ABSTRACT
In its embrace of program music and Oriental themes that evoke images and bring narratives to mind, the symphonic suite matched the new Russian school, the nationalist movement advanced by Vladimir Stasov. Initially conceiving the composition as a symphony, Rimsky-Korsakov, at the recommendations of his friends, gave his Scheherazade and its movements titles that outline its source and inspiration, The Arabian Nights. This chapter focuses on Rimsky-Korsakov's Orientalist approach in narrating the story of Scheherazade. It expresses that all of the above-cited issues are central to the understanding of the suite and are organically connected. Scheherazade and Sultan Shahriyar, the two principal figures, establish the central occupation of the stories, which revolve around sensuality and violence as the premises that drive the action. Issues central to the reception of the Nights in the West emanate from the lack of authenticity, of authorship, and of origin. Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade is not to be taken as a literal depiction of the Nights.
