# Prokofiev Symphony No 5 : Industrial images ?



## jives11 (Jun 20, 2010)

greetings,

I have loved this piece of music for 20 years or more. It's one of the few pieces I simply happened upon as opposed to being suggested by someone.

I've read some biographical information about Prokofiev but there are still questions I have about this piece. While I know composers are normally reluctant to attribute a specific programme to a work, this symphony appears (to me) to contain several vivid images portrayed through the music . 

In the Allegro marcato we have what seems clearly to be an express train, which changes pace. This is sometimes noted

But also in the adagio, to my ears, as the music builds to a discordant climax we have a very vivid portrayal of a machine shop or foundry with showers of sparks, a steam hammer, crashes of machines and final factory hooter or klaxon.

then of course there is the strange ending to the piece which I can only describe as attack of the automatons, where he seems to suggest some kind of mechanical devices or robots which get faster and faster, crash and appear to be left twitching at the end.

Perhaps this is just how it sounds to me, but I've often wondered if Prokofiev was warning of the dehumanising effect of the industrial age ? I'm guessing as the work was composed in the war, he might have had the massive armament factories of the Soviet Union in mind.

His inscription states it as "a hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit." I'm not sure if this was partly to make it acceptable to the Soviet authorities at the time.

Anyway it's puzzled me for a long time. If you don't know the piece, it is wonderful


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

Im confident the inscription quoted was indeed an appeasement.
All I have read so far suggests the symphony depicts some aspect of the great war.


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## Falstaft (Mar 27, 2010)

Cool take on the work, Jives. Prokofiev does the whole assault-of-mechanization thing really well. Don't you love the way he gets the train running again after the trio of the "Allegro Marcato" -- definitely one of my favorite moments in SP.

Have you heard his 2nd Symphony? For my money, the first movement contains some of the most harsh automatons set to score by anyone (esp. the 2nd (?) subject). You might also want to check out his "factory ballet" _Steel Step_.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I never thought of it that way before. Very interesting insight!

Prokofiev could've been warning the world about industrialization/dehumanization. Or, he absolutely loved it! After all, he was a very sarcastic personality.


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## SuperTonic (Jun 3, 2010)

Prokofiev lived in a Communist country. More importantly, he lived in a Communist country that insisted that its artist produce art that was consistent with the Communist ideology, which was intimately tied to industrialization.
I think the most likely interpretation of the mechanistic sound of parts of the 5th symphony is that he was just trying to write something that would be considered acceptable by the Communist party.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I really hear Stalin's terror in the slow movement - a protest against & portrayal of oppression, brutality, injustice...


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## jives11 (Jun 20, 2010)

I have the Karajan BPO recording on CD but decided to get the Dutton CD of Koussevitzky with the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1946. I think this was previously released on RCA. While the sound is a bit dated, it's not too bad at all, and the performance is electric - really worth getting if you love this piece
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prokofiev-Piano-Concerto-No-3-Symphony/dp/B00004YU95/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1277933481&sr=8-1


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## Morris Billy (Jun 30, 2010)

The Complete Symphonies: Sergey Prokofiev, Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra, John Alley: Music thanks


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

*I love the adagio*

I think this is the very best orchestral composicion he had ever composed...No machines, just feelings, tender feelings






Wonderful...calm..like death itself...I thik I<d lik eto death with this music...I<d love to.

Martin


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

*I love the adagio*

I think this is the very best orchestral composicion he had ever composed...No machines, just feelings, tender feelings






Wonderful...calm..like death itself...I thik I'd like to die with this music...I'd love to.

Martin


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## Guest (Jan 2, 2011)

It could also be that Prokofiev was a composer, that is, someone who works in the medium of sound, using rhythms and harmonies and melodies to create something to listen to. Image suggests something visual rather than something aural. There are plenty of pieces that use the sonic and rhythmic elements of locomotion in a direct and obvious way, from Honegger's _Pacific 231_ to Marchetti's _Train de Nuit._ But even those pieces have a reality that's other than that of depiction.

Prokofiev's symphony is first of all in a particular musical tradition, that of "the symphony." And that is more or less a formal thing. This one switches the order of movements two and three, for instance. And you can only say/notice that if you know that in the tradition, the slow movement generally comes second.

It is, in any event, a musical thing, combinations and developments of tones and rhythms and motifs. And that's pretty fine all on its own, without any reference to anything outside of music at all.


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