Dmitry is a Soviet composer, author of the Leningrad symphony. "Famous Leningrad" (the history of the creation and performance of the "Leningrad" symphony by D.D.

Soviet historians claimed that Dmitri Shostakovich began writing his famous Leningrad Symphony in the summer of 1941 under the impression of the outbreak of war. However, there are credible evidence that the first part of this piece of music was written before the outbreak of hostilities.

Premonition of war or something else?

It is now known for certain that Shostakovich wrote the main fragments of the first movement of his Seventh Symphony approximately in 1940. He did not publish them anywhere, but showed it to some of his colleagues and students. Moreover, the composer did not explain his intention to anyone.

Somewhat later knowledgeable people call this music a premonition of an invasion. There was something unsettling about her, turning into absolute aggression and suppression. Given the time of writing these fragments of the symphony, it can be assumed that the author did not create the image of a military invasion, but had in mind the overwhelming Stalinist repressive machine. There is even an opinion that the theme of the invasion is based on the rhythm of the lezginka, highly revered by Stalin.

Dmitry Dmitrievich himself wrote in his memoirs: “While writing the theme of the invasion, I was thinking about a completely different enemy of mankind. Of course, I hated fascism. But not only German - every kind of fascism.

Seventh Leningrad

One way or another, but immediately after the outbreak of the war, Shostakovich intensively continued work on this work. In early September, the first two parts of the work were ready. And after a very short time, already in besieged Leningrad, the third score was written.

In early October, the composer and his family were evacuated to Kuibyshev, where he began work on the finale. As planned by Shostakovich, it was supposed to be life-affirming. But it was at this time that the country was going through the most difficult trials of the war. It was very difficult for Shostakovich to write optimistic music in a situation where the enemy stood at the gates of Moscow. During these days, he himself repeatedly admitted to those around him that with the finale of the seventh symphony, nothing came of it.

And only in December 1941, after the Soviet counter-offensive near Moscow, work on the final went smoothly. On New Year's Eve 1942, it was successfully completed.

After the premieres of the seventh symphony in Kuibyshev and Moscow in August 1942, the main premiere took place - the Leningrad one. The besieged city then experienced the most difficult situation for the entire time of the blockade. Starved, exhausted Leningraders, it seemed, no longer believed in anything, did not hope for anything.

But on August 9, 1942, concert hall Mariinsky Palace for the first time since the beginning of the war again sounded music. The Leningrad Symphony Orchestra performed Shostakovich's 7th symphony. Hundreds of loudspeakers, which used to announce air raids, were now broadcasting this concert to the entire besieged city. According to the recollections of the inhabitants and defenders of Leningrad, it was then that they had a firm faith in victory.

There are episodes in history that seem to be far from heroism. But they remain in the memory of a majestic legend, remain at the crossroads of our hopes and sorrows. Especially if the story is connected with the highest art - music.

This day - August 9, 1942 - remained in the annals of the Great Patriotic War, first of all, as evidence of the indestructible Leningrad character. On this day, the Leningrad, blockade premiere of the Seventh Symphony by Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich took place.

Dmitri Shostakovich worked on his main (let us allow ourselves such a subjective assessment) symphony in the first weeks of the Siege, and completed it in Kuibyshev. Every now and then a note appeared on the musical pages - VT, air raid alert. The theme of the invasion from the Leningrad Symphony has become one of the musical symbols of our country, its history. It sounds like a requiem for the victims, like a hymn to those who "Fought on Ladoga, fought on the Volkhov, did not retreat a single step!".

The blockade lasted about 900 days - from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944. During this time, 107 thousand air bombs were dropped on the city, about 150 thousand shells were fired. Only according to official data, 641 thousand Leningraders died of starvation there, about 17 thousand people died from bombing and shelling, about 34 thousand were injured ...

Clashing, "iron" music is an image of merciless force. An inverted bolero with as much simplicity as complexity. Leningrad radio speakers transmitted the monotonous beat of a metronome - it suggested a lot to the composer.

It is likely that Shostakovich found the idea of ​​"Invasion" even before the war: the era provided enough material for tragic forebodings. But the symphony was born during the war, and the image of the besieged Leningrad gave it an eternal meaning.

As early as June 1941, Shostakovich realized that fateful days were beginning, perhaps the main battle in history. He several times tried to volunteer to go to the front. It seemed that he was more needed there. But the 35-year-old composer had already straddled world fame, the authorities knew about it. Both Leningrad and the country needed him as a composer. On the radio, not only new works by Shostakovich sounded, but also his patriotic appeals - confused, but pointedly sincere.

In the first days of the war, Shostakovich wrote the song "Oath to the People's Commissar". Together with other volunteers, he digs fortifications near Leningrad, watches on rooftops at night, extinguishes incendiary bombs. The cover of Time magazine will feature a portrait of the composer in a fireman's helmet... One of Shostakovich's songs based on Svetlov's poems, Flashlight, is dedicated to these heroic city days. True, Svetlov wrote about Moscow:

Permanent sentry
All nights until dawn
My old friend is my flashlight,
Burn, burn, burn!

I remember the time of the foggy twilight,
We remember those nights every hour, -
Narrow beam flashlight
In the night they never went out.

He presented the first part of the symphony to a small friendly audience in front-line Leningrad. “Yesterday, under the roar of anti-aircraft guns, in small company composers Mitya ... played the first two parts of the 7th symphony ...

On September 14, nevertheless, a defense concert took place in front of a crowded hall. Mitya played his preludes...

How I pray to God that he save his life ... In moments of danger, wings usually grow in me and help me overcome adversity, but still I become a worthless and whiny old woman ...

The enemy is outrageous in Leningrad now, but we are all alive and well…”, wrote the composer’s wife.

At the end of October they were evacuated from Leningrad. On the way, Shostakovich almost lost the score... Every day he remembered Leningrad: “I looked at my beloved city with pain and pride. And he stood, scorched by fires, hardened in battles, having experienced the deep suffering of war, and was even more beautiful in his severe grandeur. And the music was born again: “How was it not to love this city ... not to tell the world about its glory, about the courage of its defenders. Music was my weapon."

March 5, 1942, in Kuibyshev, the premiere of the symphony took place, it was performed by the orchestra Bolshoi Theater under the direction of Samuil Samosud. Somewhat later, the Seventh Symphony was also performed in Moscow. But even before these brilliant concerts, Aleksey Tolstoy wrote with fervor about the new symphony throughout the country. Thus began the great glory of the Leningrad ...

And what happened on August 9, 1942? According to the plan of the Nazi command, Leningrad was to fall that day.

Conductor Karl Ilyich Eliasberg, with great difficulty, assembled the orchestra in the besieged city. During rehearsals, the musicians were given additional rations. Karl Ilyich found drummer Zhaudat Aidarov in the dead room, noticed that the musician's fingers moved slightly. "He's alive!" - Gathering his strength, the conductor shouted, and saved the musician. Without Aidarov, the symphony in Leningrad would not have taken place - after all, it was he who was supposed to beat out the drum roll in the “invasion theme”.

Karl Ilyich Eliasberg led the symphony orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee - the only one that did not leave the northern capital during the days of the blockade.

“We took part in the work of the only Soyuzkinochronika factory in Leningrad, voicing most of the films and newsreels released by newsreels during the years of the blockade. The entire composition of our team was awarded medals "For the Defense of Leningrad", while several people received diplomas from the Leningrad City Council. Gone are the hard times. The war ended with a great victory. Looking into the faces of my fellow orchestra members, I remember the courage and heroism with which they experienced difficult years. I remember our listeners making their way to concerts through the dark streets of Leningrad, under the thunder of artillery fire. And a feeling of deep emotion and gratitude overwhelms me,” recalled Eliasberg. The main day in his biography is the 9th of August.

The score of the symphony was delivered to the city by a special plane that broke through the ring of fire, on which was the author's inscription: "Dedicated to the city of Leningrad." All the musicians still remaining in the city were gathered for the performance. There were only fifteen of them, the rest were carried away by the first year of the blockade, and at least a hundred were required!

And so they burned crystal chandeliers in the hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic. Musicians in shabby jackets and tunics, the audience in quilted jackets ... Only Eliasberg - with sunken cheeks, but in a white shirt-front, with a bow tie. The troops of the Leningrad Front were ordered: "During the concert, not a single bomb, not a single shell should fall on the city." And the city listened great music. No, it was not a funeral song for Leningrad, but the music of irresistible power, the music of the future Victory. For eighty minutes the wounded city listened to the music.

The concert was broadcast through loudspeakers throughout Leningrad. He was heard by the Germans on the front line. Eliasberg recalled: “The symphony ended. Applause resounded in the hall ... I went into the dressing room ... Suddenly everyone parted. M. Govorov entered quickly. He spoke very seriously, cordially about the symphony, and as he left he said somehow mysteriously: "Our gunners can also be considered participants in the performance." Then, to be honest, I did not understand this phrase. And only many years later I found out that M. Govorov (future marshal Soviet Union, commander of the Leningrad Front - approx. A.Z.) gave the order, for the duration of the performance of D.D. Shostakovich's symphony, to our gunners to conduct intense fire on enemy batteries and force them to silence. I think that in the history of music such a fact is the only one.

The New York Times wrote: "Shostakovich's symphony was the equivalent of several armed transports." Former Wehrmacht officers recalled: “We listened to the symphony that day. It was then, on August 9, 1942, that it became clear that we had lost the war. We felt your power to overcome hunger, fear, even death.” And since then the symphony has been called the Leningrad symphony.

Many years after the war, the poet Alexander Mezhirov (in 1942 he fought on the Leningrad front) writes:

What music was!
What music was playing
When both souls and bodies
The damned war trampled.

What kind of music is in everything
To all and for all - not by ranking.
We will overcome... We will survive... We will save...
Ah, not to fat - to be alive ...

The soldiers are circling their heads,
Three-row under the roll of logs
Was more needed for the dugout,
Than for Germany Beethoven.

And across the country a string
taut trembled,
When the damn war
And trampled souls and bodies.

They moaned furiously, sobbing,
One single passion for the sake of
At the half-station - a disabled person,
And Shostakovich - in Leningrad

Arseny Zamostyanov

Dmitri Shostakovich began writing his Seventh (Leningrad) Symphony in September 1941, when the blockade closed around the city on the Neva. In those days, the composer filed an application with a request to send him to the front. Instead, he received an order to prepare to be sent to the "Great Land" and soon, together with his family, he was sent to Moscow, and then to Kuibyshev. There, on December 27, the composer finished work on the symphony.

The premiere of the symphony took place on March 5, 1942 in Kuibyshev. The success was so overwhelming that the very next day a copy of her score was flown to Moscow. The first performance in Moscow took place in the Hall of Columns on March 29, 1942.

The largest American conductors - Leopold Stokowski and Arturo Toscanini (New York Radio Symphony - NBC), Sergei Koussevitzky (Boston Symphony Orchestra), Eugene Ormandy (Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra), Arthur Rodzinsky (Cleveland Symphony Orchestra) appealed to the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with abroad (VOKS) with a request to urgently send by plane to the United States four copies of photocopies of the scores of Shostakovich's "Seventh Symphony" and a recording of the performance of the symphony in the Soviet Union. They announced that they would prepare the Seventh Symphony at the same time and that the first concerts would take place on the same day - an unprecedented event in musical life USA. The same request came from England.

Dmitri Shostakovich in a fireman's helmet on the cover of Time magazine, 1942

The score of the symphony was sent to the United States by military aircraft, and the first performance of the "Leningrad" symphony in New York was broadcast by radio stations in the United States, Canada and Latin America. It was heard by about 20 million people.

But with special impatience they waited for "their" Seventh Symphony in besieged Leningrad. On July 2, 1942, a twenty-year-old pilot, Lieutenant Litvinov, under continuous fire from German anti-aircraft guns, broke through the ring of fire, delivered medicines and four voluminous music notebooks with the score of the Seventh Symphony to the besieged city. They were already waiting for them at the airport and they were taken away like the greatest treasure.

Carl Eliasberg

But when Carl Eliasberg, chief conductor of the Grand Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee, opened the first of the four notebooks of the score, he became gloomy: instead of the usual three trumpets, three trombones and four horns, Shostakovich had twice as many. Plus added drums! Moreover, on the score by Shostakovich's hand it is written: "The participation of these instruments in the performance of the symphony is obligatory." And "necessarily" is underlined in bold. It became clear that with those few musicians who still remained in the orchestra, the symphony could not be played. Yes, and they played their last concert back in December 1941.

After the hungry winter of 1941, only 15 people remained in the orchestra, and more than a hundred were required. From the story of Galina Lelyukhina, flutist of the blockade composition of the orchestra: “They announced on the radio that all musicians were invited. It was hard to walk. I had scurvy and my legs were very sore. At first there were nine of us, but then more came. Conductor Eliasberg was brought in on a sleigh, because he was completely weak from hunger. Men were even called from the front line. Instead of weapons, they had to take up musical instruments. The symphony required great physical effort, especially the wind parts - a huge burden for the city, where it was already hard to breathe. Eliasberg found drummer Zhaudat Aidarov in the dead room, where he noticed that the musician's fingers moved slightly. "Yes, he's alive!" Reeling from weakness, Karl Eliasberg went around hospitals in search of musicians. Musicians came from the front: a trombonist from a machine-gun company, a horn player from an anti-aircraft regiment... A violist escaped from the hospital, a flutist was brought on a sled - his legs were paralyzed. The trumpeter came in felt boots, despite the summer: his feet, swollen from hunger, did not fit into other shoes.

Clarinetist Viktor Kozlov recalled: “At the first rehearsal, some musicians were physically unable to go up to the second floor, they listened below. They were so exhausted by hunger. It is now impossible even to imagine such a degree of exhaustion. People could not sit, they were so thin. I had to stand during rehearsals."

On August 9, 1942, in besieged Leningrad, the Grand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Karl Eliasberg (a German by nationality) performed Dmitri Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony. The day of the first performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony was not chosen by chance. On August 9, 1942, the Nazis intended to capture the city - they even had invitation cards for a banquet in the restaurant of the Astoria Hotel.

On the day of the performance of the symphony, all the artillery forces of Leningrad were sent to suppress enemy firing points. Despite the bombs and airstrikes, all the chandeliers were lit in the Philharmonic. The symphony was broadcast over the radio as well as over the city's network loudspeakers. It was heard not only by the inhabitants of the city, but also by the German troops besieging Leningrad, who believed that the city was practically dead.

After the war, two former German soldiers, who fought near Leningrad, found Eliasberg and confessed to him: "Then, on August 9, 1942, we realized that we would lose the war."

Galkina Olga

My research is informational in nature, I would like to get to know the history of the Siege of Leningrad through the history of the creation of Symphony No. 7 by Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich.

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Research

in history

on the topic of:

"Fiery symphony of besieged Leningrad and the fate of its author"

Done by: 10th grade student

MBOU "Gymnasium No. 1"

Galkina Olga.

Curator: history teacher

Chernova I.Yu.

Novomoskovsk 2014

Plan.

1. Blockade of Leningrad.

2. The history of the creation of the "Leningrad" symphony.

3. Pre-war life of D. D. Shostakovich.

4.Post-war years.

5. Conclusion.

Leningrad blockade.

My research work is informational in nature, I would like to get to know the history of the blockade of Leningrad through the history of the creation of Symphony No. 7 by Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich.

Shortly after the start of the war, Leningrad was captured by German troops, the city was blocked from all sides. The blockade of Leningrad lasted 872 days - on September 8, 1941, Hitler's troops cut Railway Moscow - Leningrad, Shlisselburg was captured, Leningrad was surrounded by land. The capture of the city was part of the plan of war developed by Nazi Germany against the USSR - the plan "Barbarossa". It provided that the Soviet Union should be completely defeated within 3-4 months of the summer and autumn of 1941, that is, during the “blitzkrieg”. The evacuation of Leningrad residents lasted from June 1941 to October 1942. During the first period of evacuation, the blockade of the city seemed impossible to the inhabitants, and they refused to move anywhere. But initially, children began to be taken away from the city to the regions of Leningrad, which then began to rapidly capture the German regiments. As a result, 175,000 children were returned to Leningrad. Before the blockade of the city, 488,703 people were taken out of it. At the second stage of the evacuation, which took place from January 22 to April 15, 1942, 554,186 people were taken out along the ice Road of Life. Final stage evacuation, from May to October 1942, was carried out mainly by water transport along Lake Ladoga about 400 thousand people were transported to the mainland. In total, about 1.5 million people were evacuated from Leningrad during the war years. Food cards were introduced: from October 1, workers and engineers began to receive 400 g of bread per day, all the rest- to 200. Public transport stopped, because by the winter of 1941- 1942 there were no fuel reserves and electricity. Food supplies were rapidly declining, and in January 1942 there was only 200/125 g of bread per person per day. By the end of February 1942, more than 200,000 people had died in Leningrad from cold and hunger. But the city lived and fought: the factories did not stop their work and continued to produce military products, theaters and museums worked. All this time, when the blockade was going on, the Leningrad radio did not stop, where poets and writers spoke.In the besieged Leningrad, in the darkness, in hunger, in sadness, where death, like a shadow, dragged along on the heels ... there remained the professor of the Leningrad Conservatory, the world-famous composer - Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich. A grandiose idea for a new work ripened in his soul, which was supposed to reflect the thoughts and feelings of millions of Soviet people.With extraordinary enthusiasm, the composer set about creating his 7th symphony. With extraordinary enthusiasm, the composer set about creating his 7th symphony. “Music burst out of me uncontrollably,” he later recalled. Neither hunger, nor the beginning of autumn cold and lack of fuel, nor frequent shelling and bombing could interfere with inspired work.

Pre-war life of D. D. Shostakovich

Shostakovich was born and lived in difficult and ambiguous times. He did not always adhere to the policy of the party, sometimes he clashed with the authorities, sometimes he received its approval.

Shostakovich is a unique phenomenon in the history of the world musical culture. In his work, like no other artist, our difficult cruel era, contradictions and tragic fate of humanity, the upheavals that befell his contemporaries were embodied. All the troubles, all the suffering of our country in the twentieth century. he passed through his heart and expressed in his writings.

Dmitri Shostakovich was born in 1906, "at the end" of the Russian Empire, in St. Petersburg, when Russian empire lived out her last days. By the end of World War I and the subsequent revolution, the past was decisively erased as the country adopted a new radical socialist ideology. Unlike Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff, Dmitri Shostakovich did not leave his homeland to live abroad.

He was the second of three children: his older sister Maria became a pianist, and the younger Zoya became a veterinarian. Shostakovich studied at private school, and then in 1916 - 18s, during the revolution and the formation of the Soviet Union, he studied at the school of I. A. Glyasser.

Later future composer entered the Petrograd Conservatory. Like many other families, he and his relatives found themselves in a difficult situation - constant starvation weakened the body and, in 1923, Shostakovich, for health reasons, urgently left for a sanatorium in the Crimea. In 1925 he graduated from the conservatory. Graduation work young musician was the First Symphony, which immediately brought the 19-year-old youth wide fame at home and in the West.

In 1927 he met Nina Varzar, a physics student whom he later married. In the same year, he became one of the eight finalists at international competition them. Chopin in Warsaw, and the winner was his friend Lev Oborin.

Life was difficult, and in order to continue to support his family and widowed mother, Shostakovich composed music for films, ballets and theater. When Stalin came to power, the situation became more complicated.

Shostakovich's career experienced rapid ups and downs several times, but the turning point in his fate was 1936, when Stalin visited his opera Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district”according to the story by N. S. Leskov and was shocked by her harsh satire and innovative music. The official response was immediate. The government newspaper Pravda, in an article under the heading "Muddle Instead of Music", subjected the opera to a real defeat, and Shostakovich was declared an enemy of the people. The opera was immediately removed from the repertoire in Leningrad and Moscow. Shostakovich was forced to cancel the premiere of his recently completed Symphony No. 4, fearing that it might cause more trouble, and began work on a new symphony. Those terrible years there was a period when for many months the composer lived, expecting to be arrested at any moment. He went to bed dressed and had a small suitcase ready.

At the same time, his relatives were arrested. His marriage was also in jeopardy due to an infatuation on the side. But with the birth of her daughter Galina in 1936, the situation improved.

Harassed by the press, he wrote his Symphony No. 5, which, fortunately, was a great success. She was the first climax symphonic creativity composer, its premiere in 1937 was conducted by the young Yevgeny Mravinsky.

The history of the creation of the "Leningrad" symphony.

On the morning of September 16, 1941, Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich spoke on the Leningrad radio. At this time, the city was bombed by fascist planes, and the composer spoke to the roar of anti-aircraft guns and bomb explosions:

“An hour ago I finished the score of two parts of a large symphonic work. If I succeed in writing this work well, if I succeed in completing the third and fourth parts, then it will be possible to call this work the Seventh Symphony.

Why am I reporting this? ... so that the radio listeners who are listening to me now know that the life of our city is going on normally. We are all now on our combat watch ... Soviet musicians, my dear and numerous comrades-in-arms, my friends! Remember that our art is in great danger. Let's protect our music, let's work honestly and selflessly…”

Shostakovich - outstanding master of the orchestra. He thinks in an orchestral way. Instrumental timbres and combinations of instruments are used with amazing accuracy and in many ways in a new way as living participants in his symphonic dramas.

Seventh ("Leningrad") symphony- one of the most significant works of Shostakovich. The symphony was written in 1941. And most of it was composed in besieged Leningrad.The composer completed the symphony in Kuibyshev (Samara), where he was evacuated by order in 1942.The first performance of the symphony took place on March 5, 1942 in the hall of the Palace of Culture on Kuibyshev Square ( modern theater opera and ballet) conducted by S. Samosud.The premiere of the Seventh Symphony took place in Leningrad in August 1942. In the besieged city, people found the strength to perform a symphony. There were only fifteen people left in the orchestra of the Radio Committee, and at least a hundred were required for the performance! Then they called together all the musicians who were in the city, and even those who played in the army and navy front-line bands near Leningrad. On August 9, Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony was played in the Philharmonic Hall. Conducted by Karl Ilyich Eliasberg. “These people were worthy to perform the symphony of their city, and the music was worthy of themselves ...”- Olga Berggolts and Georgy Makogonenko wrote then in Komsomolskaya Pravda.

The Seventh Symphony is often compared with documentary works about the war, called "chronicle", "document"- She conveys the spirit of events so accurately.The idea of ​​the symphony is struggle Soviet people against the fascist invaders and faith in victory. This is how the composer himself defined the idea of ​​the symphony: “My symphony is inspired by the terrible events of 1941. The insidious and treacherous attack of German fascism on our Motherland rallied all the forces of our people to repulse the cruel enemy. The Seventh Symphony is a poem about our struggle, about our coming victory.” So he wrote in the Pravda newspaper on March 29, 1942.

The idea of ​​the symphony is embodied in 4 parts. Part I is of particular importance. Shostakovich wrote about it in the author's explanation, published in the program of the concert on March 5, 1942 in Kuibyshev: formidable force- war". These words determined two themes opposed in the first part of the symphony: the theme of peaceful life (the theme of the Motherland) and the theme of the outbreak of war (fascist invasion). “The first theme is the image of joyful creation. This emphasizes the Russian sweeping-wide warehouse of the theme, filled with calm confidence. Then melodies sound, embodying images of nature. They seem to dissolve, melt. Warm summer night sank to the ground. Both people and nature - everything fell into a dream.

In the episode of the invasion, the composer conveyed inhuman cruelty, blind, lifeless and terrible automatism, inextricably linked with the appearance of the fascist military. Here the expression of Leo Tolstoy is very appropriate - "an evil machine."

Here is how musicologists L. Danilevich and A. Tretyakova characterize the image of the enemy invasion: “To create such an image, Shostakovich mobilized all the means of his composer's arsenal. The theme of the invasion - deliberately blunt, square - resembles a Prussian military march. It is repeated eleven times - eleven variations. The harmony and orchestration change, but the melody remains the same. It is repeated with iron inexorability - exactly, note for note. All variations are permeated with the fractional rhythm of the march. This snare drum pattern is repeated 175 times. The sound gradually grows from a barely perceptible pianissimo to a thunderous fortissimo. “Growing to gigantic proportions, the theme draws some unimaginably gloomy, fantastic monster, which, increasing and compacting, moves forward more and more rapidly and menacingly.” This theme is reminiscent of "the dance of learned rats to the tune of a rat-catcher" A. Tolstoy wrote about it.

How does such a powerful development of the theme of the enemy invasion end? “At the moment when it would seem that all living things collapse, being unable to resist the onslaught of this terrible, all-destroying robot monster, a miracle happens: a new force appears on its way, capable of not only resisting, but also joining the fight. This is the theme of resistance. Marching, solemn, it sounds with passion and great anger, resolutely opposing the theme of the invasion. The moment of her appearance highest point in the musical dramaturgy of the 1st part. After this collision, the theme of the invasion loses its solidity. She's crumbling, she's crumbling. All attempts to rise in vain - the death of the monster is inevitable.

About what wins in the symphony as a result of this struggle, Alexei Tolstoy very accurately said: “On the threat of fascism- dehumanize a person- he (i.e. Shostakovich.- G.S.) responded with a symphony about the victorious triumph of all that is high and beautiful, created by the humanitarian…”.

D. Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony was performed in Moscow on March 29, 1942, 24 days after its premiere in Kuibyshev. In 1944, the poet Mikhail Matusovsky wrote a poem called "The Seventh Symphony in Moscow".

You probably remember
How the cold then penetrated
Night quarters of Moscow
Hall of Columns.

There was bad weather,
Snow puffed a little,
As if this cereal
We were given cards.

But the city shrouded in darkness
With a sadly creeping tram,
Was this siege winter
Beautiful and unforgettable.

When the composer sideways
I made my way to the foot of the piano,
Bow by bow in the orchestra
Wake up, light up, shine

As if from the darkness of night
The gusts of a blizzard have reached us.
And all the violinists at once
Sheets flew off the coasters.
And this gloomy haze
Whistling sullenly in the trenches,
Nobody before him
Scheduled as a score.

A storm rolled over the world.
Never before in concert
I didn't feel the hall so close
The presence of life and death.

Like a house from floors to rafters
engulfed in flames at once,
The orchestra, distraught, yelled
One musical phrase.

She breathed fire in her face.
Jammed her cannonade.
She broke the ring
Blockade nights of Leningrad.

Buzzing in the dull blue
Been on the road all day.
And the night ended in Moscow
Air raid siren.

post-war years.

In 1948, Shostakovich again got into trouble with the authorities, he was declared a formalist. A year later, he was fired from the conservatory, and his compositions were banned from performance. The composer continued to work in the theater and film industry (between 1928 and 1970 he wrote music for almost 40 films).

Stalin's death in 1953 brought some relief. He felt relative freedom. This allowed him to expand and enrich his style and create works of even greater skill and range, often reflecting the violence, horror and bitterness of the times the composer lived through.

Shostakovich visited Great Britain and America and created several other grandiose works.

60s pass under the sign of deteriorating health. The composer suffers two heart attacks, the disease of the central nervous system. Increasingly, you have to stay in the hospital for a long time. But Shostakovich tries to lead an active lifestyle, to compose, although every month he gets worse.

Death overtook the composer on August 9, 1975. But even after his death, the omnipotent power did not leave him alone. Despite the desire of the composer to be buried in his homeland, in Leningrad, he was buried in a prestigious Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

The funeral was postponed until August 14, because foreign delegations did not have time to arrive. Shostakovich was the "official" composer, and he was officially buried with loud speeches by representatives of the party and government, who had criticized him for so many years.

After his death, he was officially proclaimed a loyal member of the Communist Party.

Conclusion.

Everyone in the war performed feats - on the front line, in partisan detachments, in concentration camps, in the rear in factories and hospitals. Performed feats and musicians who, in inhuman conditions, wrote music and performed it on the fronts and for home front workers. Thanks to their feat, we know a lot about the war. The 7th symphony is not only musical, it is a military feat of D. Shostakovich.

“I put a lot of effort and energy into this composition,” the composer wrote in the newspaper “ TVNZ". - I have never worked with such a lift as now. There is such popular expression: "When the cannons rumble, then the muses are silent." This rightly applies to those cannons that, with their roar, suppress life, joy, happiness, and culture. The guns of darkness, violence and evil rumble. We are fighting in the name of the triumph of reason over obscurantism, in the name of the triumph of justice over barbarism. There are no more noble and sublime tasks than those that inspire us to fight the dark forces of Hitlerism.

Works of art created during the war years are monuments of military events. The Seventh Symphony is one of the most grandiose, monumental monuments, it is live page history that we must not forget.

Internet resources:

Literature:

1. Tretyakova L.S. Soviet music: Prince. for students Art. classes. - M .: Education, 1987.
2. I. Prokhorova, G. Skudina.Soviet musical literature for VII grade children music school ed. T.V. Popova. Eighth edition. - Moscow, "Music", 1987. Pp. 78–86.
3. Music in grades 4–7: Toolkit for the teacher / T.A. Bader, T.E. Vendrova, E.D. Kritskaya and others; Ed. E.B. Abdullina; scientific Head D.B. Kabalevsky. - M .: Education, 1986. Pp. 132, 133.
4. Poems about music. Russian, Soviet, foreign poets. Second edition. Compiled by A. Biryukov, V. Tatarinov under the general editorship of V. Lazarev. - M .: All-Union ed. Soviet composer, 1986. Pp. 98.

“... when, as a sign of the beginning

the conductor's baton is raised,

above the front edge, like thunder, majestically

another symphony began -

the symphony of our guards guns,

so that the enemy does not hit the city,

so that the city listens to the Seventh Symphony. …

And in the hall - a flurry,

And on the front - a flurry. …

And when people went to their apartments,

full of lofty and proud feelings,

the soldiers lowered their gun barrels,

defending Arts Square from shelling.

Nikolai Savkov

On August 9, 1942, the performance of the Seventh Symphony by Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich took place in the hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic.

In the first weeks of the Great Patriotic War, which Shostakovich met in his hometown- Leningrad, he began to write the Seventh Symphony, which became one of his most important works. The composer worked with extraordinary diligence and creative enthusiasm, although writing a symphony was achieved in fits and starts. Together with other Leningraders, Dmitry Dmitrievich participated in the defense of the city: he worked on the construction of anti-tank fortifications, was a firefighter, was on duty at night in attics and roofs of houses, extinguished incendiary bombs. By mid-September, Shostakovich had completed two movements of the symphony, and on 29 September completed the third movement.

In mid-October 1941, he was evacuated from the besieged city to Kuibyshev with two young children, where he continued to work on the symphony. In December, the final part was written, and preparations for the production began. The premiere of the Seventh Symphony took place on March 5, 1942 in Kuibyshev, on the stage of the Opera and Ballet Theatre, performed by the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra conducted by S. A. Samosud. On March 29, 1942, the symphony was performed in Moscow.

The initiator and organizer of the performance of the Seventh Symphony in besieged Leningrad was chief conductor Big Symphony Orchestra Leningrad Radio Committee K. I. Eliasberg. In July, the score was delivered to Leningrad by a special plane, and rehearsals began. For the performance of the symphony, an enhanced composition of the orchestra was required, so it was done big job to search for surviving musicians in Leningrad itself and on the nearest front line.

On August 9, 1942, the performance of the Seventh Symphony took place in the overcrowded hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic. For 80 minutes, while the music was playing, the enemy guns were silent: the artillerymen defending the city received an order from the commander of the Leningrad Front, L.A. Govorov, to suppress the fire of German guns at all costs. The operation of fire suppression of enemy batteries was called "Shkval". During the performance, the symphony was broadcast on the radio, as well as on the loudspeakers of the city network. She was heard not only by the inhabitants of the city, but also by the German troops besieging Leningrad. Shostakovich's new work shocked the audience, instilled confidence and gave strength to the defenders of the city.

Later, the recording of the symphony was carried out by many outstanding conductors, both in the USSR and abroad. The ballet "Leningrad Symphony" was staged to the music of the 1st part of the symphony, which became widely known.

The Seventh (“Leningrad”) Symphony by D. D. Shostakovich is rightfully not only one of the most important works of art national culture of the 20th century, but also musical symbol blockade of Leningrad.

Lit .: Akopyan L. O. Dmitry Shostakovich. Experience of the phenomenology of creativity. St. Petersburg, 2004; Lind E. A. "Seventh ...". St. Petersburg, 2005; Lukyanova N. V. Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich. M., 1980; Petrov V. O. Shostakovich's work against the background of historical realities of the 20th century. Astrakhan, 2007; Khentova S. M. Shostakovich in Petrograd-Leningrad. L., 1979.