
Composing for the Red Screen
Prokofiev and Soviet Film
Kevin Bartig(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 6. November 2014
Book
Paperback/Softback
248 pages
978-0-19-021328-2 (ISBN)
Description
Sound film captivated Sergey Prokofiev during the final two decades of his life: he considered composing for nearly two dozen pictures, eventually undertaking eight of them, all Soviet productions. Hollywood luminaries such as Gloria Swanson tempted him with commissions, and arguably more people heard his film music than his efforts in all other genres combined. Films for which Prokofiev composed, in particular those of Sergey Eisenstein, are now classics of world cinema. Drawing on newly available sources, Composing for the Red Screen examines - for the first time - the full extent of this prodigious cinematic career.
Author Kevin Bartig examines how Prokofiev's film music derived from a self-imposed challenge: to compose "serious" music for a broad audience. The picture that emerges is of a composer seeking an individual film-music voice, shunning Hollywood models and objecting to his Soviet colleagues' ideologically expedient film songs. Looking at Prokofiev's film music as a whole - with well-known blockbusters like Alexander Nevsky considered alongside more obscure or aborted projects - reveals that there were multiple solutions to the challenge, each with varying degrees of success. Prokofiev carefully balanced his own populist agenda, the perceived aesthetic demands of the films themselves, and, later on, Soviet bureaucratic demands for accessibility.
Author Kevin Bartig examines how Prokofiev's film music derived from a self-imposed challenge: to compose "serious" music for a broad audience. The picture that emerges is of a composer seeking an individual film-music voice, shunning Hollywood models and objecting to his Soviet colleagues' ideologically expedient film songs. Looking at Prokofiev's film music as a whole - with well-known blockbusters like Alexander Nevsky considered alongside more obscure or aborted projects - reveals that there were multiple solutions to the challenge, each with varying degrees of success. Prokofiev carefully balanced his own populist agenda, the perceived aesthetic demands of the films themselves, and, later on, Soviet bureaucratic demands for accessibility.
Reviews / Votes
A long-awaited, much-needed contribution to Prokofiev studies and Soviet cinema history. In Kevin Bartig's account, Alexander Nevsky, a showcase score of enduring appeal, becomes utterly fresh, and Ivan the Terrible even more compellingly bizarre. Highlights include a meticulous chronicle of the unfinished film The Queen of Spades, one of the great might-have-beens in the Soviet canon. Bartig also makes the case for the commercial (or at least educational) release of Tonya, a propagandistic film of modest musical appeal, while also filling in details of Prokofiev's service to Soviet power during the Second World War. * Simon Morrison, author of The People's Artist: Prokofiev's Soviet Years *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
50 music examples and 26 photographs
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
428 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-021328-2 (9780190213282)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
04/2013
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€22.99
Available for download

E-Book
04/2013
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€18.49
Available for download
Person
Kevin Bartig is Assistant Professor of Musicology at Michigan State University.
Author
Assistant Professor of MusicologyAssistant Professor of Musicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Content
Acknowledgements ; Editorial Matters ; Abbreviations ; Introduction ; Chapter 1. New Media, New Means: Lieutenant Kizhe, 1932-34 ; Chapter 2. The Queen of Spades, The 1937 Pushkin Jubilee, and Repatriation ; Chapter 3. The Year 1938: Halcyon Days in Hollywood and an Unanticipated Collaboration ; Chapter 4. Alexander Nevsky and the Stalinist Museum ; Chapter 5. The Wartime Films, 1940-43 ; Chapter 6. Ivan the Terrible and the Russian National Tradition ; Epilogue ; Appendix ; Works cited ; Index