As a visual arts instructor, I felt the only way that I could respond to the musical score of Alexander
Nevsky by Sergei Prokofieff was how the music
corresponded with the visual images. After listening to
movements two and three several times, I found myself
mentally forming the images from the film I had viewed
three days before.
The second movement accompanies the scenes of old
battle grounds with skeletons of humans and horses. The
camera pans the desolate foreground and the music is
melancholy and slow. I also got a feeling that something
was terribly wrong. The voices are added and the rhythm
seems faster. The lyrics describe a famous battle and as
the male voices become stronger, the lyrics emphasize the
strength used to win the battle. The music becomes very
rich and full. I am reminded of the powerful patriotic music
I have heard in other films. I was not surprised to read
in the history of the making of Alexander Nevsky
that shortly before World War II, Joseph Stalin
commissioned Sergei Eisenstein to direct a popular film
that would excite Russian patriotism. A feeling of
patriotism is the mood the music expresses during this
part of the second movement. Eisenstein was so successful
in making this patriotic film, that Alexander
Nevsky was taken out of circulation during a brief
alliance with Germany. When Germany did invade Russia,
the movie was reissued.
The third movement, entitled " The Crusaders in Pskov
", has a completely different feeling and mood. This
music describes the burning of this town of Pskov by Teutonic
knights. The very first part of this movement is very
dark and foreboding, like something dreadful is going to
happen. This sound is repeated so the listeners know
that indeed something very bad is going to happen. In the
film, the Teutonic knights are shown hanging old men,
throwing babies into a fire, and taking over the town in
great numbers. The villain of the film, the Teutonic
leader, is surprisingly blond, good looking and dressed
in white. There is a monk , dressed in a black hooded
robe playing an organ, who fits the description of a
typical villain. The mood of the music gradually changes
from dark and foreboding to a feeling of extreme
hopelessness and desperation. This part of this movement
reminded me of the music in Schindler's List, when
scenes of Jewish people were being herded from trains
into concentration camps and the next image was ashes
coming from the huge chimneys. That film was very
powerful and the music with those images will be with me
forever. I think it is very interesting that the music
written for this film, completed in 1938, would remind me
of a film about a terrible time in history in Germany
around 1938.
The second and third movement are very different. The
second has mostly stringed instruments, the rhythm is slower and the
texture is smooth. The third movement is
heavy with mostly brass instruments, drums and cymbals.
The male voices are very strong and suggest a feeling of masculine power. There are Latin lyrics in this movement
that are not translated. I thought the reason was the
words describing these terrible Teutonic people were so
bad that they could not be translated into English. I
consulted a Latin teacher in our group and she explained
to me that the Latin words did not make sense when
translated into English. She loosely translated the
lyrics, "an event concerning death was about to
happen."
While watching the film, Alexander Nevsky. I
was reminded of other films:, Conan the Barbarian, Spartacus and Braveheart. All of these films
contain a hero leader, the bad guys that must be
conquered, epic battle scenes, love interests, a feeling
of patriotism or goodness over evil and very beautiful
music composed to make the viewer enjoy the visual images
and excite his/her emotions.