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In Reply to: RE: Shostakovich wrote his worst stuff to placate Stalin and the censors posted by Jay Buridan on January 21, 2016 at 17:55:09
Also true, he was very Russian in temperament and outlook. The astringent cynicism, especially when it comes to politics (not appreciated by Stalin); the clever but black humor; the generally gray and gloomy view of life; and yet, at times, the intense and very sincere patriotism, especially cultural patriotism.
To appreciate him fully, you need to be willing to live in that world for a bit. And not worry that he's too tonal for Boulez the revolutionary, and too atonal for Chris the conservative. He finds his own way. So on a frigid night, pick up a Dostoevsky novel, knock down a couple shots of vodka, put on some Shosty, and leave Chris to his California wine cooler and lite entertainment. Za zdorov'ye!
Edits: 01/21/16 01/21/16Follow Ups:
. . . uh-uh - Shostakovich is NOT too atonal for me, not in the least. In fact, I don't know of a single atonal work by Shostakovich - Stalin kept him on the straight and narrow!
Another thing that bothers me with Shostakovich is this whole conceit on the part of some writers and critics with what the music is ABOUT, and how you have to understand the "secret meaning" of the music (which often doesn't have anything to do with the actual music!) in order to appreciate it. ("Oh - Poor Shostakovich! He was under Stalin's thumb, and so he wrote this stupid music to secretly depict a stupid commissar - right under Stalin's nose! He was so clever! And if you know about this, then you're superior to the average listener and you'll appreciate his writing!") That's a big pile of donkey manure, and unfortunately there's a whole academic cottage industry that uses this manure to fertilize its fields.
That reminds me - Richard Taruskin is one of the ring leaders of this kind of "analysis" of Shostakovich's music, and he's just over the hills from me at UC Berkeley. I ought to go over and wring his neck sometime! And don't even get me started about Volkov's "Testimony"! ;-)
If you MUST read about Shostakovich, at least read something factual, such as Laurel Fay's "Shostakovich: A Life".
I have both Volkov's Testimony and Fay's biography and enjoyed both. String Quartets 13 and 14 both employ tone rows (they are my least favorite) though I suppose one wouldn't say they are atonal per se. Highly chromatic - yes.
My appreciation of Prokofiev continues to grow - at one point some years ago I would have placed DSCH above Proko as a composer but no longer. However, in my book, both are truly unique composers with their own voices that are readily apparent in their works.
And I was thinking that he might have employed tone rows (after Stalin was safely out of the way!), but I'd never heard an actual row used in one of Shostakovich's compositions. (So you can infer correctly that I've never heard either the 13th or 14th quartets!) The 13th must be an interesting piece, since, as you say, it uses a tone row (perhaps as a kind of isolated element) and yet is said to be in the key of B-flat minor.
Of course, the first use of a tone row in music (at least that I'm aware of) is the very opening of Liszt's Faust Symphony, even though, like the Shostakovich Quartet, it's written in a definite key (C-minor in this case). So Liszt's use of a 12-tone row precedes Schoenberg's use of it by more than 50 years, but of course, Liszt's developmental procedures really have nothing to do with the way Schoenberg used the row for for his own theories of development and structure. It's also probable IMHO that the row that Liszt came up with would be disallowed by Schoenberg, since Liszt's row is too suggestive of particular keys - something Schoenberg was definitely trying to avoid (even though the row in the Berg Violin Concerto also suggests a key - G minor - too).
Shostakovich: A Life Remembered by Elizabeth Wilson was published by Princeton University Press in 1994 and THAT's the other DSCH bio that I have along with Testimony. Don't have the Fey. Been a while since I read it so when your post mentioned Shostakovich: A Life I immediately made the association with Wilson's tome.
Perhaps the insider's rule for composing in the 12-tone method is "if it sounds good, you ain't doin' it right". Take THAT, second Vienna...
Sure. . . but I can never decide which brand!
Corn and Potato - it's the American way.
They cost next to nothing in the duty free shops, so no worries about reaching any duty free limits. Stoli was the cheapest, I didn't even bother buying that. Some of those you will never see here. But the truth is, imho, good ol' Smirnoff does the trick. ;-)
In Russia I only bought bottles where everything on the label was in Russian, the more obscure the better. The only one that's readily available here is Russian Standard. At home, I don't do "premium" vodka.
BTW, in the Soviet era, there was only one brand in Russia. Ah, the hardships of Communism!
The Lindsays never recorded them :)
.
There is a biography of Richter (tital escapes me) where he talks a lot about living under Stalin. It is a wonder that Shosti and prokoviev were able to write anything under Stalin and Richter, Gilels and many other artists survived. Actually most Russian artists of the time except Richter left Russia for good. And Richter was a homosexual which was punishable by death in Russia
Alan
When I win the PowerBall jackpot, I'm going to move to Russia and become an oligarch! ;-)
Natasha (who cuts my hair, provides me with financial advice, and updates me with the latest news about Russia) has a mother who lives in the Crimea - in an apartment that was once a fortress of one of the Russian Mafia members (three-foot-thick walls, etc.). The government prosecutors were actually able to convict this guy and send him to prison. They then took over this place and subdivided it into apartments - "for the benefit of The People". Perhaps the prosecutor in this case was Putin's gal, Natalia Poklonskaya:
(The current Prosecutor General of the Crimea - who has stated that she is grateful to be living in a country where "the rule of law is respected"!)
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