Shostakovich: An Attempt at an Analysis

I promise to offer some less-technical posts in the very near future, but right now I want to do something a bit more demanding, both on myself and you, gentle reader. My viewing of the series of filmed performances of the Shostakovich symphonies by Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra has renewed my long time interest in Shostakovich and just how he achieves the results he does.

I'm starting with the short article in Shostakovich Studies by Yuriy Kholopov titled "Form in Shostakovich's instrumental works" which offers a nice entry point. He mentions that in the Soviet Union the form functional approach of German 19th century theorist Adolf Bernhard Marx was taught to young composers including Dmitri Shostakovich. This kind of approach to classical forms has been long-neglected among Western European theorists but I was lucky enough to have the theorist who revived this approach, William Caplin, as my main theory teacher in graduate school. His book Classical Form (Oxford University Press) is an excellent introduction to the concepts though it only deals with the Classical era.

I want to try to do an analysis of at least part of the Symphony No. 5 by Shostakovich. There has been quite a lot written about this work, though much of it deals with the context and social meaning of the work such as Richard Taruskin's excellent article "Public lies and unspeakable truth: interpreting Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony" which was reprinted in that same volume, Shostakovich Studies. What I want to do is pry into the mechanics of it: just how is the symphony written? What sorts of compositional techniques is Shostakovich using?

Kholopov begins by mentioning that there is certainly a neoclassical or neobaroque influence in Shostakovich's music and we can see this in his quotations of idioms such as the Viennese waltz, Baroque fugue and passacaglia and even a stylized Baroque cadential formula. But he also uses classical forms. After an early experimental phase that we see in his absurdist opera The Nose and in the 2nd and 3rd Symphonies, he turned towards the traditional classical forms such as the symphony and string quartet.

These classical forms are ultimately based on folk song and folk dance with the addition of dialectical development. The basic structural opposition is between song and passage, the structural equivalent to the opposition of consonance and dissonance in harmony. Song or Lied form is typically based on an 8-bar cell with no modulation. A passage (Gang in German) is the opposite of song: it has a loose, flowing character with modulation.

There are three main types of form: song forms, rondo and sonata allegro. In song forms there are no passages or modulations. These often appear as the theme of a larger form. There are three types of rondo which typically has modulatory transitions from one theme to another. In the small rondo there is one secondary theme (ex: Beethoven, op. 31 no. 2/ii). The large rondo has two or more secondary themes (ex: Beethoven op. 2 nos 2 and 3 finales). Finally, the sonata rondo has a development instead of a second secondary theme (ex: Beethoven finale of op. 90).

The most characteristic element of sonata form is the development of a single idea with lots of passages and modulation.

Kholopov uses the following abbreviations which I will also adopt in my analysis:

• MT = main theme
• TR = transition
• ST = secondary theme
• Retr = retransition
• T = tonic
• Mod = modulation
• D = dominant
• Int = introduction
• Con = conclusion or coda
• Dev = development

Within a theme he uses these abbreviations:

• Sen = sentence
• Per = period
• Mid = middle of theme
• Int = introduction

The sentence was actually proposed by Arnold Schoenberg to describe a certain type of theme that contrasts with the period. A sentence is typically an eight-measure structure beginning with a two measure basic idea which may contain more than one motive. This basic idea is repeated. The second half is the continuation which has 2 measures of fragmentation and harmonic acceleration followed by two measures which may involve liquidation ending in a half or full cadence. The period, on the other hand, was recognized much earlier. It consists of a 2 measure basic idea followed by a two measure contrasting idea ending in a half cadence. This is the antecedent. The consequent has the return of the 2 measure basic idea followed by another contrasting idea ending in a full cadence. Caplin adds to these fundamental theme types a third, the small ternary consisting of an exposition, a contrasting middle and a recapitulation.

That is enough introductory discussion, I think? Let's listen to the Symphony No. 5 and in the next post I will begin my analysis.