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Baroque Genres in Shostakovich's Symphony. Creativity d

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Saint Petersburg State University

Essayon the topic of:

“ Creativity D.D. Shostakovich”

St. Petersburg, 2011

INconducting

Shostakovich Dmitry Dmitrievich (1906-1975) - one of the greatest composers of our time, an outstanding pianist, teacher and public figure. Shostakovich was awarded the title People's Artist USSR (1954), Hero of Socialist Labor (1966), State Prize USSR (1941, 1942, 1946, 1950, 1952, 1968), the State Prize of the RSFSR (1974), the Prize. Sibelius, International Peace Prize (1954). Honorary member of academies and universities in many countries of the world.

Today Shostakovich is one of the most performed composers in the world. His creations are true expressions of the inner human drama and chronicle of terrible suffering that fell on the 20th century, where the deeply personal is intertwined with the tragedy of mankind.

The genre and aesthetic diversity of Shostakovich's music is enormous. If we use generally accepted concepts, then it combines elements of tonal, atonal and modal music, modernism, traditionalism, expressionism and "grand style" are intertwined in the composer's work.

Much has been written about Shostakovich. Almost all of his works have been studied in detail, his attitude to the genres of music has been determined, various facets of his style and life have been explored. As a result, a large and diverse literature has developed: from in-depth studies to semi-tabloid publications.

ArtworksD.D. Shostakovich

shostakovich symphony composer poem

Polish origin, Dmitry Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg on September 12 (25), 1906, died in Moscow on August 9, 1975. Father is a chemical engineer, music lover. Mother - a gifted pianist, she gave the initial skills of playing the piano. After studying at a private music school in 1919, Shostakovich was admitted to the Petrograd Conservatory in the piano class, and later began to study composition. While still a student, he began to work - he was a pianist during the showing of "silent" films.

In 1923 Shostakovich graduated from the conservatory as a pianist (under L.V. Nikolaev), and in 1925 as a composer. His thesis was First Simony. It became the biggest event in the musical life and marked the beginning of the world fame of the author.

Already in the First Symphony one can see how the author continues the traditions of P.I. Tchaikovsky, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, M.P. Mussorgsky, Lyadov. All this manifests itself as a synthesis of the leading currents, refracted in their own way and freshly. The symphony is notable for its activity, dynamic pressure, and unexpected contrasts.

During these years, Shostakovich gave concerts as a pianist. He received an honorary diploma at the first International Competition. F. Chopin in Warsaw, for some time faced a choice - to make music composition or concert activity his profession.

After the First Symphony, a short period of experiments began, the search for new musical means. At this time appeared: the First Piano Sonata (1926), the play "Aphorisms" (1927), the Second Symphony "October" (1927), the Third Symphony "May Day" (1929).

The appearance of film and theater music ("New Babylon" 1929), "Golden Mountains" 1931, performances "The Bedbug" 1929 and "Hamlet" 1932) is associated with the formation of new images, especially social caricature. A continuation of this was found in the opera The Nose (based on N.V. Gogol 1928) and in the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (Katerina Izmailova) based on N.S. Leskov (1932).

The plot of the story of the same name by N.S. Leskov was rethought by Shostakovich as a drama of an outstanding female nature in an unjust social order. The author himself called his opera "tragedy-satire". In her musical language, the grotesque in the spirit of "The Nose" is combined with elements of Russian romance and lingering song. In 1934 the opera was staged in Leningrad and Moscow under the title "Katerina Izmailova"; followed by a series of premieres in theaters North America and Europe (the opera was released 36 times in (renamed) Leningrad, 94 times in Moscow, it was also staged in Stockholm, Prague, London, Zurich and Copenhagen. It was a triumph and Shostakovich was congratulated as a genius.)

The Fourth (1934), Fifth (1937), Sixth (1939) symphonies represent a new stage in Shostakovich's work.

Developing the symphonic genre, Shostakovich simultaneously gives everything greater value chamber instrumental music.

Clear, bright, graceful, balanced Sonata for Cello and Piano (1934), First String Quartet (1938), Quintet for String Quartet and Piano (1940) appear as major events in musical life.

The Seventh Symphony (1941) became the musical monument of the Great Patriotic War. The continuation of her ideas was the Eighth Symphony.

In the postwar years, Shostakovich paid more and more attention to the vocal genre.

A new wave of attacks on Shostakovich in the press significantly surpassed the one that rose in 1936. Forced to submit to dictate, Shostakovich, "realizing his mistakes", delivered the oratorio Song of the Forests (1949), the cantata The Sun Shines Over Our Homeland (1952) , music for a number of films of historical and military-patriotic content, etc., which partly alleviated his position. At the same time, works of other merits were composed: Concerto No. 1 for violin and orchestra, the vocal cycle "From Jewish Folk Poetry" (both 1948) (the last cycle was in no way consistent with the anti-Semitic policy of the state), string quartets N4 and N5 (1949, 1952), cycle "24 Preludes and Fugues" for piano (1951); with the exception of the last one, all of them were executed only after Stalin's death.

Shostakovich's symphonism provides the most interesting examples of the use of classical heritage everyday genres, mass songs (Eleventh symphony "1905" (1957), Twelfth symphony "1917" (1961)). The continuation and development of the heritage of L.-V. Beethoven was the Thirteenth Symphony (1962), written to the verses of E. Yevtushenko. The author himself said that in his Fourteenth Symphony (1969) the ideas of Mussorgsky's "songs and dances of death" were used.

An important milestone - the poem "The Execution of Stepan Razin" (1964), it became the culmination of the epic line in the work of Shostakovich.

The Fourteenth Symphony combined the achievements of chamber-vocal, chamber-instrumental and symphonic genres. Lyrics by F. Garcia Loki, T. Appolinaro, V. Kuchelbecker and R.M. Rilke created a deeply philosophical, lyrical work.

The completion of the great work on the development of the symphonic genre was the Fifteenth Symphony (1971), which combined all the best that was achieved at various stages of D.D. Shostakovich.

Compositions:

Operas - The Nose (after N.V. Gogol, libretto by E.I. Zamyatin, G.I. Ionin, A.G. Preis and the author, 1928, staged 1930, Leningradsky Maly Opera theatre), Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (Katerina Izmailova, after N.S. Leskov, libretto by Preis and the author, 1932, staged 1934, Leningrad Maly Opera House, Moscow Musical Theater named after V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko; new edition 1956, dedicated to NV Shostakovich, staged 1963, Moscow Musical Theater named after KS Stanislavsky and VI Nemirovich-Danchenko), Players (according to Gogol, not completed, concert performance 1978, Leningrad Philharmonic Society);

Ballets - The Golden Age (1930, Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theatre), Bolt (1931, ibid.), Bright Stream (1935, Leningrad Maly Opera Theatre); the musical comedy Moscow, Cheryomushki (libretto by V.Z. Mass and M.A. Chervinsky, 1958, staged in 1959, Moscow Operetta Theatre);

for soloists, choir and orchestra - the oratorio Song of the Forests (words by E.Ya. Dolmatovsky, 1949), cantata Over our Motherland the sun shines (words by Dolmatovsky, 1952), poems - Poem about the Motherland (1947), Execution of Stepan Razin (words by E .A. Evtushenko, 1964);

for choir and orchestra - Hymn to Moscow (1947), Hymn of the RSFSR (words by S. P. Shchipachev, 1945);

for orchestra - 15 symphonies (No. 1, f-moll op. 10, 1925; No. 2 - October, with the final chorus to the words of A.I. Bezymensky, H-dur op. 14, 1927; No. 3, Pervomaiskaya, for orchestra and chorus, words by S. I. Kirsanov, Es-dur op. 20, 1929; No. 4, c-moll op. 43, 1936; No. 5, d-moll op. 47, 1937; No. 6, h-moll op. 54, 1939; No. 7, C-dur op. 60, 1941, dedicated to the city of Leningrad; No. 8, c-moll op. 65, 1943, dedicated to E. A. Mravinsky; No. 9, Es-dur op. 70 , 1945; No. 10, e-moll op. 93, 1953; No. 11, 1905, g-moll op. 103, 1957; No. 12-1917, dedicated to the memory of V. I. Lenin, d-moll op. 112 , 1961; No. 13, b-moll op. 113, lyrics by E. A. Yevtushenko, 1962; No. 14, op. 135, lyrics by F. Garcia Lorca, G. Apollinaire, V. K. Kuchelbecker and R. M. Rilke , 1969, dedicated to B. Britten, No. 15, op. 141, 1971), symphonic poem October (op. 131, 1967), overture in Russian and Kyrgyz folk themes(op. 115, 1963), Holiday Overture (1954), 2 scherzos (op. 1, 1919; op. 7, 1924), overture to Christopher Columbus by Dressel (op. 23, 1927), 5 fragments (op. 42, 1935), Novorossiysk chimes (1960), Funeral and triumphal prelude in memory of the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad (op. 130, 1967), suites - from the opera The Nose (op. 15-a, 1928), from music for the ballet The Golden Age ( op. 22-a, 1932), 5 ballet suites (1949; 1951; 1952; 1953; op. 27-a, 1931), from the film scores Golden Mountains (op. 30-a, 1931), Meeting on the Elbe ( op. 80-a, 1949), First Echelon (op. 99-a, 1956), from music to Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet (op. 32-a, 1932);

concertos for instrument and orchestra - 2 for piano (c-moll op. 35, 1933; F-dur op. 102, 1957), 2 for violin (a-moll op. 77, 1948, dedicated to D. F. Oistrakh; cis -minor op. 129, 1967, dedicated to him), 2 for cello (Es-dur op. 107, 1959; G-dur op. 126, 1966);

For brass band- March of the Soviet police (1970);

for jazz orchestra - suite (1934);

chamber instrumental ensembles - for violin and piano sonata (d-moll op. 134, 1968, dedicated to D. F. Oistrakh); for viola and piano sonata (op. 147, 1975); for cello and piano sonata (d-moll op. 40, 1934, dedicated to V. L. Kubatsky), 3 pieces (op. 9, 1923-24); 2 piano trios (op. 8, 1923; op. 67, 1944, in memory of I.P. Sollertinsky), 15 strings, quartets (No. l, C-dur op. 49, 1938: No. 2, A-dur op. 68 , 1944, dedicated to V. Ya. Shebalin, No. 3, F-dur op. 73, 1946, dedicated to the Beethoven Quartet, No. 4, D-dur op. 1952, dedicated to the Beethoven Quartet, No. 6, G major op. 101, 1956, No. 7, fis-moll op. 108, 1960, dedicated to the memory of N. V. Shostakovich, No. 8, c-moll op. 110, 1960, dedicated to the memory of the victims of fascism and war, No. 9, Es-dur op.117, 1964, dedicated to I. A. Shostakovich, No. 10, As-dur op. 118, 1964, dedicated to M. S. Weinberg, No. 11, f-moll op.122, 1966, in memory of V. P. Shiriisky, No. 12, Des-dur op.133, 1968, dedicated to D. M. Tsyganov, No. 13, b-moll, 1970, dedicated to V. V. Borisovsky ; No. 14, Fis-dur op. 142, 1973, dedicated to S. P. Shirinsky; No. 15, es-moll op. 144, 1974), piano quintet (g-moll op. 57, 1940), 2 pieces for string octet (op. 11, 1924-25);

for piano - 2 sonatas (C-dur op. 12, 1926; h-moll op. 61, 1942, dedicated to L.N. Nikolaev), 24 preludes (op. 32, 1933), 24 preludes and fugues (op. 87 , 1951), 8 preludes (op. 2, 1920), Aphorisms (10 pieces, op. 13, 1927), 3 fantastic dances (op. 5, 1922), Children's notebook (6 pieces, op. 69, 1945), Puppet Dances (7 pieces, no op., 1952);

for 2 pianos - concertino (op. 94, 1953), suite (op. 6, 1922, dedicated to the memory of D. B. Shostakovich);

for voice and orchestra - 2 fables by Krylov (op. 4, 1922), 6 romances to the words of Japanese poets (op. 21, 1928-32, dedicated to N.V. Varzar), 8 English and American folk songs to texts by R. Burns and others translated by S. Ya. Marshak (without op., 1944);

for choir with piano - Oath to the People's Commissar (words by V.M. Sayanov, 1942);

for choir a cappella - Ten poems to the words of Russian revolutionary poets (op. 88, 1951), 2 arrangements of Russian folk songs (op. 104, 1957), Loyalty (8 ballads to the words of E.A. Dolmatovsky, op. 136, 1970 );

for voice, violin, cello and piano - 7 romances to words by A. A. Blok (op. 127, 1967); vocal cycle From Jewish folk poetry for soprano, contralto and tenor with piano (op. 79, 1948); for voice from piano - 4 romances to words by A.S. Pushkin (op. 46, 1936), 6 romances to words by W. Raleigh, R. Burns and W. Shakespeare (op. 62, 1942; version with a chamber orchestra), 2 songs to words by M.A. Svetlov (op. 72, 1945), 2 romances to words by M.Yu. Lermontov (op. 84, 1950), 4 songs to the words of E.A. Dolmatovsky (op. 86, 1951), 4 monologues to the words of A.S. Pushkin (op. 91, 1952), 5 romances to the words of E.A. Dolmatovsky (op. 98, 1954), Spanish songs (op. 100, 1956), 5 satires on the words of S. Cherny (op. 106, 1960), 5 romances on the words from the magazine "Crocodile" (op. 121, 1965) , Spring (words by Pushkin, op. 128, 1967), 6 poems by M.I. Tsvetaeva (op. 143, 1973; variant with chamber orchestra), Sonnet suite by Michelangelo Buonarroti (op. 148, 1974; variant with chamber orchestra); 4 poems by Captain Lebyadkin (words by F. M. Dostoevsky, op. 146, 1975);

for soloists, choir and piano - arrangements of Russian folk songs (1951);

music for performances of drama theaters - Mayakovsky's Bedbug (1929, Moscow, V.E. Meyerhold Theater), Bezymensky's Shot (1929, Leningrad TRAM), Gorbenko and Lvov's Virgin Land (1930, ibid), " Rule, Britannia!" Piotrovsky (1931, ibid.), Shakespeare's Hamlet (1932, Moscow, Vakhtangov Theatre), " human comedy Sukhotin, after O. Balzac (1934, ibid), Afinogenov's Salute, Spain (1936, Pushkin Leningrad Drama Theater), Shakespeare's King Lear (1941, Gorky Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater);

music for films - "New Babylon" (1929), "One" (1931), "Golden Mountains" (1931), "Counter" (1932), "Love and Hate" (1935), "Girlfriends" (1936), trilogy - Maxim's Youth (1935), Maxim's Return (1937), Vyborg Side (1939), Volochaev Days (1937), Friends (1938), Man with a Gun (1938), "Great Citizen" (2 episodes, 1938-39), "Stupid Mouse" (cartoon, 1939), "The Adventures of Korzinkina" (1941), "Zoya" (1944), " Simple people"(1945), "Pirogov" (1947), "Young Guard" (1948), "Michurin" (1949), "Meeting on the Elbe" (1949), "Unforgettable 1919" (1952), "Belinsky" (1953), "Unity" (1954), "The Gadfly" (1955), "First Echelon" (1956), "Hamlet" (1964), "A Year Like Life" (1966), "King Lear" (1971) and etc.;

instrumentation of works by other authors - M.P. Mussorgsky - the operas Boris Godunov (1940), Khovanshchina (1959), the vocal cycle Songs and Dances of Death (1962); opera "Rothschild's Violin" by V.I. Fleishman (1943); Horov A.A. Davidenko - "At the tenth verst" and "The street is worried" (for choir and orchestra, 1962).

ABOUTsociety andD.D. Wostakovich

Shostakovich entered the music of the 20th century quickly and with glory. His first symphony toured many concert halls in the world in a short time, announcing the birth of a new talent. In subsequent years, the young composer writes a lot and in different ways - successfully and not very well, surrendering to his own ideas and fulfilling orders from theaters and cinema, becoming infected with the search for a diverse artistic environment and paying tribute to political engagement. It was quite difficult to separate artistic radicalism from political radicalism in those years. Futurism, with its idea of "industrial expediency" of art, frank anti-individualism and appeal to "mass", in some way connected with the Bolshevik aesthetics. Hence the duality of the works (second and third symphonies), created on the revolutionary theme so popular in those years. Such double-addressing was generally typical at that time (for example, Mayerhold's theater or Mayakovsky's poetry). It seemed to the art innovators of that time that the revolution corresponded to the spirit of their bold searches and could only contribute to them. Later they will see how naive their belief in the revolution was. But in those years when the first major opuses of Shostakovich were born - symphonies, the opera "The Nose", preludes - artistic life really seethed and boiled, and in an atmosphere of bright innovative undertakings, extraordinary ideas, colorful mixing artistic directions and unbridled experimentation, any young and strong talent could find applications for his overflowing creative energy. And Shostakovich in those years was completely captured by the flow of life. The dynamics were in no way conducive to calm meditation, and, on the contrary, demanded an effective, modern, non-topical art. And Shostakovich, like many artists of that time, for some time consciously sought to write music in tune with the general tone of the era.

Shostakovich received his first serious blow from the totalitarian cultural machine in 1936 in connection with his production of his second (and last) opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. The ominous meaning of such political divisions lay in the fact that in 1936 the deadly mechanism of repressions was already operating to its full gigantic range. Ideological criticism meant only one thing: either you are on the “other side of the barricades”, and therefore on the other side of being, or you recognize the “justice of criticism”, and then life is granted to you. At the cost of abandoning his own "I" Shostakovich for the first time had to make such a painful choice. He "understood" and "recognized", and moreover, removed the fourth symphony from the premiere.

Subsequent symphonies (fifth and sixth) were interpreted by official propaganda as an act of "realization", "correction". In fact, Shostakovich used the formula of the symphony in a new way, camouflaging the content. Nevertheless, the official press supported (and could not but support) these writings, because otherwise the Bolshevik Party would have to admit the complete inconsistency of its criticism.

Shostakovich confirmed his reputation as a "Soviet patriot" during the war by writing his seventh "Leningrad" symphony. For the third time (after the first and fifth), the composer reaped the fruits of success, and not only in his own country. His authority as a master contemporary music already seemed to be recognized. However, this did not prevent the authorities in 1948 from subjecting him to political beatings and harassment in connection with the publication of the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the opera The Great Friendship by V. Muradeli”. The criticism was fierce. Shostakovich was expelled from the Moscow and Leningrad Conservatories, where he had previously taught, the performance of his work was banned. But the composer did not give up and continued to work. Only in 1958, 5 years after Stalin's death, was the decision officially recognized as erroneous, if not in its provisions, but in any case in relation to some composers. From that time on, Shostakovich's official position began to improve. He is a recognized classic of Soviet music, the state no longer criticizes, but brings closer to itself. Behind external well-being was constant and increasing pressure on the composer, under which Shostakovich wrote a number of compositions. The heaviest pressure came when Shostakovich, being considered for the leadership of the Union of Composers of the RSFSR, began to force him to join the party, which was required by the status of this post. At that time, such actions were considered as a tribute to the rules of the game and became a phenomenon almost household plan. Membership in the party has acquired a purely formal character. And yet, Shostakovich experienced painfully joining the party.

Tradiation

At the end of the 20th century, when a view of the past opens up from the heights of its last decade, Shostakovich's place is determined in line with the classical tradition. Classical not by stylistic features and not in the sense of neoclassical retrospections, but by the deep essence of understanding the purpose of music, in the totality of the components of musical thinking. Everything that the composer operated on, creating his opuses, no matter how innovative they seemed at that time, ultimately had its source Viennese classicism, as well as - and more broadly - the homophonic system as a whole, together with the tonal-harmonic basis, a set of typical forms, the composition of genres and an understanding of their specifics. Shostakovich completed an era in the history of modern European music, the beginning of which dates back to the 18th century and is associated with the names of Bach, Haydn and Mozart, although not limited to them. In this sense, Shostakovich played the same role in relation to the classical-romantic era that Bach played in relation to the Baroque era. The composer synthesized in his work many lines in the development of European music of the last centuries and performed this final function at a time when completely different directions were already fully developed, and a new concept of music was taking off.

Shostakovich was far alien to the attitude towards music as a self-contained game of sound forms. He could hardly agree with Stravinsky that music, if anything, expresses only itself. Shostakovich was traditional in that, like the great creators of music before him, he saw in it a means of the composer's self-realization - not only as a musician capable of creating, but also as a person. Not only did he not move away from the horrific reality that he observed around him, but, on the contrary, he experienced it as own destiny as the fate of entire generations, the country as a whole.

The language of Shostakovich's works could have been formed only before the post-war avant-garde, and is traditional in the sense that such factors as intonation, mode, tonality, harmony, metrorhythm, typical form, and the historically established system of genres of the European academic tradition fully retain their significance for it. And although this is a different intonation, special types of modes, a new understanding of tonality, its own system of harmony, a new interpretation of form and genre, the presence of these levels of musical language already speaks of belonging to a tradition. At the same time, all the discoveries of that time were balancing on the verge of the possible, shaking the historically established system of language, but remaining within the categories developed by it. Thanks to innovations, the homophonic concept of the musical language revealed still unexhausted reserves, unspent opportunities, proved its breadth and prospects for development. Most of the history of music in the 20th century passed under the sign of these prospects, and Shostakovich made an undoubted contribution to it.

Soviet symphony

In the winter of 1935, Shostakovich participated in a discussion on Soviet symphonism that took place in Moscow for three days - from 4 to 6 February. It was one of the most significant performances of the young composer, outlining the direction of further work. He frankly emphasized the complexity of the problems at the stage of the formation of the symphonic genre, the danger of solving them with standard "recipes", opposed exaggeration of the merits of individual works, criticizing, in particular, the Third and Fifth Symphonies of L. K. Knipper for "chewed language", wretchedness and primitiveness of style . He boldly asserted that “... there is no Soviet symphony. We must be modest and admit that we still do not have musical works that in an expanded form reflect the stylistic, ideological and emotional sections of our life, and reflect them in an excellent form ... It must be admitted that in our symphonic music we have only some tendencies towards education new musical thinking, timid sketches of the future style...”.

Shostakovich called to perceive the experience and achievements of Soviet literature, where close, similar problems have already found implementation in the works of M. Gorky and other masters of the word. Music lagged behind literature, according to Shostakovich.

Considering the development of modern artistic creativity, he saw signs of convergence between the processes of literature and music, which began in Soviet music as a steady movement towards lyrical-psychological symphonism.

For him, there was no doubt that the theme and style of his Second and Third Symphonies was a passed stage not only own creativity, but also of Soviet symphonism as a whole: a metaphorically generalized style has become obsolete. Man as a symbol, a kind of abstraction, left the works of art in order to become an individuality in new works. A deeper understanding of the plot was strengthened, without the use of simplified texts of choral episodes in symphonies. The question was raised about the plot of "pure" symphonism.

Recognizing the limitations of his recent symphonic experiences, the composer advocated expanding the content and stylistic sources of Soviet symphony. To this end, he drew attention to the study of foreign symphonism, insisted on the need for musicology to identify the qualitative differences between Soviet symphonism and Western symphonism.

Starting from Mahler, he spoke of a lyrical confessional symphony with an aspiration to inner world contemporary. Trials continued to be made. Sollertinsky, who knew better than anyone else about Shostakovich's plans, said at a discussion about Soviet symphonism: "We are expecting the appearance of Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony with great interest" and clearly explained: "... this work will be at a great distance from those three symphonies, which Shostakovich wrote earlier. But the symphony is still in its embryonic state.”

Two months after the discussion, in April 1935, the composer announced: “Now I have a big work ahead of me - the Fourth Symphony.

All the former I have musical material for this work is now rejected by me. The symphony is being rewritten. Since this is an extremely difficult and responsible task for me, I want to first write a few compositions in chamber and instrumental style.

In the summer of 1935, Shostakovich was absolutely unable to do anything, except for countless chamber and symphonic passages, which included the music for the film "Girlfriends".

In the autumn of the same year, he once again set about writing the Fourth Symphony, firmly deciding, no matter what difficulties awaited him, to bring the work to completion, to realize the fundamental canvas, promised in the spring as "a kind of credo of creative work."

Having started writing the symphony on September 13, 1935, by the end of the year he had completely completed the first and mostly the second movement. He wrote quickly, sometimes even convulsively, throwing out entire pages and replacing them with new ones; the handwriting of the clavier sketches is unstable, fluent: the imagination overtook the recording, the notes were ahead of the pen, flowing like an avalanche onto the paper.

The articles of 1936 served as a source of a narrow and one-sided understanding of such important fundamental issues of Soviet art as the question of the attitude towards the classical heritage, the problem of traditions and innovation. The traditions of classical music were not seen as the basis for further development, but as a kind of unchanging standard, beyond which it was impossible to go. Such an approach fettered innovative searches, paralyzed the creative initiative of composers.

These dogmatic attitudes could not stop the growth of Soviet musical art, but they undoubtedly complicated its development, caused a number of collisions, and led to significant biases in assessments.

The sharp disputes and discussions of that time testified to the collisions and shifts in the assessment of the phenomena of music.

The orchestration of the Fifth Symphony is characterized, in comparison with the Fourth, by a greater balance between brass and string instruments, with a preponderance towards strings: in Largo, there is no brass group at all. Timbre highlights are subject to essential moments of development, they follow from them, they are dictated by them. From the irrepressible generosity of ballet scores, Shostakovich turned to the economy of timbres. Orchestral dramaturgy is determined by the general dramatic orientation of the form. The intonational tension is created by the combination of melodic relief and its orchestral framing. The composition of the orchestra itself is also steadily determined. Having gone through different trials (up to the quadruple in the Fourth Symphony), Shostakovich now adhered to the triple composition - he was established precisely from the Fifth Symphony. Both in the modal organization of the material and in orchestration without breaking, within the framework of generally accepted compositions, the composer varied, expanded the timbre possibilities, often due to solo voices, the use of the piano (it is noteworthy that, having introduced it into the score of the First Symphony, Shostakovich then dispensed with the piano during Second, Third, Fourth symphonies and again included it in the score of the Fifth). At the same time, the importance of not only timbre dismemberment increased, but also timbre fusion, the alternation of large timbre layers; in the culmination fragments, the technique of using instruments in the highest expressive registers, without bass or with insignificant bass support (there are many examples of such in the Symphony) prevailed.

Its form marked the ordering, systematization of previous implementations, the achievement of strictly logical monumentality.

Let us note the features of shaping typical of the Fifth Symphony, which are preserved and developed in the further work of Shostakovich.

The value of the epigraph-entry increases. In the Fourth Symphony it was a harsh, convulsive motive; here it is the harsh, majestic power of the chant.

In the first part, the role of the exposition is put forward, its volume and emotional integrity are increased, which is also set off by the orchestration (the sound of the strings in the exposition). Structural boundaries between the main and side parties are overcome; it is not so much they that are contrasted as significant sections both in the exposition and in the development. The recapitulation changes qualitatively, turning into the climax of dramaturgy with the continuation of thematic development: sometimes the theme acquires a new figurative meaning, which leads to a further deepening of the conflict-dramatic features of the cycle.

Development does not stop in the code either. And here the thematic transformations, modal transformations of themes, their dynamization by means of orchestration continue.

In the finale of the Fifth Symphony, the author did not give an active conflict, as in the finale of the previous Symphony. The final is easy. “With a big breath, Shostakovich leads us to a dazzling light in which all sorrowful experiences, all tragic conflicts of the difficult previous path disappear” (D. Kabalevsky). The conclusion sounded emphatically positive. “I placed a man with all his experiences at the center of the idea of my work,” Shostakovich explained, “and the finale of the Symphony resolves the tragically tense moments of the first parts in a cheerful, optimistic way.”

Such an ending emphasized classical origins, classical continuity; in his lapidarity, the tendency was most clearly manifested: creating a free type of interpretation of the sonata form, not deviating from the classical basis.

In the summer of 1937, preparations began for a decade of Soviet music to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. The symphony was included in the program of the decade. In August, Fritz Stiedry went abroad. M. Shteiman, who replaced him, was not able to present a new complex work at the proper level. The execution was entrusted to Evgeny Mravinsky. Shostakovich hardly knew him: Mravinsky entered the conservatory in 1924, when Shostakovich was in his last year; Shostakovich's ballets in Leningrad and Moscow were conducted by A. Gauk, P. Feldt, Y. Fayer, symphonies were "staged" by N. Malko, A. Gauk. Mravinsky was in the shadows. His individuality was formed slowly: in 1937 he was thirty-four years old, but he rarely appeared at the philharmonic console. Closed, doubting his own strength, this time he accepted the offer to present the new Shostakovich symphony to the public without hesitation. Remembering his unusual decisiveness, the conductor later himself could not explain it psychologically.

For almost two years, Shostakovich's music was not heard in the Great Hall. Some of the musicians were wary of her. The discipline of the orchestra without a strong-willed chief conductor was declining. The Philharmonic's repertoire was criticized by the press. The leadership of the Philharmonic changed: the young composer Mikhail Chudaki, who became the director, was just entering the business, planning to involve I.I. Sollertinsky, composer and musical-performing youth.

Without hesitation M.I. Chudaki distributed responsible programs among three conductors who began active concert activity: E.A. Mravinsky, N.S. Rabinovich and K.I. Eliasberg.

Throughout September, Shostakovich lived only for the fate of the Symphony. Composition of music for the film "Volochaev days" pushed back. He refused other orders, citing employment.

He spent most of his time at the Philharmonic. Played the Symphony. Mravinsky listened and asked.

The conductor's consent to make his debut with the Fifth Symphony was influenced by the hope to receive help from the author in the process of performing work, to rely on his knowledge and experience. The method of painstaking Mravinsky at first alarmed Shostakovich. “It seemed to me that he digs too much into the little things, pays too much attention to particulars, and it seemed to me that this would damage the overall plan, the overall idea. About every tact, about every thought, Mravinsky made me a real interrogation, demanding from me an answer to all the doubts that arose in him.

Wconclusion

D.D. Shostakovich is an artist of complex tragic fate. Persecuted throughout almost his entire life, he courageously endured trawling and persecution for the sake of what was the main thing in his life - for the sake of creativity. Sometimes, in difficult conditions of political repression, he had to maneuver, but without this, his work would not exist at all. Many of those who started with him died, many broke down. He withstood and survived, endured everything and managed to realize his calling. It is important not only how he is seen and heard today, but also who he was for his contemporaries. His music long years remained an outlet that for short hours allowed you to spread your chest and breathe freely. The sound of Shostakovich's music has always been not only a celebration of art. They knew how to listen to it and carry it away from concert halls.

List of used literature

1. L. Tretyakova "Pages of Soviet Music", M.

2. M. Aranovsky, Musical "Anti-Utopias" by Shostakovich, chapter 6 from the book "Russian Music of the 20th Century".

3. Khentova S.D. Shostakovich. Life and work: Monograph. In 2 books, book 1.-L.: Sov. composer, 1985. S. 420.

5. Internet portal http://peoples.ru/

Hosted on Allbest.ru

First Symphony

Dmitri Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg in 1906. His father worked as an engineer and passionately loved music, his mother was a pianist. She gave her son his first piano lessons. At the age of 11, Dmitry Shostakovich began studying at a private music school. The teachers noted his performing talent, excellent memory and perfect pitch.

At the age of 13, the young pianist already entered the Petrograd Conservatory in the piano class, and two years later - at the faculty of composition. Shostakovich worked at the cinema as a pianist. During the sessions, he experimented with the tempo of the compositions, selected leading melodies for the characters, and arranged musical episodes. He later used the best of these passages in his own compositions.

Dmitri Shostakovich. Photo: filarmonia.kh.ua

Dmitri Shostakovich. Photo: propianino.ru

Dmitri Shostakovich. Photo: cps-static.rovicorp.com

Since 1923, Shostakovich worked on the First Symphony. The work became his graduation work, the premiere took place in 1926 in Leningrad. The composer later recalled: “The symphony went very well yesterday. The performance was excellent. The success is huge. I went out to bow five times. Everything sounded great."

Soon the First Symphony became known outside the Soviet Union. In 1927, Shostakovich participated in the First International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. One of the jury members of the competition, conductor and composer Bruno Walter, asked Shostakovich to send the score of the symphony to him in Berlin. It was performed in Germany and the USA. A year after the premiere, Shostakovich's First Symphony was played by orchestras around the world.

Those who mistook his First Symphony for youthfully carefree, cheerful were mistaken. It is filled with such human drama that it is even strange to imagine that a 19-year-old boy lived such a life... It was played everywhere. There was no country in which the symphony would not have sounded soon after it appeared.
Leo Arnshtam, Soviet film director and screenwriter

"That's how I hear the war"

In 1932, Dmitry Shostakovich wrote the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. It was staged under the name "Katerina Izmailova", the premiere took place in 1934. During the first two seasons, the opera was performed in Moscow and St. Petersburg more than 200 times, and also played in theaters in Europe and North America.

In 1936 Joseph Stalin watched the opera Katerina Izmailova. Pravda published an article titled "Muddle Instead of Music", and the opera was declared "anti-people". Soon most of his compositions disappeared from the repertoires of orchestras and theaters. Shostakovich canceled the premiere of Symphony No. 4 scheduled for the fall, but continued to write new works.

A year later, the premiere of Symphony No. 5 took place. Stalin called it "the businesslike creative response of a Soviet artist to fair criticism", and critics - "a model of social realism" in symphonic music.

Shostakovich, Meyerhold, Mayakovsky, Rodchenko. Photo: doseng.org

Dmitri Shostakovich performs the First Piano Concerto

Poster of the Shostakovich Symphony Orchestra. Photo: icsanpetersburgo.com

In the first months of the war, Dmitry Shostakovich was in Leningrad. He worked as a professor at the Conservatory, served in a volunteer fire brigade - extinguished incendiary bombs on the roof of the Conservatory. While on duty, Shostakovich wrote one of his most famous symphonies, the Leningrad symphony. The author finished it in evacuation in Kuibyshev at the end of December 1941.

I don't know how this thing will turn out. Idle critics will probably reproach me for imitating Ravel's Bolero. Let them reproach, but that's how I hear the war.
Dmitry Shostakovich

The symphony was first performed in March 1942 by the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra evacuated to Kuibyshev. A few days later, the composition was played in the Hall of Columns of the Moscow House of Unions.

In August 1942, the Seventh Symphony was performed in besieged Leningrad. To play a composition written for a double composition of the orchestra, the musicians were recalled from the front. The concert lasted 80 minutes, music was broadcast from the Philharmonic Hall on the radio - it was listened to in apartments, on the streets, at the front.

When the orchestra entered the stage, the whole hall stood up ... The program was only a symphony. It is difficult to convey the atmosphere that prevailed in the overcrowded hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic. The hall was dominated by people in military uniforms. Many soldiers and officers came to the concert straight from the front lines.
Karl Eliasberg, conductor of the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee

The Leningrad Symphony became known to the whole world. In New York, an issue of Time magazine came out with Shostakovich on the cover. In the portrait, the composer was wearing a fire helmet, the caption read: “Fireman Shostakovich. Among the explosions of bombs in Leningrad, I heard the chords of victory. In 1942–1943, the Leningrad Symphony was played more than 60 times in various concert halls in the United States.

Dmitri Shostakovich. Photo: cdn.tvc.ru

Dmitri Shostakovich on the cover of Time magazine

Dmitri Shostakovich. Photo media.tumblr.com

Last Sunday your symphony was performed for the first time throughout America. Your music tells the world about a great and proud people, an invincible people that fights and suffers in order to contribute to the treasury of the human spirit and freedom.
American poet Carl Sandburg, excerpt from the preface to a poetic message to Shostakovich

"The era of Shostakovich"

In 1948, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev and Aram Khachaturian were accused of "formalism", "bourgeois decadence" and "groveling before the West". Shostakovich was fired from the Moscow Conservatory, his music was banned.

In 1948, when we arrived at the Conservatory, we saw an order on the bulletin board: “D.D. Shostakovich. is no longer a professor in the composition class due to the mismatch of professorial qualifications ... ”I have never experienced such humiliation.
Mstislav Rostropovich

A year later, the ban was officially lifted, the composer was sent to the United States as part of a group of cultural figures of the Soviet Union. In 1950, Dmitri Shostakovich was a member of the jury at the Bach Competition in Leipzig. He was inspired by the work of the German composer: " musical genius Bach is especially close to me. It is impossible to pass by him indifferently... Every day I play one of his works. This is my urgent need, and constant contact with Bach's music gives me an enormous amount. After returning to Moscow, Shostakovich began to write a new musical cycle - 24 preludes and fugues.

In 1957, Shostakovich became the secretary of the Union of Composers of the USSR, in 1960 - the Union of Composers of the RSFSR (in 1960–1968 - first secretary). During these years, Anna Akhmatova presented the composer with her book with a dedication: "To Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich, in whose era I live on earth."

In the mid-1960s, Dmitri Shostakovich's compositions of the 1920s, including the opera Katerina Izmailova, returned to Soviet orchestras and theaters. The composer wrote Symphony No. 14 to poems by Guillaume Apollinaire, Rainer Maria Rilke, Wilhelm Küchelbecker, a cycle of romances to the works of Marina Tsvetaeva, a suite to words by Michelangelo. In these, Shostakovich sometimes used musical quotations from his early scores and melodies by other composers.

In addition to ballets, operas and symphonic works Dmitry Shostakovich created music for films - "Ordinary People", "Young Guard", "Hamlet", and cartoons - "Dances of the Dolls" and "The Tale of the Stupid Mouse".

Speaking about Shostakovich's music, I wanted to say that it can by no means be called music for cinema. It exists on its own. It might be related to something. This may be the inner world of the author, who speaks of something inspired by some phenomena of life or art.
Director Grigory Kozintsev

In the last years of his life, the composer was seriously ill. Dmitri Shostakovich died in Moscow in August 1975. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Speaking about the works of Shostakovich, we had to touch on some stylistic features his creativity. Now we need to summarize what has been said and point out those features of style that have not yet received even a brief description in this book. The tasks now confronting the author are complex in themselves. They get even more difficult because the book isn't just for professional musicians. I will have to omit much of what is connected with musical technology, special musical analysis. However, it is impossible to talk about the style of composer's work, about the musical language, without touching on theoretical issues at all. I will have to touch on them, albeit to a small extent.
One of the fundamental problems of musical style remains the problem of melos. We will turn to her.
Once, during the lessons of Dmitry Dmitrievich, a dispute arose with the students: what is more important - the melody (theme) or its development. Some of the students referred to the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The theme of this movement is elementary in itself, unremarkable, and Beethoven created a brilliant work on its basis! And in the first Allegro of the Third Symphony by the same author, the main thing lies not in the theme, but in its development. Despite these arguments, Shostakovich argued that the thematic material, the melody, is still of paramount importance in music.
Confirmation of these words is the work of Shostakovich himself.
Among the important qualities of realistic musical art is song, which is widely manifested in instrumental genres. The word is used in this context in a broad sense. Songwriting does not necessarily appear in its "pure" form and is often combined with other trends. This is also the case in the music of the composer to whom this work is dedicated.
Turning to various song sources, Shostakovich did not pass by the old Russian folklore. Some of his melodies grew out of lingering lyrical songs, laments and lamentations, epic epic, dance tunes. The composer never followed the path of stylization, archaic ethnography; he deeply reworked folklore melodic turns in accordance with the individual characteristics of his musical language.
There is a vocal implementation of the old folk songs in "The Execution of Stepan Razin", in "Katerina Izmailova". We are talking, for example, about the choirs of convicts. In the part of Kaverina herself, the intonations of the lyrical-everyday urban romance of the first half of the last century (which has already been mentioned) are resurrected. The song of the “draped little man” (“I had a godfather”) is full of dance tunes and tunes.
Let us recall the third part of the oratorio “Song of the Forests” (“Remembrance of the Past”), the melody of which is reminiscent of “Lucinushka”. In the second part of the oratorio (“Let's Dress the Motherland in Forests”), among other tunes, the initial turn of the song “Hey, let's go” flashes. And the theme of the final fugue echoes the melody of the old song "Glory".
Mournful turns of laments and lamentations appear in the third part of the oratorio, and in the choral poem "The Ninth of January", and in the Eleventh Symphony, and in some piano preludes and fugues.
Shostakovich created many instrumental melodies related to the genre of folk lyrical song. These include the themes of the first movement of the Trio, the finale of the Second Quartet, the slow movement of the First Cello Concerto - this list could, of course, be continued. It is not difficult to find song grains in Shostakovich's melodies based on waltz rhythms. The sphere of Russian folk dance is revealed in the finale of the First Violin Concerto, the Tenth Symphony (side part).
Revolutionary songwriting occupies a significant place in Shostakovich's music. Much has already been said about this. Along with the heroic active intonations of the songs of the revolutionary struggle, Shostakovich introduced into his music melodic turns of courageously sad songs of political hard labor and exile (smooth triplet moves with a predominance of downward movement). Such intonations fill some choral poems. The same type of melodic movement is found in the Sixth and Tenth symphonies, although they are far from the choral poems in their content.
And another song "reservoir" that fed the music of Shostakovich - Soviet mass songs. He himself created works of this genre. The connection with his melodic sphere is most noticeable in the oratorio "The Song of the Forests", the cantata "The Sun Shines Over Our Motherland", the Festive Overture.
Features of the operatic ariose style, in addition to "Katerina Izmailova", appeared in Shostakovich's Thirteenth and Fourteenth Symphonies, chamber vocal cycles. He also has instrumental cantilenas reminiscent of an aria or a romance (the oboe theme from the second movement and the flute solo from the Adagio of the Seventh Symphony).
Everything mentioned above is an important component of the composer's work. Without them, it could not exist. However, his creative individuality was most clearly manifested in some other style elements. I mean, for example, recitativity - not only vocal, but especially instrumental.
The melodically rich recitative, which conveys not only conversational intonations, but also the thoughts and feelings of the characters, fills Katerina Izmailova. The cycle "From Jewish Folk Poetry" gives new examples of specific musical characteristics, implemented by vocal and speech techniques. The vocal declamation is supported by the instrumental declamation (piano part). This trend was developed in subsequent vocal cycles by Shostakovich.
Instrumental recitativity reveals the composer's persistent desire to convey the capricious "music of speech" with instrumental means. Here, before him opened a huge scope for innovative research.
When we listen to some of Shostakovich's symphonies and other instrumental works, it seems to us that the instruments come to life, turning into people, actors in drama, tragedy, and sometimes comedy. There is a feeling that this is “a theater where everything is obvious, to laughter or to tears” (K. Fedin's words about Shostakovich's music). An angry exclamation is replaced by a whisper, a mournful exclamation, a groan turns into mocking laughter. Instruments sing, cry and laugh. Of course, this impression is created not only by the intonations themselves; the role of timbres is exceptionally great.
The declamatory nature of Shostakovich's instrumentalism is connected with the monologue of presentation. There are instrumental monologues in almost all of his symphonies, including the last - the Fifteenth, in violin and cello concertos, quartets. These are extended, widely developed melodies assigned to some instrument. They are marked by rhythmic freedom, sometimes - improvisational style, oratorical expressiveness is inherent in them.
And one more "zone" of melos, in which the creative individuality of Shostakovich manifested itself with great force,. - "zone" of pure instrumentalism, far from song, m from "conversational" intonations. It includes topics in which there are many "kinks", "sharp corners". One of the features of these themes is the abundance of melodic leaps (sixth, seventh, octave, none). However, such jumps or throws of a melodic voice often also express a declamatory oratorical principle. Shostakovich's instrumental melodies are sometimes brightly expressive, and sometimes they become motorized, deliberately "mechanical" and extremely far from emotionally warm intonations. Examples are the fugue from the first part of the Fourth Symphony, the "toccata" from the Eighth, the piano fugue Des-dur.
Like some other composers of the 20th century, Shostakovich made extensive use of melodic turns with a predominance of fourth steps (such moves were previously of little use). They are full of the First Violin Concerto (the second theme of the side part of the Nocturne, Scherzo, Passacaglia). The theme of the piano fugue in B-dur is woven from fourths. The moves in fourths and fifths form the theme of the part "On the Guard" from the Fourteenth Symphony. On the role of the quarter movement in the romance "Where does such tenderness come from?" the words of M. Tsvetaeva have already been said. Shostakovich interpreted this kind of turns in different ways. The quarter move is the thematic grain of the wonderful lyrical melody Andantino from the Fourth Quartet. But similar in structure, there are also moves in the composer's scherzo, tragic and heroic themes.
Quart melodic sequences were often used by Scriabin; with him they were of a very specific nature, being the primary property of heroic themes (“The Poem of Ecstasy”, “Prometheus”, late piano sonatas). In the work of Shostakovich, such intonations acquire universal significance.
Features of the melos of our composer, as well as harmony and polyphony, are inseparable from the principles of modal thinking. Here the individual features of his style had the greatest effect. more tangible. However, this area, perhaps more than any other area of musical means of expression, requires a professional conversation using the necessary theoretical concepts.
Unlike some other contemporary composers, Shostakovich did not follow the path of indiscriminate denial of those laws of musical creativity that had been developed and improved over the centuries. He did not try to discard them and replace them with musical systems that were born in the 20th century. His creative principles included the development and renewal of the old. This is the way of all great artists, for true innovation does not exclude continuity, on the contrary, it presupposes its existence: the “connection of times” can never, under any circumstances, fall apart. This also applies to the evolution of mode in the work of Shostakovich.
Even Rimsky-Korsakov rightly saw one of the national features of Russian music in the use of the so-called ancient modes (Lydian, Mixolydian, Phrygian, etc.) associated with more common modern modes - major and minor. Shostakovich continued this tradition. Aeolian mode ( natural minor) gives a special charm to the beautiful theme of the fugue from the quintet, enhances the spirit of Russian lyrical songwriting. The soulful, sublimely strict melody of Intermezzo from the same cycle was composed in the same harmony. Listening to it, you again remember Russian tunes, Russian musical lyrics - folk and professional. I will also point out a theme from the first part of the Trio, saturated with turns of folklore origin. The beginning of the Seventh Symphony is an example of another mode - the Lydian one. The "White" (that is, performed on only white keys) fugue C-dur from the collection "24 Preludes and Fugues" is a bouquet of different modes. S. S. Skrebkov wrote about it: “The theme, entering from different steps of the C major scale, gets a new modal coloring: all seven possible modal moods of diatonic are used in the fugue”1.
Shostakovich uses these modes ingeniously and subtly, finding fresh colors within them. However, the main thing here is not their application, but their creative reconstruction.
In Shostakovich, sometimes one mode is quickly replaced by another, and this happens within the framework of one musical structure, one theme. This technique belongs to the number of means that give originality to the musical language. But the most significant in the interpretation of the mode is the frequent introduction of lowered (rarely elevated) steps of the scale. They dramatically change the "big picture". New modes are born, some of them were not used before Shostakovich. These new modal structures are manifested not only in melody, but also in harmony, in all aspects of musical thinking.
One could cite many examples of the composer's use of his own, "Shostakovich" modes, in detail. analyze. But this is a matter of special work. 2 Here I shall confine myself to a few remarks.

1 Skrebkov S. Preludes and Fugues by D. Shostakovich. - "Soviet Music", 1953, No. 9, p. 22.
The Leningrad musicologist A.N. Dolzhansky. He was the first to discover a number of important regularities in the modal thinking of the composer.
Does one of these Shostakovich modes play a huge role? in the Eleventh Symphony. As already noted, he determined the structure of the main intonational grain of the entire cycle. This leittonation permeates the entire symphony, leaving a certain modal imprint on its most important sections.
The Second Piano Sonata is very indicative of the composer's modal style. One of Shostakovich's favorite modes (minor with a low fourth degree) justified the unusual ratio of the main keys in the first movement (the first theme is h-moll, the second is Es-dur; when the themes are combined in the reprise, these two keys sound simultaneously). I note that in a number of other works, the modes of Shostakovich dictate the structure of the tonal plan.
Sometimes Shostakovich gradually saturates the melody with low steps, enhancing the modal direction. This is the case not only in specifically instrumental themes with a complex melodic profile, but also in some song themes that grow out of simple and clear intonations (the theme of the finale of the Second Quartet).
In addition to other lower steps, Shostakovich introduces the VIII low. This fact is of particular importance. Previously, it was said about the unusual change (alteration) of the "legitimate" steps of the seven-step scale. Now we are talking about the fact that the composer legitimizes a step unknown to the old classical music, which in general can exist only in a reduced form. Let me explain with an example. Imagine, well, at least, the D-minor scale: re, mi, fa, sol, la, b-flat, do. And then instead of D of the next octave, D-flat, the eighth low step, suddenly appears. It is in this mode (with the participation of the second low step) that the theme of the main part of the first part of the Fifth Symphony was composed.,
The eighth low step affirms the principle of non-closure of octaves. The main tone of the mode (in the given example - re) an octave higher ceases to be the main tone and the octave does not close. The replacement of a pure octave with a reduced one can also take place in relation to other steps of the mode. This means that if in one register the modal sound is, for example, C, then in another it will be C-flat. Cases of this kind are common in Shostakovich. Non-closing of octaves leads to register “splitting” of a step.
The history of music knows many cases when forbidden techniques later became permissible and even normative. The technique that has just been discussed was formerly called “listing”. It was persecuted, and in the conditions of the old musical thinking it really gave the impression of being false. And in Shostakovich's music, it does not raise objections, since it is due to the peculiarities of the modal structure.
The modes developed by the composer gave rise to a whole world of characteristic intonations - sharp, sometimes as if "prickly". They enhance the tragic or dramatic expression of many pages of his music, give him the opportunity to convey various nuances of feelings, moods, internal conflicts and contradictions. The peculiarities of the composer's modal style are associated with the specificity of his multi-valued images, containing joy and sadness, calmness and alertness, carelessness and courageous maturity. Such images would be impossible to create with the help of traditional modal techniques alone.
In some, infrequent cases, Shostakovich resorts to bitonicity, that is, to the simultaneous sounding of two keys. Above, we spoke about bitonicity in the first movement of the Second Piano Sonata. One of the sections of the fugue in the second part of the Fourth Symphony is written polytonally: four keys are combined here - d-moll, es-moll, e-moll and f-moll.
Based on major and minor, Shostakovich freely interprets these fundamental modes. Sometimes in development episodes, he leaves the tonal sphere; but he invariably returns to it. So the navigator, carried by a storm from the shore, confidently directs his ship to the harbor.
The harmonies used by Shostakovich are exceptionally diverse. In the fifth scene of "Katerina Izmailova" (a scene with a ghost) there is a harmony consisting of all seven sounds of the diatonic series (the eighth sound in the bass is added to them). And at the end of the development of the first part of the Fourth Symphony, we find a chord constructed from twelve different sounds! The composer's harmonic language provides examples of both very great complexity and simplicity. The harmonies of the cantata "The sun is shining over our Motherland" are very simple. But the harmonic style of this work is not characteristic of Shostakovich. Another thing is the harmony of his later works, combining considerable clarity, sometimes transparency, with tension. Avoiding complex polyphonic complexes, the composer does not simplify the harmonic language, which retains sharpness and freshness.
Much in the field of Shostakovich's harmony is generated by the movement of melodic voices ("lines"), sometimes forming rich sound complexes. In other words, harmony often arises on the basis of polyphony.
Shostakovich is one of the greatest polyphonists of the 20th century. For him, polyphony is one of the most important means of musical art. Shostakovich's achievements in this area have enriched world musical culture; at the same time, they mark a fruitful stage in the history of Russian polyphony.
Fugue is the highest polyphonic form. Shostakovich wrote many fugues - for orchestra, choir and orchestra, quintet, quartet, piano. He introduced this form not only into symphonies and chamber works, but also into ballet (“Golden Age”), film music (“Golden Mountains”). He breathed new life into the fugue, proved that it can embody a variety of themes and images of modernity.
Shostakovich wrote fugues in two-, three-, four- and five-voice, simple and double, used various techniques in them that required high polyphonic skill.
The composer also invested a lot of creative ingenuity in the passacaglia. This ancient form, as well as the form of the fugue, he subordinated to the solution of problems related to the embodiment of modern reality. Almost all of Shostakovich's passacaglia are tragic and carry a great humanist content. They talk about the victims of evil and oppose evil, asserting high humanity.
Shostakovich's polyphonic style was not limited to the forms noted above. It also appeared in other forms. I have in mind all sorts of interweaving of various themes, their polyphonic development in expositions, developments of parts that are sonata form. The composer did not pass by the Russian sub-voice polyphony, born of folk art (the choral poems "On the Street", "Song", the main theme of the first part of the Tenth Symphony).
Shostakovich expanded the stylistic framework of polyphonic classics. He combined techniques developed over the centuries with new techniques related to the field of so-called linearism. Its features are manifested where the "horizontal" movement of melodic lines completely dominates, ignoring the harmonic "vertical". For the composer, it is not important what harmonies arise, simultaneous combinations of sounds, what is important is the line of voice, its autonomy. Shostakovich, as a rule, did not abuse this principle of the structure of the musical fabric (excessive interest in linearism affected only some of his early works, for example, in the Second Symphony). He resorted to it on special occasions; at the same time, the deliberate inconsistency of the polyphonic elements gave an effect close to the noise effect - such a technique was needed to embody the anti-humanistic principle (the fugue from the first part of the Fourth Symphony).
An inquisitive, searching artist, Shostakovich did not disregard such a widespread phenomenon in the music of the 20th century as dodecaphony. There is no opportunity on these pages to explain in detail the essence of the creative system, which is now discussed. I will be very brief. Dodecaphony arose as an attempt to streamline sound material within the framework of atonal music, which is alien to the laws and principles of tonal music - major or minor. However, a compromise trend emerged later, based on the combination of dodecaphone technology with tonal music. The technological basis of dodecaphony is a complex, carefully developed system of rules and techniques. The constructive "construction" beginning is put forward to the fore. The composer, operating with twelve sounds, creates a variety of sound combinations in which everything is subject to strict calculation, logical principles. There was a lot of discussion about dodecaphony and its possibilities; there was no shortage of votes for and against. Much has become clear now. The restriction of creativity within the framework of this system with unconditional submission to its strict rules impoverishes the art of music and leads to dogmatism. The free use of certain elements of the dodecaphone technique (for example, a series of twelve sounds) as one of the many components of musical matter can enrich and renew the musical language.
Shostakovich's position corresponded to these general propositions. He stated it in one of his interviews. The American musicologist Brown drew Dmitry Dmitrievich's attention to the fact that in his recent writings he occasionally uses the dodecaphone technique. “I really used some elements of dodecaphony in these works,” Shostakovich confirmed. - I must, however, say that I am a resolute opponent of the method in which the composer applies some kind of system, limiting himself only to its framework and standards. But if the composer feels that he needs elements of this or that technique, he has the right to take everything that is available to him and use it as he sees fit.”
Once I had a chance to talk with Dmitry Dmitrievich about the dodecaphony in the Fourteenth Symphony. Regarding one theme, which is a series (part of "On the Lookout"), he said: "But when I composed it, I thought more about fourths and fifths." Dmitry Dmitrievich implied the interval structure of the theme, which could also take place in themes of a different origin. Then we talked about the dodecaphonic polyphonic episode (fugato) from the movement "In the prison of Sayte". And this time Shostakovich claimed that he had little interest in the dodecaphone technique in itself. First of all, he sought to convey with music what the poems of Apollinaire tell about (the terrible prison silence, the mysterious rustles born in it).
These statements confirm that for Shostakovich, individual elements of the dodecaphonic system were indeed only one of many means that he used to translate his creative concepts.
Shostakovich is the author of a number of sonata cycles, symphonic and chamber (symphonies, concertos, sonatas, quartets, quintets, trios). This form has become especially important for him. It most closely matched the essence of his work, gave ample opportunities to show the "dialectics of life". A symphonist by vocation, Shostakovich resorted to the sonata cycle to embody his main creative concepts.
The scope of this universal form, at the will of the composer, either expanded, covering the endless expanses of being, or contracted, depending on what tasks he set for himself. Let us compare, for example, works as different in length and scale of development as the Seventh and Ninth Symphonies, the Trio and the Seventh Quartet.
Sonata for Shostakovich was least of all a scheme that bound the composer with academic "rules". He interpreted in his own way the form of the sonata cycle and its constituent parts. Much has been said about this in previous chapters.
I have repeatedly noted that Shostakovich often wrote the first parts of the sonata cycles in slow pace, although adhering to the structure of the "sonata allegro" (exposition, development, reprise). Parts of this kind contain both reflection and action generated by reflection. For them, unhurried deployment of musical material, the gradual accumulation of internal dynamics is typical. It leads to emotional "explosions" (development).
The main theme is often preceded by an introduction, the theme of which then plays an important role. There are introductions in the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Tenth symphonies. In the Twelfth Symphony, the theme of the introduction is also the theme of the main part.
The main theme is not only outlined, but immediately developed. This is followed by a more or less separate section with new thematic material (side game).
The contrast between the themes of Shostakovich's exposition often does not yet reveal the main conflict. He is utterly naked in an elaborate, emotionally opposing exposition. The tempo accelerates, the musical language acquires a greater intonation-mode sharpness. Development becomes very dynamic, dramatically intense.
Sometimes Shostakovich uses unusual types of developments. So, in the first part of the Sixth Symphony, the development is an extended solo, as if improvisation of wind instruments. Let me remind you of the "quiet" lyrical elaboration in the finale of the Fifth. In the first part of the Seventh development is replaced by an invasion episode.
The composer avoids reprises that exactly repeat what was in the exposition. Usually he dynamizes the reprise, as if raising already familiar images to a much higher emotional level. In this case, the beginning of the reprise coincides with the general climax.
Shostakovich's scherzo is of two types. One type is the traditional interpretation of the genre (cheerful, humorous music, sometimes with a touch of irony, ridicule). The other type is more specific: the genre is interpreted by the composer not in its direct, but in its conditional meaning; fun and humor give way to the grotesque, satire, dark fantasy. Artistic novelty lies not in the form, not in the compositional structure; new are the content, imagery, methods of "presenting" the material. Hardly the most a prime example a scherzo of this kind is the third movement of the Eighth Symphony.
"Evil" scherzoness also penetrates into the first parts of Shostakovich's cycles (Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth Symphonies).
In the previous chapters, it was said about the special significance of the scherzo principle in the composer's work. It developed in parallel with tragedy and sometimes acted as the reverse side of tragic images and phenomena. Shostakovich tried to synthesize these figurative spheres even in Katerina Izmailova, but there such a synthesis was not successful in everything, it does not convince everywhere. In the future, following this path, the composer came to remarkable results.
Tragedy and scherzo - but not sinister, but, on the contrary, life-affirming - Shostakovich boldly combines in the Thirteenth Symphony.
The combination of such different and even opposite artistic elements is one of the essential manifestations of Shostakovich's innovation, his creative "I".
The slow movements, located within the sonata cycles created by Shostakovich, are amazingly rich in content. If his scherzos often reflect the negative side of life, then in the slow parts, positive images of goodness, beauty, the greatness of the human spirit, nature are revealed. This determines the ethical significance of the composer's musical reflections - sometimes sad and harsh, sometimes enlightened.
Shostakovich solved the most difficult problem of the finale in different ways. He wanted, perhaps, to move further away from the pattern, which is especially often felt precisely in the final parts. Some of its endings are unexpected. Consider the Thirteenth Symphony. Its first part is tragic, and in the penultimate part (“Fears”) there is a lot of gloom. And in the finale, a cheerful mocking laughter rings! The ending is unexpected and at the same time organic.
What types of symphonic and chamber finales are found in Shostakovich?
First of all - the finals of the heroic plan. They close some cycles in which the heroic-tragedy theme is revealed. Effective, dramatic, they are filled with struggle, sometimes continuing until the last bar. This type of final movement was already outlined in the First Symphony. We find its most typical examples in the Fifth, Seventh, Eleventh symphonies. The finale of the Trio belongs entirely to the realm of the tragic. The laconic final movement in the Fourteenth Symphony is the same.
Shostakovich has cheerful festive finales, far from heroic. They lack images of struggle, overcoming obstacles; boundless joy reigns. This is the last Allegro of the First Quartet. Such is the finale of the Sixth Symphony, but here, in accordance with the requirements of the symphonic form, a broader and more colorful picture is given. The finals of some concertos should be included in the same category, although they are performed differently. The finale of the First Piano Concerto is dominated by the grotesque and buffoonery; Burlesque from the First Violin Concerto depicts a folk festival.
I must say about the lyrical finals. Lyrical images sometimes crown even those works by Shostakovich, in which hurricanes rage, formidable irreconcilable forces clash. These images are marked by pastorality. The composer turns to nature, which gives a person joy, heals his spiritual wounds. In the finale of the Quintet, the Sixth Quartet, pastorality is combined with everyday dance elements. Let me also remind you of the finale of the Eighth Symphony (“catharsis”).
Unusual, new finals, based on the embodiment of opposite emotional spheres, when the composer combines the "incompatible". This is the finale of the Fifth Quartet: homeliness, calm and storm. At the end of the Seventh Quartet, the angry fugue is replaced by romantic music - sad and alluring. The finale of the Fifteenth Symphony is multi-component, capturing the poles of being.
Shostakovich's favorite technique is to return in the finals to topics known to listeners from previous parts. These are memories of the path traveled and at the same time a reminder - "the battle is not over." Such episodes often represent climaxes. They are in the finals of the First, Eighth, Tenth, Eleventh symphonies.
The form of the finals confirms the exceptionally important role that belongs to the principle of sonata in Shostakovich's work. Here, too, the composer willingly uses the sonata form (as well as the form of the rondo sonata). As in the first movements, he freely interprets this form (most freely in the finales of the Fourth and Seventh symphonies).
Shostakovich builds his sonata cycles in different ways, changes the number of parts, the order of their alternation. It combines contiguous non-breaking parts, creating a loop within a loop. The inclination towards the unity of the whole prompted Shostakovich in the Eleventh and Twelfth Symphonies to completely abandon the breaks between movements. And in the Fourteenth, he departs from the general patterns of form of the sonata-symphony cycle, replacing them with other constructive principles.
The unity of the whole is also expressed by Shostakovich in a complex, ramified system of intonational connections, embracing the thematic nature of all parts. He also used cross-cutting themes, passing from part to part, and sometimes leitmotif themes.
Shostakovich's culminations are of great importance - emotional and formative. He carefully highlights the general climax, which is the top of the whole part, and sometimes the whole work. The general scale of his symphonic development is usually such that the culmination is a "plateau", and quite extended. The composer mobilizes a variety of means, seeking to give the climactic section a monumental, heroic or tragic character.
To what has been said, it must be added that the very process of unfolding large forms in Shostakovich is largely individual: he gravitates towards the continuity of the musical current, avoiding short constructions and frequent caesuras. Having begun to express a musical idea, he is in no hurry to finish it. Thus, the theme of the oboe (intercepted by the cor anglais) in the second movement of the Seventh Symphony is one huge construction (period) lasting 49 bars (moderate tempo). A master of sudden contrasts, Shostakovich, at the same time, often retains one mood, one color throughout large musical sections. There are extended musical layers. Sometimes they are instrumental monologues.
Shostakovich did not like to repeat exactly what had already been said - be it a motive, a phrase, or a large construction. The music flows further and further, not returning to the "passed stages". This "fluidity" (closely related to the polyphonic warehouse of presentation) is one of the important features composer's style. (The episode of the invasion from the Seventh Symphony is based on the repeated repetition of the theme; it is caused by the peculiarities of the task that the author has set for himself.) Passacaglia are based on repetitions of the theme (in bass); but here the feeling of "fluidity" is created by the movement of the upper voices.
Now it is necessary to say about Shostakovich as a great master of "timbre dramaturgy".
In his works, the timbres of the orchestra are inseparable from the music, from the musical content and form.
Shostakovich gravitated not to timbre painting, but to revealing the emotional and psychological essence of timbres, which he associated with human feelings and experiences. In this respect, he is far from such masters as Debussy, Ravel; he is much closer to the orchestral styles of Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Bartok.
The Shostakovich Orchestra is a tragic orchestra. The expression of timbres reaches its greatest intensity. Shostakovich, more than all other Soviet composers, mastered timbres as a means of musical drama, revealing with their help both the boundless depth of personal experiences and social conflicts of a global scale.
Symphonic and operatic music provides many examples of the timbre embodiment of dramatic conflicts with the help of brass and strings. There are such examples in the work of Shostakovich. He often associated the "collective" timbre of the brass group with images of evil, aggression, and the onslaught of enemy forces. Let me remind you of the first movement of the Fourth Symphony. Its main theme is the "cast-iron" trampling of the legions, eager to erect a powerful throne on the bones of their enemies. It is entrusted with brass - two trumpets and two octave trombones. They are duplicated by violins, but the timbre of the violins is absorbed by the powerful sound of copper. The dramaturgical function of brass (as well as percussion) in development is especially clearly revealed. A violent fugue leads to a climax. Here the tread of modern Huns is even more clearly heard. The timbre of the brass group is naked and shown in a "close-up". The theme sounds forte fortissimo, it is performed by eight horns in unison. Then four trumpets enter, then three trombones. And all this against the background of a battle rhythm entrusted to four percussion instruments.
The same dramatic principle of using the brass group is revealed in the development of the first movement of the Fifth Symphony. Brass and here reflect the negative line of musical drama, the line of counter action. Previously, the exposition was dominated by the timbre of the strings. At the beginning of development, the rethought main theme, which has now become the embodiment of evil power, is entrusted to the horns. Prior to this, the composer used the higher registers of these instruments; they sounded soft, light. Now, for the first time, the horn part captures the extremely low bass register, due to which their timbre becomes muffled and ominous. A little further on, the topic turns to pipes, again playing in a low register. I will point further to the climax, where three trumpets play the same theme, which has turned into a cruel and soulless march. This is the climactic climax. Copper is brought to the fore, it solos, completely capturing the attention of the listeners.
The examples given show, in particular, the dramatic role of various registers. One and the same instrument can have a different, even opposite, dramatic meaning, depending on which register of colors are included in the timbre palette of the work.
The copper wind group sometimes performs a different function, becoming a carrier of a positive beginning. Let us turn to the last two movements of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. After the heartfelt singing of the strings in Largo, the very first bars of the finale, marking a sharp turn in the symphonic action, are marked by an extremely energetic introduction to the brass. They embody in the final through action, asserting strong-willed optimistic images.
Very characteristic of Shostakovich the symphonist is the accentuated contrast between the closing Largo section and the beginning of the finale. These are two poles: the finest, melting sonority of the stringed pianissimo, the harp, dubbed by the celesta, and the powerful fortissimo of pipes and trombones against the background of the roar of the timpani.
We talked about contrasting-conflict alternations of timbres, comparisons "at a distance". Such a comparison can be called horizontal. But there is also vertical contrasting, when timbres opposed to each other sound simultaneously.
In one of the sections of the development of the first part of the Eighth Symphony, the upper melodic voice conveys suffering, sorrow. This voice was entrusted to strings (first and second violins, violas, and then cellos). They are joined by woodwinds, but the dominant role belongs to stringed instruments. At the same time, we hear the "hard-voiced" tread of war. Trumpets, trombones, timpani dominate here. Then their rhythm moves to the snare drum. It cuts through the entire orchestra and its dry sounds, like whiplashes, again create the sharpest timbre conflict.
Like other major symphonists, Shostakovich turned to the strings when the music had to convey high, excitingly strong feelings, all-conquering humanity. But it also happens that string instruments perform the opposite dramatic function for him, embodying negative images, like brass instruments. In these cases, the composer robs the strings of melodiousness, the warmth of timbre. The sound becomes cold, hard. There are examples of such sonority in the Fourth, and in the Eighth, and in the Fourteenth symphonies.
The instruments of the woodwind group in Shostakovich's scores solo a lot. Usually these are not virtuoso solos, but monologues - lyrical, tragic, humorous. Flute, oboe, cor anglais, clarinet especially often reproduce lyrical, sometimes with a dramatic tinge, melodies. Shostakovich was very fond of the timbre of the bassoon; he entrusted him with diverse themes - from gloomy mourning to comedy-grotesque. Bassoon often tells about death, severe suffering, and sometimes he is the “clown of the orchestra” (E. Prout's expression).
The role of percussion instruments in Shostakovich is very responsible. He uses them, as a rule, not for decorative purposes, not in order to make the orchestral sonority elegant. Drums for him are a source of drama, they bring extraordinary inner tension and nervous sharpness into the music. Subtly feeling the expressive possibilities of individual instruments of this kind, Shostakovich entrusted them with the most important solos. So, already in the First Symphony, he made the timpani solo the general culmination of the entire cycle. The episode of the invasion from the Seventh is inextricably linked in our imagination with the rhythm of the snare drum. In the Thirteenth Symphony, the timbre of the bell became the lead timbre. Let me remind you of the group solo percussion performances in the Eleventh and Twelfth Symphonies.
The orchestral style of Shostakovich is the subject of a special large study. In these pages, I have touched on only some of its facets.
The work of Shostakovich had a powerful impact on the music of our era, primarily on Soviet music. Its solid foundation was not only the traditions of classical composers of the 18th and 19th centuries, but also the traditions, the founders of which were Prokofiev and Shostakovich.
Of course, we are not talking about imitations now: they are fruitless, regardless of who is imitated. We are talking about the development of traditions, their creative enrichment.
The influence of Shostakovich on contemporary composers began to show itself long ago. Already the First Symphony was not only listened to, but also carefully studied. V. Ya. Shebalin said that he learned a lot from this youthful score. Shostakovich, while still a young composer, influenced the young composers of Leningrad, for example, V. Zhelobinsky (it is curious that Dmitry Dmitrievich himself spoke about this influence of his).
In the post-war years, the radius of influence of his music was expanding. It embraced many composers in Moscow and our other cities.
Of great importance was the work of Shostakovich for the composer's work of G. Sviridov, R. Shchedrin, M. Weinberg, B. Tchaikovsky, A. Eshpay, K. Khachaturian, Yu. Levitin, R. Bunin, L. Solin, A. Schnittke. I would like to mention Shchedrin's Dead Souls opera, in which the traditions of Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Shostak-< вича. Талантливая опера С. Слонимского «Виринея» сочетает традиции Мусоргского с традициями автора «Катерины Измайловой». Назову А. Петрова; его симфоническая Поэма памяти жертв blockade of Leningrad, being a work completely independent in its style, is connected with the traditions of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony (more precisely, its slow part). Symphony and chamber music our famous master had a great influence on B. Tishchenko.
Its importance is also great for Soviet national music schools. Life has shown that the appeal of the composers of our republics to Shostakovich and Prokofiev is of great benefit, without at all weakening the national basis of their work. The fact that this is so is evidenced, for example, by the creative practice of the composers of Transcaucasia. The largest contemporary master of Azerbaijani music, world-famous composer Kara Karaev is a student of Shostakovich. He, undoubtedly, has a deep creative originality and national certainty of style. However, studies with Shostakovich and the study of his works helped Kara Abulfasovich grow creatively and master new means of realistic musical art. The same must be said about the outstanding Azerbaijani composer Dzhevdet Hajiyev. I will note his Fourth Symphony, dedicated to the memory of V. I. Lenin. It is distinguished by the certainty of the national image. Its author has realized the intonational and modal richness of Azerbaijani mughams. At the same time, Gadzhiev, like other outstanding composers of the Soviet republics, did not confine himself to the sphere of local expressive means. He took a lot from the symphony of Shostakovich. In particular, some features of the polyphony of the Azerbaijani composer are associated with his work.
In the music of Armenia, along with epic pictorial symphonism, dramatic, psychologically profound symphonism is successfully developing. The music of A. I. Khachaturian and D. D. Shostakovich contributed to the growth of Armenian symphonic creativity. This is evidenced by at least the First and Second Symphonies of D. Ter-Tatevosyan, the works of E. Mirzoyan and other authors.
Composers of Georgia learned a lot of useful things from the scores of the remarkable Russian master. I will point out as examples the First Symphony by A. Balanchivadze, written back in the war years, the quartets by S. Tsintsadze.
Of the outstanding composers of Soviet Ukraine, B. Lyatoshinsky, the greatest representative of Ukrainian symphony, was closest to Shostakovich. The influence of Shostakovich has affected the young Ukrainian composers who have come to the fore in recent years.
The Byelorussian composer E. Glebov and many composers of the Soviet Baltic countries, for example, the Estonians J. Ryazts and A. Pyart, should be mentioned in this row.
In essence, all Soviet composers, including those who are creatively very far from the path that Shostakovich followed, took something from him. The study of Dmitry Dmitrievich's work brought undoubted benefits to each of them.
T. N. Khrennikov, in his opening speech at the anniversary concert on September 24, 1976, in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the birth of Shostakovich, said that Prokofiev and Shostakovich largely determined important creative trends in the development of Soviet music. One cannot but agree with this statement. The influence of our great symphonist on the musical art of the whole world is also undoubted. But here we are touching unraveled virgin land. This topic has not yet been studied at all, it has yet to be developed.

Shostakovich's art is aimed at the future. It leads us along big roads life into a beautiful and disturbing world, "a world wide open to the fury of the winds." These words of Eduard Bagritsky are said as if about Shostakovich, about his music. He belongs to a generation not born to live in peace. This generation has endured a lot, but it won

The creative path of Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich (1906-1975) is inextricably linked with the history of the entire Soviet artistic culture and was actively reflected in the press (many articles, books, essays, etc. were published about the composer during his lifetime). On the pages of the press, he was called a genius (the composer was then only 17 years old):

“In the game of Shostakovich ... the joyfully calm confidence of a genius. My words refer not only to the exceptional playing of Shostakovich, but also to his compositions” (V. Walter, critic).

Shostakovich is one of the most original, original, bright artists. His entire creative biography is the path of a true innovator who has made whole line discoveries in the field of both figurative and - genres and forms, modal-intonation. At the same time, his work organically absorbed the best traditions of musical art. A huge role for him was played by creativity, the principles of which (opera and chamber-vocal) the composer brought to the sphere of symphony.

In addition, Dmitry Dmitrievich continued the line of Beethoven's heroic symphonism, lyric-dramatic symphonism. The life-affirming idea of his work goes back to Shakespeare, Goethe, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky. By artistic nature

“Shostakovich is a “man of the theater”, he knew and loved him” (L. Danilevich).

At the same time, his life as a composer and as a person is connected with the tragic pages of Soviet history.

Ballets and operas by D. D. Shostakovich

The first ballets - "Golden Age", "Bolt", "Bright Stream"

The collective hero of the work is a football team (which is no coincidence, since the composer was fond of sports, professionally versed in the intricacies of the game, which gave him the opportunity to write reports on football matches, was an active fan, graduated from the school of football referees). Then comes the ballet "Bolt" on the theme of industrialization. The libretto was written by a former cavalryman and in itself, from a modern point of view, was almost parodic. The ballet was created by the composer in the spirit of constructivism. Contemporaries recalled the premiere in different ways: some say that the proletarian audience did not understand anything and booed the author, others recall that the ballet was greeted with applause. The music of the ballet The Bright Stream (premiere - 01/04/35), which takes place on a collective farm, is saturated not only with lyrical, but also with comic intonations, which also could not but affect the fate of the composer.

Shostakovich composed a lot in his early years, but some of the works turned out to be destroyed by him personally, such as, for example, the first opera "Gypsies" after Pushkin.

Opera "The Nose" (1927-1928)

It caused fierce controversy, as a result of which it was removed from the repertoire of theaters for a long time, and later it was resurrected again. In Shostakovich's own words, he:

“... Least of all guided by the fact that the opera is primarily a piece of music. In "The Nose" the elements of action and music are equalized. Neither one nor the other occupies a predominant place.

In an effort to synthesize music and theatrical performance, the composer organically combined his own creative individuality and various artistic trends in the work (Love for Three Oranges, Berg's Wozzeck, Krenek's Jump Over the Shadow). The theatrical aesthetics of realism had a huge influence on the composer. On the whole, The Nose lays the foundations, on the one hand, of the realistic method, on the other, of the “Gogolian” direction in Soviet operatic dramaturgy.

Opera Katerina Izmailova (Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District)

It was marked by a sharp transition from humor (in the ballet Bolt) to tragedy, although the tragic elements were already visible in The Nose, making up its subtext.

This - “... the embodiment of the tragic feeling of the terrible nonsense of the world depicted by the composer, in which everything human is trampled, and people are pitiful puppets; His Excellency the Nose rises above them” (L. Danilevich).

In such contrasts, the researcher L. Danilevich sees their exceptional role in the creative activity of Shostakovich, and more broadly - in the art of the century.

The opera "Katerina Izmailova" is dedicated to the composer's wife N. Varzar. The original idea was large-scale - a trilogy depicting the fate of a woman in different eras. "Katerina Izmailova" would be the first part of it, depicting the spontaneous protest of the heroine against the "dark kingdom", pushing her onto the path of crime. The heroine of the next part should have been a revolutionary, and in the third part the composer wanted to show the fate of a Soviet woman. This plan was not destined to come true.

From the assessments of the opera by contemporaries, the words of I. Sollertinsky are indicative:

“It can be said with full responsibility that in the history of Russian musical theater after The Queen of Spades there has not appeared a work of such magnitude and depth as Lady Macbeth.

The composer himself called the opera a "tragedy-satire", thus uniting the two most important aspects of his work.

However, on January 28, 1936, the Pravda newspaper published an article entitled “Muddle Instead of Music” about the opera (which had already received high praise and recognition from the public), in which Shostakovich was accused of formalism. The article turned out to be the result of a misunderstanding of the complex aesthetic issues raised by the opera, but as a result, the name of the composer was sharply indicated in a negative way.

During this difficult period, the support of many colleagues turned out to be invaluable for him, and who publicly stated that he welcomed Shostakovich with Pushkin's words about Baratynsky:

"He is original with us - because he thinks."

(Although Meyerhold's support could hardly have been support in those years. Rather, it created a danger to the life and work of the composer.)

To top it all off, on February 6, the same newspaper publishes an article called "Ballet Falsity", which actually crosses out the ballet "Bright Stream".

Because of these articles, which dealt a severe blow to the composer, his activities as an opera and ballet composer came to an end, despite the fact that they constantly tried to interest him in various projects for many years.

Symphonies by Shostakovich

In symphonic works (the composer wrote 15 symphonies), Shostakovich often uses the method of figurative transformation based on a deep rethinking of musical thematics, which, as a result, acquires a plurality of meanings.

ABOUT First Symphony An American music magazine wrote in 1939:

This symphony (thesis work) completed the period of apprenticeship in the composer's creative biography.

Second symphony- this is a reflection of the contemporary life of the composer: it has the name "October", ordered for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution by the propaganda department of the Musical Sector of the State Publishing House. It marked the beginning of the search for new ways.

Third Symphony marked by democratic, songlike musical language in comparison with the Second.

The principle of montage dramaturgy, theatricality, and the visibility of images begin to be traced in relief.

Fourth symphony- a symphony-tragedy, marking a new stage in the development of Shostakovich's symphony.

Like "Katerina Izmailova", she was temporarily forgotten. The composer canceled the premiere (it was supposed to take place in 1936), believing that it would be "out of time". Only in 1962 the work was performed and enthusiastically received, despite the complexity, sharpness of the content and musical language. G. Khubov (critic) said:

"In the music of the Fourth Symphony, life itself seethes and bubbles."

Fifth Symphony often compared with the Shakespearean type of dramaturgy, in particular, with "Hamlet".

"should be permeated with a positive idea, like, for example, the life-affirming pathos of Shakespeare's tragedies."

So, about his Fifth Symphony, he said:

“The theme of my symphony is the formation of personality. It was the man with all his experiences that I saw at the center of the concept of this work.

Truly iconic Seventh Symphony ("Leningrad"), written in besieged Leningrad under the direct impression of the terrible events of World War II.

According to Koussevitzky, his music

“Immense and humane and can be compared with the universality of the humanity of the genius of Beethoven, born, like Shostakovich, in an era of world upheavals…”.

The premiere of the Seventh Symphony took place in besieged Leningrad on 08/09/42 with the broadcast of the concert on the radio. Maxim Shostakovich, the composer's son, believed that this work reflected not only the anti-humanism of the fascist invasion, but also the anti-humanism of the Stalinist terror in the USSR.

Eighth Symphony(premiered on 04.11.1943) is the first culmination of the tragic line of the composer's work (the second climax is the Fourteenth Symphony), the music of which caused controversy with attempts to belittle its significance, but it is recognized as one of the outstanding works of the 20th century.

In the Ninth Symphony(completed in 1945) the composer (there is such an opinion) responded to the end of the war.

In an effort to get rid of the experience, he attempted to appeal to serene and joyful emotions. However, in the light of the past, this was no longer possible - the main ideological line is inevitably set off by dramatic elements.

Tenth Symphony continued the line laid down in Symphony No. 4.

After it, Shostakovich turns to a different type of symphonism, embodying the people's revolutionary epic. So, a dilogy appears - symphonies Nos. 11 and 12, bearing the names "1905" (symphony No. 11, dedicated to the 40th anniversary of October) and "1917" (symphony No. 12).

Symphonies Thirteenth and Fourteenth also marked by special genre features (features of the oratorio, the influence of the opera house).

These are multi-part vocal-symphonic cycles, where the inclination towards the synthesis of vocal and symphonic genres was fully manifested.

The symphonic work of the composer Shostakovich is multifaceted. On the one hand, these are works written under the influence of fear of what is happening in the country, some of them were written by order, some to protect themselves. On the other hand, these are truthful and deep reflections on life and death, personal statements of the composer, who could only speak fluently in the language of music. Takova Fourteenth Symphony. This is a vocal-instrumental work, in which the verses of F. Lorca, G. Apollinaire, V. Kuchelbecker, R. Rilke are used. The main theme of the symphony is a reflection on death and man. And although Dmitry Dmitrievich himself said at the premiere that this is music and lives, the musical material itself speaks of the tragic path of a person, of death. Truly, the composer rose here to the height of philosophical reflections.

Piano works by Shostakovich

New style direction piano music The twentieth century, denying in many respects the traditions of romanticism and impressionism, cultivated graphic (sometimes deliberate dryness) presentation, sometimes emphasized sharpness and sonority; rhythm was of particular importance. An important role in its formation belongs to Prokofiev, and much is characteristic of Shostakovich. For example, he widely uses different registers, compares contrasting sonorities.

Already in children's creativity he tried to respond to historical events (the piano piece "Soldier", "Hymn to Freedom", "Funeral March in Memory of the Victims of the Revolution").

N. Fedin notes, recalling the conservatory years of the young composer:

"His music talked, chatted, sometimes quite mischievously."

The composer destroyed part of his early works and, with the exception of Fantastic Dances, did not publish any of the works written before the First Symphony. "Fantastic Dances" (1926) quickly gained popularity and firmly entered the musical and pedagogical repertoire.

The cycle of "Preludes" is marked by the search for new techniques and ways. The musical language here is devoid of pretentiousness, deliberate complexity. Separate features of the individual composer's style are closely intertwined with typical Russian melos.

Piano Sonata No. 1 (1926) was originally called "October", is a daring challenge to conventions and academicism. The work clearly shows the influence of Prokofiev's piano style.

The nature of the cycle of piano pieces "Aphorisms" (1927), consisting of 10 pieces, on the contrary, is marked by intimacy, graphic presentation.

In the First Sonata and in the Aphorisms, Kabalevsky sees "an escape from outward prettiness."

In the 1930s (after the opera Katerina Izmailova) 24 piano preludes (1932-1933) and the First Piano Concerto (1933) appeared; in these works those features of Shostakovich's individual piano style are formed, which are later clearly indicated in the Second Sonata and the piano parts of the Quintet and Trio.

In 1950-51, the cycle "24 Preludes and Fugues" op. 87, referring in its structure to Bach's CTC. In addition, none of the Russian composers created such cycles before Shostakovich.

The second piano sonata (op. 61, 1942) was written under the influence of the death of L. Nikolaev (pianist, composer, teacher) and is dedicated to his memory; at the same time it reflected the events of the war. Intimacy marked not only the genre, but also the dramaturgy of the work.

“Perhaps nowhere else was Shostakovich as ascetic in the field of piano texture as here” (L. Danilevich).

Chamber art

The composer created 15 quartets. To work on the First Quartet (op. 40, 1938), by his own admission, he began "without any special thoughts and feelings."

However, Shostakovich's work not only captivated, but grew into the idea of creating a cycle of 24 quartets, one for each key. However, life decreed that this plan was not destined to materialize.

The milestone composition that completed his pre-war line of creativity was the Quintet for two violins, viola, cello and piano (1940).

This is “a realm of calm reflections fanned by lyrical poetry. Here is a world of lofty thoughts, restrained, chastely clear feelings, combined with festive fun and pastoral images” (L. Danilevich).

Later, the composer could not find such peace in his work.

Thus, the Trio in memory of Sollertinsky embodies both the memories of a departed friend and the thoughts of all those who died in a terrible wartime.

Cantata-oratorio creativity

Shostakovich created a new type of oratorio, the features of which are the widespread use of song and other genres and forms, as well as publicism and posterity.

These features were embodied in the sunny-light oratorio "Song of the Forests", created "hot on the heels of events" associated with the activation of "green construction" - the creation of forest protection belts. Its content is revealed in 7 parts

(“When the war ended”, “We will dress the Motherland in forests”, “Remembrance of the past”, “Pioneers plant forests”, “Stalingraders come forward”, “Future walk”, “Glory”).

Close to the style of the oratorio cantata “The Sun Shines Over Our Homeland” (1952) on the op. Dolmatovsky.

Both in the oratorio and in the cantata, there is a tendency towards the synthesis of the song-choral and symphonic lines of the composer's work.

Around the same period, a cycle of 10 poems appears for mixed choir unaccompanied by the words of the revolutionary poets of the turn of the century (1951), which is an outstanding example of a revolutionary epic. The cycle is the first work in the composer's work, where there is no instrumental music. Some critics believe that the works created to the words of Dolmatovsky, mediocre, but who occupied a large place in the Soviet nomenclature, helped the composer to engage in creativity. So, one of the cycles on the words of Dolmatovsky was created immediately after the 14th symphony, as if in opposition to it.

Film music

Film music plays a huge role in the work of Shostakovich. He is one of the pioneers of this kind of musical art, which realized his eternal desire for everything new, unknown. At that time, cinema was still silent, and film music was seen as an experiment.

Creating music for films, Dmitry Dmitrievich strove not for the illustration of the visual range itself, but for the emotional and psychological impact, when the music reveals the deep psychological subtext of what is happening on the screen. In addition, work in the cinema prompted the composer to turn to previously unknown layers of the national folk art. Music for films helped the composer when his main works did not sound. Just as translations helped Pasternak, Akhmatova, Mandelstam.

Some of the films with music by Shostakovich (these were different films):

"Youth of Maxim", "Young Guard", "Gadfly", "Hamlet", "King Lear", etc.

The composer's musical language often did not correspond to the established norms, and in many respects reflected his personal qualities: he appreciated humor, a sharp word, he himself was witty.

“Seriousness in him was combined with liveliness of character” (Tyulin).

However, it should be noted that the musical language of Dmitry Dmitrievich became more and more gloomy over time. And if we talk about humor, then with full confidence we can call it sarcasm (vocal cycles on texts from the magazine "Crocodile", on the verses of Captain Lebyadkin, the hero of Dostoevsky's novel "Demons")

Composer, pianist, Shostakovich was also a teacher (professor of the Leningrad Conservatory), who brought up a number of outstanding composers, including G. Sviridov, K. Karaev, M. Weinberg, B. Tishchenko, G. Ustvolskaya and others.

For him, the breadth of outlook was of great importance, and he always felt and noted the difference between the externally spectacular and the deeply internal emotional side of music. The merits of the composer were highly appreciated: Shostakovich is among the first laureates of the State Prize of the USSR, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (which at that time was achievable only for very few composers).

However, the very human and musical fate of the composer is an illustration of the tragedy of genius in.

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Each artist conducts a special dialogue with his time, but the nature of this dialogue largely depends on the properties of his personality.D. Shostakovich, unlike many of his contemporaries, was not afraid to get as close as possible to unattractive reality and make the creation of its merciless generalized symbolic depiction a matter and duty of his life as an artist. By his very nature, according to I. Sollertinsky, he was doomed to become a great "tragic poet."

In the works of domestic musicologists, a high degree of conflict in the works of Shostakovich was repeatedly noted (the works of M. Aranovsky, T. Leie, M. Sabinina, L. Mazel). Being a component of the artistic reflection of reality, the conflict expresses the composer's attitude to the phenomena of the surrounding reality. L. Berezovchuk convincingly shows that conflict in Shostakovich's music often manifests itself through stylistic and genre interactions. Issue. 15. - L.: Music, 1977. - S. 95-119 .. The signs of various musical styles and genres of the past, recreated in a modern work, can take part in the conflict; depending on the composer's intention, they can become symbols of a positive beginning or images of evil. This is one of the variants of "generalization through the genre" (A. Alschwang's term) in the music of the 20th century. In general, retrospective trends (appeal to styles and genres of past eras) become leading in various author's styles of the 20th century (the work of M. Reger, P. Hindemith , I. Stravinsky, A. Schnittke and many others).

According to M. Aranovsky, one of the most important aspects of Shostakovich's music was the combination of various methods of implementation artistic idea, such as:

direct emotionally open statement, as if "direct musical speech";

· visual techniques, often associated with cinematic images associated with the construction of a "symphonic plot";

· methods of designation or symbolization associated with the personification of the forces of "action" and "counteraction" Aranovsky M. The challenge of time and the artist's response // Academy of Music. - M.: Music, 1997. - No. 4. - P.15 - 27..

In all these manifestations of Shostakovich's creative method, there is a clear reliance on the genre. And in the direct expression of feelings, and in visual techniques, and in the processes of symbolization - everywhere the explicit or hidden genre basis of thematicism carries an additional semantic load.

Shostakovich's work is dominated by traditional genres - symphonies, operas, ballets, quartets, etc. Parts of the cycle also often have genre designations, for example: Scherzo, Recitative, Etude, Humoresque, Elegy, Serenade, Intermezzo, Nocturne, Funeral March. The composer also revives a number of ancient genres - chaconne, sarabande, passacaglia. The peculiarity of Shostakovich's artistic thinking is that well-recognized genres are endowed with semantics that do not always coincide with the historical prototype. They turn into original models - carriers of certain values.

According to V. Bobrovsky, the passacaglia serves the purpose of expressing lofty ethical ideas Bobrovsky V. Implementation of the Passacaglia Genre in the Sonata-Symphonic Cycles of D. Shostakovich // Music and Modernity. Issue 1. - M., 1962.; a similar role is played by the genres of chaconne and sarabande, and in the chamber compositions of the last period - elegies. Often there are recitative monologues in Shostakovich's works, which in the middle period serve the purposes of a dramatic or pathetic-tragedic statement, and in the later period they acquire a generalized philosophical meaning.

The polyphony of Shostakovich's thinking naturally manifested itself not only in the texture and methods of development of thematic art, but also in the revival of the fugue genre, as well as the tradition of writing cycles of preludes and fugues. Moreover, polyphonic constructions have very different semantics: contrasting polyphony, as well as fugato, are often associated with a positive figurative sphere, the sphere of manifestation of a living, human principle. While the anti-human is embodied in strict canons ("the episode of the invasion" from the 7th symphony, sections from the development of part I, the main theme of part II of the 8th symphony) or in simple, sometimes deliberately primitive homophonic forms.

Scherzo is interpreted by Shostakovich in different ways: these are both cheerful, mischievous images, and toy-puppet ones, in addition, scherzo is a favorite genre for the composer to embody the negative forces of action, which received a predominantly grotesque image in this genre. The scherzo vocabulary, according to M. Aranovsky, created a fertile intonation environment for deploying the mask method, as a result of which "... the rationally comprehended was whimsically intertwined with the irrational and where the line between life and absurdity was completely erased" (1, 24 ). The researcher sees in this a similarity with Zoshchenko or Kharms, and, perhaps, the influence of Gogol, whose poetics the composer came into close contact with in his work on the opera The Nose.

B.V. Asafiev singles out the gallop genre as specific to the composer's style: "... it is extremely characteristic that Shostakovich's music contains the gallop rhythm, but not the naive perky gallop of the 20-30s of the last century and not Offenbach's toothy cancan, but the gallop-cinema, the gallop of the final chase with all kinds of adventures. In this music there is a feeling of anxiety, and nervous shortness of breath, and impudent bravado, but only laughter, contagious and joyful, is missing.<…>They tremble, convulsively, whimsically, as if obstacles are being overcome "(4, 312 ) The gallop or cancan often become the basis for Shostakovich's "danses macabres" - original dances of death (for example, in the Trio in memory of Sollertinsky or in the III part of the Eighth Symphony).

The composer makes extensive use of everyday music: military and sports marches, everyday dances, urban lyrical music and so on. As you know, urban everyday music was poeticized by more than one generation of romantic composers, who saw this area of creativity mainly as a "treasury of idyllic moods" (L. Berezovchuk). If in rare cases the everyday genre was endowed with negative, negative semantics (for example, in the works of Berlioz, Liszt, Tchaikovsky), this always increased the semantic load, singled out this episode from the musical context. However, what was unique and unusual in the 19th century became a typical feature of the creative method for Shostakovich. His numerous marches, waltzes, polkas, gallops, two-steps, cancans have lost their value (ethical) neutrality, clearly belonging to the negative figurative sphere.

L. Berezovchuk L. Berezovchuk. Citation Op. explains this by a number of historical reasons. The period in which the composer's talent was formed was very difficult for Soviet culture. The process of creating new values in the new society was accompanied by a clash of the most contradictory tendencies. On the one hand, these are new methods of expressiveness, new themes, plots. On the other hand - an avalanche of rollicking, hysterical and sentimental musical production, which swept the layman of the 20-30s.

Everyday music, an inalienable attribute of bourgeois culture, in the 20th century becomes a symptom of the petty-bourgeois way of life, narrow-mindedness, and lack of spirituality for leading artists in the 20th century. This sphere was perceived as a hotbed of evil, the realm of base instincts that could grow into a terrible danger to others. Therefore, for the composer, the concept of Evil was combined with the sphere of "low" everyday genres. As M. Aranovsky notes, "in this Shostakovich acted as Mahler's heir, but without his idealism" (2, 74 ). What was poeticized, exalted by romanticism, becomes the object of grotesque distortion, sarcasm, ridicule. Shostakovich was not alone in this attitude towards “urban speech”. M. Aranovsky draws parallels with the language of M. Zoshchenko, who deliberately distorted the speech of his negative characters. Examples of this are the "Police Waltz" and most intermissions from the opera "Katerina Izmailova", the march in the "Invasion Episode" from the Seventh Symphony, the main theme of the second part Eighth Symphony, the theme of the minuet from the second part of the Fifth Symphony and much more.

The so-called "genre alloys" or "genre mixes" began to play an important role in the creative method of the mature Shostakovich. M. Sabinina in his monograph Sabinina M. Shostakovich is a symphonist. - M .: Music, 1976. notes that, starting with the Fourth Symphony, great importance acquire themes-processes in which there is a turn from imprinting external events to expressing psychological states. Shostakovich's striving to capture and embrace the chain of phenomena in a single process of development leads to the combination in one theme of the features of several genres, which are revealed in the process of its deployment. Examples of this are the main themes from the first parts of the Fifth, Seventh, Eighth Symphonies and other works.

Thus, the genre models in Shostakovich's music are very diverse: ancient and modern, academic and everyday, overt and hidden, homogeneous and mixed. An important feature of Shostakovich's style is the connection of certain genres with the ethical categories of Good and Evil, which, in turn, are the most important components that act as forces in the composer's symphonic concepts.

Consider the semantics of genre models in the music of D. Shostakovich using the example of his Eighth Symphony.

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