Vio Shostakovich Research Paper
The Life and Music of Dimitri Shostakovich:
INTRODUCTION:
Dimitri Shostakovich was born in 1906 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Within the space of sixty-nine years, Shostakovich made an unforgettable impact on music and became one of the most important composers of the 20th century. During his career he wrote fifteen symphonies, fifteen string quartets, six concerti and two operas along with many chamber works, piano works and pieces for theatre and film. This is an incredible output for a composer but what makes them all the more remarkable is the situation under which they were composed. His whole musical career was spent within Russia’s Communist system which left him with the constant struggle to try and find the balance between the demands …show more content…
of the State and his own artistic needs.
EARLY LIFE:
Dimitri was the second of three children born to his father, Dimitri, and mother Sofiya.
Both his grand father and father were interested in left wing politics, involved in the revolution and trade unions. His father was a government engineer and his mother a piano teacher. It was his mother, Sofiya, who gave Shostakovich his first piano lessons. She discovered that he had a special aptitude for music at the age of eight. Shostakovich displayed a prodigious talent as a pianist with an extraordinary gift for picking up pieces by ear and replaying them.
At the age of thirteen, in 1919, Shostakovich went to study piano and composition at the Petrograd Conservatory in Petersburg. In 1925 he submitted his first symphony at the age of eighteen as his graduation piece. The symphony was so highly praised that the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra performed it in 1926. It went on to become one of his most popular works.
EARLY …show more content…
CAREER:
After his graduation, Shostakovich began his career as a composer. It was a very difficult time in post revolutionary Russia. During this time, the Soviet regime, led by Stalin, was very strict and had implemented many rules surrounding the arts. The government demanded that art had to benefit the political ideologies of the state. Art could also not challenge political authority or ideologies; it had to back the government and their beliefs. This was a concept that Stalin introduced in 1932 and became known as socialist realism. Socialist realism was an excuse to censor all of the arts. It was a form of government control to allow them to portray the government in the best possible light through the arts. Until the death of Stalin, it was imperative that Shostakovich abided by these rules. This control brought many problems for Shostakovich.
In 1936, after the opera’s initial success, the government condemned Shostakovich for “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”. Once Stalin saw the opera he was very critical of its use of adultery, murder and suicide. This along with his condemned fourth symphony began Shostakovich’s battle with Soviet censorship. He was now on Stalin’s radar and was being constantly monitored and feared for his life. For his political safety, he decided to concentrate on writing symphonies and film scores that would please the government regime, yet at the same time allow him to keep his own voice. In 1937 Shostakovich revealed his Fifth Symphony. It was a more conservative piece of work than before. It was a huge success and was lauded by the public, authorities and critics alike.
In 1941 war broke out between Russia and Nazi Germany. The Nazis took over Leningrad, St. Petersburg. All roads in and out of Leningrad were blocked and food delivery ceased. The city’s residents were doomed and by December there was an average of five thousand people dying a day. During the first few months Shostakovich was still in Leningrad but was evacuated near the end of the year. This experience had a profound effect on him.
It led Shostakovich to write his most famous contribution to the war, the Seventh Symphony. It was a written protest to the Nazis invasion and as a tribute to the twenty five million Soviet citizens who lost their lives in World War Two. It was also a response to the murderous actions that Stalin had taken towards his fellow citizens and artists. It was performed on August 9th 1942 in Leningrad, St. Petersburg. Due to the devastation that had occurred in the city there was only 15 remaining orchestra musicians left there available to perform the piece.
Once again in 1948 Shostakovich was accused of writing inappropriate music and many of his works were banned. In 1953 Stalin died and this proved to be a major turning point in Shostakovich’s career allowing him more creative freedom. Nine months after Stalin’s death, he premiered his Tenth Symphony. It was a great success and remains one of his most popular today. The dissonant second movement is said to be a musical portrait of Stalin. The year 1953 also marked the debut of many of the pieces, which Shostakovich couldn’t, premier during Stalin’s lifetime. Many were received warmly, and are still played and performed to this day. In 1960 he joined the Communist Party. While some saw it as an act of cowardice, it was believed that he was forced to due so. In 1965, he was diagnosed with polio and a few years later he suffered from a series of heart attacks that had a huge impact on his health. Despite this he still managed to finish his fourteenth and fifteenth symphonies. Dmitri Shostakovich finally passed away in Moscow on August 9th 1975 dying from lung cancer. During his lifetime Shostakovich won many awards including the International peace Prize, the State Prize five times and was designated People’s Artist of the USSR, all while having conflicts with the Russian regime.
HIS MUSIC AND MUSICAL STYLE:
Since his death, Shostakovich’s music has continued to have a huge impact speaking more than it did during his own lifetime. The music is reflective of his time and of the times he was living in. He was commenting on his own life, culture, country and society in general through his music. Shostakovich’s output makes him one of the most prolific composers of the twentieth century. The table below shows a summary of his work.
Summary of Shostakovich’s work
15 Symphonies
15 string quartets
2 Operas – “The Nose” and “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” which was later reworked into the more acceptable “Katerina Ismailova”
2 violin concertos
2 cello concertos
24 preludes and fugues for piano
3 Fantastic Dances for piano
A piano quintet - among other chamber works
2 piano concertos
Jazz Suites 1 and 2
Ballet entitled “The Age of Gold”
Many film scores for Russian films, most notably “"The Gadfly"
His most famous pieces would be considered to be his Fifth, Seventh, Tenth and Thirteenth Symphonies along with his Jazz Suites and film score The Gadfly. Shostakovich is said to have shaped some of the most beautiful melodies of the 20th century. His music often expresses deep sadness and despair, often rooted in tonality, yet he investigates areas of dissonance that are based from his period. He displayed simplicity and complexity, hope and more often despair articulating for the anxiety, grief and rage during this period. He reflected this uncertainty by the use of unexpected interruptions, a composing technique he used frequently in his music. He also uses the idea of fantasy to escape these times and the reality of his surroundings. This concept inspired many of the titles of his work.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO MUSIC:
While Shostakovich has many famous pieces, what is intriguing is that they are of such various styles. On one hand the music is strong, emotive, powerful even difficult yet Shostakovich could also produce light, beautiful, quirky music. While some of his works are difficult to grasp, one that is certainly not, are the Jazz Suites. These suites consist mainly of dances and are light beautiful pieces. Until recently, one of the most famous pieces, Waltz number 2, was believed to be a part of the second Jazz suites yet it was found to have been misidentified and this piece is now correctly know as the “Suite for Variety Orchestra”. Here is the opening melody line.
The instrumentation for this work is scored for an orchestra of 4 clarinets, 4 saxophones, 2 flutes, 3 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, an oboe, a bassoon, a tuba, timpani, 3 percussionists, guitar, harp, celesta, 2 pianos, accordion and strings. Some of these instruments, for example the accordion, are very unusual instruments to hear in an orchestra and this is part of the reason for the appeal of the piece.
THE FIFTH SYMPHONY:
While the second waltz has become a hugely popular piece Shostakovich is mainly known for his symphonies. One of his most famous is the Fifth symphony, which he wrote in 1937 at the height of the terror in Soviet Union. It was Shostakovich’s written response to his critics. Some believe this piece to be a patriotic piece for the love of his country while others see it as an ironic disingenuous statement of support for what was going on at the time. Written in 1937, the symphony has four movements. The symphony opens with a bold and forceful ‘Moderato’. With regard to the opening melody of the Allegretto, played by double basses and cellos, comparisons have been made to Beethoven, Prokofiev and especially Mahler. It is much more playful, witty and ironic than the previous movement and more akin to his film score work. Unlike in the ‘Moderato’ and ‘Allegretto’, the third movement ‘Largo’ uses no brass at all. It is full of longer, more beautiful melodies yet it does incorporate the nervous sober feel towards the end. The final movement, ‘Allegro non troppo’, brings back the march from the first movement leading to a tense conclusion.
INFLUENCES:
Shostakovich’s influence’s come from different periods. He admired Bach and produced his own 24 preludes and fugues in every key for the piano and signed moments of personal significance just as Bach had done. Structurally he was affected by Beethoven and was a big fan of the works of Mahler. It is said that he picked up his love for the militant sound used in his symphonies from Mahler. Some of the composers who had the biggest influence on Shostakovich were his fellow countrymen like Prokofiev, Khachaturian and Glazunov, who helped teach him piano. Prokofiev’s ‘Classical’ Symphony along with Stravinsky’s ‘Petrushka’ were particularly important influences during Shostakovich’s early career. Later he became friends with Benjamin Britten and both would discuss and trade musical ideas with one another.
Although other composers influenced him it is difficult to argue against the impact of his homeland and the politics he lived through, both in terms of the music he created and how it guided his career.
He tailored pieces to meet the demands of the government, preventing him from writing and dealing with themes he would have liked to explore. This forced him to write in the officially sanctioned neo classical mode making it difficult to incorporate more original ideas. These political factors cut short his forays into ballet and left other works abandoned. Shostakovich is a unique composer who wrote music under immense political pressure yet was able to use these situations to create some of the greatest music in the twentieth
century.
References:
Kay, N. 1971. Shostakovich. Oxford University Press, London.
http://www.chicagooperatheater.org/dimitri-shostakovich-biography/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Shostakovich
http://www.kunstderfuge.com/bios/shostakovich.html
http://www.mfiles.co.uk/composers/Dmitri-Shostakovich.htm
INTRODUCTION:
Dimitri Shostakovich was born in 1906 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Within the space of sixty-nine years, Shostakovich made an unforgettable impact on music and became one of the most important composers of the 20th century. During his career he wrote fifteen symphonies, fifteen string quartets, six concerti and two operas along with many chamber works, piano works and pieces for theatre and film. This is an incredible output for a composer but what makes them all the more remarkable is the situation under which they were composed. His whole musical career was spent within Russia’s Communist system which left him with the constant struggle to try and find the balance between the demands …show more content…
of the State and his own artistic needs.
EARLY LIFE:
Dimitri was the second of three children born to his father, Dimitri, and mother Sofiya.
Both his grand father and father were interested in left wing politics, involved in the revolution and trade unions. His father was a government engineer and his mother a piano teacher. It was his mother, Sofiya, who gave Shostakovich his first piano lessons. She discovered that he had a special aptitude for music at the age of eight. Shostakovich displayed a prodigious talent as a pianist with an extraordinary gift for picking up pieces by ear and replaying them.
At the age of thirteen, in 1919, Shostakovich went to study piano and composition at the Petrograd Conservatory in Petersburg. In 1925 he submitted his first symphony at the age of eighteen as his graduation piece. The symphony was so highly praised that the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra performed it in 1926. It went on to become one of his most popular works.
EARLY …show more content…
CAREER:
After his graduation, Shostakovich began his career as a composer. It was a very difficult time in post revolutionary Russia. During this time, the Soviet regime, led by Stalin, was very strict and had implemented many rules surrounding the arts. The government demanded that art had to benefit the political ideologies of the state. Art could also not challenge political authority or ideologies; it had to back the government and their beliefs. This was a concept that Stalin introduced in 1932 and became known as socialist realism. Socialist realism was an excuse to censor all of the arts. It was a form of government control to allow them to portray the government in the best possible light through the arts. Until the death of Stalin, it was imperative that Shostakovich abided by these rules. This control brought many problems for Shostakovich.
In 1936, after the opera’s initial success, the government condemned Shostakovich for “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”. Once Stalin saw the opera he was very critical of its use of adultery, murder and suicide. This along with his condemned fourth symphony began Shostakovich’s battle with Soviet censorship. He was now on Stalin’s radar and was being constantly monitored and feared for his life. For his political safety, he decided to concentrate on writing symphonies and film scores that would please the government regime, yet at the same time allow him to keep his own voice. In 1937 Shostakovich revealed his Fifth Symphony. It was a more conservative piece of work than before. It was a huge success and was lauded by the public, authorities and critics alike.
In 1941 war broke out between Russia and Nazi Germany. The Nazis took over Leningrad, St. Petersburg. All roads in and out of Leningrad were blocked and food delivery ceased. The city’s residents were doomed and by December there was an average of five thousand people dying a day. During the first few months Shostakovich was still in Leningrad but was evacuated near the end of the year. This experience had a profound effect on him.
It led Shostakovich to write his most famous contribution to the war, the Seventh Symphony. It was a written protest to the Nazis invasion and as a tribute to the twenty five million Soviet citizens who lost their lives in World War Two. It was also a response to the murderous actions that Stalin had taken towards his fellow citizens and artists. It was performed on August 9th 1942 in Leningrad, St. Petersburg. Due to the devastation that had occurred in the city there was only 15 remaining orchestra musicians left there available to perform the piece.
Once again in 1948 Shostakovich was accused of writing inappropriate music and many of his works were banned. In 1953 Stalin died and this proved to be a major turning point in Shostakovich’s career allowing him more creative freedom. Nine months after Stalin’s death, he premiered his Tenth Symphony. It was a great success and remains one of his most popular today. The dissonant second movement is said to be a musical portrait of Stalin. The year 1953 also marked the debut of many of the pieces, which Shostakovich couldn’t, premier during Stalin’s lifetime. Many were received warmly, and are still played and performed to this day. In 1960 he joined the Communist Party. While some saw it as an act of cowardice, it was believed that he was forced to due so. In 1965, he was diagnosed with polio and a few years later he suffered from a series of heart attacks that had a huge impact on his health. Despite this he still managed to finish his fourteenth and fifteenth symphonies. Dmitri Shostakovich finally passed away in Moscow on August 9th 1975 dying from lung cancer. During his lifetime Shostakovich won many awards including the International peace Prize, the State Prize five times and was designated People’s Artist of the USSR, all while having conflicts with the Russian regime.
HIS MUSIC AND MUSICAL STYLE:
Since his death, Shostakovich’s music has continued to have a huge impact speaking more than it did during his own lifetime. The music is reflective of his time and of the times he was living in. He was commenting on his own life, culture, country and society in general through his music. Shostakovich’s output makes him one of the most prolific composers of the twentieth century. The table below shows a summary of his work.
Summary of Shostakovich’s work
15 Symphonies
15 string quartets
2 Operas – “The Nose” and “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” which was later reworked into the more acceptable “Katerina Ismailova”
2 violin concertos
2 cello concertos
24 preludes and fugues for piano
3 Fantastic Dances for piano
A piano quintet - among other chamber works
2 piano concertos
Jazz Suites 1 and 2
Ballet entitled “The Age of Gold”
Many film scores for Russian films, most notably “"The Gadfly"
His most famous pieces would be considered to be his Fifth, Seventh, Tenth and Thirteenth Symphonies along with his Jazz Suites and film score The Gadfly. Shostakovich is said to have shaped some of the most beautiful melodies of the 20th century. His music often expresses deep sadness and despair, often rooted in tonality, yet he investigates areas of dissonance that are based from his period. He displayed simplicity and complexity, hope and more often despair articulating for the anxiety, grief and rage during this period. He reflected this uncertainty by the use of unexpected interruptions, a composing technique he used frequently in his music. He also uses the idea of fantasy to escape these times and the reality of his surroundings. This concept inspired many of the titles of his work.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO MUSIC:
While Shostakovich has many famous pieces, what is intriguing is that they are of such various styles. On one hand the music is strong, emotive, powerful even difficult yet Shostakovich could also produce light, beautiful, quirky music. While some of his works are difficult to grasp, one that is certainly not, are the Jazz Suites. These suites consist mainly of dances and are light beautiful pieces. Until recently, one of the most famous pieces, Waltz number 2, was believed to be a part of the second Jazz suites yet it was found to have been misidentified and this piece is now correctly know as the “Suite for Variety Orchestra”. Here is the opening melody line.
The instrumentation for this work is scored for an orchestra of 4 clarinets, 4 saxophones, 2 flutes, 3 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, an oboe, a bassoon, a tuba, timpani, 3 percussionists, guitar, harp, celesta, 2 pianos, accordion and strings. Some of these instruments, for example the accordion, are very unusual instruments to hear in an orchestra and this is part of the reason for the appeal of the piece.
THE FIFTH SYMPHONY:
While the second waltz has become a hugely popular piece Shostakovich is mainly known for his symphonies. One of his most famous is the Fifth symphony, which he wrote in 1937 at the height of the terror in Soviet Union. It was Shostakovich’s written response to his critics. Some believe this piece to be a patriotic piece for the love of his country while others see it as an ironic disingenuous statement of support for what was going on at the time. Written in 1937, the symphony has four movements. The symphony opens with a bold and forceful ‘Moderato’. With regard to the opening melody of the Allegretto, played by double basses and cellos, comparisons have been made to Beethoven, Prokofiev and especially Mahler. It is much more playful, witty and ironic than the previous movement and more akin to his film score work. Unlike in the ‘Moderato’ and ‘Allegretto’, the third movement ‘Largo’ uses no brass at all. It is full of longer, more beautiful melodies yet it does incorporate the nervous sober feel towards the end. The final movement, ‘Allegro non troppo’, brings back the march from the first movement leading to a tense conclusion.
INFLUENCES:
Shostakovich’s influence’s come from different periods. He admired Bach and produced his own 24 preludes and fugues in every key for the piano and signed moments of personal significance just as Bach had done. Structurally he was affected by Beethoven and was a big fan of the works of Mahler. It is said that he picked up his love for the militant sound used in his symphonies from Mahler. Some of the composers who had the biggest influence on Shostakovich were his fellow countrymen like Prokofiev, Khachaturian and Glazunov, who helped teach him piano. Prokofiev’s ‘Classical’ Symphony along with Stravinsky’s ‘Petrushka’ were particularly important influences during Shostakovich’s early career. Later he became friends with Benjamin Britten and both would discuss and trade musical ideas with one another.
Although other composers influenced him it is difficult to argue against the impact of his homeland and the politics he lived through, both in terms of the music he created and how it guided his career.
He tailored pieces to meet the demands of the government, preventing him from writing and dealing with themes he would have liked to explore. This forced him to write in the officially sanctioned neo classical mode making it difficult to incorporate more original ideas. These political factors cut short his forays into ballet and left other works abandoned. Shostakovich is a unique composer who wrote music under immense political pressure yet was able to use these situations to create some of the greatest music in the twentieth
century.
References:
Kay, N. 1971. Shostakovich. Oxford University Press, London.
http://www.chicagooperatheater.org/dimitri-shostakovich-biography/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Shostakovich
http://www.kunstderfuge.com/bios/shostakovich.html
http://www.mfiles.co.uk/composers/Dmitri-Shostakovich.htm