Rimsky Korsakov's Sheherazade and experimental calligraphy
The famous musical piece 'Scheherazade' was created at the latter half of the 19th century by the Russian composer Rimsky Korsakov, based on the fairy tale story of the Arabian Nights. Scheherazade is the young and beautiful daughter of the Vizier, unluckily married to the Sultan whom she must constantly be entertaining, or she will be put to death. Her clever angle is that she begins to tell the Sultan a story that continues each night, and she is able to keep him not only entertained but pacified.
In Korsakov's musical interpretation, the two characters are very distinguishable: Scheherazade is represented by the sweet and lonely melody of a violin; the Sultan is represented by the strong and powerful tones of a full orchestra.
To develope this project visually it was decided that experimental calligraphy tools would be used to describe the Sultan. The sweet and determined nature of Scherazade could well be achieved with a simple calligraphic nib, emulating the shapes of Arabian script.
This Grad School project has translated in many ways to my teaching.
