Composing For The Red Screen: Prokofiev And Soviet Film

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. 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.

Review: "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"Bartig's book is essential reading for all Russian film scholars. He makes the technical musicology of Prokofiev's film scores accessible, and he integrates his profound understanding of the composer's work into deeply researched historical studies of each of the films, giving us a world of new insights into a critical facet of film making that is rarely discussed." --Joan Neuberger, author of Ivan the Terrible: The Film Companion"Bartig is the world's leading authority on Prokofiev's film music. Not only is his knowledge compendious, but he is able to look at even the best known scores with fresh eyes, and uncovers some fascinating stories in dark and dusty corners. The book is brimming with insights into Prokofiev's unique gifts and helps us situate the composer better in the Soviet cultural landscape." --Marina Frolova-Walker, author of Music and Soviet Power, 1917-32

Contents: 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

Author Biography: Kevin Bartig is Assistant Professor of Musicology at Michigan State University.