La pluie et l'arc-en-ciel

Prokofiev's Musiques d'enfants (Op. 65, Music for Children, 1935) is one of the great twentieth-century teaching cycles — twelve character pieces that distil his mature harmonic language into hands a child can manage. La pluie et l'arc-en-ciel ("the rain and the rainbow") is one of the gentler entries: a slow G-major character piece that paints a shower passing into clear sky.

Technically the piece tests Prokofiev's particular touch: long-breathed cantabile melodies in the right hand, a quiet but harmonically active left hand, and the kind of mild bitonal colours (a melody note that brushes against the bass harmony) that mark his style. The piece sits in a comfortable G major but slips through chromatic side-shadows; the pedal must refresh on each harmonic shift.

Two pitfalls. First, students treat the chromatic colour notes as expressive moments and lean on them — Prokofiev's writing wants them to slip past as part of the harmonic weather, not announce themselves. Second, the dynamic range is taken too wide; the piece's atmosphere depends on staying soft, with one small lift at the rainbow.

Listening: PD recordings of Prokofiev's Musiques d'enfants are now widely available on Musopen and IMSLP audio (his music came out of copyright in many jurisdictions in the 2020s). His own piano-roll and historical recordings give the most authoritative reference for the touch.