In the early days of sound cinema, among the various distinguished composers ready to try their hand at film music, Prokofiev was not an obvious choice for the commission.

[3] His biographers have maintained that he did not "flee the country"; rather that he embarked on a concert tour, which he extended when he became convinced that his career prospects would be better served in America and western Europe.

During this period of rapprochement he consciously sought to simplify his musical language into a form that he believed would be consistent with the official Soviet concept of art.

In the early 20th century, larger cinemas began to use orchestras, which would accompany the film with out-of-copyright classical pieces or, increasingly, with original compositions.

Among these were the Americans Victor Herbert and Mortimer Wilson, from France Darius Milhaud and Arthur Honegger, and the Germans Gottfried Huppertz and Edmund Meisel.

Early pioneers of this method were the Germans Friedrich Hollaender and Karol Rathaus, who provided the music for The Blue Angel (1930) and The Murderer Dimitri Karamazov (1931) respectively.

[9][11] When planning their proposed film Lieutenant Kijé in 1932, the Belgoskino studios of Leningrad[n 1] asked the expatriate Prokofiev to write the accompanying music.

"[14] But, attracted by the story, Prokofiev quickly changed his mind and accepted, seeing this first venture into film music as an opportunity to demonstrate his ability to appeal to a mass Soviet audience.

[16] By his own account Prokofiev was at this time "restive, and afraid of falling into academism";[18] a later critic thought the Kijé story provided ideal material for this "so-often caustic and witty composer".

[16] The period setting of the film appealed to Prokofiev; Robinson comments that the Kijé score is one of several works, including the Classical Symphony, The Love of Three Oranges, Cinderella, and War and Peace, that show "the composer's fondness for the eighteenth century".

[23] It comprises only about 15 minutes of music, written as a series of 16 short fragments or leitmotifs which are repeated at appropriate times during the film's duration, to highlight specific moments in the drama.

Gusman was a strong supporter of Prokofiev's ambition to rehabilitate himself in the Soviet Union, and had negotiated with the Moscow orchestra for a series of concerts that would showcase the returned composer's talent.

[24] According to Prokofiev's own account, producing the suite was "a devilish job",[29] which, he said, "gave me much more trouble than the music for the film itself, since I had to find the proper form, re-orchestrate the whole thing, polish it up and even combine some of the themes.

[31][33] The five movements of the suite are organised and titled as follows (bolded capitals identify specified themes): A distant, mournful fanfare (A), played on a cornet representing a bugle, is followed by a brisk military march initiated by a duet for side drum and piccolo.

[13] A passage for brass precedes the introduction of a theme or leitmotif (B) associated with the phantom Kijé which, after a reprise of the march and a C major crescendo, is repeated on tenor saxophone, an instrument relatively new to the orchestra at that time.

[13] In between these formal-sounding statements are a cheerful cornet solo and various elaborations and variations on the Kijé theme,[34] which together give the movement a celebratory feel, both boisterous and sentimental.

The melody first appears in a slow and somewhat dissonant statement,[34] after which the pace quickens: sleigh bells, rapid pizzicato strings, and piano combine to give the impression of a fast winter's journey by means of the troika, a traditional Russian three-horse sled.

[34] In what Orrin Howard in a programme note for the Los Angeles Philharmonic describes as "a wistful, touching farewell", the music reaches its conclusion with a distant rendition of the fanfare.

[28] The piece received its American premiere on 14 October 1937, when Serge Koussevitzky conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra;[37] this performance formed the basis of the first commercial recording of the work, issued in the following year.

[39] The suite rapidly gained popularity, particularly in the US; the choreographer Michel Fokine used the music in his ballet Russian Soldier [ru], performed at the Boston Opera House on 23 January 1942.

[42] Robinson rates the Kijé suite among the composer's greatest compositions, alongside Romeo and Juliet and the Second Violin Concerto as "accessible, simple and melodic".

[46] In the world of pop music, the "Troika" movement has been adapted several times, beginning in 1952 as "Midnight Sleighride", a jazz band arrangement by Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan.