Prokofiev’s “Scythian Suite” did not originally exist as an orchestral work - the music was initially conceived as part of a ballet entitled “Ala i Lolli”, commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev and inspired by Ancient Scythian mythology. Prokofiev, young and ambitious at the time, responded to this expansive world of gods and warriors with an explosively raucous and primitive sound unlike anything he had ever composed before - so much so that Diaghilev completely rejected Prokofiev’s score before it was ever finished. Not wanting to scrap what work he had completed, Prokofiev created a four-movement suite and conducted its world premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in January 1916, to wildly divided reviews.

Indeed, much of this suite’s most raucous music can be best summarized in the second movement “Enemy God and The Dance of the Spirits”, which depicts the Scythians making a sacrifice to Ala, daughter of Veles, while the Evil God, surrounded by seven monsters, performs a violent dance. A thunderous timpani roll gives way to bold, fanfaric brass and percussion - the crackling, dissonant interlude which follows eventually gives way to a fiery, rapturous conclusion which combines both of these elements together.

While this is not the first wind ensemble transcription to exist of this movement, I sought to capture the spirit and energy of Prokofiev’s music with a more modern instrumentation and my own orchestrations of this rollicking scene of chaotic frenzy.