They were written between 1915 and 1917, individually, many for specific friends of the composer, and premiered by him as a cycle lasting some twenty minutes on April 15, 1918, in Petrograd.
The cycle brings dissonant harmonies akin to music by Prokofiev contemporaries Schoenberg and Scriabin but retains original concepts of tonality and rhythm.
Because of the almost uniformly mellow style, performers must be willing to work on the relatively difficult technique required to capture its essence.
In 1935 Prokofiev made recordings of ten pieces from the set, and his playing is notable for its wistfulness, subtle shadings and — in places — rhythmic freedom.
A French-speaking friend at the house, Kira Nikolayevna, immediately provided a French translation for the pieces: Visions fugitives.
The gentle floating chords are like spots of dappled sunshine through a canopy of leaves overhead, ever-changing in the wind, played softly but clearly.
However, unlike the first movement, the harmonic and melodic structures of this piece are based on diminished harmony, octatonic scales and dissonant intervals of 7ths, making it rather modern.
The middle section is based on the octatonic scale, with the oscillation of note clusters in the left hand creating a tritone.
This twenty-five second piece is uniformly light and playful (rather scherzo-like), probably because the melody is rather disjunct, creating a humorous effect.
This piece seems to imply A minor, though this has been undermined in the middle section with the appearance of E-flat and A-flat in the accompaniment.
The bass accompaniment is, in this case, to be played more prominently than usual because it complements the right hand melody, which is higher up on the keyboard and thus needs support if emphasis is desired.
The movement, as its title suggests, is jumpy and comical, and usually lasts around a minute and fifteen seconds.
This movement's melody is almost-exclusively in upwards or downwards appoggiatura-like scale fragments interspersed with punctuated, accented dissonances.
The entire temperament of the piece suggests something is wrong, but in a way which is slightly cautious (as opposed to outright scared), since it is played mostly solidly.
This movement's repeating bass immediately creates a sense of urgency until it opens up to a heavily chordal staccato melody that gradually grows in magnitude until one great final shove, after which the piece ends.