Peter & The WolfMusic Composed by Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953)

Sergei Prokofiev was born in Sontsovka, Ukraine. He had one brother. His mother was a pianist and his first music teacher and his father was a carpenter.He had written his first Opera by the age of 9 and established himself as a child prodigy.In 1936 he wrote music to the story of Peter & The Wolf to instruct children in the instruments of the symphony orchestra.

What is special about Prokofiev’s Peter & The Wolf is that the music, and

the way the instruments themselves are played, tells the story. This is called

P_____________________ M__________________.

Listen to the introduction of Peter & The Wolf and put the correct instrument(s) name next to each character.

• A Bird – _______________________________

• A Duck – ______________________________

• A Cat – ________________________________

• Grandfather – _______________________________

• The Wolf – ________________________________

• Peter – ____________________________________

• The Hunters Guns – ________________________________

Name ...................................... Class ..............

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Another musical technique Prokovief used is giving all the instruments/characters in the story their own melodies or themes. This means that each character in the story has its own leitmotiv (a recurring little theme) played by one/many instruments of the orchestra.

See if you can identify which leitmotiv belongs to which character and instrument?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Name ...................................... Class ..............

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1. ___________________________________________________________

2. __________________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________________

4. ___________________________________________________________

5. ___________________________________________________________

6. ___________________________________________________________

Question…

For each of the instruments that are associated with a character in the story, write a few adjectives to describe the sound they make. This is called analysing the Tone Colour of the instruments. You may even be able to say how they performer plays his/her instrument.

1. ___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________________

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4. ____________________________________________________________

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5. ___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

6. ___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

Name ...................................... Class ..............

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