Full Name: Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich
Pronunciation: Shoss-ta-kovich
Era: Modern
Years active: 1906-1975
Number of compositions: 147
Number of symphonies: 15
Number of concertos: 6
Number of string quartets: 15
Style:
Good old Shosty is my favorite composer at the moment. He was constantly under threat from Stalin and his cronies and his music reflected this, often hiding a deeper meaning, most famously he frequently uses a melody which spells out his name.
His music is often murky and brooding, with melodies which can take a while to completely hear. In contrast to this his music will ramp up into a manic, aggressive, whirlwind. It is often bitingly sarcastic. A lot of his pieces for orchestra are “big” sounding, using a large number of instruments at once, but his later stuff has a much sparser, cleaner sound.
Because he is a reasonably modern composer (he died in the 1970′s) his music has “interesting” harmonies and melodies – that is, they don’t sound like the archetypal melodies of Beethoven or Mozart, there is much more dissonance. However, he doesn’t do anything crazy like Schoenberg and his boys. It’s definitely more traditional sounding. I think it’s a lot more interesting than all the 19th century romantic composers.
Cello Concerto No. 1, 1st movement
A witty, jaunty melody from the beginning of the first cello concerto. This was written just a bit after Stalin’s death, so Shostakovich was probably feeling (uncharacteristically) cheerful and optimistic about life.
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Chamber Symphony, 1st movement
In contrast, here is a piece which many consider a near suicide note. He wrote this just after he had been forced to join the communist party, and had visited the ruins of Dresden, devastated by the Allies in World War II. The opening notes (which is what the whole movement is built around) are the Shostakovich motif DSCH.
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Symphony no. 10, 2nd Movement
This is another more upbeat movement, but this time it’s in an angry, militaristic style (a style which is pretty common throughout his works).
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