Editing Boris Godunov (opera) (section)

===Dmitriy Shostakovich (1940)===
[[File:Dmitri Shostakovich credit Deutsche Fotothek adjusted.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Dmitriy Shostakovich orchestrated Pavel Lamm's vocal score.]]
[[Dmitri Shostakovich|Dmitriy Shostakovich]] worked on ''Boris Godunov'' in 1939–1940 on a commission from the [[Bolshoy Theatre]] for a new production of the opera. A conflation of the 1869 and 1872 versions had been published by Pavel Lamm and aroused keen interest in the piece. However, it did not erase doubts as to whether Mussorgsky's own orchestration was playable. The invasion of Russia by Nazi Germany prevented this production from taking place, and it was not until 1959 that Shostakovich's version of the score was premiered.<ref>Maes, 368–369.</ref>

To Shostakovich, Mussorgsky was successful with solo instrumental timbres in soft passages but did not fare as well with louder moments for the whole orchestra.<ref>Maes, 368.</ref> Shostakovich explained:

{{blockquote|"Mussorgsky has marvelously orchestrated moments, but I see no sin in my work. I didn't touch the successful parts, but there are many unsuccessful parts because he lacked mastery of the craft, which comes only through time spent on your backside, no other way."|Dmitriy Shostakovich}}

Shostakovich confined himself largely to reorchestrating the opera, and was more respectful of the composer's unique melodic and harmonic style. However, Shostakovich greatly increased the contributions of the woodwind and especially brass instruments to the score, a significant departure from the practice of Mussorgsky, who exercised great restraint in his instrumentation, preferring to utilize the individual qualities of these instruments for specific purposes. Shostakovich also aimed for a greater symphonic development, wanting the orchestra to do more than simply accompany the singers.{{Citation needed |date= January 2021}}

{{blockquote|"This is how I worked. I placed Mussorgsky's piano arrangement in front of me and then two scores—Mussorgsky's and Rimsky-Korsakov's. I didn't look at the scores, and I rarely looked at the piano arrangement either. I orchestrated by memory, act by act. Then I compared my orchestration with those of Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. If I saw that either had done it better, then I stayed with that. I didn't reinvent bicycles. I worked honestly, with ferocity, I might say."|Dmitriy Shostakovich}}{{Citation needed |date= January 2021}}

Shostakovich remembered [[Alexander Glazunov]] telling him how Mussorgsky himself played scenes from ''Boris'' at the piano. Mussorgsky's renditions, according to Glazunov, were brilliant and powerful—qualities Shostakovich felt did not come through in the orchestration of much of ''Boris''.<ref>Volkov (1979: pp. 227–228)</ref> Shostakovich, who had known the opera since his student days at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, assumed that Mussorgsky's orchestral intentions were correct but that Mussorgsky simply could not realize them:{{Citation needed |date= January 2021}}

{{blockquote|"As far as I can tell, he imagined something like a singing line around the vocal parts, the way subvoices surround the main melodic line in Russian folk song. But Mussorgsky lacked the technique for that. What a shame! Obviously, he had a purely orchestral imagination, and purely orchestral imagery, as well. The music strives for "new shores," as they say—musical dramaturgy, musical dynamics, language, imagery. But his orchestral technique drags us back to the old shores."|Dmitriy Shostakovich}}{{Citation needed |date= January 2021}}

One of those "old shore" moments was the large monastery bell in the scene in the monk's cell. Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov both use the gong. To Shostakovich, this was too elemental and simplistic to be effective dramatically, since this bell showed the atmosphere of the monk's estrangement. "When the bell tolls," Shostakovich reportedly told [[Solomon Volkov]], "it's a reminder that there are powers mightier than man, that you can't escape the judgment of history."<ref name="Volkov 1979: p. 234">Volkov (1979: p. 234)</ref> Therefore, Shostakovich reorchestrated the bell's tolling by the simultaneous playing of seven instruments—bass clarinet, double bassoon, French horns, gong, harps, piano, and double basses (at an octave). To Shostakovich, this combination of instruments sounded more like a real bell.{{Citation needed |date= January 2021}}

Shostakovich admitted Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestration was more colorful than his own and used brighter timbres. However, he also felt that Rimsky-Korsakov chopped up the melodic lines too much and, by blending melody and subvoices, may have subverted much of Mussorgsky's intent. Shostakovich also felt that Rimsky-Korsakov did not use the orchestra flexibly enough to follow the characters' mood changes, instead making the orchestra calmer, more balanced.{{Citation needed |date= January 2021}}