Prokofiev: Scherzo Humoristique Op. 12, No. 9 for double bass quartet

About the Quartet

Scherzo Humoristique is a colourful and adventurous work, aimed at the advanced bass quartet, which offers musical and technical challenges in equal measure across the entire range of the double bass.

Composed for solo piano in 1912, when Prokofiev was a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire, Scherzo Humoristique is the ninth of Ten Pieces for Piano Op.12, subsequently arranged for bassoon quartet by the composer in 1915, which is the basis for this new edition for double bass quartet by David Heyes.

Scherzo Humoristique has been described as having a ‘dark humour’ and with ‘glorious harmonies in a gentler middle section’. It is thought to be one of the first original works for bassoon quartet with ‘healthy doses of rebelliousness, and comically ugly sections as well’. The original piano version is short and succinct, with a modern take on harmony and melody, typical of Prokofiev’s unique style, and a beautifully chordal middle section contrasts music of a more rhythmically quirky and contrapuntal nature.

About the Composer

Serge Prokofiev (1891-1953) was one of the leading and most important Russian composers of his generation. He produced a wealth of compositions in many genres, including operas, symphonies, concertos, ballets and chamber music, most of which remains in the concert repertoire into the 21st-century.