Shostakovich in Context

This volume presents recent research into Dmitri Shostakovich's life (1906-1975) and work by leading British, American, Russian, and Israeli scholars. It is occasioned by the ever-growing interest in a composer whose significance in and for the history of twentieth-century music is, as Richard Taruskin has commented, immense, possibly unparalleled and above all, continuing. The authors of the thirteen articles are musicologists, Russian literature specialists, biographers, and cultural historians, whose diverse fields of expertise are reflected in the interdisciplinary nature of the materials collected here. The collection presents Shostakovich and his legacy in a variety of different contexts and its interdisciplinary nature will also serve to open up discussion. In this way, it breaks from previous tendencies to focus on the purely extrinsic qualities of the composers musical oeuvre, which has so often been interpreted in terms of autobiography. The chapters span the composers entire career and contain substantial amounts of new information about Shostakovich and his musical legacy. This Interdisciplinary Volume Seeks To Present Shostakovich And His Music In Many Different Contexts, In Order To Establish A More Rounded Picture Of The Composer's Legacy. The Authors Of The Articles Collected Here Are Leading Scholars In Russian Music And Literature Who Have Drawn On Unpublished Correspondence, Archival Sources, And The Latest Research To Present Important New Information About Each Decade Of Shostakovich's Career.--jacket. Shostakovich And Us / Richard Taruskin -- Shostakovich In Harmony: Untranslatable Messages / David Fanning -- Shostakovich's Literary Style / Svetlana Savenko -- Shostakovich, Lasm, And Asafiev / Laurel E. Fay -- Shostakovich As Reflected In His Letters To Ivan Sollertinsky / Lyudmila Mikheyeva-sollertinskaya -- Between 'social Demands' And The 'music Of Grand Passions': The Years 1934-1937 In The Life Of Dmitry Shostakovich / Inna Barsova -- Shostakovich And Kuchonykh -- Shostakovich's Eighth: C Minor Symphony Against The Grain / David Haas -- Shostakovich's Anti-formalist Rayok: A History Of The Work's Composition And Its Musical And Literary Sources / Manashir Yakubov -- A New Insight Into The Tenth Symphony Of Dmitry Shostakovich / Nelly Kravetz -- Shostakovich And Britten: Some Parallels / Lyudmila Kovnatskaya -- Shostakovich, Tsvetaeva, Pushkin, Musorgsky: Songs And Dances Of Death And Survival / Caryl Emerson -- Shostakovich And Chekhov / Rosamund Bartlett. Edited By Rosamund Bartlett. Papers, Given Principally At A Conference Held At The University Of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1994, Entitled Shostakovich, The Man And His Age; Four Papers Translated From Russian Were Given At A Shostakovich Conference Held In St. Petersburg, 1994. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.