• Source: The Comedians (Kabalevsky)

The Comedians, Op. 26, is an orchestral suite of ten numbers by Dmitry Kabalevsky. It is one of his best-known and best-loved works.
In particular, the "Comedians' Galop" (No. 2) is the single most famous piece of music he ever wrote. It is popular as a piece played on sports days in Japan. (1942).




Background


In 1938 or 1939, Kabalevsky wrote incidental music for a children's play called The Inventor and the Comedians, by the Soviet writer Mark Daniel. The play was staged at the Central Children's Theatre in Moscow, and it was about the German inventor Johannes Gutenberg and a group of travelling buffoons. Mark Daniel died young the following year.




Concert suite


In 1940, Kabalevsky chose ten short numbers from the incidental music and arranged them into a concert suite. The movements are:

Prologue: Allegro vivace
Comedians' Galop: Presto
March: Moderato
Waltz: Moderato
Pantomime: Sostenuto e pesante
Intermezzo: Allegro scherzando
Little Lyrical Scene: Andantino semplice
Gavotte: Allegretto
Scherzo: Presto assai e molto leggiero
Epilogue: Allegro molto e con brio.
The Comedians has been frequently recorded.
The "Galop" was used as the theme tune for the U.S. panel game show Masquerade Party for many years.




References

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Dmitry Kabalevsky
• The Comedians (Kabalevsky)
• Comedian (disambiguation)
• Dmitry Kabalevsky
• Kathryn Stott
• List of compositions by Dmitry Kabalevsky
• Op. 26
• Mark Daniel
• FLCL
• Galop
• List of 20th-century classical composers