Page 279 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

MODERN 1900–1950 277

See also: Pictures at an Exhibition 207 ■ Romeo and Juliet 272 ■
Spartacus 309 ■ Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima 310–311

A campaign began against artists movement alone, there are loud
and writers who were not following onslaughts of brass, a toccata for
the party line. Over the next few woodwinds, and a fast virtuoso
years, this would result in the fugue on the strings. Frightened
deaths of prominent figures, such that this challenging mix might
as the poet Osip Mandelstam and offend the authorities, the composer
the writer Isaac Babel, both critical withdrew the work, which was not
of Stalin. Shostakovich himself was heard in public until 1961.
labeled an “enemy of the people,”
and some of his works, including A conflicted symphony
the opera The Nose (1928) and the Shostakovich then started from Dmitri Shostakovich
ballet The Limpid Stream (1935), scratch on what became his
were banned. Fearing punishment, Symphony No. 5. The work, like For the precociously talented
he packed a bag and waited for the its predecessor, features strong Shostakovich, born in
secret police to knock on his door. contrasts, but it also contains St. Petersburg in 1906, piano
In the end, Shostakovich was engaging melodies. The first main lessons began at the age of
spared a visit from the police and theme of the opening movement is three, and attendance at the
went on to complete his next major a lyrical, sad tune, initially played Petrograd Conservatory came
work, Symphony No. 4, in May softly on the violins. In the middle a decade later. His three early
1936. This is a far cry from his of the movement, this gives way to symphonies, written before he
previous two “revolutionary” a grotesque march, which gathers was 33, were well received,
symphonies—a more abstract in pace and volume, sweeping and he returned to the form
work, deeply influenced by Gustav up the whole orchestra, with loud after his first two operas were
Mahler, it is over an hour long and contributions from the brass and denounced by the authorities
in the 1930s. He also produced
requires a huge orchestra. Like a driving beat from the percussion. a series of emotionally intense
Mahler’s symphonies, it is a work of The initial, gentle theme returns string quartets, concertos, and
contrasts, setting tradition, in the and the movement ends quietly much theatre and film music.
form of almost banal dance themes with a violin solo overlaid with In 1960, Shostakovich joined
(including a Viennese waltz and an ringing chromatic scales from the the Communist Party (under
Austrian Ländler—a kind of slow celesta (a keyboard instrument that extreme pressure), and around
waltz), against more strident, sounds like a glockenspiel, used the same time he contracted
dissonant music. In the first by Mahler in two symphonies). polio and had several heart
The gentle ending of the first attacks. This did not stop him
movement contrasts strongly with composing demanding work,
the second movement, a scherzo such as Symphony No. 14
in the form of a waltz. The third (1969). When he died in 1975
movement, marked largo, sees a Shostakovich was widely
return to lyrical writing, with long regarded as Russia’s greatest
If they cut off both hands, melodies on the strings creating contemporary composer.
I will compose music a melancholy mood, punctuated
anyway holding the pen with woodwind solos. The final Other key works
in my teeth. movement, on the other hand,
Dmitri Shostakovich contains a brass-led return to 1933 Concerto in C minor for
loud, often aggressive, marchlike piano, trumpet, and strings
1943 Symphony No. 8
music. The piece rises in volume 1953 Symphony No. 10
to fortissimo (very loud) before it 1960 String Quartet No. 8 (“To
ends resolutely in the triumphant the victims of fascism and war”)
major chord of D. ❯❯

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