Lieutenant Kijé (Prokofiev)
Sergei Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé (Russian: Поручик Киже, Poruchik Kizhe) music 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.
Lieutenant Kijé
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.
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.
Suite[edit]
Composition[edit]
Soon after the film's release, Prokofiev received an invitation from the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra to create an orchestral suite from his Kijé film music[24]—probably the first instance of a film score being adapted into a significant musical work.[28] The guiding light behind the invitation was Boris Gusman, the assistant director of the Bolshoi Theatre and a leading film critic. Gusman was a strong supporter of Prokofiev's ambition to rehabilitate himself in the Soviet Union, and had negotiated with the Moscow orchestra for a series of concerts that would showcase the returned composer's talent.[24]
Prokofiev's task was not straightforward; the film's 15 minutes of musical material were fragmentary and scored for a small chamber orchestra.[24] According to Prokofiev's own account, producing the suite was "a devilish job",[29] which, he said, "gave me much more trouble than the music for the film itself, since I had to find the proper form, re-orchestrate the whole thing, polish it up and even combine some of the themes."[20] He wanted the suite to appeal to Soviet audiences hearing concert music for the first time. In an article in Izvestia in 1934 he wrote of such music: "Above all, it must be melodious; moreover the melody must be simple and comprehensible without being repetitive or trivial ... The simplicity should not be an old-fashioned simplicity but a new simplicity".[30] He worked quickly, and had finished the piece by 8 July 1934.[31] Because it was published (Op. 60) by his regular music publisher in Paris, the French transliteration "Kijé" (rather than the American "Kizhe" or any other) was adopted in the work's title.[24][n 2]
Instrumentation[edit]
The Kijé suite is scored for: baritone voice (optional); piccolo; two flutes; two oboes; two clarinets; two bassoons; tenor saxophone; four horns; cornet; two trumpets; three trombones; tuba; bass drum; snare drum; triangle; cymbals; tambourine; sleigh bells; celesta; piano; harp; and strings.[31][33]