Guide to The Firebird - Princeton Symphony Orchestra

THE FIREBIRD SUITE I think I can picture a Firebird. Great start! The Firebird in this story is just about what you’d imagine: a magical bird, made of fire. Just like fire, this bird turns out to bring light and power to the hero, but burns up the villain.

… but what’s a Suite? A “Suite” is a term that composers have used (for CENTURIES!) to describe a collection of dance pieces. Have you heard of the Sarabande? The Bourree? The Gigue (or maybe, the Jig)? These were very popular dances during Johann Sebastian Bach’s lifetime, and he wrote collections of French Suites and English Suites for the harpsichord.

Why would anyone write dance pieces based on a bird made of fire? Fast-forward to 1910: Igor Stravinsky, who was later to become one of the century’s greatest composers, was only 28 – very young in the life of a composer. Stravinsky was asked by the Ballets Russes, the famous Russian ballet company in Paris, to write a

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ballet based on a Russian story. Although he was probably very nervous, he said YES, and set to work on something that would be one of his very most important pieces of music. He did the Ballets Russes one better: Instead of setting a Russian story to ballet, he combined two stories, Ivan Tsarevich and the Grey Wolf, and The Story of Kashchei the Deathless. You can look for these stories in the library!

So how did Stravinsky’s version of the story go? Once while out hunting, Prince Ivan stumbled upon the realm of Kashchei the Deathless. In the gardens, he discovered a magical Firebird. The Firebird begged for its life and agreed to give Ivan one of its tail feathers as promise to help him if he were ever in trouble. Prince Ivan accepted the feather and let the Firebird go. In the garden, Prince Ivan discovered thirteen enchanted princesses dancing a Khorovod. Having fallen in love with one of them, Ivan rushed the gates of Kashchei’s palace to fight for their freedom. The gates swung open and Kashchei’s demons poured out, in pursuit of Ivan. But the Prince remembered the magic of the Firebird’s tail feather, and called for the Firebird’s aid. The Firebird, true to its pledge, bewitched the creatures and made them dance frenetically until they, and Kashchei, fell asleep. The Firebird then told Ivan the secret to Kashchei's immortality – his soul didn’t live in his body, but was contained inside an enormous, magical egg. Ivan destroyed the egg, killing Kashchei. With Kashchei gone and his spell broken, the magical creatures and the palace all disappeared. The princesses awakened from Kashchei’s spell, Prince Ivan married the one he loved, and they all lived happily ever after. Here are some links to the Ballet: Sampler: the trailer for the Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet screening in HD movie theaters! The full ballet, danced by the Mariinsky and conducted by Valery Gergiev.


Okay, that’s a great fairy tale. I thought this was a Suite! Stravinsky’s ballet was a smash hit in 1910, but Stravinsky wanted to create a version of the music JUST FOR CONCERTS, without dancers. So in 1919, he wrote The Firebird Suite, using the music from his ballet and constructing five dance pieces for orchestra (remember the Sarabande and the Jig?).

So he told the whole story, without any dancers onstage, in just five pieces of music. How does that work? Here is another great link, posted by our friends at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (a different PSO from us!). This one tells the story, with samples of the music from each piece.

Got it. But how do you tell a story with just music? There’s an entire type of music, whether it’s written for orchestra or just a solo instrument, that’s called program music. Most music is called pure music, or absolute music. Think of symphonies or sonatas. But when a composer writes program music, he or she is asking you to picture something specific. Maybe it’s a person or a place, or in the case of The Firebird Suite, it’s a story. There are sounds written into each movement of the suite, to help you hear the story. For example: (1) Introduction and Firebird Variations: DARK! The story begins in the garden at night. How does the composer show you the dark? With low notes in the strings. MYSTERY! This is a magical place. Stravinsky shows it with chromatic music, winding its way around lots of sharps and flats, without sticking to the notes you’d hear in the scale. He also writes glissando for the strings, or sliding between notes. FLIGHT! Listen to the way the harp, the celesta, the flute, and the sudden switch to a fast tempo, shows you the appearance of the firebird. (2) The Princesses’ Khorovod: YOUNG GIRLS! Stravinsky ditches the chromatic writing and instead writes a pretty and straightforward tune, which could have been a folk song.


ROMANCE! the main tune is in the oboe, an instrument that sounds very soulful, almost like the human voice. (3) The Infernal Dance: EVIL MINIONS! Stravinsky used lots of roaring and moaning sounds in the brass. Listen for the bassoons and the horns. I’M DANCING, AND I CAN’T STOP! There’s a pounding rhythm, almost as if the dancers were dancing against their will. Listen for the syncopation, with lots of strong music on the off-beats. (4) Berceuse (or Lullaby): CALM! Listen to the way the low strings play legato repeated patterns. SLEEPING DEMONS! The melody is played on the bassoon, the same instrument that showed the demons in The Infernal Dance. (5) Finale: THE HERO’S TRIUMPH! The French horn plays the opening theme, as the princesses wake up and discover the spell is broken. CELEBRATION! The strings play trills as the brass plays a mixed-meter fanfare: listen to the confetti falling and the Prince and the princesses dancing for joy! …ready to hear it? Believe it or not, here’s Stravinsky himself, conducting The New Philharmonia at Royal Festival Hall in London, 1965. This is a new version that he rewrote in 1945, and includes some additional music beyond what you’ll hear at the concert on May 3. For a good recording of the 1919 version, which you’ll hear on May 3, click here for the BRT Philharmonic Orchestra of Brussels, conducted by Alexander Rahbari.
