Sergei Prokofiev's A Love for Three Oranges is the operatic version of a 16th - century Italian fable with a French libretto written in the Russian 20th-century modernist style for an American audience. The opera's problematic reception at its premiere is not altogether surprising, but the reasons for its lack of early critical success merit closer inspection. American audiences did not yet have the grounding in the techniques of modernism then being employed by European composers at the time Oranges was premiered in 1921, nor did they understand the commedia dell 'arte traditions of the story and its stock characters. The musical language Prokofiev chose for his opera was also largely misunderstood by its first audiences. The dramatically logical, declamatory melodies were interpreted as altogether unmelodic and the "lack of singable tunes" was taken as a mark of insubstantiality. The considerable number of themes and motives employed to progress the plot are not subjected to extensive development and in many cases are repeated only rarely. Initially, it can be difficult to hear the subtle connections interwoven among the associative material, and as the opera was given only two performances during its premiere run, many critics and connoisseurs were unable to discern Prokofiev's sophisticated compositional ideal. This thesis attempts to assess Prokofiev's theory of opera as a dramatically logical entity and the level of success with which he manifested that theory in A Love for Three Oranges. In addition, the reasons for its lack of popular success will be addressed and analyzed.

In this study, Prokofiev’s Eighth piano sonata was analyzed based on interpretation and technique. Prokofiev lived in the communist Soviet Union, during the middle of the Second World War, and wrote music with a lot of collected experience. The purpose of the study was to illustrate important interpretational- and technical aspects that are required to perform the sonata, based on personal experience. To accomplish this, the piece was practiced for several months, while continuously taking notes of my personal reflections based on the practice sessions and recordings. The study shows that the interpretation should strive to clarify different motives as well as enhancing contrasting characters in the music, while technical difficulties in demanding parts of the sonata often are solved by putting emphasize on evenness, and by considering input from several senses in the practice room. The results are useful for studying other large compositions and remain a documentation of how such extensive piano music can be approached. / I studien analyserades Prokofjevs åttonde pianosonat utifrån interpretation och spelteknik. Prokofjev befann sig i kommunistiska Sovjetunionen, mitt under andra världskriget, och skrev musik med mycket samlad erfarenhet. Syftet med studien var att belysa viktiga interpretations- och teknikbaserade aspekter vid uppförandet av sonaten, baserat på egen beprövad erfarenhet. För att åstadkomma detta övades stycket in under flera månader, medan reflektioner skrevs ner baserat på övningspassen samt inspelningar. Studiens resultat påvisar att tolkning bör göra motiven så tydliga som möjligt samt lyfta fram olika karaktärer i musiken som styrker temat, medan tekniska svårigheter i krävande partier ofta löses genom att fokusera på jämnhet samt att öva med flera sinnen i fokus. Resultatet är användbart även vid instudering av andra omfattande verk och är en dokumentation på hur sådan omfattande pianomusik kan tas an. / <p>S. Prokofjev - Sonat nr 8, op 84</p>

This study was carried out in order to discover new strategies to memorize piano music. There are six different types of memory involved in performing: auditory, kinesthetic, visual, analytical, nominal and emotional. There are two main ways of practicing: playing practice and non-playing practice. I tried to find out if the order in which we use these two kinds of practice affects the quality of the memorization. During one week I practiced three different pieces following three different methods: 1 Using only playing practice; 2 using first playing practice and then non-playing practice; 3 using first non-playing practice and then playing practice. The second method had a much better result than the other two. The whole process was registered with a video camera and a logbook. / <p>The exam concert is archived for copyright reasons until 2023.</p>

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The purpose of the following study is to make an analysis of the structural elements and stylistic characteristics in the Second Concerto for Violin by the modern Russian composer, Serge Prokofieff. These include the composer's treatment of form, melody, rhythm, harmony, and medium of expression.

One of the famous Russian composers and a pianist himself, Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) composed a vast quantity of piano music. His nine piano sonatas represent well how he projected his musical individuality and the principles that he addressed in his autobiography: classical line, modern trend, toccata line, lyrical line, and grotesque line. However, even though Prokofiev's piano sonatas are considered one of the important collections in the piano repertoire, not all of them have gained popularity and only a few tend to be frequently performed by pianists today. For this reason, this dissertation focuses on one of his less-performed piano sonatas, No. 4 in C minor, Op. 29. The pianists György Sándor and Boris Berman were chosen as specialists in Prokofiev's piano works, and their performance editions and recordings are analyzed and compared as main references. This study provides analysis and a performance guide to this piano sonata. This guide discusses pedaling, fingering, phrasing, touch, voicing, tempo suggestion, articulation, hand distribution, and expression.

Performance practice is a term familiar to serious musicians. For the performer, this means assimilating and applying all the education and training that has been pursued in a course of study. Performance practice entails many aspects such as development of the craft of performing on the instrument, comprehensive knowledge of pertinent literature, score study and listening to recordings, study of instruments of the period, notation and articulation practices of the time, and issues of tempo and dynamics. The orchestral literature of Eastern Europe, especially Germany and Russia, from the mid-nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century provides some of the most significant and musically challenging parts for the tuba. The works of Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, and Dmitri Shostakovich, along with their orchestral contemporaries, represents a significant portion of this literature. This study examines a seminal work in the orchestral genre from each of these three Russian composers. The role of the tuba in each work is discussed. Excerpts of the tuba part are examined in terms of performance issues such as range, rhythm, phrasing, and scoring. Comparisons and contrasts are drawn as to how each composer used the tuba and the effectiveness of the utilization.

Master of Music / Department of Music / Slawomir P. Dobrzanski / The following report analyzes compositions performed at the author’s Master’s Piano Recital on March 15, 2012. The discussed pieces are Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata in G major, BWV 916; Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata in E flat major, op. 31, no. 3; Frederic Chopin’s Ballade in F minor, op. 52; Leoš Janáček’s In The Mists: I. Andante, III. Andantino; and Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata in A minor, op. 28. The author approaches the study from the historical, theoretical, stylistic and pedagogical perspectives.

The nineteenth and twentieth centuries witnessed the rapid growth of musical culture in Russia. This resulted in a large repertoire of piano music — ranging from miniatures to virtuosic etudes and sonatas. Growing out of the nineteenth century romantic tradition, and highly influenced by the social conditions of the time, Russian composers developed a distinctive style which closely reflected their culture, personalities and ideologies. There are several approaches to studying performance practice. One is to study the interpretations of other pianists. While this does have many advantages, it has not been adopted in this paper as it has one flaw: it still fails to capture the distinctive language of these composers. Rather, the paper will study the social and musical influences on the composers, and, more importantly, their philosophies about pianism and the purpose of music. This will be related to interpretative issues in the works. The repertoire has been divided into four areas. The paper commences with a study of the miniature, which is valuable in finding the ‘essence’ of a composer’s musical language expressed on a small scale. Here, the ‘elementary’ considerations in performance practice will be studied. The second chapter discusses etudes. This is useful in gaining an insight into composers’ conception of technique, and how this relates to performance practice. The third chapter deals with music that has extra-musical themes. This provides opportunity for a more detailed cultural and biographical study of the composers. To represent the large-scale repertoire of Russian composers, the sonata will be studied. Here, a detailed analysis of the composers’ musical language and its relationship to expression will be discussed. / Masters Thesis