Editing Dmitri Shostakovich (section)

== Music ==
{{Further|List of compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich}}

=== Overview ===
Shostakovich's works are broadly [[Tonality|tonal]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tonality {{!}} music {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/tonality |access-date=3 February 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> but with elements of [[atonality]] and [[chromaticism]]. In some of his later works (e.g., the [[String Quartet No. 12 (Shostakovich)|Twelfth Quartet]]), he made use of [[tone row]]s. His output is dominated by his cycles of symphonies and string quartets, each totaling 15. The symphonies are distributed fairly evenly throughout his career, while the quartets are concentrated towards his later life. Among the most popular are the [[Symphony No. 5 (Shostakovich)|Fifth]] and [[Symphony No. 7 (Shostakovich)|Seventh]] Symphonies and the [[String Quartet No. 8 (Shostakovich)|Eighth]] and [[String Quartet No. 15 (Shostakovich)|Fifteenth]] Quartets. Other works include operas, concertos, chamber music, and a large quantity of theatre and film music.{{sfn|McBurney|2023|p=9}}

Shostakovich's music shows the influence of many of the composers he most admired: [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]] in his [[fugue]]s and [[passacaglia]]s; [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]] in the late [[quartet]]s; [[Gustav Mahler|Mahler]] in the symphonies; and [[Alban Berg|Berg]] in his use of musical codes and [[Musical quotation|quotations]]. Among Russian composers he particularly admired [[Modest Mussorgsky]], whose operas ''[[Boris Godunov (opera)|Boris Godunov]]'' and ''[[Khovanshchina]]'' he reorchestrated; Mussorgsky's influence is most prominent in the wintry scenes of ''Lady Macbeth'' and the [[Symphony No. 11 (Shostakovich)|Eleventh Symphony]], as well as in satirical works such as "[[Rayok (Shostakovich)|Rayok]]".{{sfnp|Fay|2000|pp=119, 165, 224}} [[Sergei Prokofiev|Prokofiev]]'s influence is most apparent in the earlier piano works, such as the first sonata and [[Piano Concerto No. 1 (Shostakovich)|first concerto]].{{sfnp|The New Grove|2001|pp=288, 290}} The influence of Russian church and folk music is evident in his works for unaccompanied choir of the 1950s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Green |first=Jonathan D.|author-link=Jonathan D. Green|title=A Conductor's Guide to Choral-Orchestral Works, Twentieth Century, Part II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RKY3SELbc7gC&q=russian+church+influence+shostakovich+choral&pg=PA5 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=1999 |page=5 |isbn=978-0-8108-3376-0}}</ref>

Shostakovich's relationship with [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]] was profoundly ambivalent; as he wrote to Glikman, "Stravinsky the composer I worship. Stravinsky the thinker I despise."{{sfnp|Shostakovich|Glikman|2001|p=181}} He was particularly enamoured of the ''[[Symphony of Psalms]]'', presenting a copy of his own piano version of it to Stravinsky when the latter visited the USSR in 1962. (The meeting of the two composers was not very successful; observers commented on Shostakovich's extreme nervousness and Stravinsky's "cruelty" to him.){{sfnp|Wilson|1994|pp=375–377}}

Many commentators have noted the disjunction between the experimental works before the 1936 denunciation and the more conservative ones that followed; the composer told Flora Litvinova, "without 'Party guidance'&nbsp;... I would have displayed more brilliance, used more sarcasm, I could have revealed my ideas openly instead of having to resort to camouflage."{{sfnp|Wilson|1994|p=426}} Articles Shostakovich published in 1934 and 1935 cited [[Alban Berg|Berg]], [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]], [[Ernst Krenek|Krenek]], [[Paul Hindemith|Hindemith]], "and especially Stravinsky" among his influences.{{sfnp|Fay|2000|p=88}} Key works of the earlier period are the [[Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich)|First Symphony]], which combined the academicism of the conservatory with his progressive inclinations; ''[[The Nose (opera)|The Nose]]'' ("The most uncompromisingly modernist of all his stage-works"{{sfnp|The New Grove|2001|p=289}}); ''[[Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (opera)|Lady Macbeth]]'', which precipitated the denunciation; and the [[Symphony No. 4 (Shostakovich)|Fourth Symphony]], described in Grove's Dictionary as "a colossal synthesis of Shostakovich's musical development to date".{{sfnp|The New Grove|2001|p=290}} The Fourth was also the first piece in which Mahler's influence came to the fore, prefiguring the route Shostakovich took to secure his rehabilitation, while he himself admitted that the preceding two were his least successful.{{sfnp|Shostakovich|Glikman|2001|p=315}}

After 1936 Shostakovich's music became more conservative. During this time he also composed more [[chamber music]].<ref>See also {{harvp|The New Grove|2001|p=294}}.</ref> While his chamber works were largely tonal, the late chamber works, which Grove's Dictionary calls a "world of [[Purgatory|purgatorial]] numbness",{{sfnp|The New Grove|2001|p=300}} included [[tone row]]s, although he treated these thematically rather than [[Serialism|serially]]. Vocal works are also a prominent feature of his late output.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Woodstra |editor-first=Chris |title=All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music |publisher=Backbeat Books |year=2005 |page=1262 |isbn=978-0-87930-865-0}}</ref>

=== Jewish themes ===
In the 1940s Shostakovich began to show an interest in Jewish themes. He was intrigued by [[Jewish music]]'s "ability to build a jolly melody on sad intonations".{{sfnp|Wilson|1994|p=268}} Examples of works that included Jewish themes are the [[String Quartet No. 4 (Shostakovich)|Fourth String Quartet]] (1949), the [[Violin Concerto No. 1 (Shostakovich)|First Violin Concerto]] (1948), and the ''Four Monologues on Pushkin Poems'' (1952), as well as the [[Piano Trio No. 2 (Shostakovich)|Piano Trio in E minor]] (1944). He was further inspired to write with Jewish themes when he examined [[Moshe Beregovski|Moisei Beregovski]]'s 1944 thesis on Jewish folk music.{{sfnp|Tentser|2014|p=5}}

In 1948 Shostakovich acquired a book of Jewish folk songs, from which he composed the song cycle ''[[From Jewish Folk Poetry]]''. He initially wrote eight songs meant to represent the hardships of being Jewish in the Soviet Union. To disguise this he added three more meant to demonstrate the great life Jews had under the Soviet regime. Despite his efforts to hide the real meaning in the work, the [[Union of Composers]] refused to approve his music in 1949 under the pressure of the anti-Semitism that gripped the country. ''From Jewish Folk Poetry'' could not be performed until after Stalin's death in March 1953, along with all the other works that were forbidden.{{sfnp|Wilson|1994|pp=267–269}}

=== Self-quotations ===
Throughout his compositions Shostakovich demonstrated a controlled use of musical quotation. This stylistic choice had been common among earlier composers, but Shostakovich developed it into a defining characteristic of his music. Rather than quoting other composers, Shostakovich preferred to quote himself. Musicologists such as Sofia Moshevich, Ian McDonald, and Stephen Harris have connected his works through their quotations.{{clarify|date=May 2022}}{{sfnp|Moshevich|2004|p=176}}

One example is the main theme of Katerina's aria, ''Seryozha, khoroshiy moy'', from the fourth act of ''Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District''. The aria's beauty comes as a breath of fresh air in the intense, overbearing tone of the scene, in which Katerina visits her lover Sergei in prison. The theme is made tragic when Sergei betrays her and finds a new lover upon blaming Katerina for his incarceration.{{sfnp|MacDonald|2006|p=88}}

More than 25 years later, Shostakovich quoted this theme in his [[String Quartet No. 8 (Shostakovich)|Eighth String Quartet]]. In the midst of this quartet's oppressive and somber themes, the cello introduces the Seryozha theme "in the 'bright' key of F-sharp major" about three minutes into the fourth movement.<ref>
{{cite web
 |url= http://www.quartets.de/compositions/ssq08.html
 |title= Quartet No. 8
 |last= Harris
 |first= Stephen
 |date= 9 April 2016
|website= Shostakovich: The String Quartets
 |access-date= 18 February 2018
}}</ref> This theme emerges once again in his [[String Quartet No. 14 (Shostakovich)|Fourteenth String Quartet]]. As in the Eighth Quartet, the cello introduces the theme, which here serves as a dedication to the cellist of the Beethoven String Quartet, Sergei Shirinsky.<ref>
{{cite web
 |url= http://www.quartets.de/compositions/ssq14.html
 |title= Quartet No. 14
 |last= Harris
 |first= Stephen
 |date= 24 August 2015
|website= Shostakovich: The String Quartets
 |access-date= 18 February 2018
}}</ref>

=== Posthumous publications ===
In 2004 musicologist Olga Digonskaya discovered a trove of Shostakovich manuscripts at the Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture in Moscow. In a cardboard file were some "300 pages of musical sketches, pieces and scores" in Shostakovich's hand. <blockquote>A composer friend bribed Shostakovich's housemaid to regularly deliver the contents of Shostakovich's office waste bin to him, instead of taking it to the garbage. Some of those cast-offs eventually found their way into the Glinka. ... The Glinka archive "contained a huge number of pieces and compositions which were completely unknown or could be traced quite indirectly," Digonskaya said.{{r|LATimes20111127}}</blockquote>

Among these were Shostakovich's piano and vocal sketches for a prologue to an opera, ''[[Orango (opera)|Orango]]'' (1932). They were orchestrated by the British composer [[Gerard McBurney]] and premiered in December 2011 by the [[Los Angeles Philharmonic]] conducted by [[Esa-Pekka Salonen]].<ref name=LATimes20111127>{{cite web|last1=Loiko|first1=Sergei L.|author1-link=Sergey Loiko|last2=Johnson |first2=Reed |title=Shostakovich's ''Orango'' found, finished, set for Disney Hall |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2011-nov-27-la-ca-orango-opera-20111127-story.html |work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=27 November 2011 |access-date=17 February 2012}}</ref>

=== Reputation ===
According to McBurney, opinion is divided on whether Shostakovich's music is "of visionary power and originality, as some maintain, or, as others think, derivative, trashy, empty and second-hand".{{sfnp|McBurney|2002|p=283}} [[William Walton]], his British contemporary, described him as "the greatest composer of the 20th century".<ref>''British Composers in Interview'' by [[R. Murray Schafer]] (Faber 1960).</ref> Musicologist [[David Fanning (musicologist)|David Fanning]] concludes in Grove's Dictionary that "Amid the conflicting pressures of official requirements, the mass suffering of his fellow countrymen, and his personal ideals of humanitarian and public service, he succeeded in forging a musical language of colossal emotional power."{{sfnp|The New Grove|2001|p=280}}

Some modern composers have been critical. [[Pierre Boulez]] dismissed Shostakovich's music as "the second, or even third pressing of [[Gustav Mahler|Mahler]]".{{sfnp|McBurney|2002|p=288}} The Romanian composer and [[Anton Webern|Webern]] disciple [[Philip Gershkovich]] called Shostakovich "a&nbsp;hack in a trance".{{sfnp|McBurney|2002|p=290}} A related complaint is that Shostakovich's style is vulgar and strident: [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]] wrote of ''[[Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (opera)|Lady Macbeth]]'': "brutally hammering&nbsp;... and monotonous".{{sfnp|McBurney|2002|p=286}} English composer and musicologist [[Robin Holloway]] described his music as "battleship-grey in melody and harmony, factory-functional in structure; in content all rhetoric and coercion".<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Holloway|first=Robin|author-link=Robin Holloway|date=26 August 2000|title=Shostakovich horrors|magazine=[[The Spectator]]|page=41|url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/26th-august-2000/41/music|access-date=29 June 2015}}</ref>

In the 1980s the Finnish conductor and composer [[Esa-Pekka Salonen]] was critical of Shostakovich and refused to conduct his music. For instance he said in 1987:

{{blockquote|Shostakovich is in many ways a polar counter-force for Stravinsky. ... When I have said that the 7th symphony of Shostakovich is a dull and unpleasant composition, people have responded: "Yes, yes, but think of the background of that symphony." Such an attitude does no good to anyone.<ref>[[Esa-Pekka Salonen|Salonen, Esa-Pekka]] and {{ill|Lauri Otonkoski|fi|lt=Otonkoski, Lauri}}: ''Kirja – puhetta musiikitta'', p. 73. Helsinki: Tammi. {{ISBN|978-951-30-6599-7}}</ref>}}

Salonen has since performed and recorded several of Shostakovich's works,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://theartsdesk.com/node/4355/view |title=BBC Proms: Batiashvili, Philharmonia Orchestra, Salonen |last=Brown |first=Ismene |date=17 August 2011 |website=theartsdesk.com|location=Esher |access-date=25 November 2019}}</ref> including leading the world premiere of ''[[Orango (Shostakovich)|Orango]]'',<ref>''Orango Prologue; Symphony No. 4'', [[Esa-Pekka Salonen|Salonen]], [[Los Angeles Philharmonic]], [[Los Angeles Master Chorale]], [[Deutsche Grammophon]] 2012 {{OCLC|809867885}}</ref> but has dismissed the [[Symphony No. 5 (Shostakovich)|Fifth Symphony]] as "overrated", adding that he was "very suspicious of heroic things in general".<ref>{{cite web |title=Facing the music: Esa-Pekka Salonen: The conductor and composer on lighting, left arms, Berg and Björk |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/nov/23/esa-pekka-salonen-conductor-composer-facing-the-music |website=[[The Guardian]]|date=23 November 2015 |access-date=8 September 2020}}</ref>

Shostakovich borrows extensively from the material and styles both of earlier composers and of [[popular music]]; the vulgarity of "low" music is a notable influence on this "greatest of eclectics".{{sfnp|Haas|2000|p=125}} McBurney traces this to the [[avant-garde]] artistic circles of the early Soviet period in which Shostakovich moved early in his career, and argues that these borrowings were a deliberate technique to allow him to create "patterns of contrast, repetition, exaggeration" that gave his music large-scale structure.{{sfnp|McBurney|2002|p=295}}