L'histoire du soldat (complete)

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) had already written his three epoch-making ballets (Firebird, Petrushka, Rite of Spring), filled with colorful big orchestration, when L’histoire du soldat (A Soldier’s Tale) was performed for the first time in 1918. Due to World War I, funds were not available for large-scale performances, and many great musicians were both literally and figuratively caught up in the battle. Concerned about their subsistence, Stravinsky and friends (including writer Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, conductor Ernest Ansermet, and production designer René Auberjonois) wanted to write something that could be produced simply and economically. They planned a traveling theater show during their exile in Switzerland, a theater that would work with reduced instrumental and scenic demands. In the course of these considerations, the creators of A Soldier’s Tale settled on seven musicians, one reader, and a mix of actors and dancers. The work premiered just two weeks before the armistice. The exciting combination of different genres—music, theater, dance—allows for numerous staging possibilities.
Following the premiere, Stravinsky was given additional funding by Swiss philanthropist Werner Reinhart to make a reduced version of five selections for piano, violin, and clarinet. Given its role in the tale, the violin takes center stage in the trio version, but it is equally spotlighted in the original score. It is often paired with the clarinet, for Reinhart was himself an accomplished clarinetist. The remaining instruments in the full ensemble include those that provide striking timbral contrast, as well as a nod toward the military aspect (trumpet, trombone, percussion), and those that are needed to build up solid harmonic foundation in the bass register (bassoon, double bass).
For the libretto Stravinsky and Ramuz culled two stories from a collection of Russian fairytales from Alexander Afanas’ev and transferred them into a more contemporary, albeit timeless context; Afanas’ev’s tale “The Runaway Soldier and the Devil” forms the heart of L’histoire. Set out in two parts, the plot centers on a Russian soldier, Joseph, who makes a pact with the devil. The action opens with Joseph on leave, marching home to Stravinsky’s delightfully quirky main theme. Pausing to rest, he pulls out his trusty violin to play a simple song. Given its importance in the later plot—as well as its connection to the danse macabre legend discussed above—the violin takes on a prominent role in Stravinsky’s score.
Joseph is surprised by the devil in disguise, and the two swap items: Joseph gives up his violin in exchange for the stranger’s book of prognostications, which he thinks will bring him untold wealth. Years magically pass as quickly as days. The first part of L’histoire circles back to its beginning, including both a reprise of the march theme and the narrator’s opening words. Floating ghostlike through his home village, Joseph suddenly realizes how much time has passed and how he has given up the happiness he had for the promise of wealth to come. Doleful strains from clarinet and bassoon give voice to his despair. The devil reappears as a peddler offering to sell back to Joseph the very possessions he previously forsook: the mirror, the portrait of his beloved, and the violin—now completely mute to his touch.
Part 2 follows Joseph to the royal palace where he will ultimately regain some measure of happiness. He confronts the devil at cards, willingly loses all his money, and is thereby freed from the devil’s clutches. With his restored musical ability, Joseph resurrects the sick princess to health. An extensive interlude follows featuring an alluring tango, an updated Viennese waltz, and an American Ragtime. Then, in a furious dance scene, Joseph uses his music to defeat the devil one last time. The narrator relates the overriding moral of the story, a condemnation of empty materialism: no one can have everything he desires, choices must be made. But Joseph is unwilling to heed that advice, despite all he has experienced. Urged on by the princess, he attempts to leave the palace grounds and find his long-lost mother. In so doing he will step beyond a prescribed boundary placed upon him by the devil; he loses his new bride, who had been trailing silently behind like Eurydice. Thus despite beginning as a happy young man; despite discovering the path to untold wealth; despite discovering love; despite all that, Joseph cannot find satisfaction. The devil’s triumphant march carries the day, and a slow decrescendo played by solo percussion brings the drama to an end.
Overall, one can hear Stravinsky’s neo-classical aesthetic, which developed after the First World War. Gone are the imposing textures, atonal explorations, and rhythmic aggression of the pre-war period. A Soldier’s Tale carries a bright optimism, despite the darker tones of the libretto, and signifies one of the composer’s most successful stylistic evolutions.

(c) Jason Stell