Dimitry Shostakovich (Ivan Martynov, T. Guralsky)
Following are excerpts from the book Dmitry Shostakovich (the man and his work) (Ivan Martynov, T. Guralsky)
This book was first published in 1947. The author endeavored to cast Shostakovich as a Russian patriot, claiming Shostakovich’s life and work as an embodiment of Russian culture and Communist ideology. In fact, living under the communist regime, Shostakovich was openly persecuted by the communist party for writing music that was too Western, losing his teaching job and having to publicly apologize to a committee. Most of his works were banned and his family lost privileges. He continued to write under these circumstances, getting by on a severely reduced income. He ended up joining the communist party in 1960 out of pressure from the government. Shostakovich was trying to be an honest artist in the midst of a turbulent political environment in his beloved homeland of Russia.
The author doesn’t deal with any of the political and social strains on Shostakovich, but rather focusses on his musical works and life-overview.
“Dmitri Shostakovich was born September 25, 1906 into the family of an engineer in St. Petersburg. As a child he displayed no special musical talent and no one could have guessed that he was destined to become a famous composer. His parents, however, were ardent lovers of music, which they regarded as essential in the upbringing of their children. Dmitry received his first piano lesson at the age of nine.”
“His mother was his first teacher…The boy made rapid progress and soon began to study at the Glasser School of Music…his talents could no longer escape the attention of his family. They…decided he should become a professional musician.” We encourage the parents of the students of our music school in Odessa, Texas to be perceptive to the talents in their children’s lives.
Shostakovich began studying in the Petrograd Conservatory in 1919, “playing before the venerable director of the conservatory, Alexander Glazounov, famous Russian composer and favorite pupil and friend of Rimsky-Korsakov…Glazounov watched over the development of the young composer, encouraged and supported him, secured him a monthly stipend which he continued to receive throughout his studies at the conservatory.”
Shostakovich made quick progress on the piano, and completed writing his first Symphony at the age of 17.
“Abandoning composition for a time, he devoted himself energetically to the piano, gave many recitals and in 1927 participated in the Chopin pianoforte contest in Warsaw.”
He could not escape the compositional influences of great Western composers, however. “Music lovers in Leningrad in 1924-1929 were particularly drawn to the innovations of Western music…The Leningrad Philharmonic more and more often rendered the works of Stravinsky, Hindemith, Krenek, Schoenberg, Milhaud and others…The innovations of western music penetrated to the music schools and were studied ever more carefully.”
In 1927, Shostakovich wrote his first opera, ‘The Nose’ closely followed by two ballets, ‘The Golden Age’ and ‘Bolt’. In the composer’s own words, “I hoped to write good entertaining music which would be pleasant or even amusing…It gives me pleasure to see my audience laugh or at least smile.”
“His Second and Third Symphonies treat with the theme of revolution.”
“Beginning with 1927 Shostakovich worked for various theatres in Leningrad and Moscow. Particularly extensive were his connections with the Young Workers’ Theatre of Leningrad…he also participated in the production of all of its plays and shows…His work in the theatre sharpened the composer’s vision, augmented his skill in the composition of brief and clearly defined musical passages.” A concept we teach our students in our music school in Odessa, Texas is how the arts inter-relate.
“Two conflicting tendencies mark Shostakovich’s work in the period between 1927-1932. The first was to assimilate various currents of modern western music…The second, no less pronounced, was his search for new themes closely allied to Soviet reality…proved able to assimilate the various influences and very soon evolved his own style.”
“Shostakovich worked over his opera ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’ for two years (1930-1932)…The opera has considerable melodic variety, but declamatory tendencies predominate on the whole. The harmonic language too is anything but monotonous. Strict diatonism, curiously logical cadences and harmonic progressions are often intermixed with most abstruse-polytonal and even atonal patterns. There are times when the use of polytonal principles is artistically justified and represents a powerful means of expression in the hands of the composer.”
“In 1935-1936 Shostakovich worked on the score of his Fourth Symphony. This work was finished and submitted for performance at a concert of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. After one of the rehearsals, however, the composer withdrew the score and it was never played before the public…Suffice it to say that those who are familiar with the score have expressed no doubts as to its value and very much desire to hear it played by an orchestra.”
“His Pianoforte Quintet, the Fifth and the Seventh Symphonies were evolved after he had run the gauntlet of harrowing doubts and disappointments…More quickly than other musicians Shostakovich understood the essence of the severe criticisms levelled against him. An honest artist and truthful to the core, he did not yield to the temptation to superficially change his style, but sought doggedly for new elements in his art…A new phase in his life began with the composition of the Fifth Symphony.”
The Fifth Symphony was an instant success and gained the composer international recognition. “In 1937, the year he finished his Fifth Symphony, Shostakovich became a professor of the Leningrad Conservatory.”
In his Sixth Symphony, the composer used, “dynamic linear development reverting to the pre-classical principles akin to the art of Bach…The Sixth Symphony …does not consist of three separated themes, but is a single musical entity with unified content and a continuous idea throughout. It is this inter-relation of ideas upon which the separate movements of the symphony are hinged. The Sixth Symphony is noteworthy for its highly finished style.”
In his Pianoforte Quintet…again he has turned to the traditions of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century masters…(many details in the Quintet remind one of the style of Bach or Handel)…In addition to the classic influences in Shostakovich’s chamber music one may discern those of modern composers, particularly of Paul Hindemith…In the best of his chamber pieces Shostakovich strove for simplicity of rendition and clarity of instrumentation…Linear effects in his compositions superseded oddness of tonality. This may also be found in the works of the Western line-artists, but Shostakovich’s graphic effects are more concrete, more alive. Combinations of abstract melodies in his works have given way to the inspired, emotional and charmingly simple melody.” We teach our composition students in our music school in Odessa, Texas the value of linear melodic composition.
In 1942, he wrote his Seventh Symphony amid the sound of anti-aircraft guns and falling bombs. “The symphony was first heard in New York where it was broadcast in July 19, 1942. The conductor was Arturo Toscanini…Shostakovich grew more popular than ever.”
In the Seventh Symphony, “this wealth of sentiment is contrasted by something fearfully limited, deadly mechanistic, soullessly brutal. When the symphony was written the forces of progress and reaction, Democracy and Fascism, were locked in combat and Shostakovich strove to embody the world tragedy of war in his music…To the composer, his Seventh Symphony will always represent one of his finest achievements at the apex of his talent.”
His Eighth Symphony “is a majestic tragedy. The flow of its musical thoughts is extraordinarily wide, Bach-like in the exalted and limitless slow motions…strength of artistic conviction that makes the Eighth Symphony one of the most brilliant achievements of modern musical art…The construction and structure of the Eighth are very complicated, and can serve as the theme of special theoretical study.”
“Highly characteristic of Shostakovich is the organic quality of shape, which is never schematized and is always new, always inseparably connected with the various artistic problems that arise in his consciousness…Therefore it contains scarcely any exact repetitions dictated by schemes. When he returns to some musical figure, the composer examines it in the light of the dramatic climaxes he has himself lived through, and adds to it new traits of expressiveness…To Shostakovich, details are not ornaments, but necessary components of the structure.” We encourage the students in our music school in Odessa, Texas to focus on the details of music creation.
“Shostakovich’s music is novel and highly original. Yet at the same time it is natural in the flow of its ideas. Everything in it is subjugated to a clearly thought-out conception, and every detail of it has a concrete significance. Any harmonic consonance or cunning contrapuntal combination of voices is the necessary form of expressing this conception. That is why his music appeals even to those who do not particularly appreciate the harsh consonances of modern musical language. Shostakovich’s mastery of such details is perfect.”
“The Ninth Symphony was the first of Shostakovich’s works to appear after the war. It was written in August 1945… in the style of chamber music that reminds one of the early classical symphonies…The elements of classicism are creatively interwoven in his musical thought…does not occupy the same place in Shostakovich’s symphonic creations as do the Fifth, Seventh and Eight. It is far remote from the philosophical significance and depth of those works. But this does not lessen its importance. It serves to give another proof of the composer’s versatility, of the variety of his artistic aims, of his ability to create not only symphonic tragedies, but symphonic scherzos as well- scherzos which embody a world of joyful feelings.”
“There are two elements at war in Shostakovich’s music. On the one hand there is his striving for that which is simple, lucid, for clarity of melody (examples are the themes of the Scherzo in his First Symphony, the E-minor Prelude and Intermezzo of his Pianoforte Quintet) and on the other, there is his trend to that which is pretentious, to the uneven stride of intervals and distortion of fundamental scales. The balance of these trends has varied in the different phases of his development, but both have remained typical of his style.” We encourage the students in our music school in Odessa, Texas to merge the ideas of simplicity and complexity.
“The complexity of his harmony resulted from his characteristic modulatory progressions and the linear weave of his growing melodies…Wide intervals (leaps) are characteristic of Shostakovich’s melody…Definitions of Shostakovich’s style usually connect it with the principles of modern constructive linearism.”
“His style…is linked with certain of the classical tradition, particularly with the traditions of the Russian Classics. Here, I should like to stress its connection with the melodic currents of Tchaikovsky…Shostakovich’s harmony frequently seems subordinated to his linear principle, but this does not detract from its value…does not shrink from dissonance. Applied with great skill in his mature works, it never obscures the main tonal perspective.
“Exceptions to this were his polytonal passages which at times led to complete confusion (as in certain bits of his Second Symphony), or at other times were highly effective (as in many parts of ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’).”
“Simplicity rather than complexity, however, is characteristic of Shostakovich’s more mature works…The same is true of his composition forms. Most remarkable are their organic integrity, classical proportion and balance. The form of his composition, however, never intrudes itself upon his work as a diagram. He does not compose according to time-honored canons, but weaves live and vivid musical patterns.”
“Frequently he builds up his cyclical form on contrasted episodes, but preserves a certain symmetry…frequently and gladly resorts to the polyphonic forms, among them the fugue, in which he has attained high skill…the Fugue of his Pianoforte Quintet wherein Bach’s polyphonic principles are so boldly resurrected.”
“Parody and mockery of the popular genre… is often combined with an esthetic admiration for it. At such times he is obsessed with a sense of the grotesque and instead of utilizing the valuable elements of popular music he merely mocks at its limitations.
Shostakovich has often been termed a Neoclassicist. “Shostakovich has revived the great …traditions of classicism on a new basis, has created an art highly intellectual and yet permeated with human emotion…Certain feature of Shostakovich’s artistic individuality drew him close to the principles of the old masters. He was attracted by their profound meditation and stately grandeur- the music of Bach and Handel. He was drawn to the linear method of expression which sprang from Bach. He was also drawn to their composition forms (particularly the polyphonic), their style of instrumentation (wherein the melodic principle predominated) and their technique of frequently using passages (scale sections).” J.S. Bach’s music is a staple for the students in our music school in Odessa, Texas.
“Shostakovich’s linearism, finally, may be associated with the involved features of the Russian folk song, its rich and original sub-voices.”
“Among the masters of the post-classical era it was Gustav Mahler who exercised considerable influence upon Shostakovich…The influence exerted upon Shostakovich by such Western composers as Hindemith, Alban Berg and others…were largely surmounted by the composer in his more mature works.”
“The personality of the composer is indivisibly connected with his art…Long years of hard work, successes and disappointments have left their stamp upon him, but nothing could efface his youthful spontaneity or extinguish the twinkle of his bespectacled grey eyes…He is a good conversationalist, a man of tact, one who can listen carefully, and quickly comprehend what he hears…Simplicity is perhaps his most charming feature.
“Shostakovich’s bearing is simple and even a little shy. When thunderous applause draws him onto the stage, he clutches nervously for the hand of the conductor, jerkily takes his bow to the roaring audience and hurries from the hall. This is the awkwardness of a plain and modest man moved and yet taken aback by the affection displayed for him by the people.”
“The private life of the composer is similarly plain and modest. He is not fond of unrestrained praise and is always his own severe, sometimes too severe, critic…He has always been the loyal and responsive friend of the young composers, always listens to their works attentively, is always ready to discuss their compositions, measure by measure, and never hesitates sincerely to express his opinion.”
“The composer’s range of interest is wide. He keeps well abreast of the latest books, films and plays. Busy though he is, he finds the time to write articles about the latest operas…is enamored of all that is Russian.”
Shostakovich was undoubtedly one of the greatest composers of the 20th Century. His willingness to continue to create under brutal political circumstances and censorship is nothing less than heroic. The internal pain he undoubtedly went through surely influenced the depth of passion in his work. He became an international symbol of artistic detachment from politics, producing music that touched (and is still touching) people of all nations.