JAVS Fall 2011

Example 2b. Sergey Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet, Balcony Scene, mm. 24–30 (Borisovsky’s Viola Transcription).

in the process. The material in the Balcony Scene is drawn from the section of the same name in the bal let, connecting into Romeo’s Variation and Love Dance , shortened (possibly because the material is repeated and cannot be easily developed without fuller forces) with an ending adapted loosely from the original. It is intriguing to note that the music in Romeo’s Variation was originally intended to be the finale in the “happy ending” version of the ballet. Example 2 shows the composer’s piano reduction and the arranger’s version of the opening of this sec tion (exs. 2a–2b). Romeo at Friar Laurence’s Home is a skillfully woven combination of this section of the ballet with Juliet at Friar Laurence’s Home and Romeo and Juliet at Juliet’s Bed Chamber . Borisovsky sidesteps the issue

opening of Prokofiev’s piano reduction of Minuet – Arrival of the Guests (ex.1a) and Borisovsky’s tran scription of the same bars (ex. 1b). Note the transpo sition up a tone for technical and resonance purposes and the arranger’s changes to articulations. In Death of Mercutio , which would not seem the eas iest choice of extracts to adapt, he puts the music up a semitone to B-flat minor, probably for more prac tical reasons—to enable the use of the open C string without having to leap an octave up for a bass note and to make possible some double-stops involving the open G string with a note below. Three of the longest excerpts contain structural changes in addition to the alteration of tonality, demonstrating Borisovsky’s ingenuity and creativity

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