Shostakovich Q and A Flashcards
1
Q
Shostakovich’s main genres
A
symphony, string quartets, concertos, instrumental and vocal works
2
Q
Shostakovich’s lesser known genres
A
film scores, incidental theatre music, three ballets
3
Q
When did political intervention affect Shost’s operatic output?
A
1936
4
Q
What is Shost’s middle period known for?
A
epic; conveying ideas that could not be spoken
5
Q
Shost dates
A
1906-1975
6
Q
Shost last piano concert
A
1966
7
Q
Shost family ethnicity
A
Polish (father), Siberian (mother)
8
Q
Which of three children was Shost?
A
Middle
9
Q
As a student, what organizations did Shostakovich participate in?
A
Circle of Young Compers and Anna Fogt Circle
10
Q
Who was perhaps Shostakovich’s greatest love?
A
Tatyana Glivenko
11
Q
Who was in Shost’s mind when he composed Piano Trio, Op. 8?
A
Tatyana Glivenko
12
Q
What was the impetus for Shost’s 1st symphony?
A
Graduation
13
Q
After passing the quals, what did Shost do to make money?
A
Play piano for silent films
14
Q
Who did Shost dedicate the first symphony to? What happened to the dedicatee?
A
Mikhail Kvadri; among first to perish in Stalinist repressions (1929)
15
Q
How was the 1st symphony received?
A
First from the Soviet Union to win a place in the general repertory (composed by a teen)
16
Q
What musical form/genre was common in Shost’s young output?
A
scherzo
17
Q
What are the two approaches to form in Shost’s early music?
A
form as architecture (Rimsky-Korsakov school) and form as process (Asafyev/Shcherbachyov schools)
18
Q
What piece by the early Soviet composers impressed Prokofiev?
A
Shost First Piano Sonata
19
Q
What piece seems “to out-scandalize Prokofiev’s Sarcasms”?
A
Aforizmi (Aphorisms)
20
Q
What premiere in Leningrad influenced Shostakovich’s avant garde inclinations?
A
Berg’s Wozzeck (June 1927)
21
Q
Wozzeck’s influence is especially prominent in what piece written for what occasion?
A
Symphonic Dedication to October (Symphony #2) (Tenth anniversary of October Revolution)
22
Q
Who was Shost’s first wife?
A
Nina Varzar
23
Q
Describe Shost’s usual process of composition
A
swift; sketch of few themes; destroyed draft material
24
Q
What is formalism?
A
Previously academic routine or radical foregrounding of formal devices; now an all-purpose insult for anything “incomprehensible to the ‘people’ or in any way ideologically wrong-headed”
25
What was an important point in Shost's first interview to foreign press?
(1931) "orthodox Leninist views on the association of music and ideology and on the special place of Soviet music in the 'struggle'"
26
How was Shost inconsistent regarding his views on traditionalism in music?
1930: jazz and "light genres" are delinquent and apologized for his contributions; 1934 First Jazz Suite and jazz competition/commission in Leningrad
27
How did Shost define ideology in music in the early 1930s?
in terms of the composer's attitude to the music, not just the subject itself
28
What composition was a notable exception to the positive ideological rule?
The Nose
29
What piece led the way for a Soviet revival of chamber music?
Cello Sonata
30
In what year did the Pravda article appear? What composition inspired its composition?
1936; Lady Macbeth
31
What were the charges of the Pravda article?
"muddle instead of music"; "'leftist' confusion instead of natural, human music"; warned of consequences
32
What composers influenced his work prior to the Pravda letter?
Krenek and Hindemith--"linear counterpoint"
33
Describe Shost's choral music.
Second Symphony; Third Symphony; 13th Symphony; several film scores; several choral pieces; satirical cantata Rayok; Song of the Forests oratorio; Execution of Stepan Razin (cantata)
34
What is agit-prop?
agitation-propaganda; Originally the Ideology department; any "beneficial knowledge" and "urging" to do what the government wants; highly politicized leftist theatre
35
What is the general feel of music for stage and screen between 1928 and 1936?
hasty, off-the-top-of-the-head composition; indifference to propagandistic textual content
36
What are some important characteristics of The Nose? (Date)
80 soloists; chamber orchestra and large percussion section; each act like a Theatre Symphony; onomatopoeia; modernist; satirical (1927-1928)
37
Describe the 24 preludes of 1932-1933.
follow's Chopin's major/relative minor in ascending P5's; restrained manner of Prokofiev's Visions fugitives
38
Who influenced Shost's Piano Concerto?
Prokofiev
39
Lady MacBeth and the Cello Sonata of 1934 reflect Shost's calls for what?
a new lyricism
40
Who influences Shost symphonies from the 4th onward?
Mahler, esp. 2, 5, and Das Lied von der Erde; "tone of sustained ambivalence"
41
What is "The Thaw"?
The post-Stalin era up to the accession of Leonid Brezhnev in 1964.
42
What is the post-Stalin era called?
The Thaw
43
How did Shost fair in The Thaw?
Most of his banned works were performed and he received numerous honors
44
Who did Shost befriend during travels in 1960?
Benjamin Britten
45
What price did Shost pay for increased artistic freedom during the Thaw?
Increased adherance to the party line
46
What did the Eleventh Symphony commemorate? (year)
1957; Tsarist 'Bloody Sunday' atrocity of 1905
47
What did the Twelvth Symphony commemorate? (year)
1961; Bolshevik Revolution of 1917
48
What major life events happened in 1954 and 1955?
Nina Varzar died unexpectedly of cancer; Mother died
49
Shost's late works tend to focus on what two topics?
the career of the artist; death
50
The Eighth Quartet reflects on what?
Obituary for himself including quotations and allusions to his earlier compositions; "D-S-C-H"; shame following joining the Communist Party in 1960?
51
Why did many young composers not respect Shost in the 1960s?
He didn't oppose the official line, and so seemed anachronistic
52
Why is the 12th Symphony not well respected?
It seems to be rather propagandistic and not particularly innovative
53
What composition premeired 25 years after it was supposed to?
Fourth Symphony (1961; 1936)
54
Which symphonies reminded people of the "real" Shost?
4 and 13
55
What later symphony led to strained relations between Shost and officials, and what happened?
13; premiere was almost sabotaged
56
What is notable about Shost's third wife?
she devoted herself to his music after his death, preserving a family archive
57
What phenomenon did Time Magazine report on in 1961?
"The Two Shostakoviches"
58
Why is the Sixth Quartet said to be "innocent"?
Naïve G major of the opening keeps slipping from view to be reinstated as if nothing had happened
59
What characteristics are typical of writings by Soviet artists during the Thaw?
a mixture of straight fact and evasive generalization
60
What irony exists in the 11th symphony?
Written to commemoratethe Bloody Sunday Massacre, it appeared just after the Soviet repression of Hungarian uprisings
61
What work was the first to match the concentration and complexity of the Tenth Symphony? For Whom? Characteristics?
First Cello Concerto (for Rostropovich); pithy motifs, pared-down textures, obstinate forward motion
62
The Eleventh Symphony is known for what?
An array of song quotations
63
What is most poignant about the fourth movement of the 8th quartet?
a quotation of Katerina's aria of longing for her lover from the fourth act of Lady MacBeth, mirroring the composer's personal loneliness in a time of intense need
64
What are the poetic topics of the 13th symphony?
egregious social ills including anti-semitism, suppression of humor, oppression of women, climate of fear, artistic integrity
65
What is the title of the revised Lady MacBeth? Date?
Katerina Izmaylova; 1963
66
What happened in 1964?
Accession of Brezhnev; backlash against dissidents, especially artists
67
How did Shost's music contradict his actions?
"To the Exile" from Michelangelo Suite in 1974, immediately after Solzhenitsyn's forced exile
68
What unique privilege did Shost receive in 1966, and how did he participate?
Collected works during his lifetime; composed a sardonic Preface with a tongue-in-cheek super-long title
69
What technique did Shost often use to represent death in his later works?
12-tone
70
12-tone techniques often represent what in Shost's later works?
death or stasis
71
How might one argue that Shost's style did not evolve over his career?
His last major work, the Viola Sonata, quotes from the overture to the Gambler (1941-2) without any apparent incongruence
72
How does tonality register in his later quartets, concertos, sonatas, and song-cycles?
out-of-body experiences, paranormal experiences, moments of clarity surrounded by pain
73
Rocking 4ths tend to symbolize what?
Death in late works, a measure of calm and reconciliation at the close of the Viola Sonata
74
What figure often symbolizes death in his late works?
Rocking 4ths
75
Why did Stravinsky, Adorno, Boulez, and others ignore Shost?
they saw him as a conformist, attributed to weak-mindedness; perhaps prejudice of avant garde composers?
76
What controversial book started the conversation on Shost's true opinions?
Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitry Shostakovich as Related to and Edited by Solomon Volkov (1979)
77
What are the essential implications of Shost's work?
mixing styles and tones of voice; musical ciphers; exploration of the place between dynamism and stasis; compuslion to question what he affirms
78
What word describes Shostakovich's appraoch to film scoring?
contrast
79
Describe Shostakovich's first major film score.
New Babylon (1929), like a wordless opera, rapidly changing moods, influenced by Wozzeck
80
What does Shostakovich cite as the beginning of his political troubles?
Film scoring, especially New Babylon
81
Why was the score for New Babylon problematic?
it was a mess because of a hurried editorial process; nearly a quarter of the film was cut after Shost turned in his score.
82
What was unique about Shostakovich's score for the Counterplan?
It was one of the first to use sound effects (factory noises, for example) as musical underlay, blurring the lines between music and effect
83
What movie score was influenced by Peter and the Wolf? In what way?
The Story of Silly Little Mouse; lullaby variations, where each variation represents a different character
84
What was special about Shost's score for The Story of Silly Little Mouse? (3)
Influenced by Peter and the Wolf; most synchronized because the animation was timed to the music; exploration of avant garde notation
85
What is different about Shostakovich's later film scores when compared to his earlier scores?
Fewer films, but personally more meaningful, especially Hamlet and the film version of Katerina Izmailova (the revised Lady Macbeth)
86
What was one of Shost's most carefully prepared scores? Describe it.
King Lear, fewer cuts and fades, more gestural, less melodic
87
Describe the general phases of Shost's film output.
early Avant Garde; 1930s most prolific/politically careful; 1950s-1960s a time of modernism where Shostakovich was anachronistically more conservative/traditional; Later works more exploratory but not avant garde
88
How many films and how many directors for Shost?
almost 40; 21
89
What is Shost's most characteristic rhythmic figure?
dactylic; long/accented note followed by two shorter/unaccented notes
90
According to Glikman, how did Shost feel about his 4th Symphony immediately after he finished composing it?
He loved it and was excited about demonstrating it for the visiting conductor Klemperer, later claiming, "In many respects, the Fourth is superior to my later symphonies."
91
When asked to simplify a score's instrumentation, how did Shost reply?
"What the pen has written, even the axe may not cut out." a Russian proverb
92
What was Shost's personality? How did he see his teaching abilities?
stoic in the face of both praise and criticism; thought he was a lousy teacher
93
Why did Shost write a piano part into a string quartet (Quintet instead of String Quartet #2)?
Because he wanted to travel and participate with the quartet who played the piece on tour
94
What did Shost fear about his seventh symphony? Why? How did he respond?
That it would be damned for copying Bolero, because it is a set of variations; "Well, let them. That is how I hear war."
95
Shost's favorite opera (according to Glikman)?
Otello by Verdi
96
Describe The Gamblers
40 minutes of a comic opera, left unfinished; intended to use Gogol's uncut text, abandoned because of how long the finished work would be
97
What fears did Shost confide to Glikman?
Fears of being misunderstood, as an artist who could not speak the truth
98
How did Shost describe his 8th String Quartet?
"ideologically flawed"; "nobody is likely to write a work in memory of me, so I had better write one myself"
99
After Shost joined the communist party and was asked to go to Moscow for a PR event, what did he tell Glikman?
"They'll only get me to Moscow if they tie me up and drag me there."
100
What composer and composition did Shost cite as a major influence later in his life?
"I think constantly of Mahler's Song of the Earth. I have a Song of the Earth of my own, ripening somewhere inside me…"
101
What historical elements suggest that Shost was an ardent communist?
official speeches; 1931 New York Times interview; subtitle for 5th Symphony: "A Soviet Artist's Practical Creative Response to Just Criticism"; "Leningrad Symphony
102
What book first suggested that Shost was not entirely enamored with the Communist Party?
Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich as Related to and Edited by Solomon Volkov (1979)
103
How did UK-based music writers around 1940 and 1979 view Shostakovich?
neutrality--he was nothing special, not a dissident, not a company man
104
How was Volkov's book challenged?
charges of plagiarism
105
Who first uncovered the plagiarized passages of Volkov's Testimony? Who/when? What happened?
Laurel Fay; 1980 in Russian Review; she was roundly vilified by UK music writers
106
What might be the mmiddle ground regarding Shost?
He was a conflicted individual; a believer in socialist ideology who loathed Stalin; a composer who had doubts about European avant garde, but found it humiliating to have to denigrate Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and others…
107
What scholars defended Volkov's Testimony?
Ho and Feofanov (Shostakovich Reconsidered)
108
What is Laurel Fay's most recent collection of Shost research? How does she support her charge?
A Shostakovich Casebook; with photocopies of Shost's original statements next to the altered versions printed by Volkov
109
What 1990 book/author also support Volkov's claims?
The New Shostakovich by Ian MacDonald
110
How did Shost's friends and family respond to Volkov's book?
They saw it as one-sided and flawed, but containing elements of truth
111
What major issue has been a heated issue in the Shost debates?
His transformation of Leskov's anti-heroine Katerina in Lady Macbeth from murderer to tragic victim and its political significance
112
Summarize the major views of Katerina from Lady Macbeth.
Taruskin argues that Katerina's transformation from the original Leskov to Shost's version is a political statement, while Shakhov and others argue that Shost's character is a unique creation that stands on her own, not an adaptation
113
Synopsis of Lady Macbeth:
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=54
