Ivan the Terrible (Russian: Иван Грозный, romanized: Ivan Grozny), Op. 116, is the score composed by Sergei Prokofiev for Sergei Eisenstein's film Ivan the Terrible (1942–45) and its sequel (1946), the first two parts of an incomplete trilogy. The project was Prokofiev's second collaboration with Eisenstein, the first being the popular Alexander Nevsky (1938). The majority of the non-liturgical song texts were written by Vladimir Lugovskoy, who collaborated with Prokofiev on the texts for Alexander Nevsky.

The subject of the "First Tale" (Part 1) is the early years, 1547 to 1565, of the reign of Ivan IV of Russia: his coronation, his intent to curb the powers of the boyars, his wedding, his conquest of Kazan, his almost fatal illness, the poisoning and death of his first wife Anastasia, the formation of the oprichniki, and his abdication.

The "Second Tale" (Part 2), subtitled The Boyar Conspiracy, covers the years 1565 to 1569, and concerns the defection of Prince Kurbsky to Poland-Lithuania, Ivan's disputes with Philip II, Metropolitan of Moscow, the intrigues of the boyars, the excesses of the oprichniki, the attempted coup by the boyars and Ivan's aunt, Yefrosinya Staritskaya, the murder of her son Vladimir Staritsky, and Ivan's triumph over his domestic enemies.

The film scores were not published during Prokofiev's lifetime. They were arranged in 1961 as an oratorio for soloists, chorus, and orchestra by Levon Atovmyan, one of Prokofiev's assistants. However, before this version could be performed, the music received its concert premiere in 1961 in Moscow in the form of an oratorio for speaker, soloists, chorus, and orchestra by Abram Stasevich, who had conducted the film soundtracks for Eisenstein.

In 1973 the composer Mikhail Chulaki and choreographer Yuri Grigorovich drew on Prokofiev's film scores to create the ballet Ivan the Terrible, which was given its premiere in 1975. Later performing editions of the scores include an oratorio put together by Michael Lankester (1989), and a concert scenario by Christopher Palmer (1991). The restoration of the entire original film score has been published and recorded.

History

Composition history

Performance history

The film Ivan the Terrible (Part One) premiered on 30 December 1944. The sequel, The Boyar Conspiracy (Part Two), was not shown until 1958.

The concert premiere of the soundtrack film score, as restored by Frank Strobel, took place on 16 September 2016 at the Musikfest Berlin, accompanied by a showing of the film in the Great Hall of the Konzerthaus Berlin. Strobel conducted the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the Rundfunkchor Berlin, with soloists Marina Prudenskaya (contralto) and Alexander Vinogradov (bass).

Publication history

• 1958, 'Songs and Choruses from the Music for the Film Ivan the Terrible', vocal scores, published by Levon Atovmyan in the magazine Sovetskaya Muzyka; the six numbers included:^[1]

1. 'The Black Cloud'
2. 'Ocean-Sea'
3. 'Song of Praise'
4. 'The Swan'
5. 'The Cannoneers'
6. 'Song about the Beaver'

• 1960, 'Songs and Choruses from Cantatas, Oratorios, and Films', published by Levon Atovmyan, vocal scores, Sovetskiy Kompozitor; the numbers from Ivan the Terrible included:^[2]

1. 'The Oath of the Oprichniki'
2. 'Song of Fyodor Basmanov and the Oprichniki'
3. 'Song of the Oprichniki'

• 1997, Ivan the Terrible, manuscript film score, full score, edition by Marina Rakhmanova and Irina Medvedeva, Musikverlage Hans Sikorski, Hamburg^[3]
• 2016, Ivan the Terrible, soundtrack film score, full score, edition by Frank Strobel, Musikverlage Hans Sikorski, Hamburg

Scoring and instrumentation

The two film scores together require a contralto or mezzo-soprano (in 'Ocean-Sea' and 'Song about the Beaver'), a baritone or bass (in 'Song of the Oprichniki'), a bass (in 'Many Years!'), mixed (SATB) chorus, and the following instrumentation:

• Strings: violins I & II, violas, cellos, double basses
• Woodwinds: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, english horn, 3 clarinets, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, 4 bassoons, contrabassoon
• Brass: 5 horns, 5 trumpets, 3 trombones, 2 tubas
• Percussion: timpani, bass drum, snare drum, triangle, tambourine, cymbals, tam-tam, bells, church bells, glockenspiel, xylophone, wood block, whip
• Other: piano, harp

Manuscript numbers

The numbers in Prokofiev's manuscript scores are listed in the table below. The table can be sorted by clicking on the buttons in the title bar. The default sequence can be restored by refreshing the browser (press F5).

Note: The column marked 'S' shows the numbering of the musical numbers by Musikverlage Hans Sikorski, the publisher of the restored manuscript film score (zeros have been inserted before single digit numbers for sorting purposes). 'A' stands for Anhang (the appendix), which includes the liturgical numbers used in the film that were either arranged by Prokofiev or were not written into his score of Ivan the Terrible.