Montagues and Capulets

"Montagues and Capulets" or "Dance of the Knights" is a 1930s piece of classical music written by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev for his ballet Romeo and Juliet, also adapted by him for both orchestra and piano.

Original scores

The ballet score was written in 1935, but the ballet didn't première until 1938 at the Brno Opera House, Czechoslovakia. Composed in E minor, Montagues and Capulets was the 13th piece in Act I, Scene 2 of the ballet. Before the première, Prokofiev also extracted it for use as part of a symphony score in 1936 (No. 1 in Suite No. 2, Opus 64ter), and as a piano transcription in 1937 (No. 6 in Ten Pieces for Piano, Opus 75) .

Other uses & adaptations

Music

Bands The Smiths, Muse, Iron Maiden and Deep Purple have all used it as walk on music, and on the intro to Muse's album HAARP. In songs it has been sampled by American hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest in "Can I Kick It?", quoted in German metal band Necrophagist's "Only Ash Remains", Austrian metal band Hollenthon's "Lords of Bedlam", American neofolk group Blood Axis's "Reign I Forever", sampled by British rapper Life MC on "Time Crisis" & British drum & bass group The Qemists on "Got One Life". It has also been used in Norwegian metal band Satyricon's video for "Mother North" and as the intro to electronic group VNV Nation's live concert DVD Pastperfect. It has been performed with an orchestra by metal band Epica at the Miskolc Opera Festival, included on their live album The Classical Conspiracy.'

Film & television

In television it's used as the theme of the British and Irish versions of the reality series The Apprentice, in the opening of BBC children's drama God's Wonderful Railway, in The Simpsons episode "The Falcon and the D'Ohman", in the Canadian comedy reality series Kenny vs. Spenny, and as the title theme for Channel 4's 1980s National Football League American Football coverage in the UK. In television advertising, it's been used for the 1990s French commercial for Chanel's Egoiste fragrance, and in a 2009 series of ads for Japanese telecoms company SoftBank featuring Quentin Tarantino. In film it's been used as the title music for Caligula, and during the ballet theatre sequences of Exotica.

It's reached popular association in the UK as the theme to The Apprentice, with The Times’ reviewer Caitlin Moran writing that this sense of recognition went "round the room like a Mexican wave." after its inclusion in the 2008 Doctor Who Prom in the Royal Albert Hall.[1]

Other

In art, it's been used as the opening for the travelling exhibition Van Gogh Alive. For sport, it's used as a walk on theme by football clubs Leeds United, Nottingham Forest and Sunderland of England and Porto of Portugal. In video games it's been used as the menu music for the Commodore 64 game Sanxion, the intro music for the Atari ST/Amiga 500 version of Horror Zombies from the Crypt, in Sid Meier's Civilization V as Catherine the Great's theme, in Supreme Ruler Cold War when playing as the Soviet Union, and in the visual novel Monster Girl Quest as the theme of Amira.

References

• Biography page on prokofiev.org