This music came from Prokofiev’s first commission for a film score for the film Lieutenant Kijé which appeared in 1934. 

The film was very successful so, at the invitation of the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, he turned some of the music into a suite from which this Troika is taken. This was probably the first time that film music was adapted for the concert hall in such a way.

Talking films were a recent phenomenon having only really started developing in the late 20s, so Prokofiev was in the vanguard of a new art form and I think the colourfulness of this music reflects the vibrancy of the medium.

Prokofiev aimed to make the suite appeal to people who had not heard concert music before and given the ubiquitous appeal of this Sleigh Ride, he certainly seems to have achieved that!

Troika means  a set of three – in this case horses pulling a sleigh so in other words, a Sleigh Ride. These  sleighs were comparatively stable due to the line of three horses and they could achieve speeds of 45 – 50 kph  which is what accounts for the momentum of this music. The big tune of the Sleigh Ride is an adaptation of an old Hussar (light cavalry) song.

How did this music become associated with Christmas? Well, sleighs, sleigh bells  and snowy terrain are commonly associated with Father Christmas and so in 1958 the movement was adapted into a pop version  called Midnight Sleighride and then again, in 1975 it found its way into a song called “I believe in Father Christmas” by Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake and Palmer fame. 

The rest is history, formed in shopping malls, parties and media throughout the world eager to evoke the fantasy of a ‘traditional’ Christmas!