Composers

Salammbô

Composer: Mussorgsky Modest

Instruments: Voice Mixed chorus Orchestra

Tags: Operas

#Arrangements

Arrangements:

Other

Chorus of Priestesses. Piano + Female chorus (Unknown)Song of the Balearic Islander. Piano + Voice (Unknown)
Wikipedia
Salammbô (Russian: Саламбо, Salambo) [alternative title: The Libyan (Russian: Ливиец, Liviyets)] is an unfinished opera in four acts by Modest Mussorgsky. The fragmentary Russian language libretto was written by the composer, and is based on the novel Salammbô (1862) by Gustave Flaubert, but includes verses taken from poems by Vasiliy Zhukovsky, Apollon Maykov, Aleksandr Polezhayev, and other Russian poets.
Salammbô was Mussorgsky's first major attempt at an opera. He worked on the project from 1863 to 1866, completing six numbers before losing interest.
The Russian translation of Flaubert's 1862 novel was published serially in the Saint Petersburg journal Otechestvennye Zapiski in 1863, and was read with enthusiasm by the six members of the commune in which the composer was then living. Mussorgsky was likely influenced in his choice of subject by having recently heard Aleksandr Serov's Judith, which premiered on 16 May 1863, and which shares with Salammbô an exotic setting and similar narrative details.
The unfinished vocal score consists of three scenes and three separate numbers:
Two numbers (No.2 and No.5) were orchestrated by the composer.
The chorus of priestesses and warriors (Act 2, Scene 2, Episode 3: "After the theft of the Zaimph") is a reworking of the "Scene in the Temple: Chorus of the People", the only surviving number from Oedipus in Athens (1858-1861), Mussorgsky's earliest stage-work.
In Mathô's monologue in the dungeon (the passage "I shall die alone"), the text is borrowed from the poem Song of the Captive Iroquois, by Alexander Polezhayev. The theme of this passage, accompanying a new text, was recycled in 1877 in the chorus Joshua [see Subsequent use of musical materials in this article for more details].
Mussorgsky's orchestration in Salammbô is quite ahead of its time. One example of a modern idea is, in the projected scoring for the "Hymn to Tanit" (Act 2, Scene 2), the abundance and variety of percussion, in addition to a mixture of pianos, harps, and glockenspiels of a sort which only reappeared fifty years later.
The first staged performance of Salammbô took place at the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, on 29 March 1983 in a version revised and edited by Zoltán Peskó. The work was repeated on 30 March and on 1, 2 and 6 April. It had originally been agreed that the role of Salammbô in these performances would be sung by Lyudmila Shemchuk and that of Mathô by Georgy Seleznev, but the Soviet authorities subsequently withdrew the exit visas of both singers, and they were substituted by Annabelle Bernard and Boris Bakov respectively. Because of these enforced changes it was necessary to postpone the date of the premiere from 26 to 29 March.
Setting
Scene: Hamilcar's Garden in Carthage
Scene 1:
Scene 2: The Temple of Tanit in Carthage
Scene 1: The Temple of Moloch
Scene 2:
Scene 1: The Dungeon of the Acropolis
Scene 2:
Mussorgsky reused much of the music from Salammbô in later works. Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov gives the following account of thematic borrowing in his memoirs, Chronicle of My Musical Life (1909):
«В течение сезона 1866/67 года я более сблизился с Мусоргским. Я бывал у него, а жил он со своим женатым братом Филаретом близ Кашина моста. Он много мне играл отрывков из своей «Саламбо», которые меня премного восхищали. Кажется, тогда же играл он мне свою фантазию «Иванова ночь» для фортепиано с оркестром, затеянную под влиянием «Danse macabre». Впоследствии музыка этой фантазии, претерпев многие метаморфозы, послужила материалом для «Ночи на Лысой горе». Играл он также мне свои прелестные еврейские хоры: «Поражение Сенахериба» и «Иисус Навин». Музыка последнего была взята им из оперы «Саламбо». Тема этого хора была подслушана Мусоргским у евреев, живших с ним в одном дворе и справлявших праздник кущей. Играл мне Мусоргский и романсы свои, которые не имели успеха у Балакирева и Кюи. Между ними были: «Калистрат» и красивая фантазия «Ночь» на слова Пушкина. Романс «Калистрат» был предтечею того реального направления, которое позднее принял Мусоргский; романс же «Ночь» был представителем той идеальной стороны его таланта, которую впоследствии он сам втоптал в грязь, но запасом которой при случае пользовался. Запас этот был заготовлен им в «Саламбо» и еврейских хорах, когда он еще мало думал о сером мужике. Замечу, что большая часть его идеального стиля, например ариозо царя Бориса, фразы самозванца у фонтана, хор в боярской думе, смерть Бориса и т. д. — взяты им из «Саламбо». Его идеальному стилю недоставало подходящей кристаллически-прозрачной отделки и изящной формы; недоставало потому, что не было у него знания гармонии и контрапункта. Балакиревская среда осмеивала сначала эти ненужные науки, потом объявила их недоступными для Мусоргского. Так он без них и прожил, возводя для собственного утешения свое незнание в доблесть, а технику других в рутину и консерватизм. Но когда красивая и плавная последовательность удавалась ему, наперекор предвзятым взглядам, как он был счастлив. Я был свидетелем этого не один раз.»
The Song of the Balearic Islander (Russian: «Песнь балеарца», Pesn' baleartsa) was included by the composer in a collection of his juvenilia composed between 1857 and 1866 called Youthful Years (Russian: «Юные годы», Yunïye godï, 1866). The song is No. 17 in the series of manuscripts consisting of 17 songs and one duet.
Several measures of Salammbô's dialogue with the crowd were used in the 1867 tone poem St. John's Eve on the Bare Mountain (but appear rather to have been used in the later adaptation of this work, Dream Vision of the Peasant Lad, 1880):
Several musical themes from this project were recycled and played important roles in the composer's subsequent opera Boris Godunov (1869–1872). The borrowings concern the orchestral accompaniments only, which are fitted to new vocal lines. The correspondence in narrative detail, mood, or atmosphere in each case is often quite close:
The War Song of the Libyans (Russian: Боевая песнь Ливийцев, Boyevaya pesn' Liviytsev) from Act 1 became the basis of the chorus Iisus Navin (Russian: «Иисус Навин»), better known as Joshua, for alto, baritone, chorus, and piano, composed in 1877. An orchestral edition prepared by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was published in 1883. The theme of the middle section of Joshua, a solo for alto and a brief women's chorus, "The women of Canaan weep", said to be of Jewish origin by Vladimir Stasov and Rimsky-Korsakov, is based on part of Mathô's monologue in the dungeon, "I shall die alone" (Act 4, Scene 1).
The 'Chorus of Priestesses' (Act 4, Scene 2) was orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov (1884), and published and performed as an independent piece after Mussorgsky's death (1881).
Zoltán Peskó was the first to orchestrate the rest of the numbers. Peskó claims to have found a Mussorgsky orchestration of No. 1 in the library of the Paris Conservatory, but this version has disappeared.
Notes
Sources