ABSTRACT
The idea of the grandiose film epic Ivan the Terrible occurred to Sergei Eisenstein before the Second World War, but it was not until 1942 that Sergei Prokofiev started writing music for the first part of the picture. It is interesting that his working methods in the cinema had by that time assumed the form of a harmonious, well-adjusted system which included certain stages:
a survey, stop-watch in hand, of roughly assembled episodes and the determination of the exact time of the necessary music fragments;
writing a piano version of the scenic music and recording it on tape;
coordination of music and representation and, if the result is satisfactory, the beginning of work on the orchestration.
