Editing Sergei Prokofiev (section)

=== Education and early works ===
In 1902, Prokofiev's mother met [[Sergei Taneyev]], director of the [[Moscow Conservatory]], who initially suggested that Prokofiev should start lessons in piano and composition with [[Alexander Goldenweiser (composer)|Alexander Goldenweiser]].<ref>{{harvnb|Nice|2003|p=15}}</ref> Unable to arrange that,<ref name=pbp46>{{harvnb|Prokofiev|1979|p=46}}</ref> Taneyev instead arranged for composer and pianist Reinhold Glière to spend the summer of 1902 in Sontsovka teaching Prokofiev.<ref name=pbp46 /> The first series of lessons culminated, at the 11-year-old Prokofiev's insistence, with the budding composer making his first attempt to write a symphony.<ref>{{harvnb|Prokofiev|1979|pp=51–53}}</ref> The following summer, Glière revisited Sontsovka to give further tuition.<ref name="Britannica" /> When, decades later, Prokofiev wrote about his lessons with Glière, he gave due credit to his teacher's sympathetic method but complained that Glière had introduced him to "square" [[Phrase (music theory)|phrase structure]] and conventional [[Modulation (music)|modulations]], which he subsequently had to unlearn.<ref>{{harvnb|Prokofiev|1979|pp=53–54}}</ref> Nonetheless, equipped with the necessary theoretical tools, Prokofiev started experimenting with [[Consonance and dissonance|dissonant]] [[Harmony|harmonies]] and unusual [[time signature]]s in a series of short piano pieces he called "ditties" (after the so-called "song form", more accurately [[ternary form]], on which they were based), laying the basis for his own musical style.<ref>{{harvnb|Prokofiev|1979|p=63}}</ref>

Despite his growing talent, Prokofiev's parents hesitated over starting their son on a musical career at such an early age, and considered the possibility of his attending a good high school in Moscow.<ref>{{harvnb|Nice|2003|p=21}}</ref> By 1904, his mother had decided instead on [[Saint Petersburg]], and she and Prokofiev visited the then capital to explore the possibility of moving there for his education.<ref>{{harvnb|Prokofiev|1979|p=85}}</ref> They were introduced to composer [[Alexander Glazunov]], a professor at the [[Saint Petersburg Conservatory]], who asked to see Prokofiev and his music; Prokofiev had composed two more operas, ''Desert Islands'' and ''The Feast during the Plague'', and was working on his fourth, ''Undina''.<ref>Layton, Robert: "Prokofiev's Demonic Opera" Found in the introductory notes to the Philips Label recording of ''The Fiery Angel''</ref> Glazunov was so impressed that he urged Prokofiev's mother to have her son apply for admission to the Conservatory.<ref>{{harvnb|Nice|2003|p=22}}</ref> He passed the introductory tests and enrolled that year.<ref>{{harvnb|Nice|2003|pp=28–29}}</ref>

Several years younger than most of his class, Prokofiev was viewed as eccentric and arrogant and annoyed a number of his classmates by keeping statistics on their errors.<ref>{{harvnb|Jaffé|1998|p=16}}</ref> During that period, he studied under, among others, [[Alexander Winkler (composer)|Alexander Winkler]] for piano,<ref>{{Cite book |title=Prokofiev's Piano Sonatas: A Guide for the Listener and the Performer |last=Berman |first=Boris |author-link=Boris Berman (musician) |year=2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven, Connecticut |isbn=978-0-300-11490-4 |page=35 }}</ref> [[Anatoly Lyadov]] for harmony and counterpoint, [[Nikolai Tcherepnin]] for [[conducting]], and [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov]] for [[orchestration]] (though when Rimsky-Korsakov died in 1908, Prokofiev noted that he had only studied with him "after a fashion"—he was just one of many students in a heavily attended class—and regretted that he otherwise "never had the opportunity to study with him").<ref>{{harvnb|Prokofiev|2006|section=Diary 3 August 1908|page=57}}</ref> He also shared classes with the composers [[Boris Asafyev]] and [[Nikolai Myaskovsky]], the latter becoming a close and lifelong friend.<ref>{{harvnb|Nice|2003|p=43}}</ref>

As a member of the Saint Petersburg music scene, Prokofiev developed a reputation as a musical rebel, while getting praise for his original compositions, which he performed himself on the piano.<ref>''Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music'', [[Michael Kennedy (music critic)|Michael Kennedy]] & Joyce Kennedy: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 5th edition 2007</ref><ref>Rita McAllister "Sergey Prokofiev" in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'': London: Macmillan Publishers, 1980</ref> In 1909, he graduated from his class in composition with unimpressive marks. He continued at the Conservatory, studying piano under [[Anna Yesipova]] and continuing his conducting lessons under Tcherepnin.<ref>{{harvnb|Prokofiev|2000|pp=240–41}}</ref>

In 1910, Prokofiev's father died and Sergei's financial support ceased.<ref>{{harvnb|Jaffé|1998|pp=29–30}}</ref> Fortunately, he had started making a name for himself as a composer and pianist outside the Conservatory, making appearances at the St Petersburg Evenings of Contemporary Music. There he performed several of his more adventurous piano works, such as his highly [[chromatic]] and dissonant Etudes, Op. 2 (1909). His performance of it impressed the organisers of the Evenings sufficiently for them to invite Prokofiev to give the Russian premiere of [[Arnold Schoenberg]]'s [[Drei Klavierstücke (Schoenberg)|Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11]].<ref>{{harvnb|Jaffé|1998|p=30}}</ref> Prokofiev's harmonic experimentation continued with [[Sarcasms (Prokofiev)|''Sarcasms'' for piano, Op. 17 (1912)]], which makes extensive use of [[polytonal]]ity.<ref>{{Britannica|469182|Polytonality}}</ref> He composed his first two [[piano concerto]]s around then, the [[Piano Concerto No. 2 (Prokofiev)|latter of which]] caused a scandal at its premiere (23 August 1913, Pavlovsk). According to one account, the audience left the hall with exclamations of "'To hell with this futuristic music! The cats on the roof make better music!'", but the [[Modernism (music)|modernists]] were in rapture.<ref>[http://www.sprkfv.net/journal/three04/manyfaces2.html The Many faces of Prokofiev. Part 2]. Sprkfv.net. Retrieved on 28 August 2010.</ref>

In 1911, help arrived from renowned Russian [[musicologist]] and [[music criticism|critic]] [[Alexander Ossovsky]], who wrote a supportive letter to music publisher [[P. Jurgenson|Boris P. Jurgenson]] (son of publishing-firm founder Peter Jurgenson [1836–1904]); thus a contract was offered to the composer.<ref>{{harvnb|Nice|2003|p=74}}</ref> Prokofiev made his first foreign trip in 1913, travelling to Paris and London where he first encountered [[Sergei Diaghilev]]'s [[Ballets Russes]].<ref>{{harvnb|Prokofiev|2006|pp=424–56}}</ref>