Prokofiev’s Symphony no. 2, Yuri Kholopov, and the Theory of Twelve-Tone Chords

Abstract

A small collection of works, including Prokofiev’s Symphony no. 2 (1924), include chords with all twelve pitch classes. Yuri Kholopov, the foremost late-Soviet theorist, considered twelve-tone chords a branch of twelve-tone technique. Taking Prokofiev and Kholopov as a starting point, and building on prior scholarship by Martina Homma, I assemble a history and theory of twelve-tone chords. The central theoretical problem is that of differentiation: as all twelve-tone chords contain the same twelve pitch classes, there is essentially only one twelve-tone chord. Yet twelve-tone chords can be categorized on the basis of their deployment in pitch space. Twelve-tone chords tend to exhibit three common features: they avoid doublings, they have a range of about 3 to 5.5 octaves, and their vertical interval structure follows some sort of pattern. This article contextualizes twelve-tone chords within the broader early-twentieth-century experimentation with aggregate-based composition.

The Politics of Atonality during the Thaw and Beyond

“…He used "Quarrel" from the Cinderella Suite as an example of Prokofiev's quirky atonality, which is more representative of triadic post-tonality than atonality, with a gravitational center as F. 42 Kholopov's analytical focus on Prokofiev's music was a wise one, as Prokofiev's compositional aesthetic always adhered to a gravitational point. 43 Thus, the analyst succeeded in discussing highly chromatic music in two ways: (1) by analyzing music of a Soviet composer, who was not (or, rather, was no longer) controversial in his compositional technique; and (2) by connecting Prokofiev's musical chromaticism to the history of Russian music theory (i.e., Taneyev's theoretical writings). In doing so, Kholopov was able to legitimize Prokofiev's post-tonal innovations as rooted in the history of the development of Russian, and not Western, classic music.…”