Word: scythian
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Prokoieff: Scythian Suite, Opus 20, (DM 1040) displays almost to a fault Prokoieff's acute sense for the bizarre. Originally written as a ballet, its frenzied turbulence made it unsuited to that form. The Suite is Prokoieff's first work of any major importance and its lack of profundity puts it within the reach of the somewhat limited capabilities of Desire Defauw and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, but even the technical difficulties are sometimes too great for them. Recording is poor...
...which was played at the Longy School last evening, shows how remarkably his style had softened since the time of his Violin Sonata and the works of his middle life. The same development is apparent in Prokofiev. The change from the acrid dissonance of works like the Scythian Suite to the out-and-out romanticism of the G minor Violin Concerto is one of the most striking examples of what has been going on in the last few years...
From jigging veins of rhyming mother wits And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay, We'll lead you to the stately tent of war, Where you shall hear the Scythian Tamburlaine Threatening the world with high-astounding terms, And scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword. -MARLOWE...
...verse, too, thinks hard. Even "The Fawn" forgets to be a child in reason, and prettily woos his "nymph" (who, by the way, as an oak-dweller ought to have been a "dryad") with pantheistic appeal. The rude Scythian shepherd of Marlowe, brooding upon the unattainable, has grown "very weary" of his life,' and meditates upon the theme of vanity with the unction of a Stephen Phillips. And his rough soldiers as they march, sing with Shellevan opulence of fancy...