Shostakovich Dimitri Free Sheet Music, Program Notes, Recordings and Biography

The Composer and the Commissar

On a January evening in 1936, Dmitri Shostakovich, the brilliant 29-year-old star of Soviet music, sat in a box at the Bolshoi Theatre watching a performance of his own celebrated opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. A few boxes away sat Joseph Stalin and his inner circle. Shostakovich watched in growing terror as the dictator grimaced and flinched at his dissonant, powerful music. Two days later, an unsigned editorial appeared in the state newspaper Pravda under the headline "Muddle Instead of Music." It viciously attacked his opera as "formalist" chaos that "quacks, grunts, and growls." In the brutal climate of Stalin's Great Purge, Shostakovich understood this was not a bad review; it was a public denunciation, a potential death sentence. He kept a small suitcase packed by his door, expecting the secret police to arrive at any moment. This terrifying incident became the central crisis of his life, forcing him to create a new musical language—a language of double meanings and coded messages—to survive.

A Petrograd Prodigy

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was born in Saint Petersburg and grew up in the shadow of war and revolution. He was a prodigious musical talent, entering the Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg) Conservatory at age 13. He lived through the hardships of the Russian Civil War, suffering from malnutrition but dedicating himself to his studies. His graduation piece, the Symphony No. 1, composed when he was just 19, was a spectacular success. It was a work of astonishing maturity, wit, and brilliance, and it quickly made him famous both within the Soviet Union and internationally.

In the 1920s, during a period of relative artistic freedom, the young Shostakovich embraced the avant-garde, composing daring and experimental works for the stage and screen, including the satirical opera The Nose. He was a product of his time, a true believer in the new Soviet experiment.

A Soviet Artist's Creative Reply

After the "Muddle Instead of Music" editorial, Shostakovich lived in constant fear. He withdrew his modernist Symphony No. 4 from rehearsal and knew his next work would determine his fate. The result was his Symphony No. 5, which he premiered in 1937. The authorities officially subtitled it "A Soviet Artist's Creative Reply to Justified Criticism." On the surface, it was everything the state wanted: it was grand, lyrical, and ended in a triumphant, brass-filled major key. The premiere was a massive success, receiving a half-hour ovation that left many in tears. It officially "rehabilitated" him.

But beneath the surface, many heard a different message. The symphony is filled with tension, grief, and a sense of brutal, overwhelming force. The finale, in particular, has been described by many as forced and hollow, a "death smile" of rejoicing under duress. This masterful ambiguity would become the hallmark of Shostakovich's style. He had learned to compose music that could satisfy the authorities while conveying a hidden subtext of suffering and defiance to those who knew how to listen.

War, Patriotism, and the "Leningrad" Symphony

When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Shostakovich, who was in his home city of Leningrad (formerly Petrograd), became a symbol of national resistance. He served as a volunteer firefighter and began composing his Symphony No. 7, the "Leningrad." He was eventually evacuated, but a microfilm of the score was smuggled to the West, where it received performances in London and New York, making him an international hero. In August 1942, the symphony was performed in the besieged city of Leningrad itself by a starving orchestra, an event that became a legendary symbol of the city's resilience.

The Second Denunciation and a Secret Catalogue

After the war, the state's grip on the arts tightened once again. In 1948, in what was known as the Zhdanov Decree, Shostakovich was once again viciously denounced for "formalism," along with other great composers like Sergei Prokofiev and Aram Khachaturian. He was stripped of his teaching positions and publicly forced to repent.

For years, he was forced to write patriotic film scores and simple cantatas to make a living. In private, however, he composed what became known as his "desk drawer" works—pieces he knew could not be performed until after Stalin's death. Among these are his First Violin Concerto and his intensely personal string quartets. His fifteen string quartets are often seen as a secret diary of his life, a place where he could express his true feelings without fear of reprisal. The String Quartet No. 8 (1960), dedicated "to the victims of fascism and war," is one of his most powerful and famous works, quoting many of his earlier compositions and saturated with his personal musical motto, the DSCH motif (the notes D, E-flat, C, B in German notation).

Life After Stalin

After Stalin's death in 1953, there was a political "Thaw," and many of Shostakovich's banned works could finally be performed. However, his relationship with the state remained complex. In 1960, he was pressured into joining the Communist Party, an act he deeply regretted and which caused him immense personal anguish. He was no longer in fear for his life, but he remained a public figure, constantly watched and manipulated by the state.

His later works are often bleak, sparse, and preoccupied with death. His Symphony No. 14 is a song cycle on the theme of mortality. His final symphony, the 15th, is an enigmatic work filled with quotations from Rossini's William Tell Overture and Wagner's Ring cycle. Shostakovich died of lung cancer in 1975, a composer who had survived one of history's most brutal regimes. His legacy is still debated—was he a loyal communist, a secret dissident, or simply a survivor?—but his music, with its profound emotional power and moral courage, stands as an essential testament to the struggles and triumphs of the human spirit in the 20th century.

Section 4: References and Further Reading

References and Further Reading

• Fay, Laurel E. Shostakovich: A Life. Oxford University Press, 2000.

• Wilson, Elizabeth. Shostakovich: A Life Remembered. Princeton University Press, 2006.

• Volkov, Solomon. Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich. Translated by Antonina W. Bouis. Harper & Row, 1979. (Note: The authenticity of this work is highly debated but it has been influential).

• MacDonald, Ian. The New Shostakovich. Northeastern University Press, 1990.