The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda (film)


The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda is an extant Soviet animated feature film directed by the husband-and-wife team Mikhail Tsekhanovsky and Vera Tsekhanovskaya and based on the 1830 eponymous fairy tale in verse by Alexander Pushkin. The score was composed by Dimitri Shostakovich. The only surviving episode is called Bazaar .

History

In 1932 the Leningrad animator and experimentator Mikhail Tsekhanovsky launched his most ambitious project to date: an animated opera based on the fairy tale in verse by the Russian classic Alexander Pushkin, yet with a heavy ROSTA posters influence. It was conceived as the first traditionally animated Soviet feature film that used the "album method" of animation, with characters drawn on paper instead of celluloid. The film was created at the Lenfilm animation studio headed by Tsekhanovsky and his wife who also served as the directors, leading artists and screenwriters.
In 1933 they contacted the young composer Dimitri Shostakovich and asked him to write music to accompany the film. They also invited an acclaimed poet Alexander Vvedensky shortly after his return from under arrest to write additional lyrics. Shostakovich loved the opportunity to compose an innovative satirical opera with abstract characters led by his music and not by someone else. He called it "a fairy tale full of ardor, ease and joy, and writing music for it is just as easy and joyful". As Tsekhanovsky wrote during September 1934, "...he works incredibly fast without losing quality. True artist. True craftsman. Now it's up to me. I must create something worth of his music. I must. Balda is the only project where I can show what I'm capable of". They recorded 15 scenes by November.
Yet problems started early into the production. Tsekhanovsky, still inexperienced, was always behind the composer, facing organizational and financial problems. The first attempts to close Balda date back to 1933. In March 1936, studio executives persuaded the composer to reorchestrate his score from a symphony to chamber orchestra. Around the same time the infamous Muddle Instead of Music article was published in press, condemning Shostakovich's opera. Partially because the film now had no score, work on it was stopped and it was never completed.
Nevertheless, Tsekhanovsky compiled the four finished parts and the rest of material into a full movie. Although the film was nearly finished, it was put into storage at the Lenfilm archives, where almost all of it was lost in a fire caused by the 1941 bombings of Leningrad that hit Lenfilm. Vera Tsekhanovskaya managed to save only the 4-minute Marketplace scene, and it stands alone as a classic of Russian animation. Mikhail Tsekhanovsky described the fate of his dream film as "a catastrophe".

Music

Shostakovich regarded the film's score among his best works ever done. As he wrote, "There are a number of pieces I'm happy with. Especially Balda — from start to finish". After Shostakovich died, his widow arranged to have the score completed by one of Shostakovich's students, Vadim Bibergan. The world premiere recording of the 50-minute work was made by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Thomas Sanderling and released in 2006, a century after Shostakovich's birth.
The score was published in 2005, in volume 126 of DSCH Publishers' New Collected Works of Dmitri Shostakovich. This publication contains text in Russian and English.

Surviving and restored parts (DSCH, 2005)

A number of items were found either in the original composer's handwriting or that of a copier's; eleven others were found only in rough draft form with missing parts or harmonies, and were restored by Vadim Bibergan.
NameOriginalCopiedDraft
1. Overture
2. Bazaar. Introduction
3. Noisy Bazaar
4. First Carousel
5. Balda's March
6. Dance of the Bell-Ringer
7. Second Carousel
8. Bear's Dance
9. Balda's Song
10. Balda's Meeting with the Priest
11. Balda's Dialogue with the Priest
12. Finale of Part One
13. The Village
14. Balda's First Job
15. Priest Metropolitan. Tea-Drinking
16. Overture for a Party
17. Lullaby
18. Priest's Daughter's Dream
19. Waltz
20. Balda's Second Job
21. Priest's Dance with the Devil
22. Dance of Dead Men
23. Procession of Ghouls
24. Balda's Dialogue with Old Devil
25. Balda's First Dialogue with Imp
26. Devil's Couplets
27. Balda's Second Dialogue with Imp
28. Three Fillips
29. Balda's Gallop

Instrumentation

Winds

Note: "1+" means that two instruments are specified, but only one part is written for them both to play.
Part1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829
Piccolo
Flute
Oboe
English horn
Clarinet in Eb
Clarinet in Bb
Bass clarinet in Bb
Soprano sax in Bb
Tenor sax in Bb
Bassoon
Contrabassoon
Horn in F
Trumpet in Bb
Euphonium
Trombone
Tuba

Strings

Note: the exact number of violin/viola/cello/contrabass players is not indicated, except in pieces where only one instrument is to play.
Part12345678910111213141516171811920212223242526272829
Violins I & II
Viola
Cello
Contrabass
Harp
Russian guitar
Balalaika

1The violin, viola, cello and contrabass parts are only present for one loud chord at the end of the piece.

Keyboards and tuned percussion

Other percussion

Names in italics are in their original Italian.
Part1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829
Triangle
Whistle
Vetro
Wood block
Raganella
Whip
Pistola
Tambourine
Tamburo
Suspended cymbal
Crash cymbal
Bass drum

Voices

Note: the exact number of choralists is mostly not indicated; "2+" means that there are at least two harmonic lines somewhere in a part, or at least 2 voices are specifically called for.
Part1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829
Narrator
Balda
Priest
Priest's Wife
Priest's Daughter
Old Demon
Imp
Devil/Chyort
Chorus
Chorus
Chorus
Chorus