Question by Aurelia: Do you find Shostakovich’s music Depressing?Is there a secret code in his music for us to decipher?
Do you find Shostakovich’s music Depressing?
I think you have to be in a certain mood to portray its character.
I am currently playing Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue in E minor, Opus 87.
The More I play the Prelude, The more sad it seems.
The fugue, however is quite tricky, the mood is somewhat depressing and rather wistful….
Is Shostakovich’s music is overall a secret code of the oppression of the violence experienced during the war, or just an outlet for depressive feelings? He wrote an opera that almost got him Killed.
Answers and Views:
Answer by Legandivori
Though well known, my former professors of music had little use for his work. They claimed he recycled stuff that was already done and little originality came from his pen.
I tend to agree, rarely listening to his stuff.
Read all the answers in the comments.
What do you think?
Paul says
I know the secret message! "Whistle while you work, Stalin is a jerk…"
del_icious_manager says
Shostakovich's music is littered with hidden (and sometimes not-so-hidden) messages. However, some commentators have stretched this idea too far and have suggested some pretty far-out ciphered messages in Shostakovich's music.
This 5th Symphony, written at a time when he was suffering extreme criticism from Stalin himself, actually contains a quotation from the 4th Symphony which he was forced to withdraw from rehearsal the previous year for fear of upsetting the Communist government even more.
It is said that the short and ferocious scherzo of the 10th Symphony is a musical portrait of Stalin. It is interesting that the Symphony appeared in 1953 very shortly after Stalin's death in March of that year.
Shostakovich's most famous 'cipher' was the D-S-C-H motif used in many works from the Sixth Symphony onwards. In German notation 'S' is E-flat and 'H' is B natural and Shostakovich used it as his musical signature as if writing his name in German (D SCHostakowitsch). One can find this series of four notes in many of his works, although they are used most extensively in the aforementioned 10th Symphony and in the 8th String Quartet.
If one looks at the works Shostakovich wrote before the vicious attack by Stalin on his masterful opera 'The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk' in 1936, I think one would have to agree that the composer's style took a much more conservative direction from the 5th Symphony onwards. It is remarkable that a composer under such pressure and who was forced to write is a watered-down style managed to write as many good works as he did (eg the 8th, 10th, 13-15th symphonies, the 3rd, 5th, 8-15th quartets, the Piano Quintet, 'The Execution of Stepan Razin'). Only in his very last years (when the very ill composer felt he had little to lose) did Shostakovich allow himself to stretch his music language again (such as in the 13th and 15th string quartets, the 14th and 15th symphonies, the music to 'King Lear' and the Viola Sonata).
While it is true that some of Shostakovich's music is dark and brooding, there is a great deal which is not (you have already been provided with links to some of them by earlier answerers). However, even in these cases, there is often a bitter irony behind the music, or a forced optimism. You make the mistake of thinking that this darkness comes from "the oppression of the violence experienced during the war" when, in fact, it was the tyranny suffered under Stalin's rule of terror generally and the troubles he experienced from subsequent governments in the Soviet union that led to this mindset. If anything, the war years saw a decrese in such tyranny, owing to the fact that Stalin and his cronies had other things to worry about other than terrorising their own people.
Peter says
I think labeling all of his music depressing is a little too sweeping of a description. For instance, his 2nd Piano Concerto is full of fun and energy. And his Concertino, which is supposedly a death march for Stalin, is actually pretty fun, which should tell you what he thought of Stalin. I think a lot of music composed in the 20th century may come off as full of negative emotions simply because composers stopped writing so much in strict major modes for an entire piece.
This is not to say some of his music is depressing, and much of it is also satirical. But if you listen to enough of his stuff, I don't think you'll find it all somber.
CHESSLARUS says
Well, first of all, I am not musician but an avid listener of classical music (and other musical styles by the way).
I do not completely agree that Shostakovich music would be regarded as "depressing", to the contrary, if you look for more compositions of this great master of the XX century, you will find works that are the opposite!, festive (as his "Festive overture"), martial and powerful (as his Symphonies 5th and 10th) or even, very romantic and sensual (Waltz No.2 from the Jazz Suite No.2 or the Gadfly Suite for example).
In your case, yes indeed, the prelude and fugues that composed Shostakovich reflects a nostalgic and sad mood, but they are just a part of the whole picture.
Here you are with some links to rejoice your heart:
Festive Overture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGGJMOMaE8w
Symphony No. 5 – 4th movement
Waltz No.2 from the Jazz Suite No.2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmCnQDUSO4I&fe…
Gadfly Suite – Overture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab2FB_dyG-k
Gadfly Suite – Romance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDW4VJGKLAQ&fe…
I hope you enjoy listening to them.
Good luck!