Orientalism in Western Classical Music: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade

by: Nick Page

A Drawing Depicting Scheherazade

From Mozart’s Turkish March to contemporary concert band repertoire such as Samuel Hazo’s Arabesque, the idea of the “Orient” has been a recurring theme in Western classical music. Taking into account, however, that many Western classical composers had no, if any connection to the Middle East, it is necessary to ask if their musical representations of the region are accurate? As Edward Said notes in his book, Orientalism, “The Orient was almost a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences.” ⁽¹⁾ In essence, this means that Europeans perceptions, writings, and compositions on the Middle East had less to do with the actual reality of the region than on their preconceived notions of the Orient. This begs the question, if the European perception of the Middle East was an invention of their imaginations rather than a reflection of reality, then are their compositions truly representative of the region? After considering the representation of the Middle East in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, the answer is almost certainly no. In fact, due to different composition techniques used in the Middle East and Europe, it is nearly impossible for a Western composer to portray the region without misrepresenting it.

            

Since the European perception of the Middle East is considered to be an invention, it is important to see where this perception originated from. As Edward Said suggests, “the keynote of the relationship was set for the Near East and Europe by the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt in 1798, an invasion which was in many ways the very model of a truly scientific appropriation of one culture by another apparently stronger one. […] The Description de I'Egypte, provided a scene or setting for Orientalism, since Egypt and subsequently the other Islamic lands were viewed as the live province, the laboratory, the theater of effective Western knowledge about the Orient.” ⁽¹⁾ Thus, beginning with the French survey of Egypt, the Europeans formed a false perception of the Middle East. It was these exact perceptions, however, that Western classical composers relied on to evoke the image of the Middle East in their compositions. Rimsky-Korsakov described these perceptions in his autobiography, My Musical Life, when writing about Scheherazade, “Why then, […] does my suite bear the name Scheherazade? Because this name and the title The Arabian Nights connote in everybody’s mind the East and fairy-tale wonders.” ⁽²⁾ Clearly, Rimsky-Korsakov recognized the Orientalist perception of the Middle East as a timeless fairy-tale region and decided to use that perception as the basis for his orchestral piece written in 1889, ninety-one years after Napoleon’s expedition in Egypt. He even goes so far as to state, “All I had desired was that the hearer, […] should carry away the impression that [Scheherazade] is beyond a doubt an Oriental narrative of some numerous and fairy-tale wonders…” ⁽²⁾ To achieve this goal, Rimsky-Korsakov had to use certain compositional techniques to give the piece what Europeans would consider an oriental character. Not surprisingly, many of these techniques were also misrepresentations of the regions.

    

Description of accidentals used in Middle Eastern music. Out of the six listed above, only the sharp and the flat symbol exist in western classical music (3).

      

Genuine Arabian music is much more complex than Western interpretations of Middle Eastern music suggests. In his book, The Music of the Arabs, Habib Hassan Touma discusses the origins of the Arabian pitch system and the development of music theory in the Arab world. Touma begins by mentioning the purely Arabian tone system that was spread by the philosopher al-Farabi around 950 A.D. ⁽³⁾ more than half a millennium before Napoleon’s Expedition to Egypt. This tone system was based off the division of the octave into twenty-four equivalent intervals. Each pitch received its own name and the names weren’t repeated in various octaves. Unlike western music, where pitches are equally-tempered throughout the range of the instrument, pitches in the Arabian tone system were based on the notes that preceded them in the scale ⁽³⁾. Since this tone system is radically different from the twelve interval tone system used in Western music it made the two tone systems fundamentally incompatible. In addition, Western classical instruments, and modern orchestral ones, are tuned differently than Arabian ones, any attempt to imitate Arabian music by a Western composer using Western stylistic practices on a European instrument would be a gross misrepresentation of the actual music produced in the region. 

The eighteen note scale developed by Safi al-din al-Urmawi, notice how the scale contains quarter tones denoted by a flat symbol with a line through it that do not exist in Western classical music (4).

It is also important to dispel the idea that Arabian music at this time was homologous. In another book, Music in the World of Islam, Amnon Shiloah describes the eighteen tone system developed by Safi al-din al-Urmawi after al-Farabi’s ⁽⁴⁾. The additional notes that exist in the Arabian tonal system are another barrier for replicating Middle Eastern music by Western classical composers, especially because it is not possible to produce many of these addition notes on Western instruments. Again, this renders any attempt by Western composers to create an oriental sound an example of Orientalism and a misrepresentation of the actual music of the region.

      

Whole Tone Scale in the introduction to Scheherazade (non-scale tones are in red).

Returning to Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, while certain aspects of the piece are more Middle Eastern than others, the piece as a whole ultimately confirms to European musical standards. One example of this is the use of the whole note scale in the Sultan’s leitmotif at the introduction to the piece. While this scale is more exotic than other scales used in the piece, it is also a relatively common scale in European classical music, thus removing any uniquely Middle Eastern character the scale may have possessed. Unfortunately, this has also become a common day theme in the era of globalization. Over time the unique tonal systems of the Middle East have lost popularity and prominence compared to the more dominant Western ones. This may be a symptom of centuries of European imperialism and colonialism in the Middle East and it represents a major loss to the region. As Europeans expanded their political and economic influence around the globe, their cultural influence followed in quick pursuit. Instead of traditional Middle Eastern instruments, concert halls across the region are filled with the sounds of the same European instruments and composers that have made it physically impossible to play authentic Middle Eastern music. Although it is a sad case, the true music of the Middle East may eventually cease to exist. In the ultimate example of cultural imperialism, the music of the Middle East may be replaced by the orientalist music that misrepresented the region in the first place. 

Below is a podcast that examines the examples of Orientalism in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade by playing audio clips from the piece. 

References

1. Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York, Random House, 1979.

2. Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay, and Carl Van Vechten. My Musical Life. London, Faber, 1989.

3. Touma, Habib. The Music of the Arabs. Portland, Or., Amadeus Press, 1996.

4. Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay, and Carl Van Vechten. My Musical Life. London, Faber, 1989.

Nick Page is a freshman at Rutgers University studying Cell Biology and Neuroscience with the intent to become a neuroscientist. When not working in the lab on his research, Nick enjoys playing the trombone and the piano in addition to reading about events occurring around the globe. He has many diverse interests ranging from urban planning, music, and geography to biology, computer science, and world history.