Visions fugitives are a series of short piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 pieces written by Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...

 (1891-1953) between 1915 and 1917. They were premiered by Prokofiev on April 15, 1918 in Petrograd, Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. They are based on a poem written by Russian poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 Konstantin Balmont

Konstantin Balmont

Konstantin Dmitriyevich Balmont was a Russian symbolist poet, translator, one of the major figures of the Silver Age of Russian Poetry.-Biography:Konstantin Balmont was born in v...

.

The title is French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 for "Fleeting/Fugitive Visions" which is taken from the following line of poetry by Balmont:

"In every fugitive vision I see worlds, full of the changing play of rainbow hues..."

The pieces, though far from atonal, contain dissonant harmonies similar in nature of music composed by Prokofiev's contemporaries (Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...

 and Scriabin

Alexander Scriabin

Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frédéric Chopin. Quite independent of the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed an increasingly atonal musical system,...

), although still retaining highly original concepts in both tonality

Tonality

Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...

 and rhythm

Rhythm

Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...

.

List of movements by name (tempo)

• 1. Lentamente
• 2. Andante
• 3. Allegretto
• 4. Animato
• 5. Molto giocoso
• 6. Con eleganza
• 7. Pittoresco (Arpa)
• 8. Comodo
• 9. Allegro tranquillo
• 10. Ridicolosamente
• 11. Con vivacità
• 12. Assai moderato
• 13. Allegretto
• 14. Feroce
• 15. Inquieto
• 16. Dolente
• 17. Poetico
• 18. Con una dolce lentezza
• 19. Presto agitatissimo e molto accentuato
• 20. Lento irrealmente

External links

• Visions fugitives, Op. 22 on Wikilivres.
• Prokofiev.org catalog page - listing information and various recordings.