Analysis Of Bernstein’s And Prokofiev’s Works
Contextual issues in the 20th century such as Stalin and McCarthyism impacted music immensely. 20th century music was a time where music branched from baroque and romantic to a ‘new classical’ being neoclassical and for many composers it would be difficult to have a particular experimental and innovative style that audiences would appreciate.
Prokofiev
In Russia, it was a time of the great purge, ruled by Joseph Stalin who was the dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and under Stalin’s power, the Soviet Union was transformed from a peasant society into an industrial and military powerhouse. He was known to rule by terror, and millions of his own citizens died during his brutal reign. numerous famous composers in russia like Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich were held by Stalin and many of the composer's works would receive claim under the careful eye of him. However Stalin was very difficult to please and composers would have to stay in line with the political pressures of Soviet life. All art would have to fit into Stalin’s criteria of social realism and as for Shostakovich, his music was very experimental and crazy which did not follow the ‘russian way ’. For these composers, the time period in which Stalin ruled definitely shaped the work they made and often you can hear their frustration in the music about conflicting emotional views and ideas of communism. At this time it was also very difficult for russian composers to receive fame as they were often ignored. In the Dance of the Knights scene, Prokofiev created the piece through the lens of Socialist Realism, the knights represent the old nobility of the Russian Empire against which young, progressive Stalin-Romeo rebels.
For Prokofiev, the many years spent at St. Petersburg (1904-1914) was a period of swift creative growth. The institute allowed him to learn the basic foundations of the academic fundamentals of music, but Prokofiev seeked for musical innovation and his enthusiasms were supported by progressive circles advocating musical renewal. Prokofiev’s musical talent developed rapidly, as he began to study compositions from Igor Stravinsky, particularly the early ballets, but maintained a critical attitude toward his countryman’s brilliant innovations. In 1914 Prokofiev became acquainted with the great ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev, who then became one of his most influential advisers for the next decade and a half. Also influential was theatre, poetry, and painting. It was very insightful to Prokofiev and played a very important role in his development for his own compositions. He was very intrigued by the work of modernist Russian poets and paintings of the Russian followers of Paul Cezanne and Pablo Picasso and by the theatrical ideas of Vsevolod Meyerhold, Prokofiev took these inspirations and interpreted it into his music. This is done in Dance of the Knights where Prokofiev wrote his piece quite literally reflecting the knights, nobility and power through a ponderous and knightly feel which is very surreal to the shakespearean storyline.
The revolution came to Russia in 1917, playing a significant part in Prokofiev’s life. He decided to leave on his own accord to New York where he could work in peace. He had a very short lived and limited success. Prokofiev didn't like hackneyed methods and ultimately was very creative and innovative and through this he had a very creative and determined personality, however, the American orchestra’s didn’t care much for this style of music. He then went to Paris and similarly to the United States they wanted everyone to be the same and had no interest in his clashing dissonance and complicated pieces of work. “ I’ve got to talk to people who are of my own flesh and blood, so that they can give me back something I lack here - their song, my song,” this is what he wrote to a friend after travelling to these countries. He returned back to Russia voluntary (1934) and was blacklisted soon after and was carefully watched by Stalin, but people still wanted to listen to his music. Prokofiev composed many pieces but Stalin’s reign was very powerful and he held all control over Prokofiev and his work.
To this day, the 1935 version of Romeo and Juliet, which contains a happy version of repression against artists, writers, and composers in the mid-1930s. Its success, however, was neither ending where Romeo and Juliet two both live, has never been performed. Its origins as a Soviet ballet written during the height of Stalin’s power were immediate nor easy. Romeo and Juliet was composed during the period when Prokofiev was spending nearly all of his time in the USSR, but had still not committed to relocating his family and giving up his apartment in Paris. Nearly all of his commissions by this time were from Soviet sources, as Stalin was sensoring prokofiev and all his work. Prokofiev used the commission for Romeo and Juliet as leverage for securing an apartment in Moscow, as well as to obtain travel documents for himself and his family.
After Prokofiev had composed his new composition Romeo and Juliet, not long after it suggested to become a ballet coming from the soviet, director Radlov and this would become the first ballet in Russia. However, Kirov had been replaced with Zhdanov and he thought that Radlov was much too radical to choreograph the ballet and as Zhdanov was the communist party he took over alongside his friend Lavrosky, working together to stage and produce the ballet. Once they began, Kirov put a stop to the commission because they knew it wasn’t going to work with the directors.
Bernstein
Similarly, McCarthysm, a part of the Red Scare period of american history (1940s-1950s) produced a series of investigations and hearings to expose supposed communist infiltration of various areas of the U.S. government. Throughout this time, it left many people jobless across America and others facing popular condemnation. This unquestionably contributed to the difficulties that composers may have had with creating new pieces at the time as many innocent people were persecuted of the charge of communism.
Bernstein found inspiration everywhere and played with a voracity and spontaneity that impressed anyone who listened. However, he found himself in and out of work after the summer at tanglewood and took odd jobs transcribing music. However, he was offered a very fortunate position of assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic as the war draft left limited conductors in the states. On November 14, 1943, Leonard Bernstein was called at 9 am, to be given the news that the guest conductor, Bruno Walter had fallen ill and ordered Bernstein to step up and conduct the concert. The young conductor amazed his crowd and his players. Overnight, Bernstein had become a well respected conductor and The New York Times published him on their front page about his outstanding performance. Leornanrd Berstaein then led the Philharmonic 11 times by the end of the season. He was one of the first American-born conductors to lead world-class orchestras.
At one point in Bernstein’s career, he was blacklisted and his work was being deputized. Joseph McCarthy has a maniacal obsession with finding as many communists and Soviet sympathisers as he could, and unfortunately Bernstein was named by Jerome Robbins and was under the watchful eye of the government. It was difficult enough for Bernstein being a gay Jewish man and knew what it meant to be a part of a marginalised community. Luckily for Leornard Bernstein, audiences loved his music too much and was very popular that his work was only affected for around 6 months and then he returned back to his career.
Bernstein always enjoyed both classical and pop music which allowed him to create his first operetta, Candide in 1956. Another major influential style in American 20th century was jazz which impacted the way he would compose his work and Bernstein’s wife was from South America so he listened to many well known pieces of Latin music which he inspired to put into his work of West Side Story. At the same time of creating Candide, he staged a second work collaborating with Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim in creating the musical West Side Story. At the time all creators of West Side Story were convicted as sympathisers, as Jerome Robbins named these men to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the 1950s. As for many other artists at the time, Robbins flirted with communism and post World War II idea of Soviet-American friendship and naming the members of the musical left the artist quite angry. Originally in 1947, Jerome Robbins approached Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Luarents about collaborating to make a musical on the lower East side of Manhattan, however they later changed it to be West Side Story. All artists had to work together to be able to create a musical that changed musicals for years.
