Shaking Up Shakespeare with Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet
Dance of the Knights
Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, ballet in four acts
I'm Sergei Prokofiev, and I'm about to explain the Dance of the Knights from my ballet Romeo & Juliet. You'll meet the heavy march that introduces the Capulet clan at the ball, and it's worth your time because you may already know it from Sunderland football club's home matches. Whenever you'd like to recognize this march by sound alone, come and meet the Trainer on this site, where my fellow composers and I teach exactly that.
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Where to Point Your Ears
Before you press play, I'd like you to listen for three things: the low brass, the celesta, and the way the whole orchestra keeps stepping forward. The low brass carry a heavy bass line, and that is the floor the whole march stands on, so if you feel the music in your chest, they are the reason. The celesta is a small keyboard instrument that sounds a bit like tiny bells, and when it appears in the middle, notice how something sweet suddenly sounds uneasy. The rest is easy to follow if you listen for the striding arpeggios, which are chords played one note after another so that they seem to climb and walk, and they will always tell you where the march is heading.What's in a Name Besides Swords
You may also see this piece listed as "Montagues and Capulets", and in the complete score it is number 13. I gave it the title Dance of the Knights because it introduces the Capulet clan at the ball in Act 1, and I wanted you to picture proud, armored men entering a room as if it already belonged to them. A ball is supposed to be elegant, but nobody forgets that these families are in the middle of a feud, so the music is more ceremony than waltz. I never imagined that it would one day open a television show called The Apprentice and welcome Sunderland football club onto the pitch, but a good march seems to work in many kinds of ballrooms.A Sandwich With a Bad Mood in the Middle
Choosing the form for this piece was an adventure of its own, because I wanted something simpler than a textbook pattern. It is simply a march with a three-part shape, like a sandwich: a heavy outside, a strange and uneasy filling, and then the heavy outside again. I mark the whole thing Allegro pesante, which means lively but weighty, so even the quick parts keep their feet firmly on the ground. I'll take the sections one at a time in the next few paragraphs, starting with the opening chord, then the march itself, then the uneasy middle, and finally the return.Section 1: A Chord Nobody Invited
The piece begins with a single dissonant chord, and it doesn't settle or resolve into anything comfortable. That is on purpose, because it stands for the Prince's anger at the feuding families, and anger rarely arrives in a pleasant key. The tempo hasn't properly started yet, so you get a moment of pure shock before anything marches. When the shock fades, you already know that this ball will not be a relaxed evening.Section 2: The March Puts Its Boots On
Now the heavy bass line in the low brass sets the pace, and the music begins to walk with real weight. Here is the main character of the piece, a march that groans a little as it goes, like the feud itself being dragged across the floor. Above it you can hear the striding arpeggios, steady and proud, giving each step the look of a man who knows he is being watched. The mood is confident and threatening at once, and nothing in it ever hurries, because the Capulets don't need to.Section 3: The Celesta Tiptoes In
Then the middle of the sandwich arrives, and the weight suddenly lifts as the celesta enters. You might expect that lighter sound to bring relief, but it creates an uneasy atmosphere instead, as if someone were whispering a secret behind a curtain. This is the mood shift I most want you to notice, because the music goes from open force to quiet suspicion without changing the basic pulse. It tells you that behind all the pomp at this ball, something is not quite right.Section 4: The Boots Come Back
After the whispering, the heavy march returns, and it feels even more solid than before. The low brass take up their stomping bass line again, so the tune you met earlier comes back like a guest who has not finished his entrance. By now your ear knows the shape of the piece, and you can feel how the uneasy middle has made the march sound heavier than it did the first time. That is the whole story in a few minutes, and it is also the moment in Act 1 when Romeo and Juliet meet at this very ball, though the music is busy with the families and doesn't seem to notice them yet.Your Invitation to the Ball
So now I'd like you to hear it for yourself. Press play and let the music carry you, and as you listen, keep in mind the chord, the march, the celesta and the return. You don't need to know anything about classical music, because the music tells you plainly that something is about to go wrong. I hope you enjoy the journey through my Dance of the Knights as much as I enjoyed writing it.---
So, did you enjoy this walk through Romeo & Juliet's Dance of the Knights? I hope the march sounds a little different to you now, with the low brass underneath it and the celesta making things uneasy in the middle. When I look back, it still surprises me how this music traveled. The Bolshoi judged the score undanceable, yet in 1940 the complete ballet reached the stage at the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad. Music has a way of outliving the doubts that surround it when it is first written. There is much more of Romeo & Juliet waiting for you beyond this one dance. The Balcony Scene, the death of Tybalt and the orchestral suites I made from the ballet each tell their own part of the story. I invite you to click on the links below and keep exploring Romeo & Juliet, and to see where the music takes you next.