# Shostakovich:Traditional composer?



## marius

Greetings everyone. I've been researching the great composers and i am currently learning about the Russian masters. I would very much like to know people's opinion, if they have one, on a question i have read in a magazine on music recently. Is Shostakovich's chamber music traditional? Does he conform to tradition?? In fact, what is the tradition of chamber music? is their one?


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## Guest

Wow. I've seen a thread posted on different forums before, but this is the first time I've seen one posted on the same forum!

Or are you just seeing if we're awake?

(P.S., We're awake.)


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## marius

correct SomeGuy, lol. You passed the test, barely.


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## Guest

Yes, I see. Thirty hours it took me!

Well, at least I passed!!


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## Head_case

*Is Shostakovich's chamber music traditional? Does he conform to tradition?? In fact, what is the tradition of chamber music? is their one?*

I'm not sure if there is anything more tedious than having to define every term of a premise, before being able to start off and answer the question. Perhaps that is why there are so few salient responses to your question hmm? 

From a political perspective, or the position of the Communist Party; Shostakovich wasn't sufficiently traditionalist; like Myaskovsky and Prokofiev and Shebalin, all were denounced as formalist. Much of his music was withheld until Stalin's death when times were better, approximately 5 years later.

From any other perspective....what purpose asking a question such as this poses.......is beyond me...!


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## joen_cph

Onno van Rijens site on "Soviet Composers" has a community that
exchanges tons, mega-tons and ultra-tons of information about music in the
USSR, including expert opinions. This includes recordings of lesser-known
works there and references to various pages with detailed info. It is generally
agreed that Shostakovich was very influential and a patriarch over there 
(especially after Stalin took control of the cultural life, and in spite of his censorship
against DSCH), whereas Western contemporary influences are harder to find, 
at least until the 60s. The 20s were a period of experimenting, though, for instance. 
Later, rare cases of Western influences as regards instrumentation or polyphonic, 
sophisticated writing in string quartets, can be found in the works of, say Yuri 
Levitin. He was, however, also a pupil of DSCH.


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## Head_case

Wow Joen. Sorry for the side-track. Have you ever found a recording of Levitin's string quartets btw?


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## joen_cph

I have a couple on LP/MP3, Str4 nr.9 and 10,
and another one with some chamber music etc. 
Recently Vista Vera issued an interesting
CD with chamber works. You are
welcome to contact me further. Check the site, though.


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## Jeremy Marchant

marius said:


> Is Shostakovich's chamber music traditional? Does he conform to tradition?? In fact, what is the tradition of chamber music? is their one?


I believe that Shostakovich reserved the string quartet medium for his most personal utterances. He was writing as part of a tradition of Russian music of which he was, of course, aware even if some of his contemporaries, such as Stravinsky, had decamped elsewhere. The tradition informs the music, but the music is not part of the tradition.

Later composers, Schnittke perhaps, might have used Shostakovich as a starting point, so they push him into the tradition, and from a 2010 perspective you could say he was part of a tradition now extended by contemporary composers. But at the time - for him - it was just his stuff. Perhaps in a few of the early quartets he can be more dispassionate - so the tradition shines through - but overwhelmingly it is person-centred stuff. Whether one warms to that is ultimately personal taste.

Is there a tradition of chamber music? Sorry. Too difficult!


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## Fugue Meister

Jeremy Marchant said:


> I believe that Shostakovich reserved the string quartet medium for his most personal utterances. He was writing as part of a tradition of Russian music of which he was, of course, aware even if some of his contemporaries, such as Stravinsky, had decamped elsewhere. The tradition informs the music, but the music is not part of the tradition.
> 
> Later composers, Schnittke perhaps, might have used Shostakovich as a starting point, so they push him into the tradition, and from a 2010 perspective you could say he was part of a tradition now extended by contemporary composers. But at the time - for him - it was just his stuff. Perhaps in a few of the early quartets he can be more dispassionate - so the tradition shines through - but overwhelmingly it is person-centred stuff. Whether one warms to that is ultimately personal taste.
> 
> Is there a tradition of chamber music? Sorry. Too difficult!


Listen to this guy, he knows what he's talking about.


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## azumbrunn

To respectfully disagree: Every string quartet is traditional in that it is written for four musicians playing two violins, one viola and one Cello. You could make the argument that Beethoven's late quartets were not traditional. But they have become part of the tradition starting almost immediately after publication. If you look back in history you will see that the challenge has been--since Haydn--to avoid falling short of the already achieved. 
Shostakovich certainly did not fall short. He seems to have been a man who felt extremely lonely yet had a strong desire to express himself, hence the strong and personal emotions the quartets are filled with.


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