Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier's Tale) is an hour-long musical-drama for violin, bass, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone and percussion written in 1917 by the great Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971).

It came about through necessity in 1917 as the first world war that had ravaged much of Western Europe was raging still. Stravinsky and the poet/novelist Charles Ferdinand Ramuz were both isolated in the neutral country of Switzerland, cut off from their publishers, severed from their public, and deprived of royalties. Thus necessity seems to have stimulated the production of a great masterpiece.

Ramuz' tale reaffirms the notion that if you sell your immortal soul to the Devil, you will, inevitably get a bad deal. This familiar thought, which goes back to the l6th-century Book of Faust, is given flesh in The Soldier's Tale by a modest Russian folk story, drawn by Ramuz from the vast collection made by Alexander Afanasiev some sixty years before. As adapted by Ramuz and Stravinsky, this makes a two-part dramatic structure, each of three scenes.

Since this work form the basis for CutTime Players' instrumentation, they are most excited to perform this work. The Soldier's Tale, its story, 3 main characters, and Joe's many moods during the hour-long drama are reflected in Stravinsky's powerful, jazzy, and unique musical language. With the brilliant scoring of pairs of strings, woodwinds, and brass with a single percussionist, Stravinsky claimed this was a version of a jazz band, which it is said he had never actually heard. 

Most unfortunately, the work is rarely performed owing to its length and great challenges. And while the work is most often performed WITH the benefit of a conductor, CutTime Players has only performed WITHOUT one, achieving the intimacy of chamber music. The brilliant English version of the text by Michael Flanders and Kitty Black flows along in charming rhyming couplets and can be performed by a single Narrator or three actors. Dance also accompanied the premiere but is almost never included anymore.

The very demanding violin part is performed by our remarkable DSO Principal 2nd Violinist Geoffrey Applegate. And three veteran actors play out this drama semi-staged between the musicians and the audience: