THE SOLDIER’S TALE

ZGODBA O VOJAKU

Igor STRAVINSKY
arranged by/ priredba  Jaka Pucihar 
text by/ tekst  Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz
Slovene version by/ prevod  Pavel Oblak


CLAVIMERATA
Janez Podlesek, Violin Gregor Kovačič, Clarinet
Ilonka Pucihar, Piano Dmitrij Averjanov, Percussion
Bojan Maroševič, Actor

Part I Part II
The Soldier´s March (Reven je vojaški stan-… ) The Soldier´s March (Ve le, da mora proč. Drugam…)
Airs by a Stream (Daj mi svojo violino!…) The Royal March (Sem že tukaj, pred teboj!…)
The Soldier´s March (Reprise) (Končno, sem doma…) The Little Concert (Zavesa se dviguje!…)
Pastorale (No, kaj pa boš naredil zdaj?…) Three dances (Tango/ Valse/ Ragtime)
Pastorale (interlude) (Vse, kar želel je, ima…) The Devil´s Dance (Vojak je prijel princesino dlan;…)
Airs by a Stream (Reprise) (Bedni moj vojak bogati!…) Little Chorale
Airs by a Stream (Reprise) The Devil´s Song
Great Chorale (Zdaj je srečen, vse ima:…)
Triumphal March of the Devil

LIVE RECORDING/ Recorded in Stanovska Hall, November 6 2002, Ljubljana
Sound engineer: Dare Novak/ Digital editing & mastering: Martin Žvelc/ Producer: Jaka Pucihar/
Illustrations & Design: Ciril Horjak/ Text: Clavimerata/ Translation: Janez Zupet

English

The Soldier’s Tale

The nomad life of Igor Stravinsky, spanned between Eastern and Western Europe, ended at the outbreak of the World War I, with his settling in Switzerland. Stravinsky was far from home, cut off from his family’s estate in Russia. His musical editor Edition Russe de Musique did no more send any money to him since its headquarters were located on the enemy’s territory in Berlin. The Ballet Russes group performed his musical-scene works very rarely. He could not count on the concert/orchestra performances of his works any more. All these facts caused his bad financial situation in the wartime period. In 1915, he met the French novelist C. F. Ramuz who started to translate the texts of his compositions into French. It was the beginning of their close collaboration. Reproductions of musical works were rather limited in the wartime, especially those musical-scene works which depended on the considerable finances. Stravinsky and Ramuz were aware of those facts. While planning a new mutual project, they had in mind a work which production would be adjusted to the time and circumstances – it would not require a theatre and a big orchestra with numerous singers and actors. An idea of establishing a travelling musical theatre and/or producing a musical-scene performance that could be staged in any kind of a hall or even outdoors occurred. Ramuz, who was a novelist and not a dramatist, proposed a text of a narrative character. Stravinsky should then have written a musical score to the text – the musical part was meant to be independent from the spoken part, and thus suitable for the concert performance as well. An influence of the Russian theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold could be noticed in such theatrical concept. Meyerhold rejected the idea of the classical theatre of the 19th century in favour of the open-air theatre. The symbolization techniques were not only part of the new concept of the theatre, but also part of the new instruments such as objectification made in the form and by means of the spoken commentaries. A story for the new work was taken from a collection of Alexander Afanasiev’s tales Stravinsky had brought from Russia. A theme deals with a reign of Nikolai I and the time of the Russian-Turkish wars. Although the theme of the tales was fairy and fictitious, it met the spirit of the wartime.

The story: The music and story begin with a tired and discouraged young soldier, returning home on a leave from a war. He encounters the Devil, who manages to buy the soldier’s fiddle (his soul) in exchange for a magic book that can make him rich. The soldier does not realize at first what he has done. He becomes depressed, then excited about all the money but soon realizes how empty it all is. Fortunately, surprises await the audience as the soldier actually manages to beat the Devil and take back his fiddle.

The Soldier’s Tale was written and first performed in 1915 in the Theatre Municipal de Lausanne. The work was dedicated to Werner Reinhart who had sponsored the performance and enabled a few repetitions. After the outbreak of the October Revolution in 1917, Stravinsky ultimately became a Russian exile. The Soldier’s Story can metaphorically be understood as a Stravinsky’s farewell, parting from the inaccessible homeland. The fairy-tale originates in the Russian tradition, however Ramuz adapted it so that its meaning can be located in a wider historical and geographical context. The Stravinsky’s musical language in The Soldier’s story parts the Russian musical tradition and the Russian school of Rimsky-Korsakov. The musical-scene work of art, composed of the narration, play and dance, is performed by the chamber orchestra of 7 instrumentalists, 3 actors and a dancer. The musical score contains American ragtime, Argentinian tango, Wiener waltz , Spanish pasodobile and German protestant choral. All the mentioned features “internationalize” the original Russian story. A heterogeneous musical piece connects “disharmonious” elements into a new musical language by means of which Stravinsky ultimately breaks with the Russian school that educated him. The influence of jazz – jazz was in fact not heard by Stravinsky by that time, he only saw some notices on jazz – presented to the composer a completely new musical sonority. In 1919, Stravinsky arranged The Soldier’s Story for the violin, clarinet and piano. Werner Reinhart, the sponsor of the work’s performance, was a big music fan. He played the clarinet, and the arrangement of the mentioned work was made specially for him. The arrangement consists of 5 movements of the original version: The Royal March, The Soldier’s Fiddle, The Small Concert, Three Dances, and The Devil’s Dance. Today’s recording represents an interesting combination of “The Story” from 1918, and “The Story” from 1919. The sequence and the volume, together with the narrative parts, are taken completely as foreseen by the original musical-scene version. Instead of the expected ensemble of 7 instrumentalists, the “Story” hereby is performed by the piano trio (the piano, the violin and the clarinet), accompanied by the percussion instruments, while the spoken text is entrusted to one actor. The Slovene composer Jaka Pucihar has arranged the movements that were omitted in the “trio” version by Stravinsky in 1919. Although the recording represents one of the numerous performances of The Soldier’s Story, it, in its “new clothes”, offers a new and (again) original experience of the already known.

Actor, Bojan MAROŠEVIČ finished his studies at Academy for theatre, radio, film and television in Ljubljana. His musical knowledge makes him possibe to appear also on a music stage. He performed with Symphony Orchestra of the Slovene Philharmonic Society, Symphony Orchestra of the Maribor Philharmonic Society, Carmina Slovenica, Consortium musicum, International competition for opera singers ˝Ondina Otta˝, Music September- Maribor and jazz project Music of the Words. He is member of the National Theatre SNG Maribor and professor at People University Maribor.

Percussion, Dmitrij AVERJANOV was born in Donjetsk (Ukraine). He studied at the Kijev Conservatorie with Prof. Blinov. With the Kiev Percussion Ensemble he won a first prize at the Ukraine Chamber Ensembels Competition. As a member of various ensembles and orchestras from Kiev he has performed throughout Europe and Far East.  From 1999 he has been a member of the orchestra of Opera SNG Maribor, Maribor Philharmonic and Percussion Ensemble ˝Stick Control˝.

Composer, Jaka PUCIHAR (1976) was born in Ljubljana in a musical family. Having finished the Lower Music School in Vrhnika he continued his education at the Middle Music and Ballet School in Ljubljana which he ended successfully at the department of music theory (he also ended the study of jazz-piano in the class of Prof. Veljko Glodić). He studied the composition and music theory at the Ljubljana Music Academy with Prof. Alojz Srebotnjak. He received the Students' Prešeren Prize for a symphonic work Concert for percussion and orchestra. He is Assistant at the Music Academy in Ljubljana where he lectures Harmony and Improvisation. He also took his Master's degree at the department of composition and music theory where he is now finishing his Doctoral degree. He is a member of the Society of Slovenian composers. His works have been performed throughout Slovenia, in Austria, Italy, Germany, France, Israel, Norway and USA. In 2002 he was accepted to Euroring Arrangers Workshop in Oslo (Norway), where he was co-operating with Norwegian Radio Orchestra directed by John Clayton. They performed and recorded his symphonic work ˝This is it˝. He had also the  symphonic performance of the work ˝Audiatur˝ written for the Slovenian Radio Symphony Orchestra. His works have been played and also recorded by numerous renowned ensembles. Besides his creative work, his activity in the reproduction field is worth mentioning: co-operation with some outstanding artists, with the Slovenian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra Vrhnika, the Wind Orchestra of Slovenian Army and the Slovenian Radio Big Band where, in the season 2000, he functioned as a producer.

slovensko

ZGODBA O VOJAKU

Nomadsko življenje Igorja Stravinskega, razpeto med zahodno in vzhodno Evropo, se je z izbruhom prve  svetovne vojne umirilo: nastanil se je v Švici. Založba Edition Russe de Misique (s sedežem v Berlinu) mu ni več nakazovala honorarjev, izvedbe njegovih glasbeno – scenskih del v interpretaciji skupine Ballet Russes pa so bile zelo redke. Tudi na koncertne izvedbe svojih del ni mogel več računati. Leta 1915 je spoznal francoskega novelista C.F. Ramuza, ki je začel prevajati ruska besedila, pisana na glasbo Stravinskega, v francoščino. Med umetnikoma se je rodilo tesno sodelovanje. Oba sta se zavedala, da so zaradi velikih finančnih težav med vojno reprodukcije glasbeno – scenskih del številčno zelo omejene. Pri snovanju novega skupnega projekta sta imela v mislih delo, ki bi bilo pri produkciji prilagojeno času in okoliščinam – ne bi zahtevalo gledališča in velikega orkestra s številčno pevsko ali igralsko zasedbo. Rodila se je ideja o nekakšnem potujočem glasbenem gledališču, oziroma o glasbeno – scenski predstavi, ki bi jo bilo moč izvajati v katerikoli dvorani ali celo na odprtem prostoru. Ramuz je predlagal besedilo pripovednega značaja, Stravinski pa naj bi napisal glasbo, ki bi bila neodvisna od govorjene besede, kar bi omogočalo tudi koncertno izvedbo. V tem gledališkem konceptu se kaže vpliv V. Meyerholda, ruskega gledališkega režiserja, ki je idejo klasičnega odra 19. stoletja zavrgel v korist odprtega gledališča. Vsebina za novo delo je nastala na podlagi zbirke Afanazijevih pripovedk, ki jo je Stravinski iz Rusije prinesel s seboj. Tematika Afanazijeve zbirke se ozira v čas Nikolaja I. in rusko – turških vojn. Čeprav je bila zasnova pripovedk pravljična, je vsebina popolnoma ustrezala času, v katerem sta se spoznala Stravinski in Ramuz. Ramuz je z navdušenjem pripravil libreto za »Zgodbo o vojaku«, ki v zameno za čarobno knjigo hudiču proda violino.  

Zgodba govori o vojaku, ki se po štirinajstih dneh odloči vrniti domov. Na poti sreča hudiča, preoblečenega v starca, ki mu ponudi čarobno knjigo z odgovori na vsa vprašanja. Vojak preživi s hudičem tri dni, kar se kasneje v resnici izkaže za dolga tri leta. Ko se vojak vrne v svojo rojstno vas, ga nihče ne spozna: niti mati, niti zaročenka … Uteho si poišče v bogastvu, ki mu ga omogoča čudežna knjiga, vendar sreče ne najde. Nekega dne je zvedel, da je kraljeva hči zelo bolna in da bo tisti, ki jo bo ozdravil, lahko prosil za njeno roko. Vojak se odpravi poiskati svojo srečo. Spet sreča hudiča, preoblečenega v starko in pri njej prepozna svojo violino. Hoče jo dobiti nazaj, vendar ugotovi, da violina ne daje nobenega zvoka. V obupu violino in knjigo odvrže in se odpravi naprej. V mestu ponovno sreča hudiča, tokrat preoblečenega v violinskega virtuoza. Med kartanjem uspe vojaku hudiča opiti in si na ta način pridobiti violino. Odpravi se na dvor, kje s svojim igranjem na violino ozdravi princeso, bodočo ženo. Po dolgih letih se vojak zaradi domotožja z ženo vrne v rojstni kraj. Takoj, ko prestopi mejo med zunanjim in domačim svetom, pade pod vpliv hudiča, ki ga odpelje daleč stran, ne da bi se mu vojak upiral ….. »Zgodba o vojaku« je nastala leta 1918 in istega leta je bila krstno izvedena v Theatre Municipal de Lausanne. Delo je posvečeno Wernerju Reinhartu, ki je izvedbo tudi denarno podprl in omogočil še nekaj repriz. Po izbruhu oktobrske revolucije leta 1917 je Stravinski dokončno postal ruski izgnanec, zato lahko »Zgodbo o vojaku« razumemo kot metaforo za slovo Stravisnkega od nedosegljive domovine. Glasbena govorica se v «Zgodbi o vojaku«  poslavlja od ruske glasbene tradicije in od ruske šole Rimskega – Korsakova. Glasbeno – scensko delo, sestavljeno iz pripovedovanja, igre in plesa, izvaja komorni ansambel, sestavljen iz sedmih instrumentalistov, treh igralcev in plesalke. Glasbeno gradivo v sami zgodbi vsebuje ameriški ragtime, argentinski tango, dunajski valček, španski pasodoble in nemški protestantski koral. Heterogena glasbena kompozicija povezuje »neskladne« prvine v novo, sebi lastno govorico, s katero je Stravinski dokončno opustil rusko šolo, v kateri je bil vzgajan. Vpliv jazza, ki ga Stravinski do takrat sicer še ni slišal, videl pa je le nekaj notnih zapisov, je skladatelju predstavljal popolnoma novo glasbeno zvočnost. Leta 1919 je Stravinski »Zgodbo o vojaku« priredil za violino, klarinet in klavir. Verner Reinhart, ki je bil pokrovitelj nove izvedbe, je bil velik ljubitelj glasbe. Sam je igral klarinet in priredba omenjenega dela je nastala prav zanj. Priredba vsebuje le pet stavkov prvotne verzije: Vojakovo koračnico, Vojakovo violino, Mali koncert, Tri plese in Vražji ples. Posnetek, ki ga imate pred seboj, predstavlja zanimivo kombinacijo »Zgodbe« iz leta 1918 in »Zgodbe« iz leta 1919. Zaporedje in obseg glasbenih stavkov, vključno s pripovednimi deli, je povzeto v celoti kot predvideva siceršnja glasbeno – scenska verzija. Namesto pričakovanega sedemčlanskega ansambla izpoje »Zgodbo« na tem posnetku klavirski trio (klavir, violina in klarinet) skupaj s tolkali, govorjeno besedilo pa je zaupano enemu samemu igralcu. Priredbo stavkov, ki jih je leta 1919 Igor Stravinski v »trio« verziji izpustil, je pripravil slovenski skladatelj Jaka Pucihar. Čeprav posnetek predstavlja še eno od številnih izvedb »Zgodbe o vojaku«, pa nam v teh novih »notnih oblačilih« ponuja sveže in hkrati originalno doživetje že znanega.

dramski igralec, Bojan MAROŠEVIČ je diplomiral na Akademiji za gledališče, radio, film in televizijo. Glasbena izobrazba mu omogoča delovanje tudi na koncertnih odrih. Tako je sodeloval s Slovensko filharmonijo, Mariborsko filharmonijo, Orkestrom slovenske policije, APZ Tone Tomšič, Zborom Carmina Slovenica, Zborom Consortium musicum, na mednarodnem tekmovanju opernih pevcev Ondina Otta in festivalu Glasbeni september ter pri jazzovskem projektu Music of the words. Sicer ustvarja kot član Drame SNG Maribor in na Ljudski univerzi v Mariboru predava retoriko. 

tolkala, Dmitrij AVERJANOV se je rodil v Donjetsku (Ukrajina). Študiral je na konzervatoriju v Kijevu, kjer je diplomiral v razredu prof. Blinova. Z ansamblom Kijev Percussion je leta 1995 prejel prvo nagrado na mednarodnem tekmovanju komornih ansamblov v Ukrajini. Kot član različnimi kijevskih orkestrov je gostoval po vsej Evropi in Daljnem Vzhodu. Od leta 1999 je član orkestra Opere SNG Maribor, Mariborske filharmonije in tolkalne skupine Stick Control.

skladatelj, Jaka PUCIHAR se je rodil v Ljubljani v glasbeni družini. Glasbeno pot je začel na Vrhniki, jo nadaljeval na Srednji glasbeni in baletni šoli v Ljubljani na oddelku za glasbeno teorijo (zaključil tudi študij jazz-klavirja v razredu prof. Veljka Glodića) ter diplomiral na Akademiji za glasbo v Ljubljani v razredu prof. Alojza Srebotnjaka. Prejel je študentsko Prešernovo nagrado za simfonično delo Koncert za tolkala in orkester. Je asistent na Akademiji za glasbo v Ljubljani, kjer predava harmonijo in improvizacijo. Na oddelku za kompozicijo in glasbeno teorijo je zaključil magistrski študij in v študijskem letu 2002/03 vpisal še doktorski študij. Njegova dela so bila izvajana po vsej Sloveniji, pa tudi v Avstriji, Italiji, Nemčiji, Franciji, Izraelu, na Norveškem ter v ZDA. Leta 2002 je sodeloval na Euroring arrangers workshop-u v Oslu, kjer je Norveški radijski orkester pod vodstvom dirigenta Johna Claytona izvedel in posnel njegovo skladbo ˝This is it˝ za simfonični orkester. Po naročilu Simfoničnega orkestra RTV Slovenija je napisal tudi simfonično delo ˝Audiatur˝. Njegova dela so izvajali številni priznani ansambli in jih tudi posneli na različnih nosilcih zvoka. Je član Društva slovenskih skladateljev in dobitnik priznanja pomembnih umetniških del na področju glasbenega ustvarjanja- kompozicije. Poleg njegovega ustvarjalnega dela velja omeniti tudi njegovo aktivnost na poustvarjalnem področju. Sodeluje z nekaterimi vidnejšimi umetniki, s Simfoničnim orkestrom RTV Slovenija, Komornim orkestrom Vrhnika, Orkestrom slovenske vojske in Big bandom RTV Slovenija, kjer je opravljal tudi delo producenta.