Final DMA Recital Prospectus

Miles Massicotte, piano

Spring 2018

“The Final Four Piano Sonatas of Sergei Prokofiev”

The nine piano sonatas of Sergei Prokofiev survey the composer’s entire

compositional career, and represent one of the most significant contributions to the genre

by a twentieth-century composer. In my final DMA recital, I will present the last four of

these sonatas, the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth, written between the years of 1940 and

1947. Commonly referred to as the “War Sonatas,” the sixth (op. 82), seventh (op. 83),

and eighth (op. 84) sonatas are among Prokofiev’s most famous compositions, and typify

the composer’s aggressive and extroverted style.1 The ninth sonata (op. 103), in contrast,

is a more intimate and quiet work.2 I chose this program for two main reasons. Firstly,

Prokofiev wrote prolifically for the piano throughout his life, and as these four sonatas

are among his most substantial compositions for the instrument, they are crucially

important pieces to examine in assessing Prokofiev’s mature style. Secondly, although

the pieces were all composed within a relatively short period, especially the “War

Sonatas” (composed simultaneously), they display a huge variety of affects, moods, and

compositional techniques, while also being written very idiosyncratically for the piano.

Throughout all four sonatas, Prokofiev shows his grasp of the history of the sonata genre,

utilizing well-trodden classical forms. At the same time, the sonatas are filled with formal

innovations, integrating motivic development and non-functional harmony into larger

1
Boris Berman notes in his book that the terminology “War Sonatas” is not used by Russian musicologists.
Boris Berman, Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 144.
2
Svatoslav Richter, who premiered the composition, referred to it as “domestic.”

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formal structures. I believe the sonatas are among the great masterpieces written for piano

by any composer, and are four of the most important compositions in twentieth century

music.

Sergei Prokofiev was born in 1891 in Ukraine, and was a child prodigy as both a

pianist and composer. His first teacher was his mother, also a pianist, and the young

Prokofiev finished his first compositions at the age of five, and his first opera at ten.

Prokofiev began studying with Gliere at the age of 11, who encouraged Prokofiev to

write pieces in the form of a cycle, and later with Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg

Conservatory.3 In 1913 Prokofiev traveled to London, where he met Diaghilev. Their

relationship would blossom into a fifteen-year collaboration that brought Prokofiev

visibility and international acclaim. In the midst of the October Revolution and ensuing

events in the Soviet Union, he moved to the United States in 1918, where he had

significant success and professional obligations. He also met his future wife Lina there,

and in 1923 they married and moved to Paris to begin their family life together.4 A series

of articles written that same year in the Russian journal “K novïm beregam” praised

Prokofiev’s music and helped bring it to audiences in the Soviet Union, where it would

be performed with regularity. Despite Prokofiev’s general success both abroad and in the

USSR, suffered from homesickness and greatly desired to move back to the Soviet

Union, if somewhat cautiously due to the political climate.5 He returned to the Soviet

Union in 1936. Most of his works from this era are either directly politically influenced,

3
Dorothea Redepenning. “Prokofiev, Sergey”, Grove Music Online, 2001,
https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.22402
4
Chiann-Yi Liao, “Trilogy-Prokofiev’s War Sonatas: A Study on Pianism Diagnosis and Performance
Practice”, (doctoral thesis, Ohio State University, 1999), 5
5
Redepenning, “Prokofiev, Sergey”

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such as Zdravitsa, op. 85 (1939), an overt work of propaganda in praise of Stalin, or

written in genres conforming to official Soviet cultural policy, such as his Four Marches

for wind band, op.69 (1935–7). However, with the advent of World War II, Prokofiev

began writing more works without extra-musical agendas, such as the “War Sonatas.”

Ultimately, a government proclamation in 1948 would ban many of Prokofiev’s works

from being performed, including the Sixth Sonata. This coupled with a humiliating

incident at the Soviet Union of Composers, as well as the arrest and incarceration in a

labor camp of Prokofiev’s wife only three days after the proclamation, would defeat

Prokofiev emotionally.6 His compositional output dwindled, he withdrew from public

life, and in 1953 died from a cerebral hemorrhage (on the same day as Stalin).

Prokofiev worked on the ten movements of all three “War Sonatas” at the same

time. The first sonata to be finished was the Sixth, in 1940. Prokofiev premiered the piece

at a private concerted attended by Sviatoslav Richter, as well as Richter’s teacher,

Heinrich Neuhaus. This was Richter’s first exposure to the music of Prokofiev, and the

young pianist was enamored with the sonata.7 His performance of it began a fruitful

professional relationship with Prokofiev, and Richter would go on to premiere the

Seventh and Ninth sonatas as well.

Cast in four movements, and set in key of A-major, the sonata begins with a

notable motive in thirds that is developed throughout the movement and reappears in the

fourth movement as well. An extremely aggressive movement, the thematic material is

presented in a clear pattern of exposition – development – recapitulation in the manner of

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Prokofiev premiered for them his opera “The Story of a Real Man.” It was virulently derided, the score
ripped up him in front of him, and declared to be unperformable, and banned from public premiere.
7
“The remarkable stylistic clarity and the structural perfection of the music amazed me. I had never heard
anything like it.” – Richter, on the Sixth Sonata

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a classical sonata-allegro form. However, where a key feature of the classical sonata-

allegro form is modulation to key centers related to the tonic, especially the dominant,

and the transformation of the thematic material through these modulations, Prokofiev’s

harmonic progressions are often non-functional, and the dominant harmony is rarely

present. Instead, the sonata-allegro form is largely delineated by the presentation of

successive themes and their development via motivic transformations. The remarkably

long development of this movement takes the main motives of the themes presented in

the exposition and recombines them somewhat freely in a variety of settings, in different

transpositions and registral shifts, as well as rhythmic transformations, all while

maintaining an ostinato pedal point on the note B for almost the entire section. The effect

is one of chaos, while the materials used to create the effect are all organically drawn

from the movement’s previous material. Prokofiev also uses pianistic devices to heighten

this effect, such as asking the performer to perform certain chords “col pugno,” “with a

fist.” The second movement, marked “Allegretto,”,has a dance-like charm, and is in an A

– B – A form, with the A sections exhibiting a lightness in character as they pass through

a remarkable number of key centers. Prokofiev also amplifies this light effect by

demanding that the pianist perform extremely quick figures in the left-hand that consist

of downward arpeggios separated by two octaves in immediate succession.8 This

lightness is contrasted by a secondary theme with a heavy and grotesque character. The B

section is marked “Meno mosso,” and is in B-flat minor, a tritone apart from the

movements home key of E-major. It is surprisingly dark and lyrical juxtaposed to the

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I am reminded of a commonly repeated anecdote about Prokofiev that he used to go atop the roof of the
St. Petersburg Conservatory and spit at passersby below, for fun. The repetition of these left-hand figures
sound to me like the spit coming from very high and hitting the ground over and over, and the staccato
major chords with an added dissonance in the right-hand increase the sense of sarcasm.

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sarcasm of the A sections. The third movement is marked “Tempo di valzer lentissimo,”

and contains long and sustained beautiful melodies that are made bittersweet by dissonant

harmonies underneath. Modulations are conducted throughout the movement largely

through non-functional chord progressions that utilize chromatic voice leading to

strengthen their pull towards their destination key centers. This movement is also in an A

– B – A form, with the A sections beginning in C major and the B section in A-flat major.

Prokofiev uses a metric modulation from 9/8 in the A sections to 3/4 in the B section via

a dove-tail effect where the metric modulation is introduced one measure at a time. The

final movement is marked Vivace, and is a toccata-like rondo with the form A – B – A –

C – A – D – A – C – A – B – A, with a coda. This kind of palindromic form would also

be utilized in the final movement of the seventh sonata. The motion in this movement

only relents for flashbacks from motivic material from three separate motives from the

first movement. In particular, the easily recognizable opening motive in thirds from the

first movement is gradually interpolated with the main thematic material of this

movement. The other motive consists of repeated notes in triplets, and it appears several

times throughout the first movement, but only in its original form, and is never developed

until the coda of this final movement.

The Seventh Sonata, initially sketched alongside the Sixth, was put aside (as well

as the sketches for the Eighth) until the Sixth was completed. It was finished in 1942.

More than any of the other Prokofiev piano sonatas it has become an absolute staple in

the piano literature. Premiered by Richter in January 1943, he learned the piece in four

days. A few months after the premiere, Prokofiev was awarded the prestigious Stalin

Prize for the composition.

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 Prokofiev lists the sonata’s key as “B-flat major,” but the piece bears no key

signature, and furthermore a sense of tonality is obscure at best in the sonata’s opening.9

Shorter in length than the 6th, it is structured in three movements: Allegro inquieto,

Andante caloroso, and Precipitato. The first movement is in 6/8 meter with a driven

character, reminiscent of a march. The sonata’s opening theme, played in unison by both

hands, is tonally ambiguous, but contains the intervallic germs from which the rest of the

themes of the sonata are born. Prokofiev constructs the rest of the movement using this

opening motive in a highly organic way, including the second theme, which is in 9/8

meter and in a slower tempo than the opening. Both themes, despite their different

meters, tempos, and articulations, are distant and cold. Cast in a sonata-allegro form, as

with the first movement of the Sixth sonata, the violent development section emerges

from and encroaches upon the second theme. From the initial impetus of the movement

the music is almost never allowed to cadence, and the first B-flat major chord sounded in

the entire movement is its final chord. After this intense movement, the warmth of the

second movement comes as a relief. An extremely songful movement in A – B – A form

cast in the distant key of E-major, a remarkable passage of the B section paints a picture

of devastation by inverting the movements main rising half-step motive, set against a

background of distant pianissimo chords. The famous final movement is in a relentless

7/8 meter, and is in an A – B – A form. Featuring a repeated ostinato motive in the left

hand, it draws its excitement from an ascending chord progression that repeatedly draws

closer to the dominant but delays its resolution.

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Prokofiev’s biographer Nestyev stated that this sonata is “the most radically modern of Prokofiev’s piano
sonatas, surpassing in this respect even the Sixth Sonata, with its fierce raging and moments of almost
mystical aloofness.”

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 The Eighth sonata was completed in 1944, and premiered by renowned pianist

Emil Gilels. The longest of these four sonatas, it is the final of the three “War Sonatas”

and generally more reflective in character. Prokofiev recycled for this sonata material

from unfinished incidental music to works by Alexander Pushkin, The Queen of Spades

(op. 70) and Eugene Onegin (op. 71). This sonata still shares the extroversion of the

previous two sonatas, but its introspection at the onset of the first movement looks

forward to the quiet nature of the Ninth sonata.

Marked Andante dolce, the first movement begins with long expansive legato

singing lines, in contrast to the nonlegato punchiness of the first movements of the Sixth

and Seventh. Prokofiev again utilizes sonata-allegro form for his guiding overall

structure, but here shares more features in common with the classical sonata-allegro, such

as cadencing his themes in the tonic and subdominant keys. Prokofiev’s use of non-

functional harmony in the previous sonatas often either returns to key centers or finds

new ones in unexpected ways, but in this sonata themes often end with a typical V – I

cadence. ( Pocopiu

forshaowind development - animato merging into development

In bass ( theme opening)

Goes back to slow opening music… comes 2nd theme

Fermata

Then full fleged development

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The stormy development of this movement takes place in a much faster tempo than the

opening, and is less motivically unified than the developments of the Sixth and Seventh

sonatas, featuring extensive new material;

Right hand arpeggios ( found in forshaowing)

6.22 – 1st thee comes back—remembering the theme…development again

Climax development section 7.00

First theme comes bac augment 7.37…reminicense..an at 7.55…then at 8.10 – theme 2

Andante is still development

Anante dolce- recap

the first theme’s appearance in the recapitulation afterwards is virtually identical to how

it appears in the exposition, and the second theme reappears transposed to the tonic key,

B-flat major. All in all, this movement emulates the classical sonata-allegro form the

most amongst the first movements of these four sonatas.

The second movement moves to the key of D-flat major, and features numerous

variations on the main theme, mainly textural. The relative sparsity and lack of formal

development in this movement is in contrast to the previous movement, which lasts about

fifteen minutes.

Left han is I-V-V I…the whole time!!!

Then moves it half step …but same thing..

The movement is( A-ABA- 16.48) ( dreamy midlle section…nebulous key) (17.18 -1st

theme – in stretto – overlapping it) 18-17 – opening sectionwith more cariation – just one

A)

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Coda 18.32

The third and final movement is a tarantella-like sonata-rondo, where the sonata’s initial

theme is repeatedly reprised as in a rondo, but the second theme is transposed in the

recapitulation to match the tonic key of the first theme.

A- B flat

B- E minor ( eight notes with whole note)

Second theme - 19.49 - quarters

Overall, Prokofiev demonstrates a much closer affinity to traditional forms in this sonata,

and a significantly reduced used of dissonance. Nevertheless, innovation still abounds,

such as the middle section that switches abruptly from 12/8 time to 3/4 time and takes the

form of a kind of demented waltz. At the end of this section, the haunting second theme

from the first movement reappears, before the recapitulation occurs and the sonatas

blazing coda erupts

Recap:

Small B

Second theme

coda : 27.40 ( starts with the small b

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 Separate from the “War Sonatas,” the Ninth sonata by Prokofiev is one that rarely

graces the concert hall, despite being the favorite sonata of both Prokofiev and Richter.10

This is perhaps due to the character of this work being markedly different from the

previous three sonatas, all of which maintain strong popularly amongst pianists. Although

written in 1947, it was not premiered until 1951, by Richter, most likely the result of

Prokofiev’s being blacklisted in 1948.

Perhaps the feature that distinguishes the sonata’s intimacy and introversion the

most is its simplicity. In four movements, marked Allegro, Allegro strepitoso, Andante

tranquillo, and Allegro con brio, ma non troppo presto, Prokofiev evokes a sense of child-

like naivety through several techniques.

In the first movement, the first theme is characterized by a repetitive rhythm of almost

entirely quarter-notes throughout, and all on the white keys of the piano. This kind of

“white” music – music written entirely using the white keys of the piano – is something

Prokofiev enjoyed writing throughout his career, recalling childhood both in the

elementary nature of C major, both theoretically and technically.11 The movement also

follows a form resembling sonata-allegro, however the harmony is at times often highly

oblique and non-functional.

Second thme -with 32n note pick up- highly chromatic

3rd theme – ona 5th…in g major…in dominant key

Poco meno mosso – closing theme..codetta min 2.25- fermata close of expo

10
Berman , 193-4
11
As a child learning the piano, one almost without exception begins studying in C-major, no matter what
method is used.

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Development- motivic development..combine 1st and 3rdn themes,,,an 2nd theme

End of develop – we hear 1st theme in home key……but 8 mm later…double bar(5.05) is

actualy recap with the complete theme..but instead of in c…its in B major

Recap:

So theme 1,,,,2,, in b major…moulates rback to c for theme 3 ( 6.17)…

Then has theme 4

Then codetta in C major

Then at 7.06 preview of mvt 2 ( left hand triplets)

Prokofiev at the end of this movement introduces a technique that he also uses at the end

of the second and third movements: the first theme of the following movement is

foreshadowed in the final bars of the preceding movement, connecting the four

movements.

The second movement, in A – B – A form, has a scherzo-like mood, and again utilizes a

paucity of materials as its foundation. The main theme is an ascending and descending

major scale, and the B section is a dialogue between outlines of major and minor triads in

the right hand, and a winding chromatic scale in the left hand, similar to an invention.

B section – andantino (8.50) cadence in Major…an then back to theme A

Preview of 3rd movement 9.58 ( its in tempo of mvt 2 ( ouble faster)..an in left han

augmented

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The third movemen it is a series of variations on a slow, wistful theme in A-flat major,

similar to the structure of the second movement of the Eighth sonata,

-features a middle section with more “white” music, a rollicking series of arpeggiated C-

major triads. ( fast sixteenths)

Slow theme A comes back…with a full variation…and a transition variation (combining

A an B theme)

B section comes back 16.30

16.49- second theme from second movement- comes back in left and

Transition

A theme with a vaiation 17.35

Preview comes in 18.28 ( allegro)

Anante – coda

Finally, the last movement is a sonata rondo,

Rono theme – has 2 parts

B 20.00

A comes back tempo I

C – Andantino

Transition..and Back to A .

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A is at 22.05

B poco meno mosso 22.38 ( transposed to C major ) sonata rondo – makes it a sonata

rondo – in expo was in Dominnt…in recap is in tonic

and in the coda of the movement the theme of the first movement emerges out of a trilled

sonority in quintuplets in the left-hand, interrupting the previous music ( theme is in rght

hand colce marking) after 5tuplets stop…directly quotes 1st mvt. This trilled effect

vanishes, and measures of the first movement are quoted verbatim, giving way to a poetic

coda.

Last 2 lines coda ( eviates frommvt 1)

Bibliography:

Bass, Richard. “Prokofiev's Technique of Chromatic Displacement.” Music Analysis 7,

no. 2 (1988): 197-214.

Berman, Boris. Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.

Liao, Chiann-Yi. “Trilogy-Prokofiev’s War Sonatas: A Study on Pianism Diagnosis and

Performance Practice.” Doctoral thesis, Ohio State University, 1999.

Redepenning, Dorothea. “Prokofiev, Sergey.” Grove Music Online, 2001.

doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.22402

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Rifkin, Deborah Anne. “Making it Modern: Chromaticism and Phrase Structure in

Twentieth-Century Tonal Music.” Theory and Practice 31 (2006):133-158

Rifkin, Deborah Anne. “Tonal Coherence in Prokofiev's Music: A Study of the

Interrelationships of Structure, Motives, and Design.” Doctoral thesis, University

of Rochester, 2000.

Tsai, Chia-hui. “Sonata Form Innovations in Prokofiev’s Nine Piano Sonatas.” Doctoral

thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2003.

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