Prokofiev's Music for Children YAU, Oi Suet A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy in Music The Chinese University of Hong Kong July 2011 (I 参("iT^^TzoiT)薄 “ “ Thesis/Assessment Committee Professor Greta Jean OLSON (Chair) Professor Michael Edward MCCLELLAN (Thesis Supervisor) Professor YU Siu Wah (Committee Member) Professor Stephen PRESS (External Examiner) Abstract of thesis entitled: Prokofiev's Music for Children Submitted by YAU, Oi Suet for the degree of MPhil in Music at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in July 2011 Abstract Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) composed not only "serious" works such as Classical Symphony (1917), but also Peter and the Wolf (1936), a composition which has entered the classical canon despite being a work for children. Actually, Peter and the Wolf was neither the first nor the last children's piece by Prokofiev, yet the remaining examples are little known, and correspondingly seldom discussed. Vladimir Blok was probably the first and the only scholar to have published a serious study of Prokofiev's children's music, which was yet only a brief introduction to four selected compositions for children/ Blok's article drew my attention to Prokofiev's other music for children. During the period when Prokofiev's lived in the Soviet Union, children's music was not necessarily relegated to a minor position in the musical culture, unlike today. In Russia, particularly during the Soviet era, it was common for composers to write children's music since education was one of the main concerns of the regime. However, compared to his contemporaries such as Shostakovich or Khachaturian, Prokofiev composed music for children that was on a significantly larger scale in L丁 Ilfy T Children's Music (op. 65 and 65b, 1936 and 1941) Peter and the Wolf(op. 67,1936), Three s Songs for Voice and Piano (op. 68,1936-39) and Winter Bonfire (op. 122,1949). Vladimir Prokofiev s Music for Children" in Sergei Prokofiev: Materials, Articles, Interviews (Moscow- Progress Publishers, 1978), 126-156.- i terms of instrumentation as well as musical and literary content. In addition, Prokofiev's compositions for children were produced in two specific time spans, around 1935-6 and late 1940s respectively. The works composed in the first period are Music for Children (Op. 65) and an orchestral suite transcribed from it, Summer Day (Op. 65b), Peter and the Wolf [Op. 67) and Three Children's Songs for Voice and Piano (Op. 68). The second period includes Winter Bonfire (Op. 122), On Guard for Peace (Op. 124) and the Seventh Symphony (Op. 131). My research questions are firstly, what factors contributed to Prokofiev's special preference for children's music; and secondly, why did he compose them at those particular times. In researching these questions, the social and political situations in Soviet Union around mid-twentieth century will be examined in conjunction with close examination of the children's music that Prokofiev composed. Moreover, I will study Prokofiev's personal circumstances at different times, so as to further analyze his motivation of composition. ii 摘要 謝爾蓋•普羅科菲耶夫（1891-1953)的著名創作除了「嚴肅」作品如《古典交 響曲》外，還有寫給兒童的樂曲，《彼得與狼》（1936)就是其中一首經典的古 典曲目。不過，這不是他唯一寫給兒童的音樂，只是其他作品鮮為人知，因此 甚少被學者討論。弗拉基朱爾_勃洛克大概是第一位、也是唯一一位曾研究普 羅科菲耶夫的兒童音樂，並把結果出版的學者。雖然他的文章只簡單介紹了其 中四首作品，卻使我關注到普羅科菲耶夫其他的兒童樂曲。 在普羅科菲耶夫身處的蘇聯時代，兒童音樂不像現今般不受注視-。由於俄國政 府特別關注音樂教肓’作曲家寫作兒童音樂是很普遍的，尤其在蘇聯期間。不 過，相比起同期作曲家如蕭士塔高維契、哈察都量，普羅科菲耶夫所創作的兒 童音樂不論在配器、音樂和文字篇幅上都大型得多。除此以外，他的兒童作品 全都在兩個特定的時期內完成，分別是一九三五至三六年間，以及四十年代末 期。首先創作的作品包括有《為兒童的音樂》鋼琴曲集（作品六十五）和它的 管弦樂組曲版本《夏日》（作品六十五乙）、交響童話《彼得M良》（作品六十七）、 《為兒童的三首歌曲》（作品六十八）。後期的兒童音樂有《冬之火》組曲（作 品一二二）、清唱劇《捍衛和平》（作品一二四）和第七交響曲（作品一三一）。 本文旨在硏究為何普羅科菲耶夫選擇創作兒童音樂，以及他在特定時期創作這 些作品的原因。本文會先探討二十世紀中期蘇聯的社會和政治狀況’籍此研究 作品的寫作背景和音樂之關係，然後再討論普羅科菲夫在不同時期的處境，進 一步分析他的寫作動機。 iii Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction I. Introduction 1 II. Literature Review 2 III. Methodology 7 IV. Thesis Structure 10 Chapter 2 Background, Children and Music Education I. General Historical Background 12 II. Children, Music Education and the Soviet Union 22 Chapter 3 Prokofiev and his Children's works in the 1930s I. Prokofiev's Return to the Soviet Union 36 II. Prokofiev's Children's Works in the 1930s Music for Children (Op. 65) 43 Summer Day (Op. 65b) 53 Peter and the Wolf {Op. 67) 55 Three Children's Songs for Voice and Piano (Op. 68) 76 Chapter 4 War Years, Stalin Prize and Radio Committee I. Historical Background 89 II. The Awards for Cultural Intelligentsia- Honorary Titles and 101 Stalin Prize III. All-Union Radio Committee I03 Chapter 5 Prokofiev and His Later Children's Works I. Prokofiev's Late Years 107 II. Prokofiev's Later Children's Works Winter Bonfire (Op. 122) 109 On Guard for Peace (Op. 124) 121 Seventh Symphony (Op. 131) 139 Chapter 6 Conclusion 153 Appendix 159 Bibliography 170 iv Chapter 1 Introduction I. Introduction Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) was one of the most important Russian composers of the twentieth century. Among his best known compositions, there are not only "serious" works such as Classical Symphony {1917), but also Peter and the Wolf (1936), a composition which has entered the classical canon despite being a work for children. Actually, Peter and the Wolf was neither the first nor the last children's piece by Prokofiev, yet the other examples are little known, and correspondingly seldom discussed. Vladimir Blok was probably the first and one of the few scholars to have published a serious study of Prokofiev's children's music/ However, it is only a brief introduction to four selected compositions for children,^ concluding with Blok's comments on the achievements of Prokofiev as a composer for children. Blok's article drew my attention to Prokofiev's other music for children. During the period when Prokofiev lived in the Soviet Union, children's music was not necessarily relegated to a minor position in the musical culture, unlike today. In Russia, particularly during the Soviet era, it was common for composers to write children's music since education was one of the main concerns of the regime. However, compared to his contemporaries such as Shostakovich or Khachaturian, Prokofiev composed music for children that was on a significantly larger scale in terms of instrumentation as well as musical and literary content. Israel V. Nestyev, 1 Vladimir Blok, "Prokofiev's Music for Children," in Sergei Prokofiev: Materials, Articles, Interviews (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1978), 126-156. 2 They are Children's Music and A Summer Day (op. 65 and 65b, 1936 and 1941) Peter and the Wolf {^OP- 67,1936), Three Children's Songs for Voice and Piano (op. 68,1936-39) and Winter Bonfire (op. 1 Prokofiev's first biographer, had also noted the significance of the theme of childhood in Prokofiev's music: A characteristic manifestation of the deeply human quality of Prokofiev's art is the ever-recurring theme of childhood, with all its guileless spontaneity and purity of feeling. Prokofiev was one of those pure-hearted artists, who, as Gorky put it, had a vivid, uncanny remembrance of childhood. Moreover； all of his children's music retained his signature Prokofievian style, consistent with his other "serious" works. In addition, these compositions were produced in two specific time spans, around 1936 and after 1948 respectively, which may have been the result of particular political and social circumstances. My research questions are firstly, what factors contributed to Prokofiev's special preference for children's music; and secondly, why did he compose them at those particular times in his career. In researching these questions, the social and political circumstances of Soviet Union around the middle of the twentieth century need to be explored in conjunction with close examination of the children's music that Prokofiev composed. II. Literature Review In researching this thesis, I have made use of scholarly literature from two main subject areas. The first area is the composer's life and music. The main form of this literature is biography. These books provide important documentation on the genesis of different works by Prokofiev, as well as the circumstances he faced at the time of composition. Among the many biographies of Prokofiev available, the earliest is by Israel. V. Nestyev and dates from 1957, while the most recent was 3 Israel. V. Nestyev, Prokofiev (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1950), 457. • 2 published in 1998 by Daniel Jaff? Information provided by these biographies on major works is adequate, yet the coverage on children's music is limited. Another problem is that most of the earlier Russian studies were written from a particular political perspective."^ Prokofiev was promoted as an important Soviet composer after his death, and biographers were expected to create a particular, aggrandized image of him. This bias has hindered a more nuanced understanding of the composer's artistic decisions, affecting any critical assessment of his children's music. In addition, access to archival sources was restricted by the government so as to control the flow of information outside the country. Information that may have contradicted the officially sanctioned account of Prokofiev's life would probably not be included.^ The information these biographies provide on Prokofiev's children's music is limited, since most of the works remained less popular and have attracted much less interest in academic circles. However, this limitation has been addressed recently in volume 12 of the Three Oranges Journal (2006), published by the Serge Prokofiev Foundation, which is devoted exclusively to research related to Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. Articles by Catriona Kelly, Edward Morgan and No螗e Mann provided more details about the genesis of Peter and the Wolf and the relationship between children and political propaganda. Some of the articles discussed Prokofiev's late children's works as well； informing the readers more about the reception of these works. Moreover, two recently published monographs, each covering half of Prokofiev's life (1891-1935 and 1936-1953), provide together a much more detailed 4 Daniel Jaff? Sergey Prokofiev (London: Phaidon Press, 1998), 226-227.