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Quals > Shostakovich Q and A > Flashcards

Shostakovich Q and A Flashcards

1
Q

Shostakovich’s main genres

A

symphony, string quartets, concertos, instrumental and vocal works

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2
Q

Shostakovich’s lesser known genres

A

film scores, incidental theatre music, three ballets

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3
Q

When did political intervention affect Shost’s operatic output?

A

1936

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4
Q

What is Shost’s middle period known for?

A

epic; conveying ideas that could not be spoken

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5
Q

Shost dates

A

1906-1975

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6
Q

Shost last piano concert

A

1966

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7
Q

Shost family ethnicity

A

Polish (father), Siberian (mother)

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8
Q

Which of three children was Shost?

A

Middle

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9
Q

As a student, what organizations did Shostakovich participate in?

A

Circle of Young Compers and Anna Fogt Circle

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10
Q

Who was perhaps Shostakovich’s greatest love?

A

Tatyana Glivenko

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11
Q

Who was in Shost’s mind when he composed Piano Trio, Op. 8?

A

Tatyana Glivenko

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12
Q

What was the impetus for Shost’s 1st symphony?

A

Graduation

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13
Q

After passing the quals, what did Shost do to make money?

A

Play piano for silent films

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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)

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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)

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16
Q

What musical form/genre was common in Shost’s young output?

A

scherzo

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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)

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18
Q

What piece by the early Soviet composers impressed Prokofiev?

A

Shost First Piano Sonata

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19
Q

What piece seems “to out-scandalize Prokofiev’s Sarcasms”?

A

Aforizmi (Aphorisms)

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20
Q

What premiere in Leningrad influenced Shostakovich’s avant garde inclinations?

A

Berg’s Wozzeck (June 1927)

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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)

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22
Q

Who was Shost’s first wife?

A

Nina Varzar

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23
Q

Describe Shost’s usual process of composition

A

swift; sketch of few themes; destroyed draft material

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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”

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25
Q

What was an important point in Shost’s first interview to foreign press?

A

(1931) “orthodox Leninist views on the association of music and ideology and on the special place of Soviet music in the ‘struggle’”

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26
Q

How was Shost inconsistent regarding his views on traditionalism in music?

A

1930: jazz and “light genres” are delinquent and apologized for his contributions; 1934 First Jazz Suite and jazz competition/commission in Leningrad

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27
Q

How did Shost define ideology in music in the early 1930s?

A

in terms of the composer’s attitude to the music, not just the subject itself

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28
Q

What composition was a notable exception to the positive ideological rule?

A

The Nose

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29
Q

What piece led the way for a Soviet revival of chamber music?

A

Cello Sonata

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30
Q

In what year did the Pravda article appear? What composition inspired its composition?

A

1936; Lady Macbeth

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31
Q

What were the charges of the Pravda article?

A

“muddle instead of music”; “‘leftist’ confusion instead of natural, human music”; warned of consequences

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32
Q

What composers influenced his work prior to the Pravda letter?

A

Krenek and Hindemith–“linear counterpoint”

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33
Q

Describe Shost’s choral music.

A

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)

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34
Q

What is agit-prop?

A

agitation-propaganda; Originally the Ideology department; any “beneficial knowledge” and “urging” to do what the government wants; highly politicized leftist theatre

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35
Q

What is the general feel of music for stage and screen between 1928 and 1936?

A

hasty, off-the-top-of-the-head composition; indifference to propagandistic textual content

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36
Q

What are some important characteristics of The Nose? (Date)

A

80 soloists; chamber orchestra and large percussion section; each act like a Theatre Symphony; onomatopoeia; modernist; satirical (1927-1928)

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37
Q

Describe the 24 preludes of 1932-1933.

A

follow’s Chopin’s major/relative minor in ascending P5’s; restrained manner of Prokofiev’s Visions fugitives

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38
Q

Who influenced Shost’s Piano Concerto?

A

Prokofiev

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39
Q

Lady MacBeth and the Cello Sonata of 1934 reflect Shost’s calls for what?

A

a new lyricism

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40
Q

Who influences Shost symphonies from the 4th onward?

A

Mahler, esp. 2, 5, and Das Lied von der Erde; “tone of sustained ambivalence”

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41
Q

What is “The Thaw”?

A

The post-Stalin era up to the accession of Leonid Brezhnev in 1964.

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42
Q

What is the post-Stalin era called?

A

The Thaw

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43
Q

How did Shost fair in The Thaw?

A

Most of his banned works were performed and he received numerous honors

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44
Q

Who did Shost befriend during travels in 1960?

A

Benjamin Britten

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45
Q

What price did Shost pay for increased artistic freedom during the Thaw?

A

Increased adherance to the party line

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46
Q

What did the Eleventh Symphony commemorate? (year)

A

1957; Tsarist ‘Bloody Sunday’ atrocity of 1905

47
Q

What did the Twelvth Symphony commemorate? (year)

A

1961; Bolshevik Revolution of 1917

48
Q

What major life events happened in 1954 and 1955?

A

Nina Varzar died unexpectedly of cancer; Mother died

49
Q

Shost’s late works tend to focus on what two topics?

A

the career of the artist; death

50
Q

The Eighth Quartet reflects on what?

A

Obituary for himself including quotations and allusions to his earlier compositions; “D-S-C-H”; shame following joining the Communist Party in 1960?

51
Q

Why did many young composers not respect Shost in the 1960s?

A

He didn’t oppose the official line, and so seemed anachronistic

52
Q

Why is the 12th Symphony not well respected?

A

It seems to be rather propagandistic and not particularly innovative

53
Q

What composition premeired 25 years after it was supposed to?

A

Fourth Symphony (1961; 1936)

54
Q

Which symphonies reminded people of the “real” Shost?

A

4 and 13

55
Q

What later symphony led to strained relations between Shost and officials, and what happened?

A

13; premiere was almost sabotaged

56
Q

What is notable about Shost’s third wife?

A

she devoted herself to his music after his death, preserving a family archive

57
Q

What phenomenon did Time Magazine report on in 1961?

A

“The Two Shostakoviches”

58
Q

Why is the Sixth Quartet said to be “innocent”?

A

Naïve G major of the opening keeps slipping from view to be reinstated as if nothing had happened

59
Q

What characteristics are typical of writings by Soviet artists during the Thaw?

A

a mixture of straight fact and evasive generalization

60
Q

What irony exists in the 11th symphony?

A

Written to commemoratethe Bloody Sunday Massacre, it appeared just after the Soviet repression of Hungarian uprisings

61
Q

What work was the first to match the concentration and complexity of the Tenth Symphony? For Whom? Characteristics?

A

First Cello Concerto (for Rostropovich); pithy motifs, pared-down textures, obstinate forward motion

62
Q

The Eleventh Symphony is known for what?

A

An array of song quotations

63
Q

What is most poignant about the fourth movement of the 8th quartet?

A

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
Q

What are the poetic topics of the 13th symphony?

A

egregious social ills including anti-semitism, suppression of humor, oppression of women, climate of fear, artistic integrity

65
Q

What is the title of the revised Lady MacBeth? Date?

A

Katerina Izmaylova; 1963

66
Q

What happened in 1964?

A

Accession of Brezhnev; backlash against dissidents, especially artists

67
Q

How did Shost’s music contradict his actions?

A

“To the Exile” from Michelangelo Suite in 1974, immediately after Solzhenitsyn’s forced exile

68
Q

What unique privilege did Shost receive in 1966, and how did he participate?

A

Collected works during his lifetime; composed a sardonic Preface with a tongue-in-cheek super-long title

69
Q

What technique did Shost often use to represent death in his later works?

A

12-tone

70
Q

12-tone techniques often represent what in Shost’s later works?

A

death or stasis

71
Q

How might one argue that Shost’s style did not evolve over his career?

A

His last major work, the Viola Sonata, quotes from the overture to the Gambler (1941-2) without any apparent incongruence

72
Q

How does tonality register in his later quartets, concertos, sonatas, and song-cycles?

A

out-of-body experiences, paranormal experiences, moments of clarity surrounded by pain

73
Q

Rocking 4ths tend to symbolize what?

A

Death in late works, a measure of calm and reconciliation at the close of the Viola Sonata

74
Q

What figure often symbolizes death in his late works?

A

Rocking 4ths

75
Q

Why did Stravinsky, Adorno, Boulez, and others ignore Shost?

A

they saw him as a conformist, attributed to weak-mindedness; perhaps prejudice of avant garde composers?

76
Q

What controversial book started the conversation on Shost’s true opinions?

A

Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitry Shostakovich as Related to and Edited by Solomon Volkov (1979)

77
Q

What are the essential implications of Shost’s work?

A

mixing styles and tones of voice; musical ciphers; exploration of the place between dynamism and stasis; compuslion to question what he affirms

78
Q

What word describes Shostakovich’s appraoch to film scoring?

A

contrast

79
Q

Describe Shostakovich’s first major film score.

A

New Babylon (1929), like a wordless opera, rapidly changing moods, influenced by Wozzeck

80
Q

What does Shostakovich cite as the beginning of his political troubles?

A

Film scoring, especially New Babylon

81
Q

Why was the score for New Babylon problematic?

A

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
Q

What was unique about Shostakovich’s score for the Counterplan?

A

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
Q

What movie score was influenced by Peter and the Wolf? In what way?

A

The Story of Silly Little Mouse; lullaby variations, where each variation represents a different character

84
Q

What was special about Shost’s score for The Story of Silly Little Mouse? (3)

A

Influenced by Peter and the Wolf; most synchronized because the animation was timed to the music; exploration of avant garde notation

85
Q

What is different about Shostakovich’s later film scores when compared to his earlier scores?

A

Fewer films, but personally more meaningful, especially Hamlet and the film version of Katerina Izmailova (the revised Lady Macbeth)

86
Q

What was one of Shost’s most carefully prepared scores? Describe it.

A

King Lear, fewer cuts and fades, more gestural, less melodic

87
Q

Describe the general phases of Shost’s film output.

A

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
Q

How many films and how many directors for Shost?

A

almost 40; 21

89
Q

What is Shost’s most characteristic rhythmic figure?

A

dactylic; long/accented note followed by two shorter/unaccented notes

90
Q

According to Glikman, how did Shost feel about his 4th Symphony immediately after he finished composing it?

A

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
Q

When asked to simplify a score’s instrumentation, how did Shost reply?

A

“What the pen has written, even the axe may not cut out.” a Russian proverb

92
Q

What was Shost’s personality? How did he see his teaching abilities?

A

stoic in the face of both praise and criticism; thought he was a lousy teacher

93
Q

Why did Shost write a piano part into a string quartet (Quintet instead of String Quartet #2)?

A

Because he wanted to travel and participate with the quartet who played the piece on tour

94
Q

What did Shost fear about his seventh symphony? Why? How did he respond?

A

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
Q

Shost’s favorite opera (according to Glikman)?

A

Otello by Verdi

96
Q

Describe The Gamblers

A

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
Q

What fears did Shost confide to Glikman?

A

Fears of being misunderstood, as an artist who could not speak the truth

98
Q

How did Shost describe his 8th String Quartet?

A

“ideologically flawed”; “nobody is likely to write a work in memory of me, so I had better write one myself”

99
Q

After Shost joined the communist party and was asked to go to Moscow for a PR event, what did he tell Glikman?

A

“They’ll only get me to Moscow if they tie me up and drag me there.”

100
Q

What composer and composition did Shost cite as a major influence later in his life?

A

“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
Q

What historical elements suggest that Shost was an ardent communist?

A

official speeches; 1931 New York Times interview; subtitle for 5th Symphony: “A Soviet Artist’s Practical Creative Response to Just Criticism”; “Leningrad Symphony

102
Q

What book first suggested that Shost was not entirely enamored with the Communist Party?

A

Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich as Related to and Edited by Solomon Volkov (1979)

103
Q

How did UK-based music writers around 1940 and 1979 view Shostakovich?

A

neutrality–he was nothing special, not a dissident, not a company man

104
Q

How was Volkov’s book challenged?

A

charges of plagiarism

105
Q

Who first uncovered the plagiarized passages of Volkov’s Testimony? Who/when? What happened?

A

Laurel Fay; 1980 in Russian Review; she was roundly vilified by UK music writers

106
Q

What might be the mmiddle ground regarding Shost?

A

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
Q

What scholars defended Volkov’s Testimony?

A

Ho and Feofanov (Shostakovich Reconsidered)

108
Q

What is Laurel Fay’s most recent collection of Shost research? How does she support her charge?

A

A Shostakovich Casebook; with photocopies of Shost’s original statements next to the altered versions printed by Volkov

109
Q

What 1990 book/author also support Volkov’s claims?

A

The New Shostakovich by Ian MacDonald

110
Q

How did Shost’s friends and family respond to Volkov’s book?

A

They saw it as one-sided and flawed, but containing elements of truth

111
Q

What major issue has been a heated issue in the Shost debates?

A

His transformation of Leskov’s anti-heroine Katerina in Lady Macbeth from murderer to tragic victim and its political significance

112
Q

Summarize the major views of Katerina from Lady Macbeth.

A

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
Q

Synopsis of Lady Macbeth:

A

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=54

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