Peter From Peter And The Wolf

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Peter and the Wolf Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Prokofiev Peter and the wolf is a composition written by Serge Prokofiev in 1936. It was made to introduce children to classical music. Prokofiev chose the strings for Peter because they can be bowed sharply and quickly. He based the personality of the animals for the instruments, and because Peter is a little cheerful boy, grandpa is old, grumpy and cranky that’s why he is deeply played by the bassoon. The duck is played by the oboe because it gives a lazy, waddling tone. The register of the melody is quite high because Peter is young and adventurous. There is a main theme tune that keeps returning. It is very happy, young and grazioso. You can imagine Peter skipping along. The phrases are fairly long it depends whether the strings are playing solo or with other instruments. The contour of the melody is rather bouncy it starts medium and gradually gets louder the dramatically does down a little lower then returns to medium. So there is a small crescendo then diminuendo and then a tempo. There are quite a few leaps and the music accelerando. The main theme tune repeats about twice and often a different phrase is played, added or accompanies it. Such as the slight run up at the end of Peters find melody were Peter must be excited to see his friend the bird. The tempo is reasonably fast but changes when played with other instruments or in different parts of the story. Some beats of the bar are more accented or played differently and it leaps up at the end of the bar in some phrases, but the tempo stays mainly the same with a few exceptions. The volume of the music changes quite often, such as when the wolf (3 horns) or hunters (kettle drums) come out they are always mezzo forte or forte. But the cat is low, sly and andantino while the bird is high pitched, allegro and mostly dolce. Peters music is allegretto and

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