Back in Russia Prokofiev settled in Moscow. He wrote several children’s pieces including "Peter and the Wolf". He was asked to write music for two important jubilees: the 20th anniversary of the Revolution and the centenary of Pushkin’s death. He took great care over this music. Much of what he wrote was to be directed by Meyerhold, but Meyerhold was arrested, later tortured and murdered so the whole project never happened. Some of the music written for the Pushkin centenary was later used in his opera "War and Peace", the "Stone Flower" ballet and Symphonic Waltzes. He also wrote a very large piece called "Cantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of the October Revolution", using words by Marx, Lenin and Stalin for a total of 500 performers. The music included realistic effects such as gun shots, machine-gun fire and sirens. However, many critics said that the music was vulgar, and it was not performed until 1966, long after Prokofiev’s death. He tried to make the soviet authorities pleased by writing a "safe" opera called "I am the Son of the Working People" but the politicians stopped it during its early auditions. The opera was going to be produced by Meyerhold, but again it never happened because Meyerhold was arrested and executed.
The World War II was a time of change for Prokofiev for several reasons. In 1941 his marriage to Lina Llubera came to an end and his new companion Mira Mendelsohn, and later wife, saw him through his last years. Lina was a foreigner and marriage to foreigners was made illegal (forbidden) at that time. In 1948 she was arrested, charged with being a spy, and sent to a labour camp. On the other hand, Mira had lived her entire life within the Soviet system and was much more aware of how to survive in the politacally-charged times. In 1945, shortly after the premier of his Fifth Symphony, he had a stroke which was the beginning of a period of bad health. He spent a lot of time away from Moscow where it was unsafe. The first signs that his health was to be poor occurred in Alma-Ata in 1943 when he had a fainting spell. He was an workaholic and this, plus the pressures placed upon him by the Soviet system, forced him to withdraw from an active social life in Moscow. Prokofiev lived with Mira for the rest of his life. Lina was freed from the labour camp after Stalin’s death. Later she left the Soviet Union and she died in London in 1989.
During the war Prokofiev composed a lot of his best music. He wrote his last piano sonatas as well as working on his operas "Betrothal in a Monestary" after Sherican, and "War and Peace" (based on the novel by Tolstoy) and writing his film music for both Eisenstein’s "Alexander Nevsky" and "Ivan the Terrible" and composing his Fifth Symphony. The first performance of this symphony, given on 13 January 1945, was the last time he conducted in public. He spent the rest of his life in a house in the country to the west of Moscow, although during his last winters he lived in Moscow close to his doctors. Even in these last years he was not to find peace. Stalin’s rule of terror had serious effects on all Soviet artists. In 1948 a committee of the Communist Party spoke out against several Soviet composers including Prokofiev. They said that his music was “formalist” and “alien” to the Soviet people. His opera “War and Peace” was not allowed to be performed because it was neither lyrical nor patriotic enough. The works he wrote in his last years were mostly ones which the politicians officially approved. His last great work of this period is the "Symphony-Concerto" for cello and orchestra which used a lot of music from the unsuccessful "Cello Sonata", and greatly revised with the help of the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.
Prokofiev died of a brain haemorrhage on 5 March 1953. His death was hardly mentioned in the newspapers because the dictator Josef Stalin died on the same day.
Arab Christians
Arab Christians are people who speak Arabic or of Arabic-speaking origin and have the religion of Christianity.
Most Christian Arabs live in the Middle East, where Islam is the biggest religion. The largest number of Arab Christians are in Egypt (around 8 millions). Many Arabs have emigrated from the Middle East in modern times. In some places such as the Americas, a big number of these Arabs are Christians. In Brazil, there are more than 12 million Arabs, and most of these people are Christian.
Arab Christians faced significant persecution with the Muslim conquests of Christian countries after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Conversion was often required for those who could not pay a substantial tax known as the 'jizya'. Furthermore, during various periods in the history of the Islamic world, Arab Christians were subject to at times brutal and humiliating persecution. Despite this, many Christians chose not to change their religion to Islam. Instead, they kept Christianity as their belief. Muslims call them the "People of the Book" (with Jews).
In the early 21st century, persecution of Christians area increased. In most countries they are required to obey Islamic "Shari'ah" law. In some countries, notably Egypt, political approval is required for the construction or renovation of a church - such restrictions are not present in the construction of Mosques. Countries in the Arabian Gulf, most notably Saudi Arabia, do not allow for the construction of churches or the public practice of Christianity - although that is slowly changing in progressive areas like the UAE. Coptic Christians in Egypt continue to face significant discrimination in the workplace and have a hard time reaching to the upper echelons in universities, corporations, and government offices.
Arab Christians have been around before Arab Muslims. This is because there were many Arab tribes that became Christians since the first century. They were the Nabateans (whose ancestors were Aramean) and the Ghassanids (who were of Qahtani origin and spoke Yemeni-Arabic and Greek). They protected the south-eastern parts of the Byzantine Empire in north Arabia.
Arab Christians made important contributions to the Arab world, and they still do. Some of the best poem writers at certain times were Arab Christians, and many Arab Christians were doctors, writers, government staff, and people who knew a lot about literature.
Synthesizer
A musical synthesizer is an instrument that uses electricity to make musical sounds. They are the main instrument for making electronic music. Many synthesizers have a keyboard like that of a piano. When playing a piano keyboard, sounds are made by hitting soft hammers against strings pulled very tight. When playing a synthesizer keyboard, sounds are made by turning electrical oscillators on and off. Since "synthesizer" is such a big word, the word is usually shortened to "synth".
An oscillator is something that "vibrates", or repeats the same pattern. The pendulum of a clock, for example, is a very slow oscillator. A piano string "oscillates" when struck by a hammer.
Electric oscillators might be made using transistors. They turn electricity into electrical patterns, or signals, that repeat over and over. When different keys are pressed, different notes are heard. This is done by making the signal from the oscillator repeat at different rates.
The signal can be boosted in strength and sent straight to a loudspeaker. But the sound of a simple signal can be boring after a while. Sounds can be made more interesting in many ways.
By combining many of these methods, synths can now sound very much like older instruments. For one example, special synths called "drum synths" are used just to make the sounds a drummer might make. Synths can also make many new sounds never heard before.