L'Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier's Tale)

The enduring appeal and success of L'Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale) by Igor Stravinsky is testament to his compositional prowess and to the strong storyline.

Written during the deadly 1918 influenza pandemic, Stravinsky designed The Soldier's Tale to be easily toured and performed by small forces in small venues (large venues, including concert halls were requisitioned as hospitals and for other pandemic needs).

The 60-minute work is written for a distinctive assortment of instruments and inspired by popular music of the period, including tango and ragtime. It includes speech, mime and dance. Another aspect of the work’s popularity is the story-line which is based on an old Russian folk tale. A soldier, on leave from the army, trades his old violin for a magic book that can tell the future and make him rich. He soon discovers, however, that he has made a deal with the devil and that money does not bring happiness.

Towards the end of World War I, Stravinsky was facing the harsh realities of economic deprivation. Sensing disaster, Stravinsky, ever a pragmatist, formulated with his friends, writer C.F. Ramuz and conductor Ernest Ansermet, a plan to get himself out of his vexing situation.

As he explained it: “Ramuz and I got hold of the idea of creating a sort of little traveling theatre, easy to transport from place to place and to show in even small localities.” Thus out of necessity came the chamber-sized neo-classic orchestra.

It is impossible to calculate how many performances of The Soldier's Tale have taken place since its inception, such is its place in the canon of classical music and the universal appeal of this ground-breaking theatre-piece.

Its enduring popularity means The Soldier's Tale has been performed and recorded many times, with the likes of Jean Cocteau, Peter Ustinov, John Gielgud, Ian McKellen, Sting, Jeremy Irons and Gérard Depardieu in speaking roles.

 

 

It is worth pondering what makes this work so beloved, and what other works might similarly enchant audiences. We have selected further interesting repertoire for small ensemble and narrator/vocalist, including consideration of a full concert program. The suggested works commence with similar dark themes to The Soldier’s Tale and progress to content with a much lighter mood.

Programming with The Soldier's Tale

Marc Neikrug
Through Roses (1980) 50 min

Through Roses by Marc Neikrug is similar to The Soldier’s Tale not only in length and instrumentation, but through a storyline of war and desolation (albeit from a different war). The relationship between music, text, and action creates a psychological drama. The stage actions are supported by text operating on a deeper level, full of associations and traumatic memories, while the music mirrors yet a deeper level, one beyond the possibility of verbal expression.

The musical allusions in Through Roses at relevant points in the drama include fragments of military marches and popular songs, as well as Haydn (the slow movement from the “Emperor” Quartet, the melody of “Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles”), Beethoven, Paganini, Wagner, Berg, Mozart, Schubert and Bach. When the protagonist recalls being forced to play Bach for the commandant of the camp, we hear this recollection as music: the violinist in the ensemble plays the opening of the Bach G minor Sonata. But it is a distorted form of the music he plays, reflecting the distortion of the event in the man’s memory.

 

Two very short works, which could round-out a program with Through Roses are Night Mail by Benjamin Britten and Madame Noy by Arthur Bliss.

Night Mail (5 minutes) has similar instrumentation, however the storyline is far removed from a story of war, and the devil. It is however, a dark industrial score with a similar mood to Through Roses.

 

Madame Noy (4 minutes) would make for a lighter-mood pairing with Through Roses. A small group of instruments compliments the vocal line of this chamber music gem.

 

Rune Glerup
Almænsk (2023) 30 min

and

William Albright 
Seven Deadly Sins (1974) 24 min

Another pair of striking works for narrator and small ensemble that together could form a contrasting, yet complimentary concert are Almænsk by Rune Glerup and Seven Deadly Sins by William Albright. The duo would create an interesting program with different themes either side of an interval. Both are contemporary works with narrator and chamber ensemble sparkle. Contemporary textures and sharp narration are found throughout each work.

 

Stephen McNeff
Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit and His Friends (2017) 39 min

and 

Michael Easton 
Beasts of the Bush (1995) 18 min

A concert, aimed at the younger audience, for narrator and small ensemble, and in a much lighter vein than The Soldier’s Tale, could be created by combining two magical animal stories. Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit and His Friends by Stephen McNeff would mix well with its antipodean counterpart Beasts of the Bush by Michael Easton. Both works would delight children of all ages. The juxtaposition between the story of Beatrix Potter and her cultured British animals and Easton’s laid back Australian bush creatures are shown not only in the narration, but by style of music as well.

 

Stuart Greenbaum
The Final Hour (2013) 1 hour

A further hour-long work is Stuart Greenbaum’s The Final Hour. This work for narrator and ensemble uses electronic instruments. The Final Hour, as its title suggests, is precisely 60 minutes long (to the nanosecond). Oboe, saxophone and strings merge with analogue and digital synthesizers, keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and percussion. Recorded poetry, trains and office soundscapes weave in and out of a mesmerizing, soulful musical narrative constructed in arch form around the Fibonacci series.

 

Jonathan Dove
The Pied Piper (2012) 25min

and 

Richard Mills
The Pied Piper (2016)

The story of The Pied Piper has a similar theme to the storyline of The Soldier’s Tale. Whilst not quite selling one’s soul to the devil, it weaves around themes of good and evil and the consequences of actions. Jonathan Dove’s The Pied Piper, and Richard Mills’ The Pied Piper are cases in point and could be presented in the same program. Both of these works introduce singing parts of choruses and soloists, but retain the smaller ensemble accompaniment.

 

 

Tarik O’Regan
Heart of Darkness (2011)1 hour 15 min

A final mention of another work with similar instrumentation and which includes electronic instruments: Heart of Darkness by Tarik O’Regan. The instrumentation is reminiscent of Benjamin Britten, and the employment of electronic instruments brings a new joy de vivre to this work.

His gift for orchestration gave us beautifully sculptured, ephemeral imagery... And as the mist spread over the Thames boat from the wings and real water lapped on stage, in fact you could have heard a pin drop in the audience, whose attention as well held.
- Jill Barlow, Tempo - 1st May 2012