Stravinsky: Sankofa, The Soldier’s Tale Retold & Histoire du soldat Suite

In recognition of Black History Month, Art of Time Ensemble and Artistic Director Andrew Burashko present Stravinsky: The Soldier’s Tale Retold & Histoire du soldat Suite. At the centre of the album is The Soldier’s Tale Retold, a world-premiere reinterpretation of Stravinsky’s Histoire du soldat, K. 029, featuring a newly commissioned libretto by Edmonton-based, Nigerian-born poet Titilope Sonuga. Written in rhyming verse and honouring the original’s structure and characters—the Soldier, the Devil, and the Narrator—the retelling aligns with Stravinsky’s score while reframing the narrative through a contemporary, historically grounded lens.

Sonuga’s libretto follows a fictional Black soldier of the No. 2 Construction Battalion, the only all-Black battalion in the Canadian army during the First World War. Marginalized by their white officers and denied the right to bear arms, these soldiers endured systemic discrimination while serving their country. In this retelling, the Soldier encounters the Devil on his way to enlist and relinquishes his identity and heritage, represented by an amulet of Sankofa given by his mother. Sankofa, a Ghanaian concept meaning “to reach back and get it,” teaches that one must draw on the lessons of the past to move forward, and is often depicted as a bird flying forward while looking back, holding an egg that signifies wisdom and continuity.

The album also features Stravinsky’s Histoire du soldat Suite, drawn from the 1918 theatrical work conceived for three actors and a septet. At the request of his patron Werner Reinhart, Stravinsky later adapted Histoire du soldat into several instrumental versions, including the celebrated trio for clarinet, violin and piano and the suite for septet heard here. Although the Spanish flu pandemic curtailed the original 1918 production, the music endures as one of Stravinsky’s most inventive and rhythmically daring creations.