{"id":2008,"date":"2021-05-11T21:56:11","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T01:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=2008"},"modified":"2021-05-11T21:56:16","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T01:56:16","slug":"a-soldiers-tale-for-today-premiered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2021\/05\/a-soldiers-tale-for-today-premiered.html","title":{"rendered":"A Soldier&#8217;s Tale for Today &#8212; Premiered"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Excerpt from Igor Stravinsky&#039;s &quot;A Soldier\u2019s Tale&quot;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7mFIevBXJl4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In PostClassical Ensemble\u2019s new version of Stravinsky\u2019s\u00a0<em>A Soldier\u2019s Tale<\/em>, a \u201ccautionary fable\u201d for today, the Soldier weds the Princess \u2013 and the narrator continues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>But where\u2019s the&nbsp;<\/em>fiddle<em>&nbsp;\u2013 which won the bride?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>It was not to be found inside<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>And the Devil, where is he?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Awaiting the Soldier \u2013 naturally.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>With the instrument in hand,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>He played, his victim to command.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Soldier came, dropping his head<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Not resisting, hypnotically led.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A dusty road he encountered anew<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>To the Princess, he did not wave adieu.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The moral of this little tale?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cherish your fiddle<em>&nbsp;\u2013 it\u2019s not for sale.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words: <strong>SAVE THE ARTS<\/strong>. Our new\u00a0<em>Soldier\u2019s Tale<\/em>\u00a0(for which I wrote a new rhymed libretto) is timely in other ways. As I put it in a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postclassical.com\/a-soldiers-tale\">program note<\/a><\/strong>: \u201cIt\u2019s a Covid-period entertainment: compact, flexible, rejecting Romantic symphonic upholstery in favor of a dry, caustic sonority conducive to bitter entertainments, light-hearted yet not evasive.\u201d It\u2019s also greatly abridged and simplified. In a facebook review, Philip Kennicott wrote that <em>Soldier\u2019s Tale <\/em>\u201cusually feels too long, or too short, sprawling or disjointed, depending on the cuts. But on Sunday it was just right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another thing that seemed right last weekend at the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StoneHillFoundation\/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZX-uRZdv7oCz0uOCUSJNr9VvAF2hFlxyrQAuVt3KE3w_rUciWhyERFiiFiSkhZr31q9AQ56tn1XppvbKBhvH4fCWrsJK86xsygTBDDnhm1MhPeIc9w21mcAdplznxprmZjArNtnCTqgfz9uoqPstmRp&amp;__tn__=kK-R\">Stone Hill Theatrical Foundation<\/a>&#8216;s terrific outdoor auditorium near Flint Hill, Va., was coupling Stravinsky with Daniel Schnyder\u2019s\u00a0<em>Berlin Suite 1920<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 adapted by the composer for the same set of seven players, plus Schnyder\u2019s own soprano saxophone. Kennicott: \u201c<strong>Schnyder\u2019s suite could be a godsend for groups that program the Stravinsky, and wonder how to flesh out the rest of a program.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Schnyder \u2013 a frequent PCE guest, alongside the phenomenal bass trombonist David Taylor, who also took part \u2013 is a master of pastiche: he inhabits multiple musical worlds with uniform facility. Of his\u00a0<em>Berlin<\/em>\u00a0suite, he writes:\u00a0\u201cReflecting on a specific past moment, my suite resembles a novel, painting, or movie set in another time. For these other artforms this is totally normal. But for music the idea of depicting a past time in the now has only been practiced with remote Baroque or Classical periods. To my knowledge, this may be the first 21<sup>st<\/sup>\u00a0century composition to look back 100 years to the early 20<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0century. It is a sound picture or aesthetic audiograph of a time not so remote.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Schnyder\u2019s suite was also embellished with some narration of my own, read \u2013 as was the Stravinsky \u2013 by a distinguished stage actor: Ed Gero. It begins:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Berlin!&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Between two world wars, the city of Threepenny Opera and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>of Bertolt Brecht\u2019s grating lyrics and disheveled voice<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>of Marlene Dietrich in top hat and trousers,&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>a city of broad boulevards and massive stone facades,&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>of street fighting between Communists and Nazis,&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>of topless revues and streetwalkers for every taste,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>of privation so severe and inflation so rampant that Artur Schnabel could be paid for playing the piano with a suitcase of bills&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2013 and could spend half of them on a couple of sausages on the way home.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Stefan Zweig called it \u201cThe Babylon of the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s how movement one of the <em>Berlin Suite<\/em> looked and sounded, with PCE conducted by Angel Gil-Ordonez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Except from the opening of Daniel Schnyder\u2019s &quot;Berlin Suite 1920&quot; (world premiere)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jS9as7RvzEc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In PostClassical Ensemble\u2019s new version of Stravinsky\u2019s\u00a0A Soldier\u2019s Tale, a \u201ccautionary fable\u201d for today, the Soldier weds the Princess \u2013 and the narrator continues: But where\u2019s the&nbsp;fiddle&nbsp;\u2013 which won the bride? It was not to be found inside And the Devil, where is he? Awaiting the Soldier \u2013 naturally. With the instrument in hand, He [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-wo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2008"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2015,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008\/revisions\/2015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}