The role of the xylophone in Shostakovich's symphonic work. Dmitry Shostakovich: biography and creativity. Interesting facts from life. Concertos for instrument and orchestra

The work of Dmitry Shostakovich, the great Soviet musical and public figure, composer, pianist and teacher, is briefly outlined in this article.

Shostakovich's work in brief

Dmitry Shostakovich's music is diverse and multifaceted in genre. It has become a classic of Soviet and world musical culture of the 20th century. The importance of the composer as a symphonist is enormous. He created 15 symphonies with deep philosophical concepts, the most complex world of human experiences, tragic and acute conflicts. The works are permeated with the voice of a humanist artist fighting against evil and social injustice. His unique individual style imitated the best traditions of Russian and foreign music (Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Bach, Mahler). The First Symphony of 1925 showed the best features of Dmitri Shostakovich's style:

• polyphonization of texture
• dynamics of development
• a piece of humor and irony
• subtle lyrics
• figurative transformations
• thematicism
• contrast

The first symphony brought him fame. Later he learned to combine styles and sounds. By the way, Dmitry Shostakovich imitated the sound of artillery cannonade in his 9th symphony, dedicated to the siege of Leningrad. What instruments do you think Dmitry Shostakovich used to imitate this sound? He did this with the help of timpani.

In the 10th symphony, the composer introduced the techniques of song intonation and expansion. The next two works were marked by a turn to programming.

In addition, Shostakovich contributed to the development of musical theater. True, his activities were limited to editorial articles in newspapers. Shostakovich's opera The Nose was a truly original musical embodiment of Gogol's story. It was distinguished by complex means of compositional technique, ensemble and crowd scenes, multifaceted and contrapuntal changes of episodes. An important landmark in the work of Dmitry Shostakovich was the opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”. She was distinguished by satirical sharpness in the character of negative characters, inspired lyrics, and harsh and sublime tragedy.

Mussorgsky also had an influence on Shostakovich’s work. This is evidenced by the truthfulness and richness of musical portraits, psychological depth, generalization of song and folk intonations. All this was manifested in the vocal-symphonic poem “The Execution of Stepan Razin”, in the vocal cycle called “From Jewish Folk Poetry”. Dmitry Shostakovich holds important credit for the orchestral edition of Khovanshchina and Boris Godunov, and the orchestration of Mussorgsky's vocal cycle Songs and Dances of Death.

Major events for the musical life of the Soviet Union were the appearance of concerts for piano, violin and cello with orchestra, and chamber works written by Shostakovich. These include 15 string quartets, fugues and 24 preludes for piano, a memory trio, a piano quintet, and romance cycles.

Works of Dmitry Shostakovich- “Players”, “The Nose”, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”, “Golden Age”, “Bright Stream”, “Song of the Forests”, “Moscow - Cheryomushki”, “Poem about the Motherland”, “Execution of Stepan Razin”, “Hymn to Moscow”, “Festive Overture”, “October”.

D.D. Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg. This event in the family of Dmitry Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofia Vasilievna Shostakovich occurred on September 25, 1906. The family was very musical. The future composer’s mother was a talented pianist and gave piano lessons to beginners. Despite his serious profession as an engineer, Dmitry’s father simply adored music and sang a little himself.

Home concerts were often held in the house in the evenings. This played a huge role in the formation and development of Shostakovich as a person and a real musician. He presented his debut work, a piano piece, at the age of nine. By the age of eleven he already had several of them. And at the age of thirteen he entered the Petrograd Conservatory to study composition and piano.

Youth

Young Dmitry devoted all his time and energy to music studies. They spoke of him as an exceptional talent. He didn’t just compose music, but made listeners immerse themselves in it, experience its sounds. He was especially admired by the director of the conservatory, A.K. Glazunov, who subsequently, after the sudden death of his father, secured a personal scholarship for Shostakovich.

However, the family's financial situation left much to be desired. And the fifteen-year-old composer began working as a musical illustrator. The main thing in this amazing profession was improvisation. And he improvised beautifully, composing real musical pictures on the go. From 1922 to 1925, he changed three cinemas, and this invaluable experience remained with him forever.

Creation

For children, the first acquaintance with the musical heritage and short biography of Dmitry Shostakovich occurs at school. They know from music lessons that a symphony is one of the most complex genres of instrumental music.

Dmitri Shostakovich composed his first symphony at the age of 18, and in 1926 it was performed on the big stage in Leningrad. And a few years later it was performed in concert halls in America and Germany. It was an incredible success.

However, after the conservatory, Shostakovich was still faced with the question of his future fate. He could not decide on his future profession: author or performer. For some time he tried to combine one with the other. Until the 1930s he performed solo. His repertoire often included Bach, Liszt, Chopin, Prokofiev, and Tchaikovsky. And in 1927 he received an honorary diploma at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw.

But over the years, despite the growing fame of a talented pianist, Shostakovich abandoned this type of activity. He rightly believed that she was a real obstacle to the composition. In the early 30s, he was looking for his own unique style and experimented a lot. He tried his hand at everything: opera (“The Nose”), songs (“Song of the Counter”), music for cinema and theater, piano pieces, ballets (“Bolt”), symphonies (“Pervomayskaya”).

Other biography options

• Every time Dmitry Shostakovich was going to get married, his mother certainly intervened. So, she did not allow him to connect his life with Tanya Glivenko, the daughter of a famous linguist. She also didn’t like the composer’s second choice, Nina Vazar. Because of her influence and his doubts, he did not appear at his own wedding. But, fortunately, after a couple of years they reconciled and went to the registry office again. This marriage produced a daughter, Galya, and a son, Maxim.
• Dmitry Shostakovich was a gambling card player. He himself said that once in his youth he won a large sum of money, with which he later purchased a cooperative apartment.
• Before his death, the great composer was ill for many years. Doctors could not make an accurate diagnosis. Later it turned out that it was a tumor. But it was too late to treat. Dmitri Shostakovich died on August 9, 1975.

Shostakovich's fifteen symphonies are fifteen chapters in the chronicle of our time. The reference points are 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11 sf. - they are close in concept (the 8th is a more grandiose version of what was in the 5th). Here is a dramatic concept of the world. Even in the 6th and 9th sf, a kind of “intermezzo” in Shostakovich’s work, there are dramatic collisions.

In the development of Shostakovich’s symphonic work, three stages can be distinguished:

1 – time of creation of 1-4 symphonies

2 – 5-10 symphonies

3 – 11-15 symphonies.

The 1st symphony (1926) was written at the age of 20, it is called “Youthful”. This is Shostakovich's graduation work. N. Malko, who conducted the premiere, wrote: “I just returned from a concert. I conducted the symphony of the young Leningrader Mitya Shostakovich for the first time. I have the feeling that I have opened a new page in the history of Russian music.”

The second is a symphonic dedication to October (“October”, 1927), the Third is “May Day” (1929). In them, the composer turns to the poetry of A. Bezymensky and S. Kirsanov in order to more clearly reveal the joy of revolutionary festivities. This is a kind of creative experiment, an attempt to update the musical language. The 2nd and 3rd symphonies are the most complex in musical language and rarely performed. Significance for creativity: the appeal to the “modern program” opened the way to the late symphonies - 11 (“1905”) and 12, dedicated to Lenin (“1917”).

Shostakovich’s creative maturity is evidenced by the 4th (1936) and 5th (1937) symphonies (the composer defined the idea of ​​the latter as “the formation of personality” - from gloomy thoughts through struggle to the final affirmation of life).

The 4th symphony revealed many similarities with the concept, content and scope of Mahler's symphonies.

5th symphony - Shostakovich appeared here as a mature artist, with a deeply original vision of the world. This is a non-programmatic work, there are no hidden titles in it, but “the generation recognized itself in this symphony” (Asafiev). It is the 5th symphony that provides the cycle model characteristic of Shostakovich. It will also be characteristic of the 7th and 8th symphonies, dedicated to the tragic events of the war.

Stage 3 – from the 11th symphony. The 11th (1957) and 12th (1961) symphonies are dedicated to the Revolution of 1905 and the October Revolution of 1917, programmatic. The 11th Symphony, built on the melodies of revolutionary songs, was based on the experience of music for historical revolutionary films of the 30s. and “Ten Poems” for choir to the words of Russian revolutionary poets (1951). The program complements the basic concept with historical parallels.

Each part has its own name. From them you can clearly imagine the idea and dramaturgy of the work: “Palace Square”, “January 9”, “Eternal Memory”, “Alarm”. The symphony is permeated with the intonations of revolutionary songs: “Listen”, “Prisoner”, “You have fallen a victim”, “Rage, tyrants”, “Varshavyanka”. Visible pictures and hidden plot motives appear. At the same time, there is a skillful symphonic development of quotes. A complete symphonic canvas.

The 12th symphony is similar, dedicated to Lenin. As in the Eleventh, the program names of the parts give a completely clear idea of ​​its content: “Revolutionary Petrograd”, “Razliv”, “Aurora”, “Dawn of Humanity”.

13th symphony (1962) – Symphony-cantata to the text by Yevgeny Yevtushenko: “Babi Yar”, “Humour”, “In the store”, “Fears” and “Career”. Written for an unusual composition: a symphony orchestra, a bass choir and a bass soloist. The idea of ​​the symphony, its pathos is the denunciation of evil in the name of the fight for truth, for man.

The search for a synthesis of music and words continues in the 14th symphony (1969). This is one of the pinnacles of creativity, a symphony-cantata in 11 movements. Written to texts by Federico Garcia Lorca, Guillaume Apollinaire, Wilhelm Kuchelbecker, Rainer Maria Rilke. It was preceded by the creation of vocal cycles. This work, the prototype of which, according to the author, was Mussorgsky’s “Songs and Dances of Death,” concentrated tragedy and soulful lyricism, grotesqueness and drama.

The 15th Symphony (1971) closes the evolution of Shostakovich’s late symphonism, partly echoing some of his early works. This is again a purely instrumental symphony. Modern composition techniques are used: collage method, montage (polystylistic option). The fabric of the symphony organically includes quotes from the overture to “William Tell” by Rossini (1 part, SP), the motif of fate from “The Ring of the Nibelung” and lm of languor from “Tristan and Isolde” by R. Wagner (4 hours, interst. and GP) .

The last symphonies of Prokofiev and Shostakovich are different, but there is something in common in reconciliation and a wise perception of the world.

Comparison of symphony cycles. Characteristic of Shostakovich's style are the slow dream forms of the 1st movements (5, 7 sf). They combine the dynamics of the dream form and the features of the slow parts: these are lyric reflections, philological reflections. The process of thought formation is important. Hence the large role of polyphonic presentation: the principle of the core and deployment in exp. sections. Exp. usually embody the stage of contemplation (according to Bobrovsky’s triad of contemplation-action-comprehension), images of the world, and creation.

Developments, as a rule, are a sharp breakdown into another plane: this is a world of evil, violence and destruction (// Chaik.). The climax-turning point occurs at the beginning of the dynamic reprise (5, 7 sf). The meaning of the coda is a deep philological monologue, the “crown of drama” - the stage of comprehension.

2nd hour – scherzo. The other side of the images of evil: the false underside of life. Characteristic is a grotesque distortion of everyday, “mundane” genres. Sl.3-part form.

The forms of the slow movements are similar to rondo with end-to-end symphonic development (in 5 sf - rondo + var + son. f.).

In the finals - overcoming sonatism, developmental deployment (in 5 sf - all development is determined by the GP, it subordinates the PP to itself). But the principles of development of son.f. remain.

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The life and work of Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich

Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich (1906-1975) Russian Soviet composer, pianist, musical and public figure, teacher, professor, doctor of art history. Born: September 25, 1906, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire Died: August 9, 1975 (68 years old), Moscow, USSR Married to: Irina Antonovna Shostakovich (1962-75), Margarita Kainova (1956-1960 gg.), Nina Vasilievna Varzar (1932-1954) Children: Maxim Dmitrievich Shostakovich - conductor, pianist Daughter - Galina Dmitrievna Shostakovich Parents: Sofya Vasilievna Kokoulina, Dmitry Boleslavovich Shostakovich Party: CPSU

15 symphonies (No. 7 “Leningradskaya”, No. 11 “1905”, No. 12 “1917”) Operas: “The Nose”, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” (“Katerina Izmailova”), “Players” (finished by K. Meyer) Ballets: “The Golden Age” (1930), “Bolt” (1931) and “Bright Stream” (1935) 15 string quartets Cycle “Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues”, for piano (1950-1951) Festive overture for the opening of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition (1954) ) Quintet Oratorio “Song of the Forests” Cantatas “The Sun Shines Over Our Motherland” and “The Execution of Stepan Razin” Concerts and sonatas for various instruments Romances and songs for voice with piano and symphony orchestra Operetta “Moscow, Cheryomushki” Music for children: “Dancing” dolls”, Music for the film: “Counter”, “Ordinary People”, “The Young Guard”, “The Fall of Berlin”, “The Gadfly”, “Hamlet”, “Cheryomushki”, “King Lear”. MAIN WORKS

Origin Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich's paternal great-grandfather has Polish roots, veterinarian Pyotr Mikhailovich Shostakovich (1808-1871). He graduated from the Vilna Medical-Surgical Academy. In 1830-1831, he took part in the Polish uprising and, after its suppression, together with his wife, Maria Jozefa Jasinska, was exiled to the Urals, to the Perm province. In the 40s, the couple lived in Yekaterinburg, where on January 27, 1845 their son, Boleslav-Arthur, was born. Dmitry Boleslavovich Shostakovich (1875-1922) went to St. Petersburg in the mid-90s and entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University; upon graduation, in 1900, he was hired by the Chamber of Weights and Measures, which had recently been created D. I. Mendeleev. In 1902, he was appointed senior verifier of the Chamber, and in 1906 - head of the City Verification Tent. On January 9, 1905, he took part in a procession to the Winter Palace, and later proclamations were printed in his apartment.

Origin Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich's maternal grandfather, Vasily Kokoulin (1850-1911), was born in Siberia; After graduating from the city school in Kirensk, in the late 60s he moved to Bodaibo, where many in those years were attracted by the “gold rush”. His wife, Alexandra Petrovna Kokoulina, opened a school for the children of workers; There is no information about her education, but it is known that in Bodaibo she organized an amateur orchestra, widely known in Siberia. The love of music was inherited from her mother by the Kokoulins’ youngest daughter, Sofya Vasilievna (1878-1955): she studied piano under the guidance of her mother and at the Irkutsk Institute of Noble Maidens, and after graduation, following her older brother Yakov, she went to the capital and was accepted into the St. Petersburg conservatory. Yakov Kokoulin studied at the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, where he met his fellow countryman Dmitry Shostakovich; Their love for music brought them together. Yakov introduced Dmitry Boleslavovich to his sister Sophia as an excellent singer, and their wedding took place in February 1903. In October of the same year, the young couple had a daughter, Maria, in September 1906, a son named Dmitry, and three years later, a youngest daughter, Zoya.

Dmitry Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofya Vasilievna Kokoulina (parents of D.D. Shostakovich)

Childhood and youth Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich was born in house No. 2 on Podolskaya Street. In 1915, Shostakovich entered the Commercial Gymnasium and his first serious musical impressions date back to this time: after attending a performance of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan,” young Shostakovich declared his desire to take up music seriously. His first piano lessons were given to him by his mother, and after several months of lessons, Shostakovich was able to begin studying at the private music school of the then famous piano teacher I. A. Glyasser. The next year, Shostakovich entered the piano class of L. V. Nikolaev. During this period, the “Anna Vogt Circle” was formed, focusing on the latest trends in Western music of that time. Shostakovich also becomes an active participant in this circle; he meets composers B.V. Asafiev and V.V. Shcherbachev, conductor N. A. Malko. Shostakovich writes “Two Fables of Krylov” for mezzo-soprano and piano and “Three Fantastic Dances” for piano. At the conservatory he studied diligently and with special zeal, despite the difficulties of that time: the First World War, revolution, civil war, devastation, famine. A hard life with half-starvation led to severe exhaustion. In 1922, Shostakovich's father died. A few months later, Shostakovich underwent a serious operation that almost cost him his life. Despite his failing health, he gets a job as a pianist-pianist in a cinema. Great help and support was provided during these years by Glazunov, who managed to secure a personal scholarship for Shostakovich.

The building of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where thirteen-year-old D. Shostakovich entered in 1919.

1920s In 1923, Shostakovich graduated from the conservatory in piano (with L. V. Nikolaev), and in 1925 - in composition (with M. O. Steinberg). His graduation work was the First Symphony. While studying at the conservatory as a graduate student, he taught reading scores at the music college named after M. P. Mussorgsky. In a tradition dating back to Rubinstein, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev, Shostakovich intended to pursue a career both as a concert pianist and as a composer. In 1927, at the First International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, where Shostakovich also performed a sonata of his own composition, he received an honorary diploma. In 1927, the foreign premiere of the symphony took place in Berlin in 1927, then in 1928. in USA. In 1927, the opera “Wozzeck” premiered in Leningrad, and he began writing the opera “The Nose,” based on the story by N.V. Gogol. At the same time, in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Shostakovich’s next two symphonies were written - both with the participation of a choir: the Second (“Symphonic Dedication to October”, to the words of A. I. Bezymensky) and the Third (“May Day” , to the words of S. I. Kirsanov). In 1928, Shostakovich met V. E. Meyerhold in Leningrad and, at his invitation, worked for some time as a pianist and head of the musical department of the V. E. Meyerhold Theater in Moscow. In 1930-1933 he worked as the head of the musical part of the Leningrad TRAM - the Theater of Working Youth (now the Baltic House Theater).

In 1927, D. Shostakovich became one of 8 finalists at the International Competition named after. Chopin in Warsaw, and the winner was his friend Lev Oborin.

1930s His opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” based on the story by N. S. Leskov was staged in Leningrad in 1934), initially received with enthusiasm and having already existed on stage for a season and a half, was destroyed in the Soviet press. In the same 1936, the premiere of the 4th Symphony was supposed to take place - a work of much more monumental scope than all of Shostakovich’s previous symphonies, but the 4th Symphony was first performed only in 1961. In May 1937, Shostakovich released his 5th Symphony. After the premiere of the work, a laudatory article was published in Pravda. Since 1937, Shostakovich taught a composition class at the Leningrad State Conservatory. N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1939 he became a professor.

1940s While in Leningrad during the first months of the Great Patriotic War (until the evacuation to Kuibyshev in October), Shostakovich begins to work on the 7th symphony - “Leningrad”. The symphony was first performed on the stage of the Kuibyshev Opera and Ballet Theater on March 5, 1942, and on March 29, 1942 - in the Column Hall of the Moscow House of Unions. In the same year, 1942, Shostakovich was awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree for the creation of the Seventh Symphony. On August 9, 1942, the work was performed in besieged Leningrad. The organizer and conductor was the conductor of the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee, Karl Eliasberg. The performance of the symphony became an important event in the life of the fighting city and its inhabitants. A year later, Shostakovich wrote the 8th Symphony (dedicated to Mravinsky), (“the whole world should be reflected in the symphony”), and painted a monumental fresco of what was happening around him. In 1943, the composer moved to Moscow and until 1948 he taught composition and instrumentation at the Moscow Conservatory (since 1943, professor. He studied with K. A. Karaev, G. V. Sviridov (at the Leningrad Conservatory), B. I. Tishchenko, A. Mnatsakanyan (graduate student at the Leningrad Conservatory), K. S. Khachaturian, B. A. Tchaikovsky In the field of chamber music, he created such masterpieces as Piano Quintet (1940), Piano Trio (1944), String Quartets No. 2 (1944) , No. 3 (1946) and No. 4 (1949).

In 1945, after the end of the war, Shostakovich wrote the 9th Symphony. In 1948 he was accused of “formalism”, “bourgeois decadence” and “creeping before the West”. Shostakovich was accused of professional incompetence, deprived of the title of professor at the Moscow and Leningrad Conservatories and expelled from them. The main accuser was the secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, A. A. Zhdanov. Only in 1961 returned to teaching work at the Leningrad Conservatory. In 1948, he created the vocal cycle “From Jewish Folk Poetry,” but left it on the table (at that time, a campaign was launched in the country to “fight cosmopolitanism, an ideology that puts the interests of all humanity above the interests of an individual nation.”). In 1948, Shostakovich created the First Violin Concerto. In 1949, Shostakovich wrote the cantata “Song of the Forests” based on the poems of E. A. Dolmatovsky, which tells the story of the triumphant post-war restoration of the Soviet Union). The premiere of the cantata is an unprecedented success and brings Shostakovich the Stalin Prize.

The main representatives of “formalism” in Soviet music are S. Prokofiev, D. Shostakovich, A. Khachaturian Photos of the late 1940s

1950s The fifties began with very important work for Shostakovich. Participating as a member of the jury at the Bach Competition in Leipzig in the fall of 1950, the composer was so inspired by the atmosphere of the city and the music of its great resident - J. S. Bach - that upon his arrival in Moscow he began composing 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano. In 1954 he wrote the Festive Overture for the opening of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition and received the title of People's Artist of the USSR. Many works of the second half of the decade are imbued with optimism and a joyful playfulness previously uncharacteristic of Shostakovich. These are the 6th String Quartet (1956), the Second Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1957), and the operetta “Moscow, Cheryomushki”. In the same year, the composer creates the 11th Symphony, calling it “1905”, and continues to work in the instrumental concert genre: First Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1959). During these years, Shostakovich's rapprochement with official authorities began. In 1957, he became secretary of the USSR Investigative Committee, in 1960 - the RSFSR Investigative Committee (in 1960-1968 - first secretary). In the same 1960, Shostakovich joined the CPSU. The fifties began with very important work for Shostakovich

1960s In 1961, Shostakovich completed the second part of his “revolutionary” symphonic duology: in pair with Symphony No. 11 “1905” he wrote Symphony No. 12 “1917” - a work of a pronounced “visual” nature (and actually bringing the symphonic genre closer to film music), where, as if with paints on canvas, the composer paints musical pictures of Petrograd, V.I. Lenin’s refuge on Lake Razliv and the October events themselves. He set himself a completely different task a year later, when he turned to the poetry of E. A. Yevtushenko - first writing the poem “Babi Yar” (for bass soloist, bass choir and orchestra), and then adding four more parts to it from the life of modern Russia and its recent history, thereby creating the “cantata” Symphony No. 13 “Babi Yar” (1962) After the removal of N. S. Khrushchev from power, with the beginning of the era of political stagnation in the USSR, the tone of Shostakovich’s works again acquired a gloomy character. His quartets No. 11 (1966) and No. 12 (1968), Second Cello (1966) and Second Violin (1967) concertos, Violin Sonata (1968), a vocal cycle to the words of A. A. Blok, are imbued with anxiety, pain and inescapable melancholy . In the Fourteenth Symphony (1969) - again “vocal”, but this time chamber, for two solo singers and an orchestra consisting only of strings and percussion - Shostakovich uses poems by G. Apollinaire, R. M. Rilke, V. K. Kuchelbecker and F. Garcia Lorca, related to the theme of death (they talk about unjust, early or violent death).

D. Shostakovich and conductor E. Svetlanov

1970s During these years, the composer created vocal cycles based on poems by M. I. Tsvetaeva and Michelangelo, the 13th (1969-1970), 14th (1973) and 15th (1974) string quartets and Symphony No. 15,( 1971), an essay characterized by a mood of thoughtfulness, nostalgia, and memories. Shostakovich's last composition was the Sonata for viola and piano. In the last few years of his life, the composer was very ill, suffering from lung cancer. Dmitry Shostakovich died in Moscow on August 9, 1975 and was buried at the capital's Novodevichy cemetery.

D.D. Shostakovich with children Maxim and Galina

The significance of creativity Shostakovich is one of the most performed composers in the world. A high level of compositional technique, the ability to create bright and expressive melodies and themes, masterful mastery of polyphony and the finest mastery of the art of orchestration, combined with personal emotionality and colossal efficiency, made his musical works bright, original and of enormous artistic value. Shostakovich's contribution to the development of music of the 20th century is generally recognized as outstanding; he had a significant influence on many of his contemporaries and followers. Such composers as Tishchenko, Slonimsky, Schnittke, as well as many other musicians, openly declared the influence of Shostakovich’s musical language and personality on them. The genre and aesthetic diversity of Shostakovich’s music is enormous; it combines elements of tonal, atonal and modal music; modernism, traditionalism, expressionism and the “grand style” are intertwined in the composer’s work.

music In his early years, Shostakovich was influenced by the music of G. Mahler, A. Berg, I. F. Stravinsky, S. S. Prokofiev, P. Hindemith, M. P. Mussorgsky. Constantly studying classical and avant-garde traditions, Shostakovich developed his own musical language, emotionally charged and touching the hearts of musicians and music lovers around the world. The most notable genres in Shostakovich's work are symphonies and string quartets - he wrote 15 works in each of them. While symphonies were written throughout the composer's career, Shostakovich wrote most of the quartets towards the end of his life. Among the most popular symphonies are the Fifth and Tenth, among the quartets are the Eighth and Fifteenth. In the work of D. D. Shostakovich, the influence of his favorite and revered composers is noticeable: J. S. Bach (in his fugues and passacaglia), L. Beethoven (in his late quartets), P. I. Tchaikovsky, G. Mahler and partly S V. Rachmaninov (in his symphonies), A. Berg (partly - along with M. P. Mussorgsky in his operas. Of the Russian composers, Shostakovich had the greatest love for Mussorgsky, for his operas “Boris Godunov” and “Khovanshchina” Shostakovich made new orchestration.Mussorgsky's influence is especially noticeable in individual scenes of the opera "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk", in symphony No. 11, as well as in satirical works.

Works for children “Children's Notebook” - a collection of pieces for piano 1.March 2.Waltz 3.Bear 4.Fun fairy tale 5.Sad fairy tale 6.Wind-up doll 7.Birthday

1. Lyrical waltz 2. Gavotte 3. Romance 4. Polka 5. Waltz-joke 6. Organ organ 7. Dance “Dances of the Dolls” - a collection of pieces for piano

Awards and prizes Hero of Socialist Labor (1966) Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1942) People's Artist of the RSFSR (1947) People's Artist of the USSR (1954) People's Artist of the BASSR (1964) Stalin Prize of the first degree (1941) - for the piano quintet Stalin Prize of the first degree ( 1942) - for the 7th (“Leningrad”) symphony Stalin Prize of the second degree (1946) - for the trio Stalin Prize of the first degree (1950) - for the oratorio “Song of the Forests” and music for the film “The Fall of Berlin” (1949) Stalin second degree prize (1952) - for ten poems for choir without accompaniment based on poems by revolutionary poets (1951) Lenin Prize (1958) - for the 11th symphony “1905” USSR State Prize (1968) - for the poem “The Execution of Stepan Razin” for bass, choir and orchestra State Prize of the RSFSR named after M. I. Glinka (1974) - for the 14th string quartet and choral cycle “Fidelity” State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR named after T. G. Shevchenko (1976 - posthumously) - for the opera “Katerina” Izmailov”, staged on the stage of the KUGATOB named after T. G. Shevchenko International Peace Prize (1954) Prize named after. J. Sibelius (1958) Leonie Sonning Prize (1973) Three Orders of Lenin (1946, 1956, 1966) Order of the October Revolution (1971) Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1940) Order of Friendship of Peoples (1972) Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (France, 1958) ) Silver Commander's Cross of the Order of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria (1967) Medals Honorary Diploma at the 1st International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (1927). Prize of the 1st All-Union Film Festival for the best music for the film “Hamlet” (Leningrad, 1964).

Membership in organizations Member of the CPSU since 1960 Doctor of Art History (1965) Member of the Soviet Peace Committee (since 1949), Slavic Committee of the USSR (since 1942), World Peace Committee (since 1968) Honorary member of the American Institute of Arts and Letters ( 1943), Royal Swedish Academy of Music (1954), Italian Academy of Arts "Santa Cecilia" (1956), Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1965) Honorary Doctor of Music from Oxford University (1958) Honorary Doctor of Northwestern University in Evanston (USA, 1973) Member of the French Academy of Fine Arts (1975) Corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the GDR (1956), Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts (1968), member of the Royal Academy of Music of England (1958). Professor Emeritus of the Mexican Conservatory. President of the USSR-Austria Society (1958) Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 6th-9th convocations. Deputy of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR of the 2nd-5th convocations.

Memory On May 28, 2015, the first monument to D. D. Shostakovich in Moscow was opened in front of the building of the Moscow International House of Music St. Petersburg State Philharmonic named after. D. D. Shostakovich

Do you know…

Leningrad Stalingrad Moscow Kursk To which city was Symphony No. 7 dedicated?

In what year did Shostakovich's father die? 1942 1922 1941 1954

What symphony did Shostakovich write in 1962? Fifteenth Thirteenth Eleventh Fourteenth

What did Shostakovich die from? Tuberculosis of the throat Lung cancer Diabetes Asthma

What award did Shostakovich receive for writing the 7th symphony? Stalin Prize 1st degree State Prize of the USSR State Prize of the RSFSR named after. M.I. Glinka Order of the October Revolution

Creativity D.D. Shostakovich

Shostakovich composer musical artistic

Nature endowed Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich with a character of extraordinary purity and responsiveness. The principles - creative, spiritual and moral - merged in rare harmony. The image of man coincided with the image of the creator. That painful contradiction between everyday life and the moral ideal, which Leo Tolstoy could not resolve, Shostakovich brought into unity not with declarations, but with the very experience of his life, becoming a moral beacon of effective humanism, illuminating the 20th century with an example of serving people.

He was led along the composer's path by a constant, unquenchable thirst for comprehensive coverage and renewal. Having expanded the scope of music, he introduced many new figurative layers into it, conveyed the struggle of man against evil, terrible, soulless, grandiose, thus “solving the most pressing artistic problem posed by our time. But, having solved it, he expanded the boundaries of musical art itself and created in the field of instrumental forms a new type of artistic thinking, which influenced composers of different styles and could serve to embody not only the content that is expressed in the corresponding works of Shostakovich.” Reminiscent of Mozart, who mastered both instrumental and vocal music with equal confidence, bringing their specificities closer together, he returned music to universalism.

Shostakovich's creativity embraced all forms and genres of music, combining traditional foundations with innovative discoveries. An astute connoisseur of everything that existed and appeared in the composer's work, he showed wisdom without submitting to the showiness of formal innovations. The presentation of music as an organic part of a diverse artistic process allowed Shostakovich to understand the fruitfulness at the present stage of combining different principles of compositional technique and different means of expression. Leaving nothing unattended, he found a natural place for everything in his individual creative arsenal, creating a unique Shostakovich style, in which the organization of sound material is dictated by the living process of intonation, living intonational content. He freely and boldly expanded the boundaries of the tonal system, but did not abandon it: this is how Shostakovich’s synthetic modal thinking arose and developed, his flexible modal structures corresponding to the richness of figurative content. Adhering primarily to the melodic-polyphonic style of music, he discovered and strengthened many new facets of melodic expressiveness, and became the founder of melodies of exceptional power of influence, corresponding to the extreme emotional temperature of the century. With the same courage, Shostakovich expanded the range of timbre coloring and timbre intonations, enriched the types of musical rhythm, bringing it as close as possible to the rhythm of speech and Russian folk music. A truly national composer in his perception of life, creative psychology, in many features of style, in his work, thanks to the richness, depth of content and huge range of intonation, he went beyond national borders, becoming a phenomenon of universal human culture.

Shostakovich had the happiness during his lifetime to experience world fame, to hear the definition of a genius about himself, to become a recognized classic, along with Mozart, Beethoven, Glinka, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky. This was firmly established in the sixties and sounded especially powerful in 1966, when the composer’s sixtieth birthday was celebrated everywhere and solemnly.

By that time, the literature on Shostakovich was quite extensive, containing monographs with biographical information, but the theoretical aspect decisively prevailed. The developing new field of musicology was affected by the lack of proper chronological distance, which helps objective historical development, and the underestimation of the influence of biographical factors on the work of Shostakovich, as well as on the work of other figures of Soviet culture.

All this prompted Shostakovich's contemporaries, even during his lifetime, to raise the question of the overdue multilateral, generalizing, documentary study. D.B. Kabalevsky pointed out: “How I would like a book to be written about Shostakovich... in which the creative PERSONALITY of Shostakovich would stand before the reader in full height, so that no musical-analytical research would obscure in it the spiritual world of the composer, born of the polysyllabic 20th century.” E.A. wrote about the same thing. Mravinsky: “Descendants will envy us that we lived at the same time as the author of the Eighth Symphony and could meet and talk with him. And they will probably complain at us for the fact that we were unable to record and preserve for the future many little things that characterize it, to see in the everyday what is unique and therefore especially dear ... " . Later V.S. Vinogradov, L.A. Mazel put forward the idea of ​​​​creating a comprehensive generalized work on Shostakovich as a task of paramount importance. It was clear that its complexity, volume, and specificity, due to the scale and greatness of Shostakovich’s personality and work, would require the efforts of many generations of musician-researchers.

The author of this monograph began his work by studying Shostakovich’s pianism - the result was the essay “Shostakovich the Pianist” (1964), followed by articles about the revolutionary traditions of his family, published in 1966-1967 in the Polish magazine “Rukh Muzychny” and the Leningrad press, documentaries essays in the books “Musicians about their art” (1967), “On music and musicians of our days” (1976), in periodicals of the USSR, GDR, Poland. At the same time, as accompanying books that summarized the material from different angles, “Stories about Shostakovich” (1976) and the local history study “Shostakovich in Petrograd-Leningrad” (1979, 2nd ed. - 1981) were published.

Such preparation helped to write a four-volume history of the life and work of D.D. Shostakovich, published in 1975-1982, consisting of the duology “The Young Years of Shostakovich”, the books “D.D. Shostakovich during the Great Patriotic War" and "Shostakovich. Thirty anniversary. 1945-1975".

Most of the research was created during the composer’s lifetime, with his help, expressed in the fact that in a special letter he authorized the use of all archival materials about him and asked for assistance in this work, in conversations and in writing he explained the questions that arose; Having familiarized himself with the dilogy in the manuscript, he gave permission for publication, and shortly before his death, in April 1975, when the first volume was published, he expressed his approval for this publication in writing.

In historical science, the most important factor determining the novelty of research is considered to be the saturation of documentary sources introduced into circulation for the first time.

The monograph was mainly based on them. In relation to Shostakovich, these sources seem truly immense; in their cohesion and gradual development, a special eloquence, strength, and evidence are revealed.

As a result of many years of research, it was possible to examine more than four thousand documents, including archival materials about the revolutionary activities of his ancestors, their connections with the Ulyanov and Chernyshevsky families, the official files of the composer’s father, D.B. Shostakovich, diaries of M.O. Steinberg, who recorded the training of D.D. Shostakovich, recordings by N.A. Malko about rehearsals and premieres of the First and Second Symphonies, an open letter to I.O. Dunaevsky about the Fifth Symphony, etc. For the first time, those associated with D.D. were fully studied and used. Shostakovich funds of special art archives: the Central State Archive of Literature and Art - TsGALI (funds of D. D. Shostakovich, V. E. Meyerhold, M. M. Tsekhanovsky, V. Ya. Shebalin, etc.), State Central Museum of Musical Culture named after M.I. Glinka-GCMMC (funds of D.D. Shostakovich, V.L. Kubatsky, L.V. Nikolaev, G.A. Stolyarov, B.L. Yavorsky, etc.). Leningrad State Archive of Literature and Art - LGALI (funds of the State Research Institute of Theater and Music, Lenfnlm film studio, Leningrad Philharmonic, opera houses, conservatory, Department of Arts of the Leningrad City Executive Committee, Leningrad organization of the Union of Composers of the RSFSR, Drama Theater named after A. S. Pushkin), archives of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR, Leningrad Theater Museum, Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography - LGITMiK. (funds of V. M., Bogdanov-Berezovsky, N. A. Malko, M. O. Steinberg), Leningrad Conservatory-LGK. Materials on the topic were provided by the Central Party Archive of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the CPSU Central Committee (information about the Shaposhnikov brothers from the funds of I. N., Ulyanov), the Institute of Party History under the Moscow State Committee and the Moscow Committee of the CPSU (personal file of CPSU member D. D. Shostakovich), the Central State Archive of the October Revolution and Socialist Construction - TsGAOR, Central State Historical Archive - TsGIA, Institute of Metrology named after D.I. Mendeleev, N.G. Museum Chernyshevsky in Saratov, Museum of the History of Leningrad, Library of Leningrad University, Museum “The Muses Were Not Silent”.

Shostakovich's life is a process of continuous creativity, which reflected not only the events of the time, but also the very character and psychology of the composer. The introduction into the orbit of research of a rich and diverse music-autographic complex - autographs of final, secondary, dedicatory, sketches - expanded the understanding of the composer’s creative spectrum (for example, his quest in the field of historical-revolutionary opera, interest in Russian fair theater), about the incentives for creating of one or another work, revealed a number of psychological features of Shostakovich’s composer’s “laboratory” (the place and essence of the “emergency” method during long-term gestation of a plan, the difference in methods of working on autonomous and applied genres, the effectiveness of short-term sharp genre switches in the process of creating monumental forms, sudden invasions in them according to the emotional contrast of chamber works, fragments, etc.).

The study of autographs led to the introduction into life of unknown pages of creativity not only through analysis in a monograph, but also publication, recording on records, editing and writing the libretto of opera scenes “The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda” (staged at the Leningrad Academic Maly Opera Theater and ballet), creation and performance of the piano suite of the same name, participation in the performance of unknown works, adaptations. Only the diverse coverage, delving into the sweaty documents “from the inside”, the combination of research and practical action illuminates Shostakovich’s personality in all its manifestations.

Consideration of the life and work of an individual, who became an ethical, social phenomenon of an era that had no equal in the 20th century in terms of the versatility of the spheres of music it covered, could not but lead to the solution of some methodological issues of the biographical genre in musicology. They also touched upon the methods of search, organization, use of sources, and the very content of the genre, bringing it closer to a unique synthetic genre that is successfully developing in literary criticism, sometimes called “biography-creativity.” Its essence is a comprehensive analysis of all aspects of the artist’s life. For this, it is the biography of Shostakovich, who combined creative genius with the beauty of his personality, that provides the greatest opportunities. It presents science with large layers of facts that were previously considered non-research, everyday, and reveals the inseparability of everyday attitudes and creative ones. It shows that the tendency of inter-genre connections, characteristic of modern music, can be fruitful for literature about it, stimulating its growth not only towards specialization, but also complex works that consider life as creativity, a process unfolding in a historical perspective, step by step, with a holistic panoramic coverage of the phenomenon. It seems that this type of research is in the traditions of Shostakovich himself, who did not divide genres into high and low and, transforming genres, merged their signs and techniques.

The study of the biography and creativity of Shostakovich in a unified system, the inseparability of the composer from Soviet music, as its truly innovative avant-garde, requires the use of data, and in some cases, research techniques of historical science, musical psychology, source studies, film studies, the science of musical performance, a combination of general historical, textological, musical and analytical aspects. The elucidation of complex correlations between personality and creativity, supported by an analysis of documentary sources, should be based on a holistic analysis of the works, and taking into account the extensive experience of theoretical works on Shostakovich, using their achievements, the monograph attempts to establish by what parameters it is advisable to develop general characteristics for historical biographical narrative. Based on both factual and musical-autographic material, they include the history of the conception and creation of the work, the features of the process of working on it, the figurative structure, the first interpretations and further existence, the place in the evolution of the creator. All this constitutes the “biography” of the work - an inseparable part of the composer’s biography.

At the center of the monograph is the problem of “personality and creativity,” considered more broadly than this or that reflection of the artist’s biography in his works. The point of view on creativity as a direct biographical source and the recognition of seemingly two independent biographies - everyday and creative - seem equally erroneous. Materials from the activities of Shostakovich as a creator, teacher, head of the composer organization of the RSFSR, deputy of the Soviets of People's Deputies, revealing many psychological and ethical personality traits, show that the definition of the line of creativity has always become the definition of the line of life: Shostakovich elevated the ideals of life to the ideals of art. The internal relationship between the socio-political, aesthetic and moral-ethical principles in his life, creativity and personality was organic. He never defended himself from time, nor did he abandon self-preservation for the sake of everyday joys. The type of person, of which Shostakovich was the brightest personification, was born of the youth of the time, the spirit of revolution. The core that cements all aspects of Shostakovich’s biography is an ethics close to the ethics of all who from time immemorial have fought for human perfection, and at the same time conditioned by his personal development and the stable traditions of his family.

The importance of both immediate and more distant family origins in the formation of an artist is known: nature takes the “building material” from ancestors; complex genetic combinations of genius are formed from centuries-old accumulations. Not always knowing why and how a powerful river suddenly arises from streams, we still know that this river was created by them, contains their contours and signs. The ascendant family of Shostakovich should begin on the paternal side with Peter and Boleslav Shostakovich, Maria Yasinskaya, Varvara Shaposhnikova, on the maternal side with Yakov and Alexandra Kokoulin. They developed the fundamental properties of the race: social sensitivity, the idea of ​​duty to people, sympathy for suffering, hatred of evil. Eleven-year-old Mitya Shostakovich was with those who met V.I. Lenin in Petrograd in April 1917 and listened to his speech. This was not a random eyewitness to the events, but a person belonging to a family associated with the families of N.G. Chernyshevsky, I.N. Ulyanov, with the liberation movement of pre-revolutionary Russia.

The process of education and training of D.D. Shostakovich, the pedagogical image and methods of his teachers A.K. Glazunova, M.O. Steinberg, L.V. Nikolaeva, I.A. Glyasser, A.A. Rozanova introduced the young musician to the traditions of the classical Russian music school and its ethics. Shostakovich began his journey with open eyes and an open heart, he knew where to direct himself when, at the age of twenty, he wrote as an oath: “I will work tirelessly in the field of music, to which I will devote my whole life.”

Subsequently, creative and everyday difficulties more than once became a test of his ethics, his desire to meet the person who is the bearer of goodness and justice. Public recognition of his innovative aspirations was difficult; the materials objectively reveal the crisis moments he experienced, their influence on his appearance and music: the crisis of 1926, differences with Glazunov, Steinberg, discussions in 1936, 1948 with sharp condemnation of the composer’s creative principles.

While maintaining a “reserve” of stamina, Shostakovich did not avoid personal suffering and contradictions. The sharp contrast of his life was reflected in his character - compliant, but also unyielding, his intellect - cold and fiery, in his irreconcilability with kindness. Over the years, strong feelings - a sign of moral height - were always combined with ever deeper self-control. The unbridled courage of self-expression pushed aside the worries of every day. Music, as the center of being, brought joy and strengthened the will, but, devoting himself to music, he understood the return comprehensively - and ethical purpose, illuminated by the ideal, elevated his personality.

There are no documents preserved anywhere that could accurately record when and how a person’s second spiritual birth took place, but everyone who came into contact with Shostakovich’s life testifies that this happened during the creation of the opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”, the Fourth and Fifth symphonies: spiritual affirmation was inseparable from creative. There is a chronological boundary here: it is also adopted in the structure of this publication.

It was at that time that life acquired a stable core in clear and firm principles that could no longer be shaken by any trials. The Creator established himself in the main thing: for everything that was given to him - for talent, happiness of childhood, love - for everything he must pay, giving himself to humanity, to the Motherland. The feeling of the Motherland guides creativity, which, by its own definition, seems to be incandescent, elevated by a great sense of patriotism. Life becomes a continuous struggle for humanity. He never tired of repeating: “Love for people, the ideas of humanism have always been the main driving force of art. Only humanistic ideas created works that outlived their creators.” From now on, the will consisted in the ability to always follow the ethics of humanism. All documentary evidence shows how effective his kindness was. Everything that affected the interests of people did not leave people indifferent; wherever possible, he used his influence to raise a person: his readiness to give his time to fellow composers, helping their creativity, his benevolent breadth of good assessments, his ability to see, to find talented. The sense of duty towards each person merged with duty towards society and the struggle for the highest standards of social existence, excluding evil in any guise. Trust in justice gave birth not to humble non-resistance to evil, but to hatred of cruelty, stupidity, and prudence. All his life he straightforwardly resolved the eternal question - what is evil? He persistently returned to this in letters and autobiographical notes, as a personal problem, repeatedly defining the moral content of evil, but did not accept its justifications. The whole picture of his relationships with loved ones, the selection of friends, and those around him were determined by his conviction that duplicity, flattery, envy, arrogance, and indifference are “paralysis of the soul,” in the words of his favorite writer A.P. Chekhov, are incompatible with the appearance of a creator-artist, with true talent. The conclusion is persistent: “All the outstanding musicians with whom I had the good fortune to be acquainted, who gave me their friendship, understood very well the difference between good and evil.”

Shostakovich fought mercilessly against evil - both with the legacy of the past (the operas “The Nose”, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”), and as with the force of reality (the evil of fascism - in the Seventh, Eighth, Thirteenth Symphonies, the evil of careerism, spiritual cowardice, fear - in the Thirteenth Symphony, a lie in the Suite on poems by Michelangelo Buonarroti).

Perceiving the world as a constant drama, the composer exposed the discrepancy between moral categories of real life. Music decides and indicates what is moral every time. Over the years, Shostakovich's ethics manifests itself in his music more and more nakedly, openly, with preaching fervor. A series of essays is being created in which reflection on moral categories predominates. Everything is getting bigger. The need to sum up, which inevitably arises in every person, in Shostakovich becomes a generalization through creativity.

Without false humility, he addressed humanity, comprehending the meaning of earthly existence, raised to enormous heights: the genius spoke to millions.

The tension of passions was replaced by a deepening into the spiritual world of the individual. The highest peak of life has been determined. The man climbed, fell, got tired, got up and walked indomitably. Towards the ideal. And the music seemed to compress the main thing from the experience of life with that laconic, touching truth and simplicity that Boris Pasternak called unheard of.

Since the publication of the first edition of the monograph ended, progress has been made.

A collection of works with reference articles is being published, works that previously remained outside the field of view of performers have entered the concert repertoire and no longer require musicological “protection”, new theoretical works have appeared, articles about Shostakovich are contained in most collections on modern music, after the death of the composer, memoirs have increased literature about him. What was done for the first time and became available to the masses of readers is used in some “secondary” books and articles. There is a general turn towards detailed biographical development.

According to distant legends, the Shostakovich family can be traced back to the time of Grand Duke Vasily III Vasilyevich, father of Ivan the Terrible: the embassy sent by the Prince of Lithuania to the ruler of Moscow included Mikhail Shostakovich, who occupied a fairly prominent place at the Lithuanian court. However, his descendant Pyotr Mikhailovich Shostakovich, born in 1808, considered himself a peasant in his documents.

He was an extraordinary person: he was able to get an education, graduate as a volunteer from the Vilna Medical-Surgical Academy with a veterinary specialty, and was expelled for his involvement in the uprising in Poland and Lithuania in 1831.

In the forties of the 19th century, Pyotr Mikhailovich and his wife Maria-Jozefa Yasinskaya ended up in Yekaterinburg (now the city of Sverdlovsk). Here, on January 27, 1845, their son was born, named Boleslav-Arthur (later only the first name was preserved).

In Yekaterinburg P.M. Shostakovich gained some fame as a skilled and diligent veterinarian, rose to the rank of collegiate assessor, but remained poor, always living on the last penny; Boleslav took up tutoring early. The Shostakovichs spent fifteen years in this city. The work of a veterinarian, necessary for every farm, brought Pyotr Mikhailovich closer to the surrounding peasants and free hunters. The family's way of life differed little from the way of life of factory artisans and miners. Boleslav grew up in a simple, working environment; he studied at the district school together with the children of workers. The upbringing was harsh: knowledge was sometimes strengthened with rods. Subsequently, in his old age, in his autobiography, entitled “Notes of Neudachin,” Boleslav Shostakovich titled the first section “Rozgi.” This shameful, painful punishment aroused in him a fierce hatred for the humiliation of man for the rest of his life.

In 1858 the family moved to Kazan. Boleslav was assigned to the First Kazan Gymnasium, where he studied for four years. Active, inquisitive, easily absorbing knowledge, a faithful comrade, with strong moral concepts formed early on, he became the leader of the schoolchildren.

The new symphony was conceived in the spring of 1934. A message appeared in the press: Shostakovich plans to create a symphony on the theme of the country's defense.

The topic was relevant. The clouds of fascism were gathering over the world. “We all know that the enemy is stretching out his paw to us, the enemy wants to destroy our gains on the revolutionary front, on the cultural front, of which we are workers, on the construction front and on all the fronts and achievements of our country,” said Shostakovich, speaking to the Leningrad crowd. composers. - There cannot be different points of view on the topic that we need to be vigilant, we need to be on the alert in order to prevent the enemy from destroying the great gains that we have made from the October Revolution to the present day. Our duty, as composers, is that with our creativity we must raise the country’s defense capability, we must, with our works, songs and marches, help the soldiers of the Red Army defend us in the event of an enemy attack, and therefore we need to develop our military work in every possible way.”

To work on a military symphony, the board of the composer's organization sent Shostakovich to Kronstadt, on the cruiser Aurora. On the ship he wrote down sketches of the first part. The proposed symphonic work was included in the concert cycles of the Leningrad Philharmonic during the 1934/35 season.

However, work slowed down. The fragments did not add up. Shostakovich wrote: “This must be a monumental programmatic piece of great thoughts and great passions. And, therefore, great responsibility. I have been carrying her for many years. And yet I still haven’t found its form and “technology”. The sketches and blanks made earlier do not satisfy me. We’ll have to start from the very beginning.”1” In search of the technology for a new monumental symphony, he studied in detail G. Mahler’s Third Symphony, which was already striking with its unusual grandiose form of a six-part cycle with a total duration of one and a half hours. I.I. Sollertinsky associated the first part of the Third Symphony with a gigantic procession, “opening with a relief theme of eight horns in unison, with tragic ups, with escalations brought to climaxes of superhuman strength, with pathetic recitatives of horns or solo trombones...” . This characteristic, apparently, was close to Shostakovich. The extracts he made from G. Mahler's Third Symphony indicate that he paid attention to the features that his friend wrote about.

Soviet symphony

In the winter of 1935, Shostakovich took part in a discussion on Soviet symphonism, which took place in Moscow for three days, from February 4 to 6. This was one of the most significant performances of the young composer, outlining the direction of further work. He openly emphasized the complexity of problems at the stage of formation of the symphonic genre, the danger of solving them with standard “recipes”, spoke out against exaggerating the merits of individual works, criticizing, in particular, the Third and Fifth symphonies of L.K. Knipper for “chewed language”, wretchedness and primitiveness of style. He boldly asserted that “...Soviet symphony does not exist. We must be modest and admit that we do not yet have musical works that in a detailed form reflect the stylistic, ideological and emotional sections of our life, and reflect them in excellent form... We must admit that in our symphonic music we have only some tendencies towards the formation of a new musical thinking, timid outlines of a future style...”

Shostakovich called for the adoption of the experience and achievements of Soviet literature, where close, similar problems had already found implementation in the works of M. Gorky and other masters of words.

Considering the development of modern artistic creativity, he saw signs of a convergence of the processes of literature and music, which began in Soviet music and a steady movement towards lyrical-psychological symphonism.

For him there was no doubt that the theme and style of his Second and Third Symphonies were a passed stage not only of his own creativity, but also of Soviet symphony as a whole: the metaphorically generalized style had outlived its usefulness. Man as a symbol, a kind of abstraction, left works of art to become an individuality in new works. A deeper understanding of plot was strengthened, without the use of simplified texts of choral episodes in symphonies. The question was raised about the plot nature of “pure” symphonism. “There was a time,” Shostakovich argued, “when it (the question of plotting) was greatly simplified... Now they began to say seriously that it’s not just about the poems, but also about the music.”

Recognizing the limitations of his recent symphonic experiences, the composer advocated expanding the content and stylistic sources of Soviet symphony. To this end, he paid attention to the study of foreign symphonism and insisted on the need for musicology to identify the qualitative differences between Soviet symphonism and Western symphonism. “Of course, there is a qualitative difference, and we feel and sense it. But we do not have a clear concrete analysis in this regard... We, unfortunately, know Western symphonism very poorly.”

Starting from Mahler, he spoke of a lyrical confessional symphony with aspirations into the inner world of a contemporary. “It would be nice to write a new symphony,” he admitted. “It is true that this task is difficult, but this does not mean that it is not feasible.” Trials continued to be made. Sollertinsky, who knew better than anyone about Shostakovich’s plans, during a discussion on Soviet symphony, said: “We await with great interest the appearance of Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony” and explained definitely: “... this work will be at a great distance from the three symphonies that Shostakovich wrote earlier. But the symphony is still in an embryonic state...”

Two months after the discussion, in April 1935, the composer announced: “Now I have a great work in line - the Fourth Symphony... All the musical material I had for this work has now been rejected by me. The symphony is being written anew. Since this is an extremely difficult and responsible task for me, I want to first write several works in chamber and instrumental style.”

In the summer of 1935, Shostakovich was absolutely unable to do anything except countless chamber and symphonic excerpts, which included the music for the film “Girlfriends.”

In the autumn of the same year, he once again began writing the Fourth Symphony, firmly deciding, no matter what difficulties awaited him, to bring the work to completion, to realize the fundamental work that had been promised back in the spring as “a kind of credo of creative work.”

Having started writing the symphony on September 13, 1935, by the end of the year he had completely completed the first and mostly the second parts. He wrote quickly, sometimes even frantically, throwing out entire pages and replacing them with new ones; The handwriting of the keyboard sketches is unstable, fluent: the imagination overtook the recording, the notes were ahead of the pen, flowing like an avalanche onto the paper.

In January 1936, together with the staff of the Leningrad Academic Maly Opera Theater, Shostakovich went to Moscow, where the theater showed its two best Soviet productions - “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” and “Quiet Don”. At the same time, Lady Macbeth continued to be performed on the stage of the branch of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR.

The responses to the tour of the Maly Opera Theater that appeared in the press left no doubt about the positive assessment of the opera “Quiet Don” and the negative assessment of the opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”, which was the subject of the article “Confusion Instead of Music”, published on January 28, 1936. Following it (February 6, 1936), the article “Ballet Falsity” appeared, sharply criticizing the ballet “Bright Stream” and its production at the Bolshoi Theater.

Many years later, summing up the development of Soviet music in the thirties in “The History of Music of the Peoples of the USSR”, Yu.V. Keldysh wrote about these productions and the articles and speeches they provoked: “Despite a number of correct critical comments and considerations of a general principled order, the sharply categorical assessments of creative phenomena contained in these articles were unfounded and unfair.

The articles of 1936 served as a source of a narrow and one-sided understanding of such important fundamental issues of Soviet art as the question of attitude towards the classical heritage, the problem of traditions and innovation. The traditions of musical classics were considered not as a basis for further development, but as a kind of unchangeable standard, beyond which it was impossible to go beyond. Such an approach fettered innovative quests and paralyzed the creative initiative of composers...

These dogmatic attitudes could not stop the growth of Soviet musical art, but they undoubtedly complicated its development, caused a number of collisions, and led to significant shifts in assessments" 1."

The conflicts and biases in the assessment of musical phenomena were evidenced by the heated debates and discussions that unfolded at that time.

The orchestration of the Fifth Symphony is characterized, in comparison with the Fourth, by a greater balance between brass and string instruments, with an advantage in favor of the strings: in Largo there is no brass section at all. Timbre selections are subordinated to significant moments of development, they follow from them, they are dictated by them. From the irrepressible generosity of ballet scores, Shostakovich turned to saving timbres. Orchestral dramaturgy is determined by the general dramatic orientation of the form. Intonation tension is created by a combination of melodic relief and its orchestral framing. The composition of the orchestra itself is also steadily determined. Having gone through various tests (up to the quadruple composition in the Fourth Symphony), Shostakovich now stuck to the triple composition - it was established precisely from the Fifth Symphony. Both in the modal organization of the material and in the orchestration without breaking, within the framework of generally accepted compositions, the composer varied, expanded the timbre possibilities, often through solo voices, the use of piano (it is noteworthy that, having introduced it into the score of the First Symphony, Shostakovich then did without piano for Second, Third, Fourth symphonies and again included it in the score of the Fifth). At the same time, the importance of not only timbral dissection increased, but also timbral unity, the alternation of large timbral layers; in the climactic fragments, the technique of using instruments in the highest expressive registers, without bass or with insignificant bass support (there are many examples of such in the Symphony), prevailed.

Its form signified ordering, systematization of previous implementations, and the achievement of strictly logical monumentality.

Let us note the formative features typical of the Fifth Symphony, which persist and develop in Shostakovich’s further work.

The importance of the epigraph-introduction increases. In the Fourth Symphony it was a harsh, convulsive motive, here it is the harsh, majestic power of the chorus.

In the first part, the role of exposition is highlighted, its volume and emotional integrity are increased, which is also emphasized by the orchestration (the sound of strings in the exposition). The structural boundaries between the main and secondary parties are overcome; it is not so much they that are opposed, but significant sections both in the exposition and in the development." The reprise changes qualitatively, turning into the climax of dramaturgy with the continuation of thematic development: sometimes the theme acquires a new figurative meaning, which leads to a further deepening of the conflict-dramatic features of the cycle.

Development doesn't stop in code either. And here thematic transformations continue, modal transformations of themes, their dynamization by means of orchestration.

In the finale of the Fifth Symphony, the author did not give an active conflict, as in the finale of the previous Symphony. The ending was simplified. “With a great breath, Shostakovich leads us to a dazzling light in which all sorrowful experiences, all tragic conflicts of the difficult previous path disappear” (D. Kabalevsky). The conclusion sounded emphatically positive. “I put a person with all his experiences at the center of the concept of my work,” Shostakovich explained, “and the finale of the Symphony resolves the tragically tense moments of the first movements in a cheerful, optimistic way.” .

Such an ending emphasized classical origins, classical continuity; in its lapidary style the tendency was most clearly manifested: when creating a free type of interpretation of the sonata form, it did not deviate from the classical basis.

In the summer of 1937, preparations began for a decade of Soviet music to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. The symphony was included in the decade program. In August, Fritz Stiedri went abroad. M. Shteiman, who replaced him, was not able to present a new complex composition at the proper level. The execution was entrusted to Evgeny Mravinsky. Shostakovich barely knew him: Mravinsky entered the conservatory in 1924, when Shostakovich was in his last year of study; Shostakovich's ballets in Leningrad and Moscow were performed under the baton of A. Gauk, P. Feldt, and Yu. Faier, and the symphonies were staged by N. Malko and A. Gauk. Mravinsky was in the shadows. His individuality was formed slowly: in 1937 he was thirty-four years old, but he did not often appear at the Philharmonic console. Closed, doubting his abilities, this time he accepted the offer to present Shostakovich’s new symphony to the public without hesitation. Remembering his unusual determination, the conductor himself could not explain it psychologically.

“I still can’t understand,” he wrote in 1966, “how I dared to accept such an offer without much hesitation and reflection. If they did it for me now, I would think for a long time, doubt and, perhaps, in the end I would not make up my mind. After all, not only my reputation was at stake, but also - what is much more important - the fate of a new, unknown work by a composer who had recently been subjected to severe attacks for the opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” and withdrew his Fourth Symphony from performance.”

For almost two years Shostakovich's music was not heard in the Great Hall. Some of the orchestra members treated her with caution. The orchestra's discipline decreased without a strong-willed chief conductor. The Philharmonic's repertoire drew criticism from the press. The leadership of the Philharmonic has changed: the young composer Mikhail Chudaki, who became the director, was just getting into the business, planning to involve I.I. Sollertinsky, composing and music-performing youth.

Without hesitation M.I. Chudaki distributed responsible programs among three conductors who began active concert activity: E.A. Mravinsky, N.S. Rabinovich and K.I. Eliasberg.

Throughout September, Shostakovich lived only with the fate of the Symphony. I put off composing music for the film “Volochaevsky Days”. He refused other orders, citing being busy.

He spent most of his time at the Philharmonic. Played the Symphony. Mravinsky listened and asked.

The conductor’s agreement to make his debut with the Fifth Symphony was influenced by the hope of receiving help from the author during the performance process and relying on his knowledge and experience. However, “the first meetings with Shostakovich,” we read in Mravinsky’s memoirs, “dealt a strong blow to my hopes. No matter how much I questioned the composer, I was unable to “get” anything out of him.”2 ». The painstaking method of Mravinsky initially alarmed Shostakovich. “It seemed to me that he delved too much into details, paid too much attention to particulars, and it seemed to me that this would harm the overall plan, the overall design. Mravinsky subjected me to a genuine interrogation about every tact, about every thought, demanding from me an answer to all the doubts that arose in his mind.”

Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich is the greatest musician of the 20th century. No one in contemporary art is comparable to him in terms of the acuteness of perception of the era, responsiveness to its social, ideological and artistic processes. The strength of his music lies in its absolute truthfulness.

With unprecedented completeness and depth, this music captured people's life at turning points - the revolution of 1905 and the First World War, the Great October Socialist Revolution and the Civil War, the formation of a socialist society, the fight against fascism in the Great Patriotic War, as well as the problems of the post-war world... Shostakovich's work became both a chronicle and a confession of generations who aspired to a great future, were shocked and survived tragic trials.

“Music was not a profession for him, but a need to speak out, to express what people lived in his age, in his homeland. Nature rewarded him with special sensitivity of hearing: he heard people crying, he caught the low hum of anger and the heart-cutting groan of despair. He heard the earth hum: crowds marched for justice, angry songs boiled over the suburbs, the wind carried the tunes of the outskirts, the penny accordion squealed: a revolutionary song entered the strict world of symphonies. Then the iron clanged and grinded on the bloody fields, the whistles of strikes and the sirens of war howled over Europe. He heard groans and wheezes: a thought was muzzled, a whip cracked, the art of jumping at the boot of power was taught, begging for a handout and standing on his hind legs in front of the policeman... Once again the horsemen of the Apocalypse rode into the blazing sky. Sirens howled over the world like the trumpets of the Last Judgment... Times changed... He worked all his life.” Not only in music.