Shostakovich and His World (The Bard Music Festival Book 52)

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) has a reputation as one of the leading composers of the twentieth century. But the story of his controversial role in history is still being told, and his full measure as a musician still being taken. This collection of essays goes far in expanding the traditional purview of Shostakovich's world, exploring the composer'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 "Miti" 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 within 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, décor, 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. Dmitrii Shostakovich (1906-75) has a reputation as one of the leading composers of the twentieth century. But the story of his controversial role in history is still being told, and his full measure as a musician still being taken. 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 within 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. 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 examinatino of the choreography, costumes, decor, and music of his ballet, The Bolt, and Gerard McBurney of the musical references, parodies, and quotations ins 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. -- Book cover Pt. 1. 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 -- Response 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. Pt. 2. 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. Edited By Laurel E. Fay. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. The essays in this collection delve into neglected aspects of Shostakovich's formidable legacy covering topics such as the choreography, costumes, décor and music of his ballet, the musical references, parodies and quotations in his operatta, his activities as a pedagogue and the mark it left on his students, and much more. From their first parting in 1923, Dmitrii Shostakovich corresponded with his mother for almost thirty years.