Shostakovich and his world / edited by Laurel E. Fay.

Other author Fay, Laurel E., editor.
Other author Shostakovich, Dmitriĭ Dmitrievich, 1906-1975.
Format Book
Publication InfoPrinceton : Princeton University Press, ©2004.
Descriptionxvii, 405 pages : illustrations, music ; 24 cm
Subjects
Shostakovich, Dmitriĭ Dmitrievich, 1906-1975.
Composers--Soviet Union. --Biography.

SeriesThe Bard Music Festival Princeton paperbacks
Bard Music Festival series. ^A368770
Contents Part I: Documents. Shostakovich: letters to his mother, 1923-1927 / selected by Dmitrii Frederiks and Rosa Sadykhova ; introduced, and with commentary by Rosa Sadykhova ; translated by Rolanda Norton -- Responses of Shostakovich to a questionnaire on the psychology of the creative process / prepared by Roman Ilich Gruber ; edited and annotated by staff researchers of the Glinka Museum of Musical Culture, Moscow ; translated, with additional notes by Malcolm Hamrick Brown -- Stalin and Shostakovich: letters to a "friend" / Leonid Maximenkov -- "The phenomenon of the Seventh": a documentary essay on Shostakovich's "War" symphony / Christopher H. Gibbs -- Part II: Essays. Shostakovich as industrial saboteur: observations on The Bolt / Simon Morrison -- The Nose and the Fourteenth Symphony: an affinity of opposites / Levon Hakobian ; translated by Dimitri Shapovalov -- Shostakovich and the Russian literary tradition / Caryl Emerson -- Fried chicken in the bird-cherry trees / Gerard McBurney -- Shostakovich and his pupils / David Fanning -- Shostakovich's "twelve-tone" compositions and the politics and practice of Soviet serialism / Peter J. Schmelz -- Listening to Shostakovich / Leon Botstein.
Abstract This collection of essays goes far in expanding the traditional purview of Shostakovich's world, exploring the musician's creativity and art in terms of the expectations--historical, cultural, and political--that forged them. The collection contains documents that appear for the first time in English. Letters that young "Mitia" wrote to his mother offer a glimpse into his dreams and ambitions at the outset of his career. Shostakovich's answers to a 1927 questionnaire reveal much about his formative tastes in the arts and the way he experienced the creative process. His previously unknown letters to Stalin shed new light on Shostakovich's position with the Soviet artistic elite. The essays delve into neglected aspects of Shostakovich's formidable legacy. Simon Morrison provides an in-depth examination of the choreography, costumes, decor, and music of his ballet, The Bolt, and Gerard McBurney of the musical references, parodies, and quotations in his operetta, Moscow, Cheryomushki. David Fanning looks at Shostakovich's activities as a pedagogue and the mark they left on his students' and his own music. Peter J. Schmelz explores the composer's late-period adoption of twelve-tone writing in the context of the distinctively "Soviet" practice of serialism. Other contributors include Caryl Emerson, Christopher H. Gibbs, Levon Hakobian, Leonid Maximenkov, and Rosa Sadykhova. In a provocative concluding essay, Leon Botstein reflects on the different ways listeners approach the music of Shostakovich.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
LCCN 2004104803
ISBN0691120684 (cloth)
ISBN0691120692 (pbk.)

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Music Music Stacks ML410.S53 S568 2004 ✔ Available Place Hold