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J. Daniel Huband
Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony:
A Soviet Artist's Reply...?
The attempt to relate a nonmusical event to a
musical phenomenon creates problems for the
musicologist. Compelled to search beyond the
mere notes on the printed page, one may try to
gain more penetrating insights into a particular
work by scrutinizing historical circumstances
concurrent with the genesis of the music. In the
case ofDmitri Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony,
the social and political background to this piece
has been greatly emphasized.1 Yet could the
efforts to relate the composer's compositional
style to his troubles with the Soviet regime
obscure musical issues? The Fifth Symphony,
frequently viewed by many music historians as
an apologetic musical response to the Pravda
attack on the opera Lady Macbethof the Mtsensk
District, does not present as drastic a change in
musical style as is commonly believed. An
analysis of the four earlier symphonies reveals
that they function importantly in the composer's
evolution as a symphonist; Shostakovich refines
several compositional techniques employed in
these works and incorporates them in the Fifth
Symphony, his first fully mature piece. The
most salient features of the composer's early
works that most clearly relate to his development as a symphonist shall be discussed in this
essay. This process aims to reassess the hypothesis which suggests Shostakovich suddenly
mended his ways in light of official criticism.2
Shostakovich began to compose his First
Symphony in the fall of 1924 as a graduation
piece while a student at the Petrograd
Conservatory. A four-movement architecture
which employs traditional forms can hardly be
considered as innovative, yet the work of a fine
crafstman is evident. Sonata principles guide
1A
representative view of the Fifth Symphony may be found
in Tim Souster's 'Shostakovich At The Crossroads'(Tempo78,
Autumn 1966, pp.2-9) which concludes that 'there can be no
doubt, in this particularcase, as to the fruitfulnessof a political
intervention in the arts'.
2 The views
expressed in Testimony:The Memoirsof Dmitri
Sonata,
op.I2
('October
Schwarz, MusicandMusicalLife in Soviet Russia I9171981, enlarged ed. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
I983), p. 72.
4 A third
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Shostakovich'sFifthSymphony:A SovietArtist'sReply...?
On
22 January
1934
the
premiere
of
created
the Cello
Sonata
(1934),
13
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I96.15s
Dearling,
Symphonies: Portrait
of the Artist as Citizen-Composer', in Shostakovich:the Man
aind His Music, ed. Christopher Norris (Boston: Marion
Boyars, 1982), p.56.
17Hugh
Ottaway, 'Looking Again At Shostakovich 4' Tempo
115 (l)Deceber
1975): 24.
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Shostakovich's
FifthSymphony:A SovietArtist'sReply...?
15
op.cit.,p.172.
either measure 243 or 259. This author prefers the latter, for
the tension created by the development begins to release here
more effectively.
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26
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