What opportunities does the music of Shostakovich offer for a discussion of musical tradition and dissent?

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What opportunities does the music of Shostakovich offer for a discussion of musical tradition and dissent? 

When looking at tradition and dissent in any form it is helpful to first look at their definitions. The Oxford online dictionary states tradition is ‘an artistic or literary method or style established by an artist, writer, or movement, and subsequently followed by others’.  Therefore it follows that are many thousands of musical traditions. Dissent is defined as ‘expressing disagreement with a prevailing or official view’.  Which once again leaves many options. Since all traditions are a development of an earlier practice, so dissent is an evolution of these traditions into something new.

Shostakovich led a life that brought him into contact with many traditions, musically speaking, and he was influenced by many sources. He lived during ‘the Stalin era’, and as such experienced conflicts both politically and personally, all of which were reflected in his music. When looking at the opportunities his music offers for a discussion as in this essay, there are so many subject areas, and routes down which one could go, that I shall try and restrict myself to discussing his music in terms of genre, form and meaning.

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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 ...

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