Priya Shokeen

What is the story of Scheherazade about? Where does the story take place?
● The story of Scheherazade are Persian stories including One Thousand and One Nights.
A woman named Scheherazade was the storyteller and for the Sultan that she had wed.
The story is about a Sultan (king) who would we a new virginia each day and the
previous wife was killed and he did this because his first wife wasn’t loyal to him.
Scheherazade told the Sultan stories so that he could me mesmerized by them and
possibly stop killing his wives. By the 1,001th night, Scheherazade said there weren’t
any more tales but the king had fallen in love with her and spared her life as he learned
many lessons through her tales and made her queen. This story took place in Persia’s
ancient land.

The article and podcast point out some of the changes in the music of Scheherazade and how
the music reflects the voices of the characters and what is happening in the story. How does the
composer achieve different “voices” in this piece of music?
● The Sultan is represented through the trombones and tubas while Scheherazade is
represented through the violin that captivate the Sultan.
How is the character Scheherazade represented in the music?
● Scheherazade is portrayed as a gorgeous person (a harp and violin).

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the composer, wanted to create music that told stories. Do you think
he was successful in Scheherazade? Why or why not?
● I think he was successful because he used the right instruments to showcase that
specific character such as the harp to show that it was Scheherazade was talking.

What are your impressions of Scheherazade? Did you like or dislike the music? Why?
● I personally liked Scheherazade and her main goal was for the king to stop killing the
girls and not make him fall in love with her (was risking her own life and was a daredevil).
I liked the music as it portrayed each character and their personality very well.