Why is Prokofiev SO GOOD to me?

[Glitty]

I'm currently learning music theory and understand the basics (i guess) but I still don't understand why I enjoy Prokofiev so much. His melodies are so unique and great, but why?

[Celsland]

i dunno your opinion on music?

[Borovan the Raider]

Who's Prokofiev? I only know pop and hip hop

[Glitty]

sorry if my question wasn't clear enough, I am trying to get an answer on what makes Prokofiev's music unique theory-wise.

[Celsland]

sorry if my question wasn't clear enough, I am trying to get an answer on what makes Prokofiev's music unique theory-wise.

just a unique person

[North Flavortown]

keywords being "theory-wise"

[Cannot think of a name]

I'm currently learning music theory and understand the basics (i guess) but I still don't understand why I enjoy Prokofiev so much. His melodies are so unique and great, but why?

Well, there are a lot of factors. If you really want to boil it down to theory, like some sort of Pandora music code, then actually analysing his pieces will not only give you a better understanding of what it is you're responding to but of theory in general and how music works. Charlie Parker was equally taken with Stravinsky and studied his scores and realized that he was stacking chords with his melodies. This lead to another development in jazz harmonies and bebop solos. So, get yourself some scores and start analyzing his music. You might find it pretty enjoyable.

What you may be responding to is in fact that stacked harmony. So, you're studying theory so I'll be specific but I'm still going to start at the beginning.

Let's take a C Major triad. C E G. Very basic chord. Add the Seven, C E G B, it's still a major chord but it has a major seventh in it which inverts to a minor second. So it's a 'home' chord, a tonic, but it has a little dissonance in it.

What happens if we keep going? Lets pick the 9, 11, and 13. D F A. Those are all still in the key of C, but D, F and A as a triad is a D minor chord. From the seven if you stack the chord B D F A it's a B half diminished or B Minor Flat 5.

So contained in a C Major chord is a D minor and B half diminished 7.

EDIT: Of course, this is how the chords in a key work. Triad or 7 starting on each note in the scale gives you the chords in that key, I ii iii IV V7 vi vii half diminished. But because of the way they're constructed all of those chords exist in each other. A C Major 13 is both a I and a ii, then, and a vii. It gets weirder with the IV. F A C E is a major chord but if you stack a 9 13 on there it's different. E G B, but if you make it a B flat to fit with the F as an Ionian major instead of Lydian you can dip into another key and still be harmonically sound. /edit

Now, above a C major chord you can use a D minor or a b half diminished on top and you're still in the same key but you have different dissonances playing against each other. Now, you can go deeper. Assuming you're staying in the Ionian, you can treat these chords respectively. So you can have a C major chord, the I, but you can treat it like the ii because there's that D minor in there. Or like a vii because of the half diminished. You can also use a half diminished as ii to modulate or only modulate your harmony but keep the base key.

You can keep doing this almost indefinitely. What you end up with is...this is not a real term, do not use it in class...harmonious dissonance. So, take the sound of the flute in Peter and the Wolf, it is very melodic and sounds like it should fit comfortable, but it doesn't. There's just a bit of tension going on there. That's the dissonance that Prokofiev and his 20th century contemporaries were playing with. Some more than others. Stravinsky was much more dissonant. John Cage was down right atonal. Shostakovitch's approach to harmony famously (and a bit apocryphally, I've been also told) started a riot.

While you might just be responding to his music like you're supposed to respond to music, with your butt, you might also just enjoy early 20th century harmony which was an attempt to break tradition and examine how music fit together again after a few centuries of the Well Tempered Clavier. See if you have similar feelings about other Russian composers of his time.

[Glitty]

You're right actually, I do love a lot of 20th century composers. Shostakovich and Stravinsky are also some of my favorites. Thanks for the insight, i have attempted to analyze his pieces, and maybe I got confused due to the stacking of chords.