Gavotte from “Classical Symphony”

Sergei Prokofiev, arr. Peter Guthrie

Composed:
1916-1917 Arranged:
2000 Grouping:
SSAATTBb 

At the age of 12, an interview with Glazunov gained Porkofiev a place the St. Petersburg Conservatory. There he studied under Rimsky-Korsakov and others, and gained a reputation as a rebellious but brilliant performer. Along with other Soviet composers (Schostakovich, Rachmaninov etc.) he was later censured by the communist government for unsuitable tendencies in his music, but promised to search for a new compositional voice and remained in Moscow. He died on the same day as Josef Stalin.

Given his early rebellious nature it is perhaps odd that his first symphony was written in a very classical style, but Prokofiev claimed he wanted to write a symphony as his hero Haydn might have done had he been alive in the 20th century. However, despite its adherence to classical convention and orchestration it is undoubtedly modern in execution. This short gavotte is the third movement, and was arranged for Plural Sax in 2000.