The ten short pieces in this opus were composed in Prokofiev’s student years at the St.

Petersburg conservatory, and they were first performed in a concert series named “Evenings of
Contemporary music” where the composer first developed his public reputation.

Scherzo humoristique (No.9) arranged by composer for 4 bassoons in 1915 and published same year by
Jurgenson as Op.12bis.

Dating from the composer's student years, these miniatures find Prokofiev in a playful mood.
The opening March, with its sharp rhythm and mocking melody, looks ahead to the famous
March from The Love for Three Oranges (especially harmonically, with its odd oscillation
between F minor and F-sharp minor), but this is a much lighter piece. Gavotte offers early
evidence of Prokofiev's Neoclassical tendencies. This is not the same Gavotte he would use in
his Classical Symphony; it is more traditional (yet rather comic), a vestige of an assignment for
Liadov's composition class. Rigaudon, another nod to the eighteenth century, ranges more
widely than the previous movement, but lacks the fluidity and affection of the more famous
Rigaudon in Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin. Similarly, the Mazurka is even more halting than
its rhythmic pattern requires. It's not at all Chopinesque; Prokofiev adopts a Medieval organum
procedure with two harmonic parts, each moving in parallel fourths. The Capriccio has a sharp
Neoclassical melodic line, rocking Alberti bass figures, and a two-part form with a recapitulation
and a long coda derived from the bass line; the piece might almost be mistaken for Poulenc.
Legend carries no specific program. It begins with a quiet, tentative passage, a brief adagio
interruption, then an answer to the opening material, all of which is repeated; next comes an
Andante religioso section with its own rudimentary variations, then essentially a reverse of the
first section. The Prelude, sometimes encountered in a transcription for harp ("Harp" is, in fact,
its subtitle), is a rapid, sparkling, heavily figurated etude. The ABA- patterned Allemande returns
to the Neoclassical approach of the Gavotte, now with a comically stomping rhythm (those
oafish Germans ...) and a mildly grotesque atmosphere. Humorous Scherzo, with the notation
"for four bassoons," is centered toward the low end of the keyboard, with a quick yet grumbling
left-hand accompaniment. The brief trio section is comparatively placid and straightforward.
The set concludes with another Scherzo, this one without an adjective. It's a vivacissimo
perpetuum mobile in a breathtaking flurry of sixteenth notes, beginning pianissimo and building
steadily to the sff finish.