When cultures collide: how the exotic Orient inspired western music

As Scheherazade is performed by the Toulouse Symphony Orchestra at Emirates Palace, we take a look at the influence of the East on 19th and 20th century composers.

Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinsky in Michel Fokine’s 1910 adaptation of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Schéhérazade. Hulton Archive / Getty Images
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As stereotypes go, this is not a recent phenomenon. A classic 19th-century variant on the theme arrives at Emirates Palace this week, in the form of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Schéhérazade, as performed by the Toulouse Symphony Orchestra under conductor Tugan Sokhiev.

This slice of magical fantasy has been charming audiences with its dazzling effects and sumptuous tunes since 1888 – and its approach ticks all the boxes indicating “cliché”.

Rimsky-Korsakov took the narrative for his music directly from the classic One Thousand and One Nights stories.

“The Sultan Schariar, convinced that all women are false and faithless, vowed to put to death each of his wives after the first nuptial night,” he wrote. “But the Sultana Schéhérazade saved her life by entertaining her lord with fascinating tales … for a thousand and one nights.

“The Sultan, consumed with curiosity, postponed from day-to-day the execution of his wife, and finally repudiated his bloody vow entirely.”

The original written work has its roots in Persia (modern-day Iran) – although many academics trace some of the individual stories back to Egyptian, Indian and Jewish communities.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s musical treatment, however, is typically “orientalist”, a mainly 19th and early 20th-century musical trend that musicologist Richard Taruskin says evokes “not just the East, but the seductive East that emasculates, enslaves and renders passive”.

Such works tell us much more about the country from which they originate than the country they supposedly depict.

Of course, European composers and artists have been influenced by the East since the Renaissance. Mozart and Beethoven, for example, wrote the odd alla Turka – a musical style influenced by Ottoman contact with the Austrian Empire during the 18th century.

But orientalism definitely became more common in the 1900s. The primary reason? Empire-building, as the expansionist ambitions of European countries brought them into contact with many nations and tribes in the East.

From Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt and Syria, to British control of India, art and music were employed to help justify imperialism. A stereotype was created to encourage the view that these locations, while exotic, fantastical and desirable for their resources, were morally dubious. Conquering and “civilising” the inhabitants was portrayed as a righteous act.

The idea stuck. Rimsky-Korsakov's Schéhérazade, for example, inspired many others.

Maurice Ravel's Shéhérazade followed in 1904. It is an orchestral song cycle that not only lumps several countries together under a single "exotic" umbrella – Ravel's biographer Arbie Orenstein described it as "a panorama of oriental fantasy evoking Arabia, India and, at a dramatic climax, China"– it also portrays the East as a magical escape, free of western mundanity.

In 1910, Michel Fokine unveiled a ballet adaptation of Rimsky-Korsakov's Schéhérazade in Paris. This features a "Golden Slave", first performed by legendary dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, who falls in love with the Shah's wife. When he sees them embrace, the Shah sentences to death all of his cheating wives and their respective lovers.

“How barbaric – yet how thrilling,” you can imagine Paris theatregoers whispering to each other.

Russia, too, had imperial ambitions in the 19th century, but its empire was different, stretching from its European borders in the West far into the East.

As a result, the “East” became a part of Russian identity, rather than something separate – albeit a part very far away (and still seen as exotic).

Russian composers, looking to create a national style that distinguished them from their European peers, eagerly raided Eastern sources.

During the 1860s, Russian composer Mily Balakirev took three summer holidays in the Caucasus, a region which had only recently been incorporated into the Russian Empire. It captivated him and he transcribed many of the Georgian, Kalmyk, Armenian, Kabardian and Persian melodies he heard there and brought them back to Saint Petersburg.

They soon found their way into his music, and his enthusiasm infected Rimsky-Korsakov.

“Balakirev had just returned from the Caucasus and played the little oriental tunes he had heard there,” the composer recalled fondly later in life. “What a revelation his new sounds were to us; we were truly reborn.”

These eastern influences soon came to be regarded not only as exotic flourishes but something intrinsically Russian. Balakirev and his musical compatriots considered their semi-Asian identity one of the defining elements of the new national style – and this is reflected Rimsky-Korsakov's Schéhérazade.

Such clunky clichés are, naturally, frowned upon in modern classical music circles. Non-western influences – such as Steve Reich’s interest in African drumming – tend to inform the music rather than simply being an exotic add-on.

Perhaps it is time Hollywood learnt the same lesson.

• Schéhérazade, performed by the Toulouse Symphony Orchestra with Tugan Sokhiev, is at Emirates Palace on Tuesday at 8pm. Tickets start at Dh30 from www.abudhabievents.ae

artslife@thenational.ae