Devil’s Last Dance

You are all in for a trick or treat as the Sun Symphony Orchestra presents an eclectic program of music fit for the devil! The concert is in two parts. It opens with the very dark “Night on Bald Mountain” (which was featured in the classic Disney movie “Fantasia”), in a cool arrangement for a group of five brass instrumentalists. The bulk of the first part of this concert, however, is a presentation of the first Stravinsky work performed by the SSO, and while we start with this small-scale instrumentation (7 instruments), the work is multifaceted, involving musicians, actors and even a dancer. The second part of the concert brings the true chills, with horrifying music from the film “Psycho”, for which the famed film composer Bernard Herrmann provided a music score that features an unforgettable “tune”. Rounding out the concert are two of the most enjoyable orchestral works – Danse Macabre, evoking dancing skeletons, and the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, also famous thanks to the film “Fantasia”.

MODEST MUSSORGSKY ~~
Night on Bald Mountain
(arr. for brass ensemble by Scott Sutherland)
Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” underwent no less than 4 orchestral revisions, the last of which was a considerable one made by the famed orchestrator Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov and is the one most commonly performed today. The version for tonight’s concert is an abbreviated arrangement which, naturally, does away with the orchestration of Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov and puts all the meaty tunes of the tone poem to the brass quintet. It works nicely, too, as the darkness of the brass lends itself well to the witchcraft and devilry depicted in the fragments Mussorgsky had composed for an abandoned opera. He never heard the piece as he intended for orchestra.

IGOR STRAVINSKY ~~
l’Histoire du Soldat
Narrator and Devil: Hứa Thanh Tú, Soldier: Marianne Seguin, Princess: Dương Bảo Phương

The “meat and potatoes” of tonight’s concert have to do with devilry, wickedness and, yes…plain evil. But that’s you get when you celebrate Halloween. The largest work of tonight’s program is no different, and essentially tells of the devil’s deceit and a soldier’s fall into the trap of greed.

Certainly the most challenging piece for performer (being technically very demanding) – and perhaps listener (the piece pushes the envelope of traditional form, harmony and – “l’Histoire du Soldat” is a theatrical work borne out of the composer’s times of hardship. Following four years of little work opportunities after World War I, Igor Stravinsky’s finances were in a very sad state. Residing in Switzerland, Stravinsky came to know the Swiss novelist C.F. Ramuz. Stravinsky was cut off from his homeland because of the Russian Revolution, and, needing to find a way to earn money, decided to create a work that would be easy to perform around villages in Europe.

The piece is written for a rather unusual assortment of instruments: violin, contrabass, percussion, bassoon, clarinet, trumpet and trombone. This makes for overall quite a dark musical work, and the story, as told by the narrator and actor (representing the devil and soldier) is dark (naturally) but features moments of slight humor, beauty and even a life lesson on humility.

Unfortunately for Stravinsky, the plan for a concert tour that had seemed hopeful following the work’s initial premiere success was squashed due to the flu epidemic of 1918.

The rhythmic Soldier’s March opens the piece and introduces the soldier on his way home on leave; it reappears several times during the story. In the first scene, the devil appears as an old man with a butterfly net. He greets the young soldier on his way and offers to buy his fiddle (the violin symbolizes the soldier’s soul) in exchange for a magic book. The soldier agrees, but the devil convinces him to come with him so that he can teach the devil how to play. When the soldier reaches his village following this episode, 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 re-appears and shows the young 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 clothes 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.

Next is the famous Royal March, with its virtuosic 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 to try to cure her, the soldier plays cards with the devil, gets him drunk, and gets back his violin.

The soldier then approaches the sick princess and plays the violin for her (pours out his soul to her). She rises and dances three different dances, two of them influenced by jazz―Tango, Waltz, and Ragtime―and then embraces the soldier. The devil appears, this time as a devil 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, and reminiscent of the past – symbolic of the story’s hinting at the simple past life of the soldier.

In the final scene, several years have passed, and the soldier and princess go to visit his home. Once they pass the frontier, the devil re-appears and regains control of the violin, defeating the soldier. 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. Some 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. The diminishing instruments can also bring back memories of Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, which ends with a sole player on stage who extinguishes the last candle.

“L’Histoire du Soldat” is not necessarily what we would consider ‘easy listening’; you won’t go home whistling happy tunes from this piece. It is a superbly written theatrical work that shows Stravinsky’s take on the jazzy style of writing, has a witty text performed by two fabulous actors, and a haunting scene featuring the awakening of the princess. It also happens to be one of the most challenging works written by Stravinsky – virtuosic to play and tricky to conduct, which is perhaps why most of you will not have yet heard it. We are thrilled to present it to you!

BERNARD HERRMANN
Selections from Psycho Movie Soundtrack
Film composer and scholar Fred Steiner once observed:

–” Just as the “no color” images of a black and white film are able to convey all the emotions and visual effects the director wishes to express, so the string orchestra has the capability – within the limits of its one basic color – to produce an enormous range of expression and a great variety of dramatic and emotional effects, with all the gradation in between”

Famed film director Alfred Hitchcock and composer Bernard Herrmann had a large catalog of film projects together, with Herrmann – a very temperamental man whom many shunned past one or two collaborations – was a favorite of Hitchcock’s, and one whom the latter gave a lot of flexibility to do as he liked.

Originally, Hitchcock had wanted his famous shower murder scene (yes, gory, even for a Halloween-themed concert) not to include any music. However, after seeing his film, the director decided to let Herrmann include his already-composed music for the shower scene to be included, and admitted he had made an error in initially not allowing music. Such was the effect of Herrmann’s music that even the stubborn Hitchcock was impressed.

Audience members will undoubtedly recognize these famous musical effects when the strings play the knife jabs (produced by the ‘glissando’ or swooping sounds of the finger moving up the string while drawing the bow), which have become quite unforgettable and unique.

Naturally, the film score is not special only for this shower scene, but for all the other movements that highlight the surprisingly varied sounds and effects that a string orchestra can produce. Herrmann’s other scores are typically full orchestra compositions, but the coldness of the strings (which Herrmann preferred not to play using vibrato, or essentially keeping a cold sound) in the score for Psycho is quite fitting for this Halloween-themed concert. We hope this music gives you the chills!

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
Danse Macabre (arr. H Mouton)
In keeping with the theme, the Danse Macabre is a very clear depiction of the dance of the dead (a theme very common in European art and music since the Middle Ages); the piece even starts with the 12 clock bell strokes of midnight at the graveyard. One also can hear the figure of death playing on the violin (originally the violinist is asked to retune the top string, which creates a scratchy feel, characteristic of the figure of death).

Initially a song, Saint-Saëns reworked his Danse Macabre from voice to a violin solo at the beginning. The accompaniment depicts the rattling of bones. The dies irae (day of wrath), a famous chant from the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, makes an appearance, as it does in so many compositions dealing with death. This ominous theme is played by the winds, and the piece comes to an impressive climax that combines the recurring themes, before the solo oboe brings about the cock’s crow in the morning and the dancing skeletons return to their graves.

Danse Macabre, written in 1874, came about at a time during which the “tone poem” came to prominence thanks to Franz Liszt. The use of themes related to death and gloomy allusions was also a popular choice in 19th Century Romantics.

PAUL DUKAS
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (arr. H Mouton)
The well-known and loved Disney film “Fantasia” gave popularity to the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, with the film (and music) cleverly depicting the uncontrollable broomsticks that unleash chaos while the young apprentice desperately tries to control them.

In this fun story inspired by German playwright Goethe, a magician’s apprentice observes as his master brings a broomstick to life in order to do whatever the magician wants. When the magician leaves for the day, the apprentice decides to try his luck at this same magic trick, asking the broomstick to fetch water, but it seems he needs a little more practice, as he has inadvertently enacted the broomstick to go a little crazy, and the magician’s house starts to overflow with water. Panicked, the apprentice chops up the broomstick, not knowing how to turn off the magic, but this causes the broomstick to multiply and soon, dozens of new broomsticks begin to fetch water, causing a massive flood.

This magical piece, much like Danse Macabre, takes advantage of various instruments and their unique colors to depict certain elements. The soft strings open the piece, setting the scene for the magic. Soon, the bassoons introduce the broom theme, which appears repeatedly throughout the piece, more frantically each time. One of the most famous glockenspiel orchestra audition excerpts comes from this piece, and represents, with the woodwinds, the splashing of water as the broomsticks fetch more and more water and the flooding begins.

This music is enchanting as can be, and a great way to bring our concert to a close!