Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich, born on September 25, 1905, started taking piano lessons from his mother at the age of nine after he showed interest in a string quartet that practiced next door. He entered the Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg, later Leningrad) Conservatory in 1919, where he studied the piano with Leonid Nikolayev until 1923 and composition until 1925 with Aleksandr Glazunov and Maksimilian Steinberg. He participated in the Chopin International Competition for Pianists in Warsaw in 1927 and received an honorable mention, after which he decided to limit his public performances to his own works to separate himself from the virtuoso pianists.
Prior to the competition, he had had a far greater success as a composer with the First Symphony (1924-25), which quickly achieved worldwide recognition. The symphony was influenced by composers as diverse as Tchaikovsky, Paul Hindemith, and Sergey Prokofiev. The cultural climate in the Soviet Union was, compared to the Soviet Union at its peak, free at the time. Even the music of Igor Stravinsky and Alban Berg, then in the avant-garde, was played. Bela Bartok and Paul Hindemith visited Russia to perform their own works, and Shostakovich toyed openly with these novelties. His first opera, The Nose, based on the satiric Nikolay Gogol story, displayed a thorough understanding of what was popular in Western music combined with his "dry" humor. Not surprisingly, Shostakovich's undoubtedly finer second opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (later renamed Katerina Izmaylova), marked a stylistic retreat. However, this new Shostakovich was too avant-garde for Stalin.
In 1928, Joseph Stalin inaugurated his First Five-Year Plan, an "iron hand fastened on Soviet culture," (Johnson) and in music a direct and popular style was demanded. Avant-garde music and jazz were banished, and for a while even Tchaikovsky was looked down upon. Shostakovich remained in good favor for a time, but it has been said that it was Stalin's personal anger at what he heard when he attended a performance of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in 1936 that sparked the official condemnation of the opera and of its creator. The focus of the opera was based around murder, conspiracy, and trickery, all of which were the worst things that a Russian could speak of.
Shostakovich was brutally attacked in ...
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The musical talent of Frederic became apparent extremely early on, and it was compared with the childhood genius of Mozart. Already at the age of 7, Frederic was the author of two polonaises, the first being published in the engraving workshop of Father Cybulski. The prodigy was featured in the Warsaw newspapers, and little Chopin became the attraction and ornament of receptions given in the aristocratic salons of the capital. He also began giving public charity concerts. His first professional piano lessons lasted from 1816 to 1822, when his teacher was no longer able to give any more help to a pupil whose skills surpassed his own. Wilhelm Würfel, a renowned pianist and professor at the Warsaw Conservatory, supervised the further development of Frederic’s talent. Würfel would offer valuable, although irregular, advice as regards playing the piano and organ to young Chopin.
Chekhov is part of a non-typical category of artists, because he did not believe in his genius, on the contrary, there is evidence that he believed that his work will not conquer time and posterity. Spectacular, just like Russia at the border between the 19th and 20th century, Chekhov was born the son of serfs in 1860 ( Tsar Alexander will abolish serfdom in 1861) only to become a landlord 32 years later, and a neighbor of Prince Shakovskoi. He bought the Melikhovo estate (unconsciously imitating Tolstoy, the patriarch of Iasnaia Polyana), not far from Moscow, with 13 thousand rubles of which he has paid an advance of five thousand. Chekhov is the true precursor of the theater of the absurd.
In the passage by Igor Stravinsky, he uses not only comparison and contrast, but also language to convey his point of view about the conductors of the time and their extreme egotism. Stravinsky believes that conductors exploit the music for their own personal gain, so rather, he looks on them in a negative light.
Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky was one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. The son of a famous bass singer at the Imperial Opera, Stravinsky showed little inclination to pursue a musical career, but while pursuing law studies in 1902, Stravinsky met Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who advised him to study music instead. Stravinsky began studying with the famous Russian composer in 1903, and after Rimsky's death in 1908, never had another teacher. Stravinsky's early works caught the imagination Sergei Diaghilev, impresario of the famed Ballets Russes, who invited him to compose a ballet. The result was The Firebird in 1910, which was followed by the even more successful Petrushka in 1911. With his ballet The Rite of Spring in 1913, with its representations of prehistoric pagan Russian rituals and sacrifice, Stravinsky's music ignited the most famous riot in the history of music. With its eclectic rhythms, absence of melody, and savage energy, The Rite of Spring marks the true beginnings of 20th century music, and even today never fails to thrill or amaze listeners.
This is the second volume of Richard Taruskin's historical work, and it highlights composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He examines the progression of different styles and eras of music.
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The wind whistles by as he steps out on the snow. It crunches beneath his feet. He shudders. Its seventeen below outside and the sun isn't up yet. In the distance, men march and line up in fives. Guards circle the men as a beast circles its prey, with no forgiveness or mercy. He is in no mood to work, as his stomach still yurns for food and the thought that he still has to face a day's hardship filled with work, orders, and the harsh cold begins to set in his mind. Hope and any means of happiness are lost. He starts to walk out, trying to avoid any trouble, keeping his thoughts to himself; minding his own business. He reaches his place and stands appropriately in line, again, trying not to make any mistakes. He hears whispers and chatter all around. His eyes elevate from the ground searching the premises to see what's going on. The head guard ridiculously ordered the men to take off their jackets in the cold to be searched. With no say or power in this, the men accept their "orders" and reluctantly remove their warm outer covering; the only thing between them and the cold had to be removed. The day had just become even worse. Men like these were no ordinary men, but they were Zeks, prisoners of the gulag in Russia up in Siberia. A man, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, was capable of surviving this horror thanks to his civilized guidelines and his strenuous work habits; his ways earned him respect as an individual in a society full of other Zeks and as an individual who's part of a squad. His survival became inevitable.
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Dmitri Shostakovich was one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. He achieved fame, but with much hardship along the way. He was censored and threatened with not only his life but that of his wife and children by playing the role of a public figure in Soviet Russia. The question is was he a committed communist or a victim? The events in his life, good or bad, shaped the music that he created and led to one of the greatest symphonies of the 20th century, his Fifth Symphony.
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