Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Over the last three decades, few music collections have been used in my teaching as regularly and consistently as Prokofiev’s Musiques d’enfants. The simple joy of these twelve intermediate level pieces (UK Grades 3-5) is that they so brilliantly combine genuine creative invention, immediacy of appeal, and immense pedagogic value.
Until now, the go-to edition has been the “Authentic Edition” from Boosey & Hawkes, who owned the distribution rights. Theirs is an attractively presented, reliable, and perfectly usable version, but not entirely without issues. Aside from a couple of tricky passages for which the composer added fingering, none is provided; nor are English translations for the French titles. The introduction and composer biography by Peter Donohoe are neither child-friendly, nor pedagogically insightful for teachers.
With Prokofiev’s music now out of copyright, others are quickly bringing editions to market. Edition Peters have reissued their own earlier version, which in common with the Boosey & Hawkes edition is accurate but rather basic, albeit English titles are added, and their edition benefits from being printed on cream paper.
Now a brand new edition has appeared in the Schott Student Edition series, edited and featuring superb fingering suggestions throughout by the ever-impressive Monika Twelsiek. With English and German translations for the piece titles, a useful Preface, and detailed Teaching Notes for each of the twelve pieces, I think that this is now the edition to go for…
Music for Children
Prokofiev composed his Musiques d’enfants Op.65 in the summer of 1935, at a turning point in his life. Having emigrated to the USA prior to the October Revolution of 1918, his life had been somewhat nomadic, with stints living in Paris, London, Italy, and Germany. Ever longing for his homeland, he now resolved to return to Russia.
That summer, as he stayed with his family at Polenovo (an artist’s retreat then owned by the Bolshoi theatre, situated south of Moscow), his creative energy surged. During those weeks, he composed his great ballet Romeo and Juliet Op.64 for the Bolshoi, as well as the Musiques d’enfants.
Monika Twelsiek notes, in her excellent introduction to the new Schott Student Edition, that as he composed that summer, Prokofiev allowed his seven-year-old son Oleg to paint in the study next to him. Musiques d’enfants certainly speaks both to the composer’s settled mental state, and to his familial happiness.
These 12 poetic pictures have programmatic titles which describe a summer’s day, from morning to nighttime, and speak to a child’s imagination:
- Matin / Morning
- Promenade / Walk
- Historiette / Fairy Tale
- Tarantelle
- Repentirs / Regrets
- Valse / Waltz
- Cortège de sauterelles / Parade of the Grasshoppers
- La Pluie et l’arc-en-ciel / The Rain and the Rainbow
- Attrape qui peut / Game of Tag
- Marche / March
- Soir / Evening
- Sur les prés la lune se promène / Moonlit Meadows
These are profoundly generous pieces, each equally teeming with musical interest and educational reward; in the intermediate repertoire they were and remain perhaps unprecedented in their creative verve and imaginative originality.
With astonishing ease, Prokofiev traverses a range of moods, characters, technical, and musical challenges. His extraordinary gift for melody puts most composers rather to shame, and the intelligence with which he develops his lyrical themes regularly proves to be an eye-opener for developing players.
Pomenade and Marche are superb vehicles for the development of effective articulation, while Historiette offers the sweetest arc for the development of phrase shaping within octave shifts. Tarantella, Attrape qui peut, and the euphoric Valse develop dexterity and rhythmic fluency. Matin and La Pluie et l’arc-en-ciel introduce the player to musical impressionism.
That the profound educational value of these pieces is so subtly concealed in pieces of such appeal is a small miracle. As Twelsiek writes in her informative Preface:
“The lyrical works allow for free interpretation, they require above all mature cantabile playing and subtle pedaling. In the dance-like pieces, the focus is on wit and humour: accents, abrupt changes in dynamics, leaps in register and crossing of the hands can be enjoyed to the full. Good fingering plays an important role in the more virtuoso pieces.”
The Schott Student Edition
I have reviewed several titles in the Schott Student Edition, and this new publication combines their best qualities. The simple card cover opens to a 36-page book printed on quality cream paper, making the scores easier to read (and appropriately inclusive for neurodivergent learners).
Twelsiek’s well-written Preface is clearly aimed at teaching colleagues, and provides all the background that needed for giving the context of this music. The scores which followed are newly engraved, spaciously presented, and accurate. The editor’s added fingering suggestions, appropriate for developing hands, are immensely helpful and a unique bonus with this edition.
Her Teaching Notes take up three pages in English, then repeated in German. They are among the best I have ever encountered, both in the clarity with which they communicate important musical details and pedagogic ideas, and in their enthusiasm for taking a creative approach.
Regarding the latter, take for example this note about La Pluie et l’arc-en-ciel, which is representative of the general tone:
“The outer sections, with their clusters, are difficult to read, but fun and easy to play. They are best learnt by heart, by demonstrating and imitating. An ideal preparation would be to freely improvise a weather picture.”
Continuing, she goes on to break down the technical demands of the piece’s middle “rainbow” section into six practical learning steps that can be used in lessons and practice sessions. This really is exemplary stuff.
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Closing Thoughts
Many composers, including some of the most popular and widely respected, have produced piano ‘albums for the young’, but I have long held that Prokofiev’s is a cut above others. Nor are the many intermediate collections of our time its equal. Musiques d’enfants is an essential educational resource, but it is also truly a work of art.
Schott Music’s new edition is a refreshing and superior alternative to those previously available. The spacious layout and clarity of presentation, the useful fingering additions, and the superbly written Teaching Notes significantly elevate this publication.
In short, this publication belongs in the library of every piano teacher, and in the music bag of every intermediate player. It is a resource which raises the bar in piano education, delivering an outstanding edition of this indispensable milestone of the piano repertoire.
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