A Soldier's Tale

Koret Auditorium in the San Francisco Library Main Branch, 100 Larkin Street."A Soldier's Tale" is a dramatic work with a narrator and chamber ensemble made up of an uncommon group of instruments. (Some performances include actors and dancers). This performance will include the full musical score and full text. The music is based abstractly on dance, chorale, and march music from North and South America, Spain, and Germany.The story is a Faustian tale from Russian folklore about a deserting soldier, with a fiddle in his knapsack, who encounters the devil on his way home. The devil offers the soldier a book that tells the future in exchange for his fiddle. The soldier's deal with the devil sets the stage for the rest of the drama and the moral of the story: "Why, having some, seek to have it all, then find that we have none?"PROGRAM:Intermezzo from Sextet for Winds and Strings (1898), John IrelandMichael Long, violinClayton Bullock, violinDonny Lobree, violaMichael Boone, bassMatthew Rupert, clarinetSohnjay Reeve, hornL'Histoire du Soldat (1918), Igor Stravinsky Michael Long, violinMichael Boone, bassMatthew Rupert, clarinetNoah Cort, bassoonChris Wilhite, trumpet Jack Madden, tromboneChristian Howes, percussionDavid Peterson, narrator