Question by freddie: why is Shostakovich so scary?
I’m listening to the 4th symphony; it’s a beautiful composition but it’s nearly 11 at night and i’m frightened by it!
it’s like tiny bugs are crawling all over a creaky wooden floor, is the impression i’m getting from the music right now. do you ever get that feeling from music?
this one is also pretty “scary”
http://www.last.fm/music/Dmitri+Shostakovich/_/Chm+Sym+for+Strs%2C+Op.110a%3A+Allegro%3A+Attacca
Answers and Views:
Answer by brian777999
Shostakovoch lived in scary times ; the Stalinist purges. He saw many of his friends and relatives taken away , never to be seen again. His music was denounced twice and he must have been expecting a knock on the door at any time.
I am not surprised that this feeling of fear and anger crept into much of his music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Shostakovich
Read all the answers in the comments.
What do you think?
Whippersnapper says
go to bed mate
musicyh says
You've got some great answers here. However, some of his music can also be very poignant or funny too. Take a listen to his 2nd piano concerto:
1st movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTSr2oz15Xk&fe…
2nd movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1DnMFOSJhc&fe… (I prefer this interpretation)
3rd movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JkOaTYvd5w&fe…
The 1st and 3rd movements are so clearly making fun of the government, yet I don't think they noticed it. Probably thought it's some patriotic march or something. The 2nd movement has to be one of the most poignant and sublime works of the classical genre. It's so heart-wrenching that it makes me cry. It really shows life under the Soviet regime during those times – dark, lonely, hopes dashed repeatedly. Shostakovich's personal and emotional response to the Soviet rule clearly shows here.
del_icious_manager says
As the two previous contributors have correctly said, Shostakovich lived in very scary times. He was only 11 at the time of the Russian Revolution and so lived his entire adult life under the oppressive Communist regimes of Lenin, Stalin (most scary of all), Khrushchov and Brezhnev. More than once Shostakovich was hauled over the coals for not conforming to Socialist ideals. The Fourth Symphony you have been listening to was written in 1936, yet it was pulled from rehearsals and not played publicly until 1961. It was written just after Shostakovich had been mercilessly mauled by the Soviet authorities for his opera 'A Lady Macbeth from Mtsensk' (one of his masterpieces) and he had been advised that to let the première of this daring and 'scary' work would land him in even bigger trouble. He waited until the comparitively lenient times of Khrushchov before allowing it to be performed. His First Violin Concerto and Tenth Symphonies similarly had delayed premières until after Stalin's death in 1953.
It is said on good authority that so frightened was Shostakovich that one day he would be arrested and sent to a labour camp that he kept a small packed suitcase under his bed at all times in case the KGB came knocking on the door in the middle of the night.
Shostakovich was very courageous, however, because he endelessly inserted hidden codes into his music which ridiculed the Soviet regime. Luckily for him, most of the party lackies were too stupid to recognise them.
No-one who has not lived in such awful circumstances can possibly imagine what it must have been like to exist and work in these circumstances. It is little wonder that so much of Shostakovich's music might be perceived as 'scary' by some.
Mia says
It is probably scary because he spent a lot of his life scared. He was so worried that his criticized music would lead to his arrest or even murder. I really love hearing the influences in his great music.