MAGICAL AND ORDINARY CHARACTERS IN SHURALE AND FIREBIRD

Author

Aliya Zaripova, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

5-1-2024

Degree Name

Master of Music

Department

Music

First Advisor

Johnson, Maria

Abstract

This thesis will provide an analysis of Farid Yarullin’s ballet Shurale. This particular analysis will examine magical and ordinary creatures in the ballet including the main character Shurale, hero Batyr, and his bride, maiden-bird Suyumbike, exploring some parallels with Stravinsky’s Firebird, and the use of Tatar folk music in this first ever national ballet of Tatarstan. Also, this work will document the history of unique Tatar traditional costumes in Shurale and classic chorographic heritage of Kazan School of Dance. Shurale was performed in different theaters across the USSR, and in 1950 Shurale received numerous awards by Russian government in Moscow.  Shurale was performed in Leningrad Opera and Ballet theater named after S. Kirov and is still performed on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater in Saint-Petersburg, Tatar National Theater in Kazan and in many theaters abroad. Igor Stravinsky and Farid Yarullin both worked with folk music and wrote their pieces with a national emphasis in terms of plot, costumes, and music. In my analysis I will explore similarities and differences between Shurale and Firebird. In the same way that Igor Stravinsky used a Russian national song “In the grove or in the garden” in his ballet Firebird, Farid Yarullin used a famous tatar national song “Teftileu” in Shurale as a symbol of Tatar nation. There are also parallels in characters, costuming and music. I will compare good and evil characters, use of different diatonic and chromatic progressions based on human and supernatural characters, and use of different instrumentation for each character. The sources will include a combination of books, articles, videos, and scores.