Date of Award

Fall 12-2018

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)

School

Music

Committee Chair

Edward Hafer

Committee Chair School

Music

Committee Member 2

Joseph Brumbeloe

Committee Member 2 School

Music

Committee Member 3

Elizabeth Moak

Committee Member 3 School

Music

Committee Member 4

Douglas Rust

Committee Member 4 School

Music

Abstract

This dissertation provides the piano instructor and performer with a pedagogical guide to selected pieces by Prokofiev ranging in difficulty from intermediate to early-advanced. The pieces chosen for this guide help to address a variety of technical challenges that are essential to studying and performing Prokofiev’s more advanced works.

Chapter I offers an overview of Prokofiev’s musical style and addresses prominent technical challenges from his advanced piano repertoire. Chapter II is a pedagogical guide to the selected pieces, arranged into three levels of difficulty. For ease of reference, tables outlining the pieces with their technical challenges are placed at the beginning of Chapter II. The pedagogical discussion focuses on technical challenges, methods to overcome them, and how they relate to passages from Prokofiev’s more challenging works. Additionally, it discusses musical interpretation, considerations for Prokofiev’s style, and offers a formal outline of each work. This dissertation can be used as a simple guide for pianists to approach Prokofiev’s advanced repertoire by first studying his intermediate to early-advanced works. The document acknowledges a few of the composer’s lesser-known and under-performed works in the process.

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