Without doubt, The Firebird was a cornerstone in young Igor Stravinsky's career. Commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev, it was performed for the first time in Paris on June 25, 1910 in Paris. The ballet told the story of a young man named Ivan Tsarevich and his conflict with King Kashchey, the "embodiment of evil" (White, 185). The ballet proved to be a great success - and not a single bit undeserved, for the work itself - especially the plot, the music, and finally the combination of plot, music and dance - was so artistically developed and attended with unprecedented detail such that success was the only logical response that could be expected.

As with any major piece of art involving a story, the plot is one of the most important elements. The Firebird, begins with the introduction of a young prince Ivan Tsarevich, who is in pursuit of a magical creature called Firebird. Ivan Tsarevich manages to capture it in the garden of King Kashchey, who holds every woman he encounters hostage and turns every man into stone. In exchange for its freedom, the Firebird leaves in Ivan Tsarevich's hands a magic feather. Next, thirteen maidens walk into the garden; Ivan Tsarevich falls in love with one of them, only to find out that the maidens are princesses under Kashchey's spell. When Ivan Tsarevich follows the maidens into the palace, he is captured by the king's guards. Just when he is supposed to suffer the punishment of petrifaction, he remembers his magic feather. Waving the feather, he summons the Firebird, which reveals to him Kashchey's only weakness - an egg preserved in a casket, which must be smashed in order to kill Kashchey. Ivan manages to do so; the king's spells dissolve, and Ivan Tsarevich and his princess escape.

Although not completely novel at the time of the performance, The Firebird's plot certainly had enough fresh ideas to stir interest in the audience. Initially, the conditions were not necessarily the best: the ballet's premiere performance occurred around the peak time of the firebird phenomenon with the publication of Konstantin Balmont's collection of poems (Zhar-ptitsa, ili svirel' slavyanina) in 1907. The character of the firebird itself is a mysterious being that is part of almost every fantasy world in Russian folklore. One famous example for this is the much-loved poem "Zimniy put'" by Yakov Polonsky, a poem that "Russian children…recite on demand" (Taruskin, 556). Although the high popularity of the Firebird as a character certainly would initially act as a source of attraction to the ballet, there was certainly the danger that the plot would be too familiar to the audience to create enough interest. However, this danger was successfully averted partially in that the plot was not taken from an existing legend or fairy-tale (perhaps since most skazki in Russian folklore did not provide enough focus on the character of the firebird itself, as Taruskin suggests); instead, the ballet's plot line draws from a multitude of sources. As Taruskin proposes (based on articles left behind by Bonois in his an memoirs of the premiere performance of The Firebird), possibly the main foundation of the plot was taken from the very poem "Zimniy put'" that was mentioned earlier. So that the reader of this paper may follow the argument, I will now reproduce the relevant passage of the poem:

...And in my dreams I see myself on a wolf's back
	Riding along a forest path
	To do battle with a sorcerer-tsar
In that land where a princess sits under lock and key, 
	Pining behind massive walls. 
	There gardens surround a palace all of glass;
There Firebirds sing by night
	And peck at golden fruit;...

Of course, the character names are different in The Firebird, with the dreamer transformed into Ivan Tsarevich, the sorcerer-tsar into King Kashchey, and the princess into the 12 princesses, with one of them being Ivan-Tsarevich's love interest. Another source of ideas was Alexander Afanasyev's Russian Folk Tales (Russkiye narodniye skazk). From this extensive collection of legends and fairy-tales, Taruskin names two that seem to have influenced the ballet's plot: "Tale of Ivan-Tsarevich, the Firebird, and the Grey Wolf," and "The unearthly Beauty". The former tells the story of three brothers who are ordered by their father, who is also the Tsar, to find the Firebird, which has been stealing golden apples from the Tsar's garden. When Ivan, the youngest of the three brothers, sets out, he meets a grey wolf who first tears his horse to pieces but then shows pity and becomes Ivan's most trusted ally. Traveling at light speed, they first seek out the kingdom of Tsar Dalmat, who keeps the Firebird in a golden cage. Ivan manages to steal the Firebird at night, but is too greedy and attempts to steal the golden cage as well; Ivan is captured and brought before Tsar Dalmat, who agrees to forgive Ivan in exchange for a golden-maned horse, which belongs to Tsar Afron. Ivan sets out to do as he is told, and just as easily as it was for him to capture the Firebird, he steals the horse. Again, his greed overtakes him and he attempts to steal the horse's golden bridle; the guards seize him, and he is put before Tsar Afron, who promises forgiveness in exchange for Queen Helen the Beautiful. Ivan sets out to this new quest, and he succeeds again, escaping on the wolf's back - too fast for the pursuing parties to catch up. Upon returning to Tsar Afron, Ivan hands over the queen, or so the tsar thinks, for the queen is in reality the wolf in disguise. The tsar hands Ivan the golden horse, and Ivan leaves the palace together with the real queen and the golden horse. Soon, the wolf, who has escaped the palace, catches up to them. Back at Tsar Dalmat's palace, Ivan hands over the golden horse, which again, it is really the wolf in disguise. Ivan leaves with the Firebird, the queen and the horse, with the wolf catching up to them. Now that Ivan's quest is fulfilled, the wolf departs. However, the story is not over yet, for Ivan's two brothers, jealous of his success, kill him and return to the palace, taking the credits for Ivan's achievements. Meanwhile, the grey wolf finds Ivan Tsarevich's dead body and revives him; they return to his father's palace, where the brothers are disgraced and Ivan married to the Queen Helen the Beautiful.

The second story, "The unearthly Beauty", provides the details of Kashchey's death. I will resort to reproducing the relevant passage:

'Ivan-Tsarevich took the egg from out of his bosom and shows it to Kashchey: "And what is this?" The light in Kashchey's eyes went dark, all at once he became meek and humble. Ivan-Tsarevich tossed the egg from hand to hand - Kashchey the Deathless was thrown from one corner to another. This amused the Tsarevich - he threw the egg back and fourth faster and faster. He threw it and threw it and then broke it altogether - and Kashchey fell in a heap and died.' (Afanasyev, cited by Taruskin, 566-567)

Out of this variety of tales, one can see how certain features were picked from each one: the characters from "Zimniy put'", Ivan Tsarevich's journey from "Tale of Ivan-Tsarevich, the Firebird, and the Grey Wolf", and the death scene of Kashchey from "The unearthly Beauty." These features were combined into a larger whole, thus creating a winning combination of a cast of deeply familiar characters set against a fresh plot never heard of by the audience in that combination.

Another reason for the ballet's great success was certainly the magnificent music itself. Stravinsky uses what Taruskin calls Leit-harmonie, that is, rather than just using a certain tune (a leit-motif) as an element of recognition for the characters, he in addition employs a certain harmony - hence the term leit-harmonie - as well to achieve that effect, creating an even more distinctive music for each character. The perhaps most obvious example for such a Leit-harmonie is the one of King Kashchey, which is characterized by alternating major and minor thirds in an octatonic scale. Since Kashchey is the ruler of the kingdom and thus of all that is magical, this kind of harmony is a feature that returns for all characters in the ballet that are part of the magical, mysterious, and supernatural. It should be noted that Stravinsky's usage of alternating major and minor thirds is a feature that was inspired by his mentor Rimsky-Korsakov's usage of major thirds rising by minor thirds; Rimsky-Korsakov in turn borrowed that technique from Franz Liszt. The character of the Firebird itself has, due to its magical nature, a similar leit-harmonie, which appears in two forms, blocked and arpeggiated. In the blocked form, the chord appears to be simply an inverted French sixth, but if one compares the arpeggiated form with the block (and ignores the passing tones in the arpeggio), one sees the connection and realizes Stravinsky's intention of having two augmented fourths intertwined within each other. Due to the passing tones that Stravinsky added in the arpeggiated form of this harmony, the motif takes the form of three minor seconds followed by a major third (or in reverse order: major third first, then the three minor seconds).

Against these octatonic harmonies of the fantasy world, Stravinsky juxtaposes the diatonic harmonies representative of the human characters: Ivan-Tsarevich and the princess. Ivan-Tsarevich's theme is "a beautiful cantilena," representative of the hero's protagonist role and overly good character. However, from an analytical view, the princess' theme is of more interest. It primarily consists of a series of two arpeggios (which actually only appear in the original ballet version of the piece and were left out of the suite versions that followed in later years), which were borrowed from Sadko, another work by Stravinsky's mentor, Rimsky-Korsakov. However, instead of ending in a plain authentic cadence as Rimsky-Korsakov did, Stravinsky used a dominant seventh and a half-diminished seventh - harmonies, which are part of both the diatonic scale as well as the octatonic one used for Kashchey. This is only one of the many allusions to the evil King's music, through which Stravinsky "bridges the gap between the human (diatonic) and the enchanted (chromatic) worlds of the ballet" (Taruskin, 602).

Without doubt, much of the ballet's flair is owed to Stravinsky's creative approach to composing the music. Benois himself wrote that the ballet "in its music […] achieved complete perfection. Music more poetic, music more expressive of every moment and shading, music more beautiful-sounding and phantasmagoric could not be imagined." (quoted by Taruskin, 638). A French critic, R. Brussel, most accurately describes the music in his recollection of an invitation to a private presentation of the piece's score:

"At the appointed hour, we all met […]. The composer, young, slim, and uncommunicative, with vague meditative eyes, and lips set firm in an energetic looking face, was at the piano. But the moment he began to play, the modest and dimly lit dwelling glowed with a dazzling radiance. By the end of the first scene, I was conquered: by the last, I was lost in admiration. The manuscript on the music-rest, scored over with fine penciling, revealed a masterpiece." (quoted by White, 184)

Finally, the last stage of production, the unification of plot, music, and dance into one, also significantly contributed to the work's immense success in that it was conducted with a high level of interaction between the three elements. From the beginning of the production on, Sergei Diaghilev aimed for "synthesism" - the tight collaboration between himself, the composer, the choreographers, and designers. For example, when Stravinsky revealed his music for Ivan-Tsarevich's entrance to Fokine - one of the choreographers - the latter replied with the following: "No, no. You bring him in like a tenor. Break the phrase where he merely shows his head on his first intrusion. Then make the curious swish of the garden's magic noises return. And then, when he shows his head again, bring in the full swing of the melody." Following this advice, Stravinsky presented the "cantilena" only in fragments, following the dancer's choreography on the stage. Another fine example of such interaction can be found in the princesses' theme, which is often presented in canonical structure, reflecting the charmed maidens' conforming to every one of King Kashchey's commands. In his review of the premiere performance, Henri Gheon is obviously impressed by the synthesism in The Firebird:

"The Firebird, being the result of an intimate collaboration between choreography, music, and painting, presents us with the most exquisite miracle of harmony imaginable, of sound and form and movement. The old-gold vermiculation of the fantastic back-cloth seems to have been invented to a formula identical with that of the shimmering web of the orchestra. And as one listens, there issues forth the very sound of the wizard shrieking, of swarming sorcerers and gnomes running amok. When the bird passes, it is truly the music that bears it aloft. Stravinsky, Fokine, Golovine, in my eyes are but one name." (Gheon, quoted by Taruskin, 638)

When one considers these factors that so dominated the work's production, then one cannot help but admit that its final version was bound to become as great as success as it had become, for such level of musical detail and tight interaction between the plot, the music, and the dancer's choreography had never been seen before. It is no surprise that "everyone associated even collaterally with the production had smelled a clue in the works, and excitement mounted as the fateful day approached" (Taruskin, 637). Audiences "were wild" (Taruskin, 637); as Tamara Karsavina, who danced the role of the Firebird, told an interviewer: "With every performance, success went crescendo." Critics were equally overwhelmed. In his review, G.N. Timofeyev writes: "From beginning to end, the instrumental color never ceases to charm and astonish." It is ironic that Stravinsky himself would later become his own fiercest critic, becoming increasingly embarrassed by the piece and writing and speaking harshly of it, only to make his last recording as a conductor at the age of eighty-five, performing - oh double irony! - music from The Firebird…

Bibliography:

1. Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (1882 - 1971). Online. May 17, 2001.
2. New England Philharmonic: notes on Stravinsky: Firebird. Online. May 17, 2001.
3. Taruskin, Richard. Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions. Volume 1. Berkeley, Los Angeles. University of California Press. 1996.
4. Tsai, H. Igor Stravinsky. Online. May 17, 2001.
5. Walsh, Stephen. Stravinsky. A creative spring: Russia and France 1882 - 1934. New York. Alfred A. Knopf. 1999.
6. White, Eric Walter. Stravinsky: The Composer and his Works. 2nd ed. Berkeley, Los Angeles. University of California Press. 1979.