Sergei Prokofiev was born on the 23rd of April 1891, in Sontsovka, which was a part of the Russian Empire and is known today as eastern Ukraine. He was the only surviving child of his father Sergei Alexeyevich Prokofiev and his mother Maria/Grigoryevna Zhitkova. Prokofiev’s mother was an established pianist and she taught him piano from the age of three, quickly gained skills to compose his first piece at age five. In 1904, the 13-year-old Prokofiev and his mother were introduced to the composer Glazunov, a professor at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. Glazunov was so impressed with Prokofiev’s talent that he urged him to apply to study there. Prokofiev was much younger than the other students and was perceived as annoying to them, as he kept a list of their mistakes. Though the teachers valued him as a student and were very impressed with his innovative skills. Prior to his time at the conservatory, Prokofiev had already completed four operas, two sonatas, a symphony, and over a dozen piano pieces. After graduating from the conservatory, Prokofiev met Sergei Diaghilev and was commissioned to write music for the Ballet Russes in Paris. Three of his best-known works that he composed for the company are Chout, Le Pas d’acier, and L’Enfant Prodigue. These works reveal his shift in style, from aggressive modernism to simpler lyricism. Diaghilev influenced this shift in style over Prokofiev, believing his original pieces for the ballets followed the action too closely with too many details, and needed to develop themes similar to Tchaikovsky’s style of symphonic ballet music. By 1929, Stalin was issuing the idea of socialist realism – music for the people by the people. International art wasn’t tolerated in the Soviet Union, instead, the government paid musicians for their every note in order to promote the idea of common music. This angered Prokofiev, as he became more focused on politics instead of his music. So, he left for America in hopes of creating honor to his name but was instantly shut down as the Americans preferred composers like Bach and Beethoven, whose style was more traditional than experimental. Remaining loyal to his country, Prokofiev moved back to Russia and by the 1930’s he was becoming recognized by Soviet authorities. In 1934, he composed his most famous music for the ballet Romeo and Juliet, performed in 1938. It is this piece that gave Prokofiev the compositional acknowledgment that he craved. Prokofiev died at the age of 61 on the 5th of March 1953, the same day as Stalin's death. For three days everyone mourned for Stalin and Prokofiev's death wasn’t allowed to be announced until after those days. Though when it was, not only Russia but all of Europe mourned for him.
Leonard Bernstein was born on the 25th of August 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. His father Sam Bernstein was a Russian immigrant who struggled to find work and build a sustainable life in America. Bernstein grew up understanding that business and success were paramount, and “occupations” in the field of music and art were simply off-limits. At age ten, Bernstein played the piano for the first time, which belonged to his Aunt Clara. He loved playing the instrument, but his father refused to pay for lessons. Determined, Bernstein raised his own small pot of money to pay for a few sessions. He was a natural from the start, and by the time his bar mitzvah rolled around, his father was impressed enough to buy him his own piano. Bernstein found inspiration to create his own pieces and impressed anyone who listened to him play. After he attended the Boston Latin School, Bernstein entered Harvard University, where he studied music theory with Arthur Tillman Merritt and counterpoint with Walter Piston. After being completely mesmerized by watching a Symphony concert conducted by Dmitri Mitropoulos, Bernstein was determined to make music the center of his life. In 1940, Bernstein was invited to participate in a summer intensive at the Berkshire Music Centre where he met Serge Koussevitzky, a man who became a father figure to him, encouraging his belief in the importance of music. Bernstein was later offered the position of assistant conductor for the New York Philharmonic, where his skills amazed the crowds and he became a respected conductor. From 1945 to 1947, Bernstein conducted for the New York City Centre orchestra and appeared as a guest conductor across the United States, Europe, and Israel. While conducting and stealing the classical music scene in New York, he met his wife-to-be, Felicia Montealegre, who was a beautiful Chilean stage and television actress making her living in New York. They were married on the 10th of September 1951. Her South American nationality was a big influence on the creation of Bernstein’s music in the Broadway musical West Side Story, which many celebrate as his greatest achievement as a composer. On the 14th of October 1990, Bernstein died from pneumonia at age 72 in his New York City apartment.
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The making of Romeo and Juliet + West Side Story
The music for the ballet Romeo and Juliet, based on William Shakespeare’s most well-known tragic love stories, was conducted by Sergei Prokofiev in 1934, to then be performed as a complete ballet in 1938. Originally performed by the Kirov Ballet, Prokofiev’s work has become very popular across the world, with choreographers producing varied styles of ballet for different companies, including the Royal and Australian Ballet. Although this work is recognized as Prokofiev’s greatest masterpiece, he suffered a harsh and troubled journey prior to the ballet’s premiere. It was the Kirov Theatre that offered Prokofiev to write music for a ballet and he accepted. This decision was not easy and quite risky, as prior to the offer Prokofiev had been living outside of Russia since 1918. Providing him with either; a smooth entrance back into his country, or possibly being mocked and receiving shame by Stalin. During the music writing process, Prokofiev decided to change the miserable ending into a happy one where both Romeo and Juliet stay alive, explaining that “the dead cannot dance.” He had planned with the director of The Bolshoi, Vladimir Mutnykh, to stage the ballet in 1936, but the dancers dismissed the piece believing the music was impossible to dance to. This was also the time of Stalin’s Great Purge, where more than one million people were detained and at least 600,000 were executed, including Mutnykh. By the time the Purge was coming to an end, the ballet had made its way to the Kirov theatre to be performed, provided that the ending was changed back to its original tragedy. The Kirov dancers also insisted that Prokofiev’s music should be simplified, leading Prokofiev to reorchestrate the piece in a more traditional manner. Eventually, the Soviet Premier was convinced that the music held no remaining Western influences, and the Stalin-approved version of the piece is the one that the world knows today.
The music for the Broadway musical West Side Story was conducted by Leonard Bernstein, completed and presented for the first time on the 26th of September in 1957 at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. This musical however is not like all other Broadway musicals, but one that brought historical change and success to musicals in America forever. A “typical musical” is a stage, television, or film production that utilizes song, dialogue, dancing, and acting. Elaborate costumes and props are also used for the purpose of portraying a story. A Broadway musical is a theatrical performance presented in one of the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
The idea of creating a modern version of the tragic conflicts in Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was first thought up by the enterprising dancer and choreographer Jerome Robbins. His dream was to collaborate in a team made up of the greatest talents in the music and theatre world, to create a new and individual work for the stage. On the 6th of January 1949, Jerome Robbins called the ambitious conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, to gain his support for the idea. He and Bernstein had already achieved their first joint success in 1944, with the one-act ballet ‘Fancy-Free’, forming the basis of their later Broadway hit ‘On the Town’. Four days later, Bernstein met in Robbin’s apartment with the playwright Arthur Laurents, who had just published his first highly successful play about social issues, ‘Home of the Brave’. Despite their differences of opinion, the three men were determined to rise to the challenge and produce a work in which the musical, choreographic and linguistic elements would interact perfectly. Only a few scenes had been drafted before the “Romeo” project, as everyone called it, was put aside for several years while the collaborators pursued their separate careers. It was not until the summer of 1955 that the trio was re-united in renewed passion. This time they were joined by a fourth man, a young and at the time unknown lyricist named Stephen Sondheim.
Using the dominant feud between two groups in the storyline of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, the collaborators did what has never been done in a musical before and decided to represent the social issue of racial discrimination, between white Americans and Puerto Rican immigrants. Based on the Spanish–American War when Puerto Rico became a possession of the United States. This war created an intense conflict between Americans and Puerto Ricans, causing trouble as New York was a prime destination for migration due to Puerto Rico’s horrific natural disasters. Even though the Puerto Ricans were considered citizens of the United States, they faced challenges of adapting to new cultural, and economic surroundings and were despised by many white Americans. As they held onto the strong belief that the land of America belonged to them. In West Side Story, the two rival gangs are the Jets (white Americans) and the Sharks (Puerto Ricans), replacing the Montagues and Capulets in Romeo and Juliet. The lovers in the storyline are Tony and Maria, who share the same difficulties as Romeo and Juliet, belonging to opposing sides. The musical is completed with emotion-filled songs, action-packed drama, and classical and Latin-inspired music that in Bernstein’s words helps the musical “spring to life. I can hear the rhythms and pulses, and - most of all - I can feel the form.” His music accompanies the incredible dance numbers choreographed by Robbins, including the Mambo and Cha Cha. These numbers bring life and display the vibrant Latin culture of the Puerto Ricans, and America had never witnessed so many dances in one musical ever before. The lyrics of the music pieces by Sondheim are extremely clever, as the words connect to the emotions of the characters and the events taking place in the story. The reviews of the Broadway premiere were equally divided, although all critics agreed that this was one of the most unusual works in commercial entertainment ever staged. Unusual in the realistic topic of the show, the new vocabulary designed for universal appeal, and the lack of a happy ending. West Side Story ran for 734 performances in the Winter Garden Theatre, Broadway, New York. In December 1958, the curtain was raised for the first European premiere at Her Majesty’s Theatre in the West End of London. The audience raved and the critics were carried away. It was performed 1039 times and the masterpiece was given the tribute it deserved. In April 1960, the original version of West Side Story returned to Broadway for another successful run. Since then, this unique music has been interpreted and staged innumerable times and no production has been able to equal the Broadway classic.
Style of the works
The music for The Fight scene in the ballet Romeo and Juliet reflects Prokofiev’s style. His music is formed from five different elements, classical, innovation, toccata, lyrical and grotesque. Classical indicates the use of balanced phrases, which is identified in his beautiful classical melodies. Innovation in Prokofiev’s music is created as he uses instruments in a different way, compared to traditional classical orchestras. His use of dissonant harmony used to evoke especially unpleasant moments, generated a harmonic language that was new and fresh for music in Europe. ‘Toccata’ is Italian for touch, resembling the piano playing technique of lightly and briskly touching the keys. This is seen in the occurrence of motor rhythms, very fast, and very energetic. Prokofiev’s lyrical style refers to his title ‘master of melody,’ where he had this incredible ability to produce the most beautiful sounding lyrical melodies. His last element grotesque features the scherzo-like style, meaning joke and light-hearted.
In The Fight, the classical music style is prominent with hints of Prokofiev’s innovative artistry. The piece uses balanced phrases and follows the binary form, which coexists with his unique modernism, experimental harmonic language that includes changes in melody, orchestration, and rhythm. As well as the repetitive intensity of melodic figures, seen in the whirling music of this sword-fighting scene.
The music for The Rumble scene in the musical West Side Story reflects Bernstein’s style. His music is known to be successful in both classical and popular music (commercially oriented music like jazz), highlighting his flamboyant and skillful flair. Bernstein worked in a diverse range of genres, including orchestral and vocal works, classical ballet, opera, musical theatre, and chamber works. His great passion and brilliance shine through his compositions, with mastering balanced and spacing sonorities, using brass in the high register, and idiomatic writing that shows off each instrument to its best advantage. Bernstein’s compositions consist of dissonance, jazzy rhythms, and difficult melodies.
In The Rumble, the classical style is represented with the use of symphony orchestral instruments, yet Bernstein’s flamboyant and commercially orientated style shines through the piece. As the melody is
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