EISENSTEIN, SERGEI & SERGEI PROKOFIEVBiblio.com
PROKOFIEV, Sergei 1891-1953Biblio.com
Autograph musical quotation from the composer's Lieutenant Kiji suite for orchestra op. 60 signed in full
396772 measures from the second theme of the 3rd movement of the suite. Notated in black ink on light gray paper and dated 1938. With "Autogram" printed at head and photographic reproduction of Prokofiev at the piano laid down to left.<br /> <br /> Verso with annotations in pencil and printed identification laid down.<br /> <br /> Very slightly creased. "Sergei Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé Поручик Киже Poruchik Kizhe . was originally written to accompany the film of the same name produced by the Belgoskino film studios in Leningrad in 1933-34 and released in March 1934. It was Prokofiev's first attempt at film music and his first commission.<br /> <br /> In the early days of sound cinema among the various distinguished composers ready to try their hand at film music Prokofiev was not an obvious choice for the commission. Based in Paris for almost a decade he had a reputation for experimentation and dissonance characteristics at odds with the cultural norms of the Soviet Union. By early 1933 however Prokofiev was anxious to return to his homeland and saw the film commission as an opportunity to write music in a more popular and accessible style.<br /> <br /> After the film's successful release the five-movement Kijé suite was first performed in December 1934 and quickly became part of the international concert repertoire. It has remained one of the composer's best-known and most frequently recorded works. Elements of the suite's score have been used in several later films and in two popular songs of the Cold War era." Wikipedia<br /> <br /> Prokofiev was a noted Russian composer and pianist born in Ukraine. "A large number of the works that are free from political professions have a firm place in the international repertory and he is rightly counted one of the major composers of the 20th century. He was not a great influence on younger generations of composers unlike Schoenberg Berg and Webern Stravinsky Bartók and Messiaen - except in the Soviet Union where Soviet-trained musicians of a whole generation took their guidelines from either Shostakovich or Prokofiev raising the achievement of one or the other to the status of a philosophy of life and passed on their stylistic features to those who followed." Dorothea Redepenning in Grove Music Online. unknown
