Shostakovich Analysis

A Yurodivy, or holy fool, is a person who purposefully “appears unintelligent and unsophisticated” in order to portray injustices going on around them, according to Oxford Dictionary Online. This word comes from Soviet Russia, and represents Shostakovich well. When Shostakovich lived, he seemed to represent the communist party and everything it stood for. After he died, his official obituary in Soviet newspapers showed him as a “faithful son of the Communist Party” (Pravda, 1975). However, his music and rebellious attitude seem to suggest otherwise. In his autobiography, Testimony, he is described as being a yurodivy, or holy fool. And according to Volkov, the author of his autobiography, “The yurodivy has the gift to see and hear what others know nothing about. But he tells the world about his insights in an intentionally paradoxical way, in code. He plays the fool, while actually being a persistent exposer of evil and injustice” (xxv). This especially describes Shostakovich’s music, which is usually superficially happy, but includes very dark undertones. Shostakovich wrote the music for two
This opening is time tested, so Shostakovich knows that it works, and is able to put his own spin on it. Secondly, the music breaks off into a more apprehensive style, leading into the “dead-end” motif, repeating three notes over and over: “A, A, A”. This effectively breaks the music off. Later in the music he creates a militaristic transformation, similar to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture. This leads to a pile-up of sorts, then returns to the beginning, except this time as a lament. This in turn leads to the ultimate dead end, seeming to say “how’s it all come to this, How can we go on?” (18:00). The piece does continue, ending with a solo violin and “ta-da” motif once again, this time it is distant and