tale of King Shahriyar and Scheherazade”.
An image framed by a collection
One of the first written mentions of the character was recorded at the end of the 10th century in the catalog (index) of Ibn al-Nadim “Kitab al-fihrist”.
Scheherazade is the eldest daughter of the royal vizier, a girl of rare beauty and remarkable intelligence, who volunteered to free the people from the consequences of Shahriyar’s unsuccessful marriage: having survived his wife’s betrayal, the king became convinced of the depravity of women; but since Shahriyar needed women for sex, he took possession of an innocent girl every night, and executed her the next morning.
Having asked to enter the royal bedchamber as another victim wife, Scheherazade used all her eloquence, telling the king fairy tales every night until the morning. At the same time, the sunrise interrupted the story at the most interesting point and Shahriyar gave Scheherazade a reprieve until the next night, wanting to hear the end of the tale. However, the cunning Scheherazade, having finished one tale, immediately began the next, which she again did not have time to tell before sunrise. In this way she told stories for a thousand and one nights, until finally her stock of tales ran dry. However, Shahriyar by that time fell in love with Scheherazade and married her, stopping the mass extermination of women.
Everyone read the Persian fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights". This book contains more than three hundred fairy tales that a young wife told her Shah before going to bed, who wanted to stay alive after getting married. In the preface to the tales themselves, it is said that a Persian Shah once discovered his beloved wife in the arms of the last and most terrible slave. In their hearts, he killed both of them. After that, he decided that he would take a new girl as his wife every day. Then, after spending the first wedding night with her, execute her in the morning.
With such entertainment, the Shah brought the state to the point that there was not a single girl left suitable for marriage. There remained only the daughter of the minister (vizier) named Scheherazade, which means Noble origin, a little strange name for us. The vizier was afraid to give his beloved daughter in marriage to the Shah, since the next morning he would only see her body with a severed head. But the sensible girl used a trick and decided to prolong her life in the palace by telling fairy tales all night. At the same time, she must leave the completion of the unfinished fairy tale until the next night, so that the Shah does not lose interest in listening to the fairy tale to the end.
This interesting discovery allowed her to remain alive and well for a thousand and one nights. After the end of the last night, Scheherazade brought her three sons before the Shah, and then said that she had told all the fairy tales that she knew during the entire time of her marriage. She also said that during this time she gave birth to the Shah three sons. She has nothing more to say, so the Shah can execute her.
The Shah replied that he had long since changed his mind about killing his wives. It goes on to say that they lived happily ever after until death separated them.
In fact, whether such a story actually happened or not is difficult to judge today. We are left with only beautiful and interesting fairy tales from Scheherazade. They are actually very unusual. Princes and princesses, ordinary people and great wizards live in them. Only one of the fairy tales was enough to remember the name of Scheherazade. All readers are fascinated by the fairy tale “Aladdin's Magic Lamp”. It is not clear what kind of lamp this is; children, having heard such a fairy tale, can rub different lamps for a long time in order to summon the great genie, the slave of the lamp to make wishes come true. As a child, I myself rubbed all kinds of light bulbs so that the genie would fly in and bring me a lot of popsicles. I also really wanted dad to come to us more often and tell his stories. I also dreamed of flying on a magic carpet and looking at Kyiv from above.
When I read the fairy tale “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” I stood in front of each door and said: “Sim-sim, open the door.” But the doors did not open. I never found the door that this magic spell would help open. Several times some fairy tales came to me in a dream, then they made beautiful and colorful films based on these fairy tales. I imagined myself as a princess from a Persian castle and tried to dress up like them.
I read with great interest a whole series of tales about the travels of Sinbad the Sailor. His travels seemed so interesting and wonderful to me. Then I saw some trips to the cinema. I often envied boys that I was born a girl and would not be able to sail on a ship to distant lands to conquer new worlds.
Scheherazade's tales bring a little bit of magic to our childhood that lasts a lifetime. These fairy tales make the world more interesting and brighter. He turns himself into magic. When my son grows up a little, I will read these fairy tales to him. I will also draw pictures that appear before my eyes while reading these beautiful fairy tales. I think that with these fairy tales my son will grow up to be a kind person.
N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov "Scheherazade" (Scheherazade)
N. Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic suite “Scheherazade” crowns the list of beautiful works of the mid and late 19th century based on oriental themes. Among them “ Khovanshchina » Mussorgsky, " Ruslan and Lyudmila "Glinka, and " Prince Igor "Borodin, and many more chamber vocal and symphonic works. During this period, Russian composers were especially attracted to the motifs of the mysterious East, and they willingly included them in their creations. But Rimsky-Korsakov was able to feel this theme most deeply and embody its subtlest nuances in his suite.
History of creation "Scheherazades" Rimsky-Korsakov, the content of the work and many interesting facts, read on our page.
History of creation
In letters to a close friend Glazunov Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov admitted that the idea of an orchestral suite based on the fairy tale “1000 and 1 Night” was born to him a long time ago, but he decided to start it only in 1888. At this time, the composer and his family were on the estate of a close friend near St. Petersburg. According to the author, the first bars were given to him with great difficulty, but soon he began to achieve approximately what he had in mind. This could not but please Nikolai Andreevich, whose writing activity had recently faded into the background.
In the 80s, he took the position of one of the most authoritative and sought-after musical figures. On his shoulders lay the work of a professor at the conservatory, and participation in the management of the Court Singing Chapel, and cooperation with the publisher M.P. Belyaev. In addition, he could not ignore the unfinished works of many of his musician friends, and undertook to finish them.
There was not always enough time for his own creativity, but, nevertheless, the suite was successfully started and completed in less than a month. This can be easily established by the dates indicated by the author on the score: part 1 - July 4, part 2 - July 11, 3 and 4 - July 16 and 26, respectively. Initially, each part had a title that partly revealed its content, but in the first edition the titles disappeared at the request of the composer himself. Thus, it still remains unclear exactly which fragments of Scheherazade’s tales underlie parts of the suite.
“Scheherazade” was first presented to the public in October 1888 at the first Russian Symphony Concert. The composer himself conducted the orchestra.
Interesting facts
- The “Scheherazade” suite became one of the works presented in the “Parisian Seasons” of the Russian ballet school in 1910. The production captivated French connoisseurs both with its musical structure and the oriental flavor superbly conveyed with the help of L. Bakst’s costumes.
- After the second production of the ballet “Scheherazade” to music Rimsky-Korsakov in the “Paris Season” of 1911, V.A. Serov created an incredibly large curtain measuring 12 by 12 meters for subsequent performances.
- The ballet production received a second life in 1994 with the light hand of Andris Liepa. Not only was M. Fokine’s choreography completely recreated, but also the characters’ costumes were re-sewn based on L. Bakst’s sketches. Since then, “Scheherazade” has been regularly performed on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater and other leading theaters in the world.
- The oriental motifs of “Scheherazade” excited the minds of musicians in the 20th-21st centuries: there are several options for processing excerpts from it. For example, in 1968, the legendary group Deep Purple, in one of their albums, presented a version of the first part performed on an electric organ. In 1971, a revised version of the suite was released as part of the album of the group Collegium Musicum. In 2005, “Scheherazade” was adapted for wind instruments and presented in this form by the M. Patterson Orchestra. In 2010, at the jazz festival in Moscow, “Scheherazade XXI” was performed - an arrangement by jazzmen I. Butman and N. Levinovsky.
- In creative heritage Prokofiev there is “Fantasy on the Theme of Scheherazade”, created on the basis of an essay by his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov.
- The source of the plot for “Scheherazade” is a monument of Arabic literature, based on folk tales of India, Iran and Arab peoples, which became widely known in the 17th century. “1000 and 1 Night” was translated into Russian from French in the 1760s - 1770s. Rimsky-Korsakov became the first composer who was not afraid to turn to this plot - he frightened many with his cruelty and excessive frankness in some episodes.
- Rimsky-Korsakov was a participant in a round-the-world sea voyage, and this allowed him to become a master in creating the image of the water element through musical means. This unrivaled skill of his is also presented in Scheherazade.
- Initially, “Scheherazade” acquired, under the pen of the author, the classical form of a suite, because each part received its own program commentary and name. But after the composer abandoned naming the parts in favor of simple numbering, the work became more like a symphony. This is where the current full name of “Scheherazade” came from - a symphonic suite.
- In the Olympic Park in Sochi you can see a show of dancing fountains to the music of “Scheherazade”. A fragment of this suite was also performed at the closing ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
- Maurice Ravel He always proudly said that his reference book is the score of “Scheherazade” by Rimsky-Korsakov, from which he often learns instrumentation. In 1903, he wrote his “Scheherazade” - a vocal cycle of three poems for voice and orchestra.
- In 1907, German astronomer A. Kopff discovered an asteroid, which was named “Scheherazade”.
Content
The suite consists of four parts, representing completely complete individual episodes, but united by certain leitmotifs. For example, the theme of Sultan Shahriar, as it is commonly called, is represented by sharp, menacing unisons of brass and strings. Scheherazade's theme, on the contrary, is voiced by a solo violin accompanied by a harp - it enchants and bewitches, forcing you to listen to the oriental sound intricacies. Both themes will change as the story progresses, but will remain recognizable even at the end, when Shahriar’s heart softens along with the strings moving to pianissimo.
First part was called by the author “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship.” The introduction is marked by the appearance of Shahriar, and then of the narrator herself, Scheherazade. Next comes the turn of the marine theme - the strings are complemented by wind chords conveying the rumble of waves, and then a gentle flute depicts the running of a ship across the expanse of the sea. The storm develops with the alarming sound of the strings, sharper cries of the winds, and the interweaving of themes in the chaos of the storm. But soon a peaceful calm returns.
Second part– “The Tale of Prince Kalender” begins with the theme of the main character, and gradually turns into a bright oriental melody. It is quite intricate - the author plays with timbres, simulating a tense and fascinating narrative. In the middle of the movement, a battle theme arises, reminiscent of Shahriar's theme, but in no way connected with it. The flight of the legendary bird Roc appears against the background of the battle scene with the sound of a piccolo flute. The end of the movement is the transition from the theme of the battle to the theme of the prince, interrupted by cadences.
At the core third part, called “The Tsarevich and the Princess,” there are two themes that characterize the main characters of the story. One of them, the Tsarevich's theme, is more lyrical and melodic, the second complements it with playful intonations and an intricate rhythmic pattern. The themes develop, intertwine with each other, acquiring new bright colors, but at one moment they are interrupted by Scheherazade's theme performed by a solo violin.
Part four, called by the composer “Baghdad holiday. Sea. The Ship Crashes on a Rock with a Bronze Horseman” includes a combination of almost all the main themes of the suite from the previous movements. Here they are intricately intertwined, filled with new shades, and create a picture of frantic fun. The holiday gives way to a sea storm, in the depiction of which Rimsky-Korsakov achieved perfection. In the conclusion, Shahriar's theme appears, but it is clearly not as sharp and harsh as at the beginning - the formidable sultan nevertheless succumbed to the charms of the beautiful Scheherazade.
Use of music in cinema
Rimsky-Korsakov's magnificent imitation of oriental motifs remains to this day one of the great musical works that film directors take as their main theme. Almost everywhere it sounds quite appropriate, giving the film or an individual episode depth and some understatement.
List of films in which excerpts from “Scheherazade” can be heard:
- “Song of Scheherazade” - USA, 1947;
- "The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb" - UK, 1964;
- “Prisoner of the Caucasus” - USSR, 1967;
- "A Clockwork Orange" - UK, 1971;
- "Nijinsky" - USA, 1980;
- “The Man in the Red Shoe” - USA, 1985;
- “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” - Spain, 1988;
- “Shadow Dancing” - USA, 1988;
- “Tom Toumbas meets Thumbelina” - USA, 1996;
- “The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky” - Australia, 2001;
- “The Master and Margarita” - television series, Russia, 2005;
- “Gradiva is calling you” - France, 2006;
- “Cleanliness beats everything” - Denmark, 2006;
- "Trotsky" - Russia, 2009;
- “To the last moment” - Germany, 2008.
Before the creation of Scheherazade, he experienced a kind of creative crisis. But this did not hinder the composer, but rather, on the contrary, helped him create a work of unique beauty. The suite continues to be loved and listened to to this day; it has undergone many adaptations and transcriptions, and this does not make it any worse. She still enchants with the rhythms of the East and builds uniquely beautiful images in her mind. Scheherazade, the elements of the sea and the starry Arabian night, filled with the magical voice of a charming storyteller...
Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov “Scheherazade”
Scheherazade was the daughter of the vizier of the formidable and oppressive Persian king Shahryar. It is known that Shahriyar was very unkind to women. Thus, having once caught his wife being unfaithful, he enragedly ordered her to be killed immediately, but even this seemed not enough to him. And then Shahriyar conceived a new revenge - every night he demanded a new young woman into his bedchamber, and in the morning he invariably ordered the killing of his nightly mistresses. Thus, the formidable ruler took revenge on all women for his wife’s betrayal. This went on for several years.
At that time, his vizier grew up a daughter named Scheherazade, a girl of extraordinary beauty and sharp mind. So, one day she asked her father to marry her to Shakhriyar. The vizier was horrified by such a proposal - giving his own beautiful daughter to the despot seemed to him complete recklessness, because all that awaited her ahead was inevitable death. But Scheherazade knew how to insist on her own, and soon Shahriyar already called a new young wife to his bedroom.
Unlike all the previous girls, Scheherazade was not content with the mere function of a mistress, but began to tell the king a fairy tale. The plot of this tale turned out to be so exciting that when dawn came, the king wanted to hear its continuation. And then Scheherazade promised him that if he lived until the next night, Shahriyar would certainly hear the continuation of the fairy tale. This is how she managed to survive the night with the formidable ruler, which, alas, no other girl had ever managed before. Scheherazade probably managed to make a considerable impression on the ruler, and when the next night came, he, contrary to his rules, ordered to call her again.
Scheherazade again told her tale - and the night was barely enough to reach the end, and when the tale ended, the ruler immediately demanded a new tale, and as a result, she managed to stay alive again, and Shahriyar again waited for the next evening.
This went on for a thousand and one nights, and over these years Scheherazade managed not only to tell Shahryar a huge number of fairy tales, but also to give birth to three sons. Shahryar simply adored his eloquent wife, demanding from her more and more fairy tales, of which Scheherazade was a great master. When, after a thousand and one nights, all of Scheherazade’s tales ended, the formidable ruler already loved her so much that he could not even think about her execution.
By the way, many researchers are inclined to believe that during those years when Shahriyar killed every new woman, he managed to become a severe psychopath, and Scheherazade, with her fairy tales, conducted competent and effective psychotherapy sessions, ultimately finally improving her husband’s sick psyche.
The image of the beautiful and at the same time cunning and seductive Scheherazade has inspired composers and poets many times. Thus, under the impression of “Arabian Tales,” N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote his famous symphonic suite; there is also a classical ballet of the same name, as well as several films.
The story of Shahriyar and Scheherazade is one of the most profound and amazing stories in literature. It is known that originally in Arabic tales this woman was called Shirazad (Šīrāzād), but today everyone knows her as Scheherazade.
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Surprisingly, in many comments to The Arabian Nights, Scheherazade is praised not so much as an intelligent and talented woman, but as an insidious and cunning seductress, as if she did not save the lives of herself and thousands of innocent girls with her eloquence. Alas, sometimes history turns out to be cruel and unfair.
“Do not be trusting of women, Do not believe their vows and oaths; Their forgiveness, as well as their malice, are connected with lust alone,” it is believed that these words at the beginning of the book indirectly relate to Scheherazade.
However, be that as it may, the image of the narrator Scheherazade is still associated primarily with an oriental beauty, seductive and desirable, soft-spoken and eloquent.
Those with the name Scheherazade, as a rule, turn out to be trendsetters for a narrow circle. You belong to a rather thin layer of society, whose representatives, regardless of age and social status, claim that they can “afford not to follow fashion.” That's how it is. You carefully monitor how your body itself looks, take care of it tirelessly, thanks to which you have the opportunity to change your style at least every day depending on your own mood. That is why you give the impression of youth for quite a long time, each time appearing in a new look, which allows you to influence the tastes of others.Compatibility of the name Scheherazade, manifestation in love
Scheherazade, for you, marriage symbolizes the beginning of the ascetic path, and your partner must be prepared for the fact that every day he will receive the “moon from the sky.” At first glance, this is wonderful, but there is a small problem: you definitely need the same “moon” in response, since the adequacy of the reaction, gratitude and admiration are necessary for your peace of mind. The slightest doubt that you are selflessly loved and highly valued demoralizes you, and then your carefully built well-being can collapse overnight.Motivation
Your heart is full of love and compassion for others. The basis of your spiritual aspirations is the desire to protect everyone for whom you can do this from troubles. Even to the detriment of their own interests. To do good and not ask for rewards for it is your choice in any situation.At first glance, this is the life of a saint. But not everyone enjoys constant care and intrusive expressions of participation. Even the closest people can get tired of everyday care. Moreover, you will suffer, because by relieving them of the need to do at least something on their own, you deprive them of the opportunity to develop, turning them into “plankton”.
This means that sooner or later you will probably hear a reproach. And your confidence that self-sacrifice can really bring the results you expected will be dealt a severe blow. Then instead of satisfaction you will get disappointment.
Therefore, the desire to nurture and protect should be limited within reasonable limits. Remember this, and your peace of mind will be preserved.