Prokofiev, Sergei

Preface

Sergei Sergejewitsch Prokofiew – Ivan the Terrible

(b. Sontsovka, April 23, 1891 – d. Moscow, March 5, 1953)

Op. 116

Preface
“Ivan the Terrible”, as the title alone suggests, is a Russian historical-political story which Sergei Prokofiev, among others, used as the basis for a film score, from which a secular oratorio was created after his death.

The Soviet pianist, composer and conductor Sergej Sergejewitsch Prokofiew was born on April 23, 1891 in Sontsovka, in what is now Ukraine. Today, he is best known in German-speaking countries for his musical fairy tale “Peter and the Wolf”. He received his first piano lessons from his mother at the age of four and began writing his first compositions as early as 1896. In 1902 and 1903, he received private lessons from the composer and music teacher Reinhold Moritzewitsch Gliére (1875-1956), whose father came from the Vogtland region (Germany). From 1904 to 1914, he studied composition, counterpoint, orchestration, piano and conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) and Anatoly Konstantinowitsch Lyadow (1855-1914), among others. In the meantime, Prokofiew toured America and France as a pianist and conductor and returned to Moscow in 1936. His arrival in Russia was followed by a great increase in compositional productivity. The composer died in Moscow on March 5, 1953.1

Prokofiew had a great musical interest in historicizing elements such as old dances and traditional forms, but also had a preference for daring harmonies, dissonances, unusual chord combinations and pushing the boundaries of tonality. Characteristic of his music are its piercing rhythms, wild motivity, expressive melodies, which can be humorously ironic, and unusual orchestration.2 …

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