As musical genre and form are very interlinked; and one cannot be properly discussed without involving the other. Shostakovich is a modern composer having lived 1906 – 1975, but wrote music in the classical genre. That is he composed music in the form of symphonies, string quartets etc. For this essay I shall concentrate mainly on his string quartets as they provide a good demonstration of both his ability to follow traditions and his dissent from them.
The traditional string quartet is comprised of four movements, a first fast allegro movement, a slower movement, a second fast piece or a scherzo, and finally a very fast concluding finale movement, with the middle two movements being in either order. Each movement in the composition generally had three parts comprising an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. This form or genre is used in almost all traditional pieces written during the classical period. A good example of this is traditional form is Haydn’s String Quartet No 51 in G major. It is comprised of the traditional four movements in the appropriate order.
Haydn also follows traditional form in the way he has composed the movements. He uses a melody that is mainly carried by the lead violin. The other instruments are left to add depth and volume to reinforce the melody. The piece is written with a very smooth, continuous harmony in which all the instruments compliment each other perfectly. He uses very little counter point, and maintains a very steady unchanging rhythm, with very steady wave-like dynamics.
Shostakovich’s String Quartet No 8 is a very sharp contrast to this. In this piece he completely dissents from almost all the traditions above. He has written the Quartet to have five movements, rather than four. Both starting and ending with a slow movement. Of the five movements he has written three to be slow and two fast, rather than the other way around.
He has also shown dissent in his arrangement of the melody in that he passes it from one instrument to another throughout the whole piece, and so the piece has no lead instrument as such. His use of harmony is more traditional in that the piece shows a fairly harmonious tone throughout, with the exception of the short sharp note from the lead violin a few bars into the piece which does not get repeated, nor built on.
Shostakovich has used a strong sense of counterpoint, and almost all the way through all four instruments carries their own melody as well as the main over riding theme. His use of rhythm is fairly steady, but in parts is prone to speed up a little, and his dynamics also vary quite strongly throughout. The use of dynamics in the piece give it a strong sense of emotion and a very sorrowful feel, like Haydn, Shostakovich employs waves of sound, but they are much steeper and quicker changes than in Haydn’s piece.
When looking at meaning in music it becomes more important to look at the life of a composer as well as the music he has written. Writing music offers a way of expressing a personal emotion or opinion, as well as a public way of reinforcing common ideas without open declaration. For example, some of the music Shostakovich wrote is thought to contain connotations of disagreement with Stalin’s government of Russia. By writing his music in such a way it gave him an opportunity to allow those listening to his music a sense of his feelings and beliefs at the time, without being punishable for open declaring his dissatisfaction with Stalin.
Many of Shostakovich’s works reflect events from his personal life, and events that were occurring nationally, and globally at the time. His String Quartet No 3 was written at the time of the Second World War, and as such carries a very strong military feel, with a strong rhythm, while his String Quartet No 7 was written following the death of his first wife, and as such reflects his feelings of grief, and is a slow and quiet piece.
In terms of political dissent, Shostakovich placed many hidden meanings in his work. In his Symphony No 9 he gave it a far quieter more sombre ending than Stalin had wanted and expected of music at the time. He hid Jewish melodies in the music as a statement against anti-Semitism, and as a way of showing his empathy with the loss the Jews were experiencing.
In summary, Shostakovich has used the influence musicians like Haydn, and Beethoven had on him as a young composer, to develop traditional ideas and concepts into something more modern and very different. This could be considered as dissent, or as a development of a string quartet sonata tradition over time. After all, a tradition must have started somewhere, and in years to come people may well look at back at his music and consider traditions started by Shostakovich.
Bibliography:
Richards, F. (2008) ‘Tradition and Dissent in Music: Dmitri Shostakovich’ in Price (ed.) Traditions and Dissent (AA100 Book 2), Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 191 - 224
Naughtie, J. (2007) ‘The Making of Music: A Journey with Notes’ London, John Murray
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