DOCSLIB.ORG

SESSION THREE the LIFE and MUSIC of SERGEI PROKOFIEV Last Week We Explored the Policy of Socialist Realism, and How It Was Used

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
SESSION THREE the LIFE and MUSIC of SERGEI PROKOFIEV Last Week We Explored the Policy of Socialist Realism, and How It Was Used SESSION THREE THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF SERGEI PROKOFIEV Last week we explored the policy of Socialist Realism, and how it was used to influence composers and their music during the Soviet era. Today we take a closer look at the life and music of one of the leading Soviet composers, Sergei Prokofiev. PRELUDE We begin by listening to one of Prokofiev’s masterpieces, the Alexander Nevsky Cantata, written in 1939. It has long been considered the greatest film sever composed. In 1936 Prokofiev returned to Russia after living in the West for 17 years. Two years later he was asked to provide music for a new historical film by Russian director Sergei Eisenstein. The film tells the story of the attempted invasion of a Russian city by the Germanic Knights of the Holy Roman Empire in the 13th Century, and their defeat by Russian forces lead by Prince Alexander, a folk hero popularly known as Alexander Nevsky. The film opened in 1938 to great critical and popular acclaim, at a time when the relationship between Stalin’s Russia and Nazi Germany were extremely strained. During the production of the film Soviet officials published several articles pointing out the similarities between Alexander Nevsky and Joseph Stalin, both underdog Russian military leaders who had– or would - would triumph over far stronger German armies. A year after the film opened Prokofiev arranged some of the music as a cantata for soprano, chorus and orchestra, suitable for concert performance. This “Al- exander Nevsky Cantata” is one of Prokofiev’s masterpieces and is frequently performed throughout the world. This performance is by the Seoul Philharmo- nic Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Myung-Wung Chung. We’ll listen to the first two sections: an instrumental prelude entitled “Russia beneath the Yoke of the Mongols,” sets the stage with menacing, foreboding music the second section, “Song about Alexander Nevsky,” described how this great Russian won a decisive military victory while being greatly outnumbered by enemy forces PLAY/DISCUSS WITH “SHOULD BE” OUTLINE PROKOFIEV PIC Sergei Prokofiev is surely one of the best known composers of the 20th century. He was born in 1891 into an upper class Russian family. How many of you are familiar with some of his music? In the story of Soviet music Prokofiev occupies a special place. He was almost a generation older than the other composers we will focus on. His life resembled his music: it was brilliant, theatrical, dramatic, full of triumph and tragedy. His deepest loyalties were in conflict: part of him was drawn to life in the West: gla- morous, progressive, and success-oriented. At the same time, part of him want- ed to be Russian: traditional and devoted to his own people, in a nation where the progress of the nation as a whole was more important than individual suc- cess. Prokofiev’s life in the West was supremely successful; his life after re- turning to Soviet Russia was conflicted and his later career was often marked by official criticism and declining health. DOCUMENTARY FILMS I want to call your attention to two excellent documentary films. Both capture the feel and appearance of life in the Soviet Union. Prodigal Son: A Documentary of Prokofiev’s Life (92 min) This is a feature-length documentary on Prokofiev’s life, with narration in Eng- lish. Prokofiev’s Lost Diary of 1927 (58 min) This film focuses on Prokofiev’s return to the Soviet Union and the triumphs and tragedies of his life there. The film is narrated in German, but the inter- views with Russian musicians have been translated into English. It includes excellent newsreel footage of Soviet Russia, including shots of many of the leading composers and musicians of the day. INTERNATIONAL FAME, 1917-1936 Until age 45 Prokofiev’s life was characterized by international fame as a com- poser, pianist and conductor. Prokofiev’s dissonant, modern-sounding early compositions made him famous in the West even before the Bolshevik Revolu- tion. In 1917 he left Russia with the official approval of the new Communist government and for the next 19 years resided in the United States, Germany and France. His first opera, “The Love for Three Oranges,” was commissioned by the Chicago Opera Company. PIANO SONATA NO. 3, 1917 Prokofiev’s music was strongly influenced by Western composers such as Stra- vinsky and Poulenc, but it has its own distinctive style, marked by energetic rhythms and great technical difficulty. His third piano sonata is a good exam- ple. EMIL GILELS And now it’s time to introduce the first of the four world-famous performing musicians of the Soviet era. Born a year before the Bolshevik revolution, pian- ist Emil Gilels was the first Soviet musician to become famous throughout the world. His brilliant technique and sparkling tone placed him in the first rank of the world’s concert pianists. A charming, sophisticated man, he was encour- aged to perform outside Russia and was Joseph Stalin’s favorite pianist. His many recordings, mostly made in the 1950s and 1960s, are still today among the best available. You can find many of them on YouTube. PLAY/DISCUSS WITH “SHOULD BE” OUTLINE RETURN TO THE SOVIET UNION, 1936 In 1936, at the height of his worldwide success, Prokofiev and his family re- turned to the Soviet Union. People in the West are often confused by this, especially because it took place at one of the most repressive moments in Soviet history. It was not a rash move, but a well-considered decision made after several lengthy visits to test the water. Prokofiev was aware that the role of the composer in the Soviet Union would be a special challenge for him after the freedom and celebrity he had enjoyed in the West: Music in our country has become the heritage of vast masses of people. Their artistic taste and demands are growing with amazing speed. And this is something the Soviet composer must take into ac- count in each new work. There was a practical reason for the move as well; Prokofiev’s career in Europe had become somewhat stagnant as the severe economic depression sharply limited commissions and performances of new music. In addition, Prokofiev wanted to compose music in his homeland, for the Russian people. As he confided to a friend in Paris: The air of foreign lands does not inspire me because I am Russian, and there is nothing more harmful for me than to live in exile…I must again immerse myself in the atmosphere of my homeland…I must hear Russian speech and talk to the people dear to me. This will give me what I lack here, for their songs are my songs. I’m afraid of fal- ling into academicism. Yes, my friend, I am going home. STRING QUARTET NO. 2, 1941 After establishing himself in Russia Prokofiev resumed composing. Even the tumultuous years of the Greet Patriotic War changed his outward life dras- tically but did not interrupt his high output. His first string quartet had been commissioned in 1917 by the U.S. Library of Congress and first performed in Washington, DC. The second string quartet was written in 1941, at a time when government censorship was somewhat relaxed. As the fighting neared Moscow, Prokofiev and many other prominent artists had been moved to a small village in the remote Caucasus Mountains, 900 miles to the south. There he became familiar with local folk music and incorporated many of folk tunes into the new quartet, which was first performed the following year in Moscow, in a concert delayed for two hours by a German air raid. Musically it is typical of Prokofiev’s early style: extroverted, energetic, tuneful, and cheerful. Our performance is by the renowned Borodin String Quartet, which gave the first performances of many important string quartets written during the soviet era. PLAY/DISCUSS WITH “SHOULD BE” OUTLINE AFTER THE WAR But in 1948, the Ministry of Cultural Affairs issued a decree denouncing Pro- kofiev, Shostakovich, Khachaturian and other composers for the crime of "for- malism", bitterly described as a "renunciation of the basic principles of classi- cal music" in favor of "muddled, nerve-racking" sounds that "turned music into cacophony". The same decree also banned eight of Prokofiev's major works, in- cluding his 6th Piano Sonata, from being performed during his lifetime. So strong was the perceived threat behind this action that many of Prokofiev’s works that had not been banned were no longer played. Prokofiev’s last five years are characterized by a struggle to reconcile his artis- tic convictions with the guidelines of Soviet Realism. By August 1948 he was in failing health and severe financial straits, his personal debt amounting to 180,000 rubles, more than $6 million US. Beset by illness, unable to work at full speed, careworn by personal and political adversities, Prokofiev had little of the old fighting spirit left. Age, experience and fear of further criticism had mellowed him and his music. Still he tried repeatedly to work with the guidelines of Socialist Realism. Some pieces were harshly rejected by Soviet authorities but approved of in the West. Others satisfied Soviet authorities but were found less interesting by audiences in the West, who were more familiar with his bolder early works. His last opera, “War and Peace,” is a case in point; here is a portion of the scathing review of the opera by the Director of the Leningrad Conservatory of Music: I venture to suggest that Prokofiev’s “War and Peace” is not an opera that can appeal to the people.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Tolstoy's War and Peace
    Tolstoy’s War and Peace Soap opera, epic masterpiece, neither, or both? Course # 21FTOY Format: Seminar Moderators: Nancy Coiner Kendra Dahlquist Date and Time: Monday, 9:30-11:30 AM 10 weeks, starting 9/27/2021 Format: Online Maximum number of participants: 18 Auditors accepted: Yes, up to 2 Purpose : We will read War and Peace together, with plenty of background presentations and discussion to make it come alive as a work of art and life. Description: According to Isaac Babel, “If life could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy.” War and Peace is a huge, sweeping narrative, part history and part fiction, which describes Napoleon's attempt to conquer Russia. Centered on the lives of four aristocratic families between 1805 and 1812, it includes complex characters based on Tolstoy’s parents and grandparents, who spoke French and wore French fashions but passionately resisted Napoleon’s attack. Yes, it’s long, with a cast of hundreds. But almost all readers find that, after the opening chapters, the story and characters carry them along irresistibly. We witness the burning of Moscow, young people making life- altering mistakes, the glory and horror of war. Yet (as Woolf notes) "there is always at the centre of all the brilliant and flashing petals . this scorpion, ‘Why live?’" It’s a brilliant, unsettling mix. Background presentations and lively discussions will help us enter this exhilarating work of historical and philosophical fiction. Role of participants: Participants will read approximately 150 pages of War and Peace a session. They will have the choice of giving a presentation (on Tolstoy, Russian Orthodoxy, Napoleon's career, the battle of Austerlitz, etc.) or leading a discussion.
    [Show full text]
  • The Musical Partnership of Sergei Prokofiev And
    THE MUSICAL PARTNERSHIP OF SERGEI PROKOFIEV AND MSTISLAV ROSTROPOVICH A CREATIVE PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF MUSIC IN PERFORMANCE BY JIHYE KIM DR. PETER OPIE - ADVISOR BALL STATE UNIVERSITY MUNCIE, INDIANA DECEMBER 2011 Among twentieth-century composers, Sergei Prokofiev is widely considered to be one of the most popular and important figures. He wrote in a variety of genres, including opera, ballet, symphonies, concertos, solo piano, and chamber music. In his cello works, of which three are the most important, his partnership with the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich was crucial. To understand their partnership, it is necessary to know their background information, including biographies, and to understand the political environment in which they lived. Sergei Prokofiev was born in Sontovka, (Ukraine) on April 23, 1891, and grew up in comfortable conditions. His father organized his general education in the natural sciences, and his mother gave him his early education in the arts. When he was four years old, his mother provided his first piano lessons and he began composition study as well. He studied theory, composition, instrumentation, and piano with Reinhold Glière, who was also a composer and pianist. Glière asked Prokofiev to compose short pieces made into the structure of a series.1 According to Glière’s suggestion, Prokofiev wrote a lot of short piano pieces, including five series each of 12 pieces (1902-1906). He also composed a symphony in G major for Glière. When he was twelve years old, he met Glazunov, who was a professor at the St.
    [Show full text]
  • Sample Pages
    About This Volume Brett Cooke We continue to be surprised by how the extremely rewarding world WKDW/HR7ROVWR\FUHDWHGLVDG\QDPLFVWLOOJURZLQJRQH:KHQWKH Russian writer sat down in 1863 to begin what became War and PeaceKHXWLOL]HGSRUWUDLWVRIfamily members, as well as images RIKLPVHOILQZKDWDW¿UVWFRQVWLWXWHGDOLJKWO\¿FWLRQDOL]HGfamily chronicle; he evidently used the exercise to consider how he and the SUHVHQWVWDWHRIKLVFRXQWU\FDPHWREH7KLVLQYROYHGDUHWKLQNLQJRI KRZKLVSDUHQWV¶JHQHUDWLRQZLWKVWRRGWKH)UHQFKLQYDVLRQRI slightly more than a half century prior, both militarily and culturally. Of course, one thinks about many things in the course of six highly FUHDWLYH \HDUV DQG KLV WH[W UHÀHFWV PDQ\ RI WKHVH LQWHUHVWV +LV words are over determined in that a single scene or even image typically serves several themes as he simultaneously pondered the Napoleonic Era, the present day in Russia, his family, and himself, DVZHOODVPXFKHOVH6HOIGHYHORSPHQWEHLQJWKH¿UVWRUGHUIRUDQ\ VHULRXVDUWLVWZHVHHDQWLFLSDWLRQVRIWKHSURWHDQFKDOOHQJHV7ROVWR\ posed to the contemporary world decades after War and Peace in terms of religion, political systems, and, especially, moral behavior. In other words, he grew in stature. As the initial reception of the QRYHO VKRZV 7ROVWR\ UHVSRQGHG WR WKH FRQVWHUQDWLRQ RI LWV ¿UVW readers by increasing the dynamism of its form and considerably DXJPHQWLQJLWVLQWHOOHFWXDODPELWLRQV,QKLVKDQGV¿FWLRQEHFDPH emboldened to question the structure of our universe and expand our sense of our own nature. We are all much the richer spiritually for his achievement. One of the happy accidents of literary history is that War and Peace and Fyodor 'RVWRHYVN\¶VCrime and PunishmentZHUH¿UVW published in the same literary periodical, The Russian Messenger. )XUWKHUPRUHDV-DQHW7XFNHUH[SODLQVERWKQRYHOVH[SUHVVFRQFHUQ whether Russia should continue to conform its culture to West (XURSHDQ PRGHOV VLPXOWDQHRXVO\ VHL]LQJ RQ WKH VDPH ¿JXUH vii Napoleon Bonaparte, in one case leading a literal invasion of the country, in the other inspiring a premeditated murder.
    [Show full text]
  • MUSICAL CENSORSHIP and REPRESSION in the UNION of SOVIET COMPOSERS: KHRENNIKOV PERIOD Zehra Ezgi KARA1, Jülide GÜNDÜZ
    SAYI 17 BAHAR 2018 MUSICAL CENSORSHIP AND REPRESSION IN THE UNION OF SOVIET COMPOSERS: KHRENNIKOV PERIOD Zehra Ezgi KARA1, Jülide GÜNDÜZ Abstract In the beginning of 1930s, institutions like Association for Contemporary Music and the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians were closed down with the aim of gathering every study of music under one center, and under the control of the Communist Party. As a result, all the studies were realized within the two organizations of the Composers’ Union in Moscow and Leningrad in 1932, which later merged to form the Union of Soviet Composers in 1948. In 1948, composer Tikhon Khrennikov (1913-2007) was appointed as the frst president of the Union of Soviet Composers by Andrei Zhdanov and continued this post until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Being one of the most controversial fgures in the history of Soviet music, Khrennikov became the third authority after Stalin and Zhdanov in deciding whether a composer or an artwork should be censored or supported by the state. Khrennikov’s main job was to ensure the application of socialist realism, the only accepted doctrine by the state, on the feld of music, and to eliminate all composers and works that fell out of this context. According to the doctrine of socialist realism, music should formalize the Soviet nationalist values and serve the ideals of the Communist Party. Soviet composers should write works with folk music elements which would easily be appreciated by the public, prefer classical orchestration, and avoid atonality, complex rhythmic and harmonic structures. In this period, composers, performers or works that lacked socialist realist values were regarded as formalist.
    [Show full text]
  • Teacher Notes on Russian Music and Composers Prokofiev Gave up His Popularity and Wrote Music to Please Stalin. He Wrote Music
    Teacher Notes on Russian Music and Composers x Prokofiev gave up his popularity and wrote music to please Stalin. He wrote music to please the government. x Stravinsky is known as the great inventor of Russian music. x The 19th century was a time of great musical achievement in Russia. This was the time period in which “The Five” became known. They were: Rimsky-Korsakov (most influential, 1844-1908) Borodin Mussorgsky Cui Balakirev x Tchaikovsky (1840-’93) was not know as one of “The Five”. x Near the end of the Stalinist Period Prokofiev and Shostakovich produced music so peasants could listen to it as they worked. x During the 17th century, Russian music consisted of sacred vocal music or folk type songs. x Peter the Great liked military music (such as the drums). He liked trumpet music, church bells and simple Polish music. He did not like French or Italian music. Nor did Peter the Great like opera. Notes Compiled by Carol Mohrlock 90 Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (1882-1971) I gor Stravinsky was born on June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg, Russia, he died on April 6, 1971, in New York City H e was Russian-born composer particularly renowned for such ballet scores as The Firebird (performed 1910), Petrushka (1911), The Rite of Spring (1913), and Orpheus (1947). The Russian period S travinsky's father, Fyodor Ignatyevich Stravinsky, was a bass singer of great distinction, who had made a successful operatic career for himself, first at Kiev and later in St. Petersburg. Igor was the third of a family of four boys.
    [Show full text]
  • THE USE of the FRENCH LANGUAGE in LEO TOLSTOY's NOVEL, WAR and PEACE by OLGA HENRY MICHAEL D. PICONE, COMMITTEE CHAIR ANDREW
    THE USE OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE IN LEO TOLSTOY’S NOVEL, WAR AND PEACE by OLGA HENRY MICHAEL D. PICONE, COMMITTEE CHAIR ANDREW DROZD MARYSIA GALBRAITH A THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Modern Languages and Classics in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2016 Copyright Olga Henry 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT This study comprises an inventory and an analysis of the types of code-switching and the reasons for code-switching in Leo Tolstoy’s novel, War and Peace. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Russia were marked by multilingualism among the nobility. The French language, in particular, was widely known and used in high society. Indeed, French was considered expressively superior to Russian (Offord, Ryazanova-Clarke, Rjéoutski & Argent, 2015). Then as now, code-switching was a common phenomenon among bilinguals. There were subjects discussed specifically in French, and others in Russian, in Tolstoy’s novel, which represents the life in Russia between 1807 and 1812, and which was constructed to reflect the nature of the time period and its characteristics. In this paper, using the theoretical model proposed by Myers-Scotton (1995) based on markedness, an identification is made of reasons for using code-switching. This is correlated with René Appel and Pieter Muysken’s (1987) five functions of code-switching; and Benjamin Bailey’s (1999) three functional types of switching. A delineation is also made of the types of topics discussed in the French language by the Russian aristocracy, the types of code-switching used most frequently, and the base language of code- switching in Tolstoy’s novel.
    [Show full text]
  • Sergei Prokofiev
    Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (/prɵˈkɒfiɛv/; Russian: Сергей Сергеевич Прокофьев, tr. Sergej Sergeevič Prokof'ev; April 27, 1891 [O.S. 15 April];– March 5, 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous musical genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His works include such widely heard works as the March from The Love for Three Oranges, the suite Lieutenant Kijé, the ballet Romeo and Juliet – from which "Dance of the Knights" is taken – and Peter and the Wolf. Of the established forms and genres in which he worked, he created – excluding juvenilia – seven completed operas, seven symphonies, eight ballets, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, a cello concerto, and nine completed piano sonatas. A graduate of the St Petersburg Conservatory, Prokofiev initially made his name as an iconoclastic composer-pianist, achieving notoriety with a series of ferociously dissonant and virtuosic works for his instrument, including his first two piano concertos. In 1915 Prokofiev made a decisive break from the standard composer-pianist category with his orchestral Scythian Suite, compiled from music originally composed for a ballet commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes. Diaghilev commissioned three further ballets from Prokofiev – Chout, Le pas d'acier and The Prodigal Son – which at the time of their original production all caused a sensation among both critics and colleagues. Prokofiev's greatest interest, however, was opera, and he composed several works in that genre, including The Gambler and The Fiery Angel. Prokofiev's one operatic success during his lifetime was The Love for Three Oranges, composed for the Chicago Opera and subsequently performed over the following decade in Europe and Russia.
    [Show full text]
  • The French Passages of Tolstoy's War and Peace in English Translation
    Shedding Light on the Shadows: The French Passages of Tolstoy’s War and Peace in English Translation by Caitlin Towers Timothy Portice, Advisor Julien Weber, Second Reader Comparative Literature Thesis Middlebury College Middlebury, VT February 8, 2016 1 Introduction Lev Tolstoy first published the entirety of his novel War and Peace in 1869.1 It did not take long for his work to reach a foreign audience, and the first translation of War and Peace into English was completed between 1885 and 1886. Over the past century and a half since its publication there have been twelve major English translations of the novel. Archdeacon Farrar, who was a 19th century cleric and author, said “If Count Tolstoï’s books have appeared in edition after edition, and translation after translation, the reason is because the world learns from him to see life as it is” (Dole, iii) Each translation of a novel speaks to a different generation and different audience, and helps decades of readers learn “to see life as it is” in ways specific to their times. With each new translation Tolstoy’s novel becomes accessible to and relatable for new audiences, ranging from a British audience at the turn of the century to an American audience in the middle of the Cold War. Although all of these American and British translations vary in ways that are fascinating culturally, politically and historically, this study focuses specifically on one aspect of the translation of War and Peace: the different ways in which the many passages of the novel originally written in French are translated.
    [Show full text]
  • New on Naxos | October 2013
    NEW ON The World’s Leading ClassicalNAX MusicOS Label OCTOBER 2013 © Mark McNulty This Month’s Other Highlights © 2013 Naxos Rights US, Inc. • Contact Us: [email protected] www.naxos.com • www.classicsonline.com • www.naxosmusiclibrary.com • blog.naxos.com NEW ON NAXOS | october 2013 © Mark McNulty Vasily Petrenko Dmitry SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975) Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43 Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra • Vasily Petrenko Completed in 1936 but withdrawn during rehearsal and not performed until 1961, the searing Fourth Symphony finds Shostakovich stretching his musical idiom to the limit in the search for a personal means of expression at a time of undoubted personal and professional crisis. The opening movement, a complex and unpredictable take on sonata form that teems with a dazzling profusion of varied motifs, is followed by a short, eerie central movement. The finale opens with a funeral march leading to a climax of seismic physical force that gives way to a bleak and harrowing minor key coda. The Symphony has since become one of the most highly regarded of the composer’s large-scale works. Vasily Petrenko was appointed Principal Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 2006 and in 2009 became Chief Conductor. He is also Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Mikhailovsky Theatre of his native St Petersburg, 8.573188 Playing Time: 64:59 and Principal Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. 7 47313 31887 2 Companion Titles 8.572082 8.572167 8.572392 8.572461 © Mark McNulty 8.572396 8.572658 8.572708 8.573057 Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra 2 NEW ON NAXOS | OCTOBER 2013 © Grant Leighton Marin Alsop Sergey PROKOFIEV (1891–1953) Symphony No.
    [Show full text]
  • RUSSIAN & UKRAINIAN Russian & Ukrainian Symphonies and Orchestral Works
    RUSSIAN & UKRAINIAN Russian & Ukrainian Symphonies and Orchestral Works Occupying a vast land mass that has long been a melting pot of home-spun traditions and external influences, Russia’s history is deeply encrypted in the orchestral music to be found in this catalogue. Journeying from the Russian Empire through the Soviet era to the contemporary scene, the music of the Russian masters covers a huge canvas of richly coloured and immediately accessible works. Influences of folklore, orthodox liturgy, political brutality and human passion are all to be found in the listings. These range from 19th-century masterpieces penned by ‘The Mighty Five’ (Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Borodin, and Cui) to the edgy works of Prokofiev and Shostakovich that rubbed against the watchful eye of the Soviet authorities, culminating in the symphonic output of one of today’s most noted Russian composers, Alla Pavlova. Tchaikovsky wrote his orchestral works in a largely cosmopolitan style, leaving it to the band of brothers in The Mighty Five to fully shake off the Germanic influence that had long dominated their homeland’s musical scene. As part of this process, they imparted a thoroughly ethnic identity to their compositions. The titles of the works alone are enough to get the imaginative juices running, witness Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh, and Mussorgsky’s St John’s Night on the Bare Mountain. Supplementing the purely symphonic works, instrumental music from operas and ballets is also to be found in, for example, Prokofiev’sThe Love for Three Oranges Suite, Shostakovich’s four Ballet Suites, and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.
    [Show full text]
  • A Performance Guide to Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet for Solo Tuba
    Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2021 A Performance Guide To Prokofiev: Romeo And Juliet For Solo Tuba John Christopher DiCesare West Virginia University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Part of the Music Performance Commons, and the Music Practice Commons Recommended Citation DiCesare, John Christopher, "A Performance Guide To Prokofiev: Romeo And Juliet For Solo Tuba" (2021). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 8149. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/8149 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you must obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in WVU Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports collection by an authorized administrator of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2021 A Performance Guide To Prokofiev: Romeo And Juliet For Solo Tuba John Christopher DiCesare Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Part of
    [Show full text]
  • The Prodigal Son by Selma Jeanne Cohen
    THE PRODIGAL SON BY SELMA JEANNE COHEN As a source for dance works, the theme of the prodigal son as well, so Gardel's scenario neatly provides for a few tears has not been especially prolific. For the tastes of the early at the end of its panorama of exotic settings. years of ballet, choreographers probably found its lack of epic dimension a serious drawback. It deals, after all, with To lure the working-class audience to the Opera, Gardel simple people, with family relationships; no battles are won invented not only new scenes, but a number of new charac­ or lost, no great hero emerges. More serious still, the story ters. When the son Azael (Auguste Vestris) leaves his home offers little occasion for the display of splendid and costly in Goshen for the city of Memphis, he finds; "Le luxe decor and costumes; only the episodes of "rioutous living" egyptien y regne de toutes parts, les merveilles de l'art, de - which merit no more description than that in the Bible - l' architecture brillent dans tous les monumens . ..." A suggest the possibility of scenic wonders. religious ceremony occasions a grand temple scene with a variety of dances by virgins, priests, and slaves. Azael is Fortunately fo.r the 20th century, "riotous living" can attracted by the lovely Lia, who shyly admits her fondness include sexuality, and most modern versions have a seduc­ forhim. She goes t.o tell her father about him. But when tress who engages the innocent youth in a sen.suous pas de she retums, Azael is dancing with several other girls, and deux which, rather than the biblical farnine, brings about Lia throws herself into the river.
    [Show full text]