Arabian Nights

Please, do yourself a favor and watch/listen to this.

I watched the San Francisco Symphony preform Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.

(I have loved this music since my mother introduced me to it years ago. I have come to find out that my grandmother introduced it to my mother. I am grateful for my heritage of musical appreciation. The guidance and example of my mother has influenced me greatly.)

The music is thrilling! I sat upright with rapt attention. I couldn't contain my enjoyment of the grandeur and power of The Sea and Sinbad's Ship. I found I was smiling the majority of the performance. The music is so lyrical and passionate. The sweeping romantic melody of The Young Prince and The Young Princess lingers in my mind. It's no wonder ballets have been set to this music. I was barely able to stay in my seat. (Well, okay - maybe not exactly. Although... I admit I did dance on the way to the parking lot. I couldn't help myself!) The final 5 minutes of the last movement rendered me speechless.

Initially, Rimsky-Korsakov intended to name the respective movements in Scheherazade: Prelude, Ballade, Adagio and Finale. However, after weighing the opinions of Anatoly Lyadov and others, he settled upon thematic headings, based upon the tales from The Arabian Nights.The composer deliberately made the titles vague, so that they are not associated with specific tales or voyages of Sinbad. However, in the epigraph to the finale, he does make reference to the adventure of Prince Ajib.In a later edition, he did away with titles altogether, desiring instead that the listener should hear his work only as an Oriental-themed symphonic music, that evokes a sense of the fairy-tale adventure.
(Wikipedia)

I am grateful to have the names of each movement. It's gives me a setting for the adventures. I felt transported to another time and place.

Here is another association of mine: I made sure that I listened to this music when I went to Morocco. My favorite memory was staying the night in the Sahara desert, in a tent. Yes, one of those colorful low tents, with cushions to sit on. We arrived by camel caravan - through a sandstorm. We ate our tangine pot dinner before reading 1,001 Nights (Arabian Nights) by candlelight. I can't help but remember the smells, sights, and sounds of that night and that region of the world, when I listen to this music.