Sometimes, in the middle of band practice, one’s mind drifts. For me, this happens most often when we’re practicing Stravinsky’s “Berceuse and Finale.” The first few times we started sight-reading it, I couldn’t stop yawning throughout the first half, even though I had a solo (which one really shouldn’t sleep through).
Turns out, though, that yawning was exactly the response that movement was supposed to inspire – because a “berceuse” is a lullaby, or “cradlesong.”
I don’t know about you, but “Berceuse” isn’t the song I would’ve chosen to lull my babies to sleep. I think it sounds like the music that might be playing as a vampire creeps into a virgin’s bedchamber. To me, that painfully slow call-and-response between the low woodwinds and the oboes, underscored by the long low brass notes, is ominous and threatening. It’s the stuff of nightmares.
But reading the story behind "The Firebird” now makes me understand why Stravinsky wrote this the way he did. In the Firebird ballet, premiered by the Ballets Russes in Paris in 1910, Prince Ivan wanders into the forest domain of Koschei the Immortal, whose soul is protected in a magical egg hidden in a casket. While there, the prince captures the Firebird but then releases her; she rewards him with an enchanted feather he can use to call her should he need her.
Ivan then falls in love with one of the thirteen princesses Koschei has imprisoned. After Koschei sics his monsters on him, Ivan calls the Firebird – who proceeds, during the “Berceuse” section, to sing both them and Koschei to sleep. As the deadly lullaby continues, she directs Ivan to the tree stump where Koschei’s soul-egg is hidden. He smashes the egg, killing Koschei. The enchantment is lifted and all of the princesses and other magical creatures are awakened and freed during “Finale.”
So that’s why “Berceuse” is one creepy lullaby. I plan on staying well awake during band practice from now on.
(Blog contributed by Kari Diehl, oboist)
Turns out, though, that yawning was exactly the response that movement was supposed to inspire – because a “berceuse” is a lullaby, or “cradlesong.”
I don’t know about you, but “Berceuse” isn’t the song I would’ve chosen to lull my babies to sleep. I think it sounds like the music that might be playing as a vampire creeps into a virgin’s bedchamber. To me, that painfully slow call-and-response between the low woodwinds and the oboes, underscored by the long low brass notes, is ominous and threatening. It’s the stuff of nightmares.
But reading the story behind "The Firebird” now makes me understand why Stravinsky wrote this the way he did. In the Firebird ballet, premiered by the Ballets Russes in Paris in 1910, Prince Ivan wanders into the forest domain of Koschei the Immortal, whose soul is protected in a magical egg hidden in a casket. While there, the prince captures the Firebird but then releases her; she rewards him with an enchanted feather he can use to call her should he need her.
Ivan then falls in love with one of the thirteen princesses Koschei has imprisoned. After Koschei sics his monsters on him, Ivan calls the Firebird – who proceeds, during the “Berceuse” section, to sing both them and Koschei to sleep. As the deadly lullaby continues, she directs Ivan to the tree stump where Koschei’s soul-egg is hidden. He smashes the egg, killing Koschei. The enchantment is lifted and all of the princesses and other magical creatures are awakened and freed during “Finale.”
So that’s why “Berceuse” is one creepy lullaby. I plan on staying well awake during band practice from now on.
(Blog contributed by Kari Diehl, oboist)