Sergey Prokofiev diaries: 9 January 1916

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

67

text excerpt

Today I succeeded in arranging dual rehearsals: one with the strings and one with the wind, proceeding simultaneously in the hall and in the foyer. The string rehearsal was a very lively affair and I brought the violins out in a sweat learning the passage-work. The harmonics were less satisfactory, squealing and out of tune. A lot of the musicians laughed, but I paid no attention. And when some of them pulled indignant faces, seeing for example that they had to play a C while their neighbour at the next desk had a C sharp, I explained as follows: 'The note is written as a C sharp as a convenience to you, rather than D flat, because the voices are progressing in minor ninths with suspended thirds and a flattened fifth.' Not a syllable of this elucidation did they understand, but because I rapped it out in a confident fusillade of incontestable conviction, laucnhing into it without a second's thought the instant the question was raised, they immediately lapsed into silence, unwilling to admit that they had no idea what I was talking about.

excerpt from 'Sergey Prokofiev diaries: 9 January 1916' pp. 67 (185 words)

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