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Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet - Montagues and Capulets, Dance Of The Knights

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Uploaded by on Mar 1, 2009

Great piece, maybe my favourite out of all Prokofiev's music.

Montagues and Capulets also known as Dance of the Knights is a score composed by Sergei Prokofiev. It is from Act I, Scene 2 of the ballet Romeo and Juliet.

A dark and atmospheric piece, it has become a de facto signature tune for the Soviet era, and is used as the soundtrack for numerous dramas, documentaries and adverts that have Soviet subject matter.

It was used as the background music in a popular 1990s French commercial for Chanel's Egoiste fragrance, and it was the competition music for the Canadian television mockumentary Kenny vs. Spenny.

The piece has also been used as the theme score for the English football club Sunderland who play at the Stadium of Light in order to evoke a stirring mood before kick-off and to trouble the nerves of visiting opponents. Since the stadium opened in 1997, Dance of the Knights is played, in full, before the teams walk out onto the pitch before the game.

The use of the piece in this context saw interest in Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet rise sharply in the North-East of England toward the end of the 1990s.[citation needed]

Furthermore, this composition is used as title music for the movie Caligula.

The German Technical Death Metal band Necrophagist uses a portion of this piece at the end of their song Only Ash Remains. It is also used in the song 'Lords of Bedlam' by the Austrian symphonic death metal band Hollenthon. The Smiths would also famously come on stage to the piece.

In the 1980s, the score was used as theme music for the BBC children's television series God's Wonderful Railway, set in the opening credits to marching, heavy steam engines.

This piece can also be heard playing during the ballet theatre sequences of the 1994 Atom Egoyan film Exotica.

A sped-up version of the score is used as the main theme and the opening music for the BBC series The Apprentice since 2005.

English rock band Muse opened their shows at Wembley Stadium with the score on 16 and 17 June 2007. This version appears as the intro to their live album, HAARP.

MC Life of Phi Life Cypher has sampled this song in a track Time Crisis on his 2003 album Everyday Life.
-Wikipedia.

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Top Comments

  • I'm playing this at my funeral when my coffin enters the room.

  • I put this on when I eat my cereal.

    

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All Comments (207)

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  • @sdfksfladfasdf Well yes, if by a 'myriad' you mean under 25 middle class white people.

  • mono :(

  • @19Manav80 Oh dear, that movie. After I watched it I had to read more about Caligula. Turns out he was even worse than how he was portrayed in the movie.

  • @thelonegunman2 play*

  • i want someone to walk around and plat this behind me while i walk down the hallways at school

  • @gingercompany Caligula?

  • wasnt it in some movie or something?

  • @Johnathon394 If you were to play it you'd still be alive...I know what you mean, though, and I agree.

  • 1:13 FREE REPLAY BUTTOM

  • One of my favorites… My personal preference would be a bit slower though.

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