Shostakovich Studies

These eleven essays lay a foundation for a proper understanding of Shostakovich's musical language and provide new insights into issues surrounding his composition.

David Fanning (Edited by)

9780521028318, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 November 2006

292 pages, 2 tables 49 music examples
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.43 kg

'… the best attempt to date to examine the importance of the music, starting from the music itself. It is also the most authoritative study of the composer available, bringing together essays by most of the top Russian-Soviet music and Shostakovich scholars … Rather than simply adding to an overcrowded bookshelf, this one, by turning to the music raises the level of the debate on Shostakovich, pointing the way to future Russian-Soviet music scholarship.' Tempo

Few composers' posthumous reputations have grown as steadily as Shostakovich's. Yet outside the concert hall the focus of attention seems to have been on the extraordinary circumstances of his life rather than on the music itself. This book seeks to show that the power of his work stems as much from its craftsmanship as from its political and personal context. The theoretical chapters lay the foundation for a proper understanding of Shostakovich's musical language for the first time in the West. The social context is not neglected, however, and alongside many new insights spread through the book, a substantial and provocative chapter considers the issues surrounding the composition of the Fifth Symphony. The eleven essays in the volume draw together some of the finest scholars of Russian music in Europe, Russia and America.

Acknowledgements
1. Introduction: talking about eggs: musicology and Shostakovich David Fanning
2. Public lies and unspeakable truth: interpreting Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony Richard Taruskin
3. Form in Shostakovich's instrumental works Yuriy Kholopov
4. Russian theorists on modality in Shostakovich's music Ellon D. Carpenter
5.The cycle of structure and the cycle of meaning: the Piano Trio in E Minor, Op. 67 Patrick McCreless
6. Leitmotif in Lady Macbeth David Fanning
7. From Lady Macbeth to Katerina: Shostakovich's versions and revisions Laurel E. Fay
8. The Golden Age: the true story of the première Manashir Yakubov
9. 'And art made tongue-tied by authority': Shostakovich's song-cycles Dorothea Redepenning
10. A debt repaid? Some observations on Shostakovich and his late-period recognition of Britten Eric Roseberry
11. Shostakovich and Schnittke: the erosion of symphonic syntax Alexander Ivashkin
Index.

Subject Areas: Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH]