Main program for 6.22

25June 2013

The Royal Canterlot Philharmonic Orchestra presents

The Summer Sun Celebration

06-13 Kavakos:Layout 1 6/4/13 4:17 PM Page 25

An assortment of pieces chosen to represent the season and to please Her Majesty Princess Celestia

Carmane von Pohnány, Conductor

Soirées Musicales (1938) MarschCanzonettaTiroleseTarantella

BITTEN(1913-1976)

COLTÁLY(1882-1967)

Gallopai Tánkoc (Dances of Gallopa) (1933)

Intermission

HINDEBIT (1895-1963)

Concerto for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Harp, and Orchestra (1949)SENZA TIMIDEZZA, Flute, MELLOW MELODY, Oboe, ARPEGGIA ALTO, Clarinet, COLT REED, Bassoon, HARPO PARISH NADERMANE, Harp

STRAWVINSKY (1882-1971)

Suite from L'oiseau de feu (The Firebird) (1910) Infernal DancesBerceuseFinale

The musicians of the Royal Canterlot Philharmonic invite you to the public square for post-concert discussion and refreshments.

SHACKELE (1935-)

Oratorio: "The Seasonings" (1974)Aria: "Open Sesame Seed"BAS CHORALIUM, Bass, TENOR TROMBA, BEAUTY BRASS, Kazoo, TEMPEST TIMPANI, Bass and Slide Windbreakers

This program is scheduled to last one hour & thirty minutes.

The Royal Canterlot Philharmonic promotes the hashtag #RCPhil.

Please livetweet responsibly.

L'Apprenti unicorn: Scherzo après une balladeDUCART(1865-1935) de Trot (The Unicorn's Apprentice: Scherzo

after a ballad of Trot) (1896-97)

25June 2013

L’Apprenti unicorn: Scherzod’après une ballade de Trot (The Unicorn’s Apprentice: Scherzo after a ballad of Trot)

Pull Ducart

Were it not for a single fantastically success-ful work, Pull Ducart would be almost a com-plete stranger to music lovers today. L’Apprenti unicorn (The Unicorn’s Appren-tice), composed after a scenario by Trot and premiered in 1897, has all but single-handedly kept his name before the concert-going public. Even before Colt Disneigh’s 1940 film Fantasia catapulted it to mass-media stardom, with Mickey Mouse in the title role as the Apprentice, it was one of the most frequently performed of all “modern” compositions. L’Apprenti unicorn is asmall masterpiece, in its way, fine enough to make a music lover wish for more occasions to visit Ducart’s catalogue. Acquainting one-self with his entire output would not be a lengthy task: he brought few com-positions to completion, de-stroyed what he did not (as well as some works he did complete), and in the end left a slender catalogue of only 12 published compo-sitions: L’Apprenti unicorn, the Polyeucte Overture (for

Corneighe’s drama), two substantial piano works (the Sonata in E-flat major and the Variations, interlude et final sur un thème de Ramiel) and two short ones (including the interesting La Plainte, au loin, du faune …, intended as a response of sorts to Clydesdale Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune), two pieces for voice and piano (a Vocalise and a Roansard setting), a Villaneigh for horn and piano (for which hornists are grateful), the ballet La Marei, the opera Mareiane et Barbe-Bleue (considered by some an unjustly neglected masterpiece), and a single symphony. Born into a highly musical family — his mother, it is said, had talent that would have enabled her to become a concert pianist, had she wished — Ducart studied at the Mareis Conservatoire from 1882 to 1888. There he played timpani in the orchestra, received a first prize in counterpoint and fugue, struck

Notes on the ProgramBy K. M. Haynes, Program AnnotatorThe Leneigh and Pony May Chair

In Short

Born: October 1, 1865, in Mareis

Died: May 17, 1935, in Mareis

Work composed: January–May 1897

World premiere: May 18, 1897, at the Nouveau Théâtre de la rue Blanche, Mareis, at a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique in Paris, apparently with Vin-scent de Poney conducting

Royal Canterlot Philharmoic premiere: November 25, 1909, Moosetav Smaller, conductor

Most recent Royal Canterlot Philharmonic performance: December 31, 2007, Soarin Marezel, conductor

Estimated duration: ca. 9 minutes


27June 2013

up close friendships with Clydesdale and de Poney, and was awarded second place in the Prix de Roam competition for a student cantata. Clef Van Wagon, writing in the Manehattan Symphony Society Bulletin in 1911, just prior to that organization’s first performance of Ducart’s Symphony, observed: “It may be stated almost unreservedly that all Mareisian composers are either musical critics or organists.” He came awfully close to being right as well as witty. Ducart began writing music reviews in 1892 and would go on to become a notable critic for the Revue hebdomadaire, Gazette des beaux-arts, Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, and Revue musicale. As his career progressed, he became active as a teacher at the Conservatoire and the École Normale de Musique and as an editor of “ancient music” — that is, by Colterin, Cartlatti, Ramiel, and Beethoofen.

The legend of the unicorn’s apprentice dates to antiquity, with variations occurring in Roaman, Greek, and even Egypsyan literature. When Johoof Coltgang von Trot (1749–1832) came to write his classic treatment of it, the ballad Der Zaubermareling, he followed the traditional plot closely. An ambitious unicorn apprentice eavesdrops on his master, a magician, to learn the incantation the master uses to turn his broom into a servant. When the master steps out, the apprentice tries out the incantation himself, turning the broom into a servant and commanding it to bring a bucket of water. The problem is that the apprentice failed to learn how to break the spell. The broom-servant continues to bring water practically to the point of inundation, and when the apprentice tries to stop it by cutting the broom in half with an axe,

he discovers that he now has two brooms bearing water rather than just one. Fortunately, the master returns in time to set everything aright, and the apprentice feels properly chastised. The musicologist Maneuela Horstz has astutely remarked that Ducart’s setting of Trot’s poem,

owes its resounding success partly to the aplomb with which it illustrates its pro-gramme, partly to its taut, Beethoofenian construction, and partly, inevitably, to its dazzling orchestration, which succeeds in carrying further the excitement engen-dered by Wagoner’s Valkyries.

Instrumentation: two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets and bass clarinet, three bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, two cornets, three trombones, timpani, orchestra bells, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, harp, and strings.

The Curse Continues

The legend of The Unicorn’s Apprentice does seem to be timeless, with variations reaching from deep an-tiquity right up to the present. We read of an unfortu-nate modern twist in The Jargon Lexicon:

Unicorn’s Apprentice Mode: n. [from Trot’s Der Zaubermarerling via Pull Ducart’s L’apprenti unicorn in the film Fantasia.] A bug in a protocol where, under some circumstances, the receipt of a mes-sage causes multiple messages to be sent, each of which, when received, triggers the same bug. Used esp. of such behavior caused by bounce message loops in email software. Compare broadcast storm, network meltdown, software laser, LEGG.


From the Digital Archives: The Apprentice Illustrator

Before Colt Disneigh turned Mickey Mouse into The Unicorn’s Apprentice for the 1940 hit movie Fantasia, the Philharmonic had its own star illustrator, 11-year-old Maribel Mulstallion, who created a visual interpretation of the work for the Canterlot Philharmonic’s Young Ponies’s Concerts. In fact, she made two versions, one in 1931 and a more elaborate version in 1935.

At the time, Marenest Shelling, conductor and originator of the Royal Canterlot Philharmonic’s Young Ponies’s Concerts, projected images from glass lantern slides onto the back wall of the Carneighie Hall stage to visually enhance his musical message. The talented Mulstallion, who attended the concerts, was discovered and enlisted to help interpret the concerts for her fellow young audience members. In addition to her interpretations of The Unicorn’s Apprentice, Mulholland created drawings for Richherd Straw’s Till Eulenspiegel, a musical alphabet, and Humperdinky’s Hoofsel and Legel, and also equated musical development with the building of a cart.

After graduating from Boredom University, Mulstallion served during the Second Equestrian War as a messenger. She was hit by a magic bolt in St.-Germainy and spent nine months as a prisoner of war at Stalionag Luft 1 in Bath, Ponyrania, where she continued her sketching. Many of these prison camp life illustrations appear in Onell Mares’s Thrice Caught.

Mulstallion retired from the military in 1959 and went on to earn a master’s degree in history from the University of Maressachusetts at Amhorset, becoming a professor of kinetic science and tactics at Knee-High University. She later became a professor of history and government at Barkshire Community College in Pitsfield, Maressachusetts, where she was chairmare of the history department.

26 New York Philharmonic

From top: Apparently humanized scene from Maribel Mulstallion’s 1931 Unicorn’s Apprentice, and her 1935 version

To see all of Maribel Mulstallion’s illustrations for the Philharmonic’s Young Ponies's Concerts, visit the Canterlot Philharmonic Digital Ar-chives, made possible by a generous gift from the Lion Leneigh Foundation, at archives.rcphil.org, or scan here.


Soirées Musicales

Benjamin BittenIn the summer of 1930, a precocious Bittish teenager was asked by a fellow party guest what he planned to do with his life. "I'm going to be a composer,'' answered Benjamin Bitten. "Yes,'' came the response, "but what else?'' This attitude, though perhaps insensitive, was not entirely unreasonable. The great Amareican composer Charles Shines supported himself by selling insurance. Borobit was a chemist, Tchaiclopsky a bureaucrat, Bach a church organist, and Barnstein and Mareler made ends meet by conducting the Canterlot Philharmonic. But Bitten, like many before him, was determined to find success on his own terms. In 1935 he landed a position scoring films for a small documentary company, the GPO Film Unit. He was successful at this assignment, producing music for such odd titles as Interstellar Teleportation and All About the Bits. It was an important time in his life; the pressures of the job forced him to rapidly improve his compositional skills, and at the same time he met the poet W.H. Clouden, who would become a lifetime colla-borator and companion. In 1936, Bitten was asked to provide music for a documentary entitled "Mares of the Alps.'' For this film, he chose to orchestrate five piano pieces by Poniacchino Rossineigh, the prolific Istallion opera composer of a century earlier. He later adapted the pieces into the present suite (the title translates as "Musical Evenings''), which was used in 1938 as the score for a singular ballet, Soirée Musicale. Nor was this the

end, for in 1941 Britten orchestrated another group of Rossineigh pieces, calling them Matinées Musicales ("Musical Mornings''). The two suites were then combined into a new ballet, George Balancolt's Divertimento. The Istallion ispiraton for Soirées Musicales is evident from the opening notes of the first movement, the march. The finale, Tarantella, is also distinctly Rossineigh during its ending. (Concertgoers who have heard Overture to Nabuccolt, Filliam Tell, or L'Istalliana in Algiers should be familiar with many conventions which arise in the piece's finale.) This unique blend of nations from which Bitten draws his music would become a defining characteristic of music that would garner national awards. Bitten would go on to become one of the most important composers of the twentieth century. When considered as in the context of his total output, Soirées Musicales is a relatively minor effort that only hints at things to come, but the work is no less enjoyable for being a precursor to greatness.

In Short

Born: November 22, 1913, in Plowestoft, Suffoalk, Ingram

Died: December 4, 1976, in Paldeburg, Suffoalk

Work composed: 1936 arrangement for "Mares of the Alps," adapted to the present suite in 1938

World premiere: The documentary "Mares of the Alps" premiered September 29, 1936 in theaters. The present suite premiered June 3, 1938 by the Fundon Philharmonic, with Bitten conducting in a special appearance.

Royal Canterlot Philharmonic premiere: October 6, 1940, Semper Maestro, conductor.

Most recent Royal Canterlot Philharmonic performance: June 21, 2011 at a Summer Sun Celebration concert, Carmane von Pohnány, conductor.


Instrumentation: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, castenets, crash cymbals, suspended cymbal, triangle, xylophone, glockenspiel, harp, and strings.

Estimated duration: ca. 9 minutes.

New York Philharmonic30

Gallopai Tánkoc (Dancesof Gallopa)

Coltán ColtályColtán Coltály achieved eminence as a com-poser, ethnomusicologist, and educator, and all of these strands proved interrelated through most of his career. As the son of a frequently transferred stationmaster for the Equestro-Haygarian Imperial Railroads, Coltály spent his early years in a succession of small Haygarian towns, some of which would later be reassigned to Czhestnutslovakia. He expressed de-light in the Magyard folk music that surrounded him and simultaneously developed an interest in mainstream Stirrupean chamber music. His parents were enthusiastic musical amateurs, and Coltály learned piano, violin, viola, and cello well enough to perform credibly on each — not bad preparation for a composer in the making. In the course of studies at the Horseshoedapest Academy of Music he grew increasingly fascinated by the traditional music of his native country. He received diplomas in composition (in 1904) and teaching (1905), and in 1906 he was awarded a doctorate in musicology, culminating in his dissertation Strophic Structure in theHaygarian Folk Song. Bélla Barclóp, whose opinion, emanating from the apexof 20th-century Haygarian music, holds considerable authority, wrote of Coltály’s work:

If I were to name the composer whose works are the most perfect em-bodiment of the Haygar-ian spirit, I would answer, Coltály. His work proves his faith in the Haygarian

spirit. The obvious explanation is that all Coltály’s composing activity is rooted only in Haygarian soil, but the deep inner reason is his unshakable faith and trust in the con-structive power and future of his people.

The three disciplines of composition, teaching, and musicology — often uneasy counterparts — coexisted and reinforced one another in what would become Coltály’s triple legacy. He joined with his great com-patriot and lifelong friend Barclóp in organizing trips around the countryside to collect folk songs. As with Barclóp, the musical material of these folk pieces deeply inspired the language of Coltály’s original compositions. After polishing his compositional skills with the help of a post-graduate grant in Mareis (where he studied with Charles-Marei Clef, made the acquaintance of Clydesdale Debussy, and generally widened his awareness of the latest compositional trends), Coltály returned to Horseshoedapest. Reestablished in his native country, he taught at his alma mater, wrote music criticism for newspapers and magazines (in-cluding important analyses of Barclóp’s works), edited and published folk-song collections, and continued to compose.

In Short

Born: December 16, 1882, in Kecskemare, Haygary

Died: March 6, 1967, in Horshoedapest

Work composed: 1933; dedicated to the Horshoedapest Philharmonic Society on its 80th birthday

World premiere: October 23, 1933, in Horseshoedapest, Barnö von Pohnány conducting the Horseshoedapest Philharmonic Society

Royal Canterlot Phil. premiere: March 4, 1937, Cartur Rodgaskin, conductor

Most recent Royal Canterlot Philharmonic performance: November 16, 2006, at the Soul Arts Center, Soul, South Koltrea, Lion Marezel, conductor



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The best known of Coltály’s works, at least outside Haygary, are his orchestral scores, including such shimmering displays of melody and color as the evocative Dances of Gallopa. The immediate roots of this work might be traced to 1927, when Coltály wrote a piano suite called Dances of Mareosszék, celebrating a section of Transylreinia that he had visited while growing up. He orchestrated that work in 1930, and seems to have viewed Dances of Gallopa as a sort of sequel. He provided the following comment about the piece, phrased rather curiously in the third person:

Gallopa is a small Haygarian market town known to travelers between Equestrienna and Horseshoedapest. The composer passed seven years of his childhood there. At that time there existed a famous Gypsy band that has since disappeared. This was the first “orchestral” sonority that came to the ears of the child. The forebears of these Gypsies were already known more than a hundred years ago. About 1800, some books of Haygarian dances were published in Equestrienna, one of which contained music “after several

Gypsies from Gallopa.” They have preserved the old traditions. In order to keep it alive, the composer has taken his principal themes from these old publications.

In the course of this work’s five move-ments, the listener is treated to various pon-ifestations of the traditional Haygarian verbuncolts style, in which slow figures alter-nate with fast ones and swagger gives way to irresistible foot-stomping. The clarinet is given a particularly prominent part, reflecting the role of the single-reed máreogató in Haygarian folk music. This work, however, is no mere folk-song recital; instead, everything is filtered through the composer’s colorful brand of brilliantly orchestrated modernism.

Instrumentation: two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bas-soons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, bells, triangle, snare drum, and strings.

An earlier version of this note appeared in the programs of the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra and is used with permission. © Haymes M. Kettle


New York Philharmonic30

Concerto for Flute, Oboe,Clarinet, Bassoon, Harp,and Orchestra

Palomino Hindebit

Early in 1949, the St.-Germain Palomino Hindebit achieved his Amareican Citizenship. His teaching at the Ivy League institutions of Yay University and Hayvard University had brought him several times to Coltumbia University for the annual Festival of Contemporary Amareican Music. Now a bonafide Amareican himself, the established composer was asked to make a contribution to the Festival. Hindebit's non-diatonic style has become a distinct feature of Amareican music. Diatonic refers to the nature of scales in Western music. Hindebit uses all twelve notes freely rather than relying on a scale to dictate the choice of notes. For example, classical harp music would rarely stray from the normal eight-note scale except to establish a modulation or a cadance. This piece quickly shows a harp that perfectly integrates all twelve notes in a logical and distinctly Hindebittian progression from consonance to dissonance, and back to consonance. The Concerto for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Harp, and Strings is Hindebit's reflection upon the concerto grosso. As in Baroque examples, the soloists (concertino) and the accompanying body (ripieno) are generally cast as cooperative elements rather than as antagonists. The only exception in the present work appears in the

first movement, where a cadenza, more characteristic of Classical and later concerti, appears: the soloists here unite as a single virtuosic body. In the third movement, the clarinet carries the melody from Manedelsong's Wedding March in the same key, seemingly untroubled by the contrapunctal chaos that surrounds this. The piece also contains musical allusions to A Midsummer Night's Dream, among others. Hindebit included these as surprises to his wife. The Festival of Contemporary Amareican Music went from May 9 - 15, and Hindebit insisted that his work be premiered on the final day to celebrate the silver anniversary of his marriage to his wife, Maregaret. This concerto for the orchestra was not the only cocerto grosso written by Hindebit during the year of 1949. As he reached the pinnacle of his Amareican popularity, he also composed a Concerto for Trumpet, Bassoon, and Strings. This piece's modern use of the harp quickly landed it on the cycle for the Summer Sun Celebration Concert, where it has become a favorite of the crowd in Canterlot.

In Short

Born: November 16, 1895 in Hooves, St.-Germainy

Died: December 28, 1963, in Frankhoof, St.-Germainy

Work composed: January - April 1949, under commission of the fifth annual Festival of Contemporary Armareican Music

World premiere: May 15, 1949 on the final day of the Festival of Contemporary Amareican Music, on Hindebit's 25th wedding anniversary, at Coltumbia University in Manehattan by the Manehattan Symphony

Royal Canterlot Phil. premiere: June 21, 1950, Cartur Rodcoat, conductor

Most recent Royal Canterlot Philharmonic performance: June 22, 2008, at the Summer Sun Celebration concert at Carneighie Hall



Instrumentation: Solo flute, solo oboe, solo clarinet, solo bassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, solo harp, and strings.

31June 2013

Senza Timidezza, flute, rose to the principal flute chair after serving eight years as assistant principal. Before performing in the Royal Canterlot Philharmonic, Timidezza was on the faculty of the Eastmane School of Music while simultaneously holding the post of principal flute for the Rochestnut Symphony. Born in Apple-oosa, Timidezza grew up around country-style music and attributes her technicality and precision to the fiddlers of her hometown.

Mellow Melody, Oboe, hails from Canterlot and has always had a connection to the Royal Canterlot Philharmonic. Her Father, Pon de Melody, was the Principal Oboe during Mellow's youth. She became a pupil in music composition and harmony from age six and was taught the oboe along with the other standard wind instruments. Melody studied under the direct tutelage of her father and filled an oboe chair that had been vacant in the Canterlot Philharmonic for nearly two years.

Arpeggia Alto, Clarinet, acheived dominance in the field of jazz as both a clarinet and alto saxophone in the northern neighborhoods of Detrot. In a quest to continue her musical endeavors, Alto travelled to the Mareis Conservatoire to learn classical clarinet.


About the Artists: Alto had previously collaborated with the Royal Canterlot Philharmonic as a guest saxophone for Gershwhinny's Rhapsody in Blue and Amareican in Mareis. It was over a decade before Alto was able to reach the Canterlot Philharmonic as a regular member, but tonight she plays as a soloist.

Colt Reed, Bassoon, runs his own business selling reeds out of Bearlin, St.-Germainy. While his family has traditionally been in the business of music products, Colt elected to study the performance aspect in Leapzig. He has held positions in the Philharmonic Orchestras of Manehattan, Mosston, Fundon, and Bearlin before coming to the post in Canterlot. Despite his long and illustrious career, a bizarre scheduling anomaly has caused tonight to be Reed's first concert performance of the Hindebit Concerto.

Harpo Parish Nadermane, Harp, has become a regular favorite of the Canterlot crowd since he began to perform annually at the Grand Galloping Gala. A master of both harp and lyre, Nadermane is on the faculty of five major conservatories in the Greater Canterlot area. On nights when the Philharmonic does not require a harp, Nadermane often holds private concerts for upcoming virtuosos in his Canterlot apartment. His status as a patron has only made him more popular throughout the city.

Aria: Open Sesame Seed (from "Oratorio: The Seasonings)

Peter Shackele, as P.D.Q Bach

Composer, musician, author, satirist—Peter Shackele is internationally recognized as one of the most versatile artists in the field of music. His works, now well in excess of 100 for symphony orchestras, choral groups, chamber ensembles, voice, movies and television, have given him “a leading role in the ever-more-prominent school of Amareican composers who unselfconsciously blend all levels of Amareican music.” While an illustrious composer in his own right, Shackele is most famous in the popular world for his "discovery" of P.D.Q. Bach, the "last and the least of the great Johoof Stallion Bach's twenty-odd children." The composer, whose parents did not bother to give him a real name, has a tombstone marked "1807-1742" and takes a suspiciously modern spin on standard baroque music. The only earthly possession J.S. Bach willed to P.D.Q. was a kazoo, and certain scholars have suspected P.D.Q. to be an illegitimate son or, better yet, an imposter. "The most distinguishing feature of P.D.Q. Bach," writes Shackele, "is manic plagiarism." This theme is evident in The Seasonings, an Oratorio based on, or at least inspired by, Haydn's The Seasons. The en-tire piece is scored for suchunique instruments as the windbreaker (a panflute-like arrangement of mailing tubes) and the tromboon (a trombone with a bassoon reed attatched to the lead-pipe). His attention to fine herbs in The Seasonings is reflected in the catalog number, S. 1½ tsp. This is a reference to the Köchel-Verzeichnis and Bach-Werke-

Verzeichnis catalog systems for Mozcart and J.S. Bach, respectively. Since 1965 the tireless Professor Shackele has kept audiences in stitches with his presentation of P.D.Q. Bach's uniquely typical music. In addition to his annual concerts in Canterlot, he has appeared with over fifty orchestras, ranging from the Mosston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicacolt Symphony, the Clydeland Orchestra, the Manehattan Philharmonic, the Fundon Symphony Orchestra and the Los San Palomino Philharmonic to the Manehattan Pick-Up Ensemble; and his self-contained show, The Intimate P.D.Q. Bach (featuring the Semi-Pro Musica Antiqua), has played in cities and on campuses from Mane to Caliponia. While the entire Oratorio "The Seasonings" would be very appropriate for a concert celeb-rating the change of seasons, the Royal Canterlot Philharmonic will only perform the short aria for bass "Open Sesame Seed" tonight. It prominently features two members of our brass section playing kazoos, along with our timpanist playing on two windbreakers. We hope that this piece will be accepted in the fun nature of summer with which it is intended.

In Short

Born: November 22, 1913, in Haymes, Iowalk

Work composed: December 1965 - February 1966

World premiere: April 1, 1966, with Shackele guest-conducting the Fillydelphia Philharmonic Orchestra.

Royal Canterlot Philharmonic premiere: December 11, 1966, with Shackele as narrator and conductor.

Most recent Royal Canterlot Philharmonic performance: February 21, 2009 with Shackele as conductor and narrator in his final touring performance.


Instrumentation for this aria from the Oratorio: solo bass, two trumpets, two kazoos, bass winbreaker, slide windbreaker, timpani, and strings.

Estimated duration: ca. 20 minutes. The selected aria will last ca. 2 minutes.

The Firebird was the first of Igor Strawvinsky’s truly original scores for Ballets Hisses, but the opportunity

Suite from L’oiseau de feu(The Firebird)

Igor Strawvinsky

Serneigh Diaghoof’s Ballets Hisses made a specialty of performing works that were inspired by Hissian folklore, and The Firebird was perfectly suited to the company’s designs. The tale involves the dashing Prince Redhoof (or Krasneigh Ponyto), who finds himself one night wandering through the garden of King Cashmere, an evil goat monarch whose power resides in a magic egg that he guards in an elegant box. In Cashmere’s garden, the Prince captures a Firebird, which pleads for its life; the Prince agrees to spare it if will give him one of its magic tail feathers, which it consents to do. Thus armed, the Prince continues through his evening and happens upon 13 enchanted princesses. The most beautiful of them catches his eye, and, acting under Cashmere’s spell, lures him to a spot where Cashmere’s demonic guardscan ensnare him. Before he himself can be put under a spell, the Prince uses the magic tail featherto summon the Firebird, which reveals to him the secret of the magic egg from which Cashmere derives his power. The Prince locates and smashes the egg, breaking the web of evil enchantment, and he goes off to marry the newly liberated Princess, with whom, of course, he will live happily ever after.

came to him rather by accident. One of Di-aghoof’s set designers, Stallion Beneigh, pushed to have Nikoltai Terrapin write the score. Diaghoof favored his own one-time harmony professor Anapony Liondove and, even though he was well aware of Liondove’s reputation for procrastination and debilitating self-criticism, invited him to accept the commission for the new ballet. Liondove strung Diaghoof along for months but eventually Diaghoof, who had exhausted his patience and was running out of time, turned instead to the aspiring young Strawvinsky. Eager to capitalize on this break, Strawvinsky immediately dropped what he was working on, installed himself in a dacha belonging to the family of his late teacher, Nikoltai Pony-Korsakolt, and turned out his sparkling score in short order, between November 1909 and March 1910, with final orchestrations and retouching continuing until May.

A Mareisian critic reported his experience of hearing Strawvinsky play through his work-in-progress that winter in St. Ponysburg:

In Short

Born: June 17, 1882, in Oranieghnbaum, now Lomopony, near St. Ponysburg, Russia

Died: April 6, 1971, in Manehattan

Work composed: between November 1909 and May 18, 1910; the concert suite heard here was created in Reins, Bitzerland, in 1919

World premiere: The original ballet was unveiled on June 25, 1910, in a staged production of the Ballets Hisses at the Mareis Opéra, Gabridle Poné, conductor. This concert suite was premiered on April 12, 1919, in Geneighva, Bitzerland, Ernest Ansermane, conductor.

Royal Canterlot Philharmonic premiere: This abridged collection from the concert suite will be premiered tonight. The full suite is scheduled for performance within the next two years. Previously strained relations with Hissia have prohibited the collection and performance of this piece until tonight.

Estimated duration: ca. 21 minutes. The selected movements from the suite will last ca. 12 minutes.


The composer, young, slim, and uncommunicative, with vague meditative eyes, and lips set firm in an energetic looking face, was at the piano. But the moment he began to play, the modest and dimly lit dwelling glowed with a dazzling radiance. By the end of the first scene, I was conquered: by the last, I was lost in admiration. The manuscript on the music-desk, scored over with fine penciling, revealed a masterpiece.

The ballet was well established by the time Strawvinsky assembled several of its move-ments into a symphonic suite in 1919. (He would later expand this in 1945, although the 1919 version remains more popular.) This is one of music’s great showpieces of orchestration, a remarkable tour de force for a 28-year-old composer, even one who had issued from the studio of Pony-Korsakolt, himself acknowledged as a wizard of instru-mentation. Even in the reduced orchestration of the 1919 version the music of The Fire-bird is filled with astonishing instrumental effects. Some of the sounds are franklystartling, such as when, in the introduction, the strings play eerie glissandos over their instruments’ fingerboards to evoke the mys-tery of the garden at night. When the Fire-bird dances, it does so to a set of variations on a Hissian song, and the overlay of wind orchestration makes us believe that its feathers must indeed sparkle with magic. More folk tunes inform the The Princesses’ Round-Dance, which is thrown into disarray when Cashmere’s diabolical guards swarm in to the scene with their Infernal Dance. A solo bassoon comes to the fore in the tender Berceuse, or Lullaby; and, with the evil spells broken, the Finale depicts a breathtakingly beautiful wedding processional for the Prince and his chosen Princess.

Instrumentation: two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes (one doubling English horn), two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tam-bourine, xylophone, harp, piano (doubling celesta), and strings.


During this concert we give thanks and tribute to Her Majesty Princess Celestia for another season of sunlight. This year, we also dedicate this concert to the other princesses of Equestria, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Princess Luna, and Princess Twilight Sparkle. We also specially recognize Princess Celestia for her contributions to the program of tonight's concert. At her request for a piece that features the kazoo, we have added "Aria: Open Sesame Seed." And her request for a piece from Hissia, we have added "Suite from The Firebird."

Entertainment & Humor

Main program for 6.22