The Music of Sergei Prokofiev

Abstract

This work is a comprehensive analytical study of the music of Sergei Prokofiev. Neil Minturn sets the Russian composer's work in historical, cultural, and autobiographical context and examines a representative sampling of his compositions from a theoretical point of view. Minturn finds a central theme of Prokofiev's oeuvre to be the interplay between tradition and innovation. He discusses the composer's diverse compositional procedures (tonal versus modern devices), as well as the political and cultural influences on Prokofiev's works. Minturn shows how the contents and structure of individual pieces and movements took shape, how Prokofiev developed the notion of five musical lines, and how the idea of the wrong note in his music plays out. A constant and rhythmic sense permeates Prokofiev's evolving style, as measured by relatively harmonic or contrapuntal emphasis. Minturn analyses works for piano, orchestra, various chamber ensembles, and voice (including the opera, The Gambler) and considers works in each category from various periods in Prokofiev's career. For readers with an interest in a particular work, the analyses stand alone and need not be read sequentially.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 20 citations exist upstream.