Scheherazade

In Five Steps Ahead, the main character plays a movement from Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov on his stereo system for his friend, Hal. He uses it to illustrate why he wants to return to his childhood and meet up with his piano teach from that time.

In our story, Robert (the protagonist), remembers learning a part of this work for the piano. The music reminds him of that time in his childhood, a time when he was with the piano teacher (Carolyn) that he loved.

Robert also remarks that Scheherazade is about time. Rimsky-Korsakov took inspiration from four stories from the famous work, One Thousand and One Nights. In One Thousand and One Nights, each night the princess Scheherazade is forced to tell a story to her husband, the sultan Shahryar. Shahryar was betrayed by his first wife. He believes all women are unfaithful. So, he takes a new wife every night and has her executed the next morning.

Scheherazade forstalls her own death by telling him the first part of a story, but stopping at dawn, leaving him with a cliffhanger. To hear the rest of the story, the sultan postpones her execution until the following day.

This is why Robert says that Rimsky-Korsakov's piece is about time. Scheherazade is able to make time stop for 1,001 nights.

As Scheherazade plays in the background, Robert and Hal debate Robert's attitudes about women. This introduces Robert's relationship with Carolyn and sets the stage for his interactions with her. Scheherazade also introduces the theme of classical music in our story, which is a common interest between Robert and Carolyn.

Further References

Contact Rich at WrittenByRich@sonic.com.
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