The Legacy Of Dmitri Shostakovich's Music

If you were just a scrawny composer and your city had been hit in the siege in World War II, you probably wouldn’t go on writing the intermezzo of your seventh symphony, but 20th century Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich wasn’t your average man. He was despised by Stalin and the communist party, his music was original and adored by Russia, and he was known as the darling of the Soviet avant garde. In his music and his life, Shostakovich was a great risk taker, and never let any danger he was in affect his music. Dmitri Shostakovich took many risks, a myriad of which were in his music. In the early 1900’s, music began to change. Composers wanted to celebrate the new modernity of Russia. Many wrote pieces with dark, dissonant chords,
In fact, for a long time, the majority of people hated his compositions, especially his opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District. It was greatly criticized by many, including various radio shows and the newspaper Pravda for criticizing the Soviets. At the premiere of Lady Macbeth, Stalin walked out halfway through and said, “That’s a mess, not music.” (Anderson 1146). He may not have liked it because that night, there were too many brass players, or because the conductor tried too hard to make a good impression. Most likely, he did not enjoy the opera because it doesn’t depict a bright, happy, and beautiful life that the Composers’ Union decided music must show. In his fourth symphony, it was greatly criticized because at the end, rather than a victorious sounding choir singing about the greatness of labor like in his previous symphonies, there is a distressing dissonant brass chorus, ending the symphony with eerie, numb, emptiness, rather than a bright vision of the future (Anderson 1376). This was most likely criticized because art during this time was supposed to show the greatness of Russia, and this opera didn’t. It also was not very happy, and this was a time where most people were dealing with several issues such as poverty, lack of food, and living in constant fear of being killed. When the government is causing these problems, they wouldn’t want the people to see more evidence that the
His life was in danger several times, one of which was during the times of Stalin’s purges. Stalin lived in fear of opposition, so whenever he felt his power was in danger, he would execute those he felt threatened by, or send them to labor camps in Siberia. People would be tortured until they named names of who was a threat to Stalin’s power, so they would usually name people they didn’t especially like, or that they overheard making a joke about how the communist party was terrible. Twice, Shostakovich was named. The NKVD (The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) listed him as a saboteur. After a few days, he went to his appointment with his executioner Zakovsky, but over the weekend, Zakovsky had been arrested himself. For a moment, Shostakovich was free, because his executioner was in line to be executed (Anderson 1699). Despite the fact that he had almost been killed, he did not fear anything and went home to his family and continued writing his music. Another example of when he was in danger was when he signed up for military service. He wanted to be useful to his country, and said, “Until now I have known only peaceful work. Now I am ready to take up arms. Only by fighting can we save humanity from destruction.” His job was to stand on the top of the Petrograd conservatory roof and watch of bombs during the Luftwaffe air raids and to extinguish