The Symphonic Striptease

The Assyrian mural sculptures in the British Museum had a powerful hold on French composer Vincent d’Indy. They inspired him to write his most provocative work – a musical striptease called lstar.

D’Indy visited the museum in 1887 and became fascinated by the 2700-year-old carvings depicting Assyrian military campaigns and royal lion hunts. Delving further into Assyrian culture he found the epic poem lzdubar and a story certain to appeal to concertgoers. According to the ancient story, the goddess Istar – in order to win the release of her lover from the underworld – must remove one of her ornaments or garments as she comes to each of the seven doors of the Dark Abode. Finally, triumphant in her nakedness, she passes through the seventh door.

To tell the story, d’Indy employed a shrewd musical device. He wrote a theme and variations in reverse order, saving the bare statement of the basic theme for the end to represent the goddess in her nakedness. As she progresses through the seven doors, a rich impressionistic orchestration suggests Istar provocatively adorned with emeralds and gold, with pearls in her hair.

The success of d’Indy’s Istar, both as an orchestral piece in 1898 and later as ballet music, has raised questions about the composer and his times. Vincent d’Indy, after all, was considered a pillar of Roman Catholic conservatism at a time when traditional morality was being tested daily by French artists of all kinds. What would have prompted the respectable, prosperous composer to write such a scandalous piece of music?

A clue may lie in d’Indy’s fondness for Gustave Flaubert’s lurid historical novelSalammbo, a literary reconstruction of ancient Carthage. Something about the cruel, barbaric civilizations of the ancient world appealed to the straight-laced d’Indy and many of his contemporaries, and with its dazzling orchestration and appeal to the repressed imagination, Istar may well have offered another welcome escape.