Monday, October 14, 2024

Today's Listening: Prokofiev, Hahn

It is written somewhere that modern composers can't write a good melody. This is obviously wrong, but still it hangs around like an unwelcome dinner guest. This is one of the best counter-examples. The melody at the opening of Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto is lovely:


 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice melody, but it’s more than 100 years old (1915). Does this still qualify as modern?

Bryan Townsend said...

Prokofiev is certainly not a contemporary composer, but I think he qualifies as a modernist. Modernism is an early 20th century movement in the arts that replaced the forms and sentiments of romanticism with experimentation and objectivity.