What is Shostakovich's greatest symphony?

There are four main types.

Xiao 1 5 7 1 1

It mainly introduces three parts.

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Leningrad symphony orchestra

That is, the Seventh Symphony in C Major (OP.60) by Dmitry Shostakovich (1906- 1975).

Leningrad Symphony Orchestra is a great legend in the history of world music. 194 1 year, Hitler's fascist troops invaded the Soviet union in lightning speed. In just five months, Leningrad was surrounded and reached Moscow. During the hundreds of days that Leningrad was besieged, the city was bombarded by a large number of shells every day. The people of Leningrad mobilized and fought a bloody battle with fascism. The cruelty of war is unimaginable ... In that extremely difficult and dangerous period, the great Russian composer Shostakovich began to write this immortal musical poem in a very difficult state in order to express this period with music and praise the indomitable spirit of the people. He said: "I want to tell people all over the world that we are still alive and we will win!" " "When the composer finished this great work, it was very difficult to play. First of all, the enemy's artillery bombardment, hundreds of tons of bombs bombardment every day, security is difficult to guarantee; Then there is the shortage of musicians. At that time, almost all the people in the city were soldiers and musicians. Followed by the performance venue, the enemy is only a few kilometers away from the city. In order to inspire the anti-fascist people all over the world, the Soviet people have made great efforts. The Soviets sent people to the front to find out the musicians of the orchestra one by one, safely withdrew to the city for secret rehearsal, repaired the performance venue, and even transported the music by military plane. Before the concert, the Soviet high command issued an order to hit the enemy hard. At that time, the artillery of the Soviet position roared and bombarded the enemy with all the artillery. Strong gunfire brought a brief silence. At this moment, the music began! People walked out of the bunker and took to the streets to listen to the music played on the radio. People are deeply encouraged by this great musical epic and have established the confidence to win.

This symphony embodies the people's belief in victory and the anti-fascist war and has won great repercussions in the world. At that time, many famous conductors hoped to get the command of the American premiere. After the balance, NBC gave the honor to the conductor toscanini. This is because of toscanini's clear-cut anti-fascist stance and musical authority. At that time, in order to bypass the German blockade, the score of this symphony was made into a microfilm and transported to the United States by plane.

On July 1942, new york held a grand premiere. Then, thousands of radio stations around the world played the concert. Since then, the world has seen the tenacious fighting spirit and strong perseverance of the Soviet people against fascism through this great musical work.

Since then, the anti-fascist war has entered the stage of decisive battle victory.

Structurally, the seventh symphony is relatively long (the whole song is about 70 minutes, which is the longest of all his symphonies). And there is some "imbalance", and the first movement alone accounts for nearly one-third of the whole song. According to an article by Shostakovich in 195 1, this is a symphony with Leningrad as the title, and each movement has its own theme, namely, War, Remembrance, Native Yuan Ye and Victory. If we listen to these topics, it is really quite easy to have a * * * with the author. In other words, the theme of the seventh movement is quite clear, almost letting people know what the composer wants to express. Therefore, some critics think that "this song is not so much a symphony as a big suite", which can be said to be a very accurate footnote to the characteristics of this symphony.

Allegro moderato in the first movement. First of all, it presents the "human theme" and depicts the peaceful life before the war. The violin plays the theme clearly and smoothly, followed by the long woodwind monologue that is common in Shostakovich's works. Suddenly, the distant drums shattered the dream of peace, and a "War Theme" appeared in the March.

The second movement is a slightly faster medium board and three scherzo movements. According to legend, the composer described this movement as follows: "... this is a memory of happy events and happy episodes in life." But the sad mood hangs over this memory ... "The main part of the movement consists of the main music concept of the first violin playing easily, the strong rhythm background of stringed instruments and the elegant accessory music concept of oboe. The vice music of oboe was replaced by bass clarinet, and the bass accompaniment of harp and flute was very distinctive. This movement can be said to be the most Shostakovich-style music.

The third movement: Adagio to Adagio. Since ancient times, people have said: "Russians have deep love for their motherland and land." This action is to show "respect for the beauty of nature", just like the lush and endless virgin forest on the Russian land.

The fourth movement should not be too fast. Allegro steering center plate. After the timpani showed a brief lead-in part similar to Beethoven's "fate theme" motivation, the theme was displayed in unison by stringed instruments, and then entered the main part of free development. According to Shostakovich's original intention, this final movement is to show "the coming of victory". Finally, the brass instrument played the first movement "Human Theme" powerfully. After the overwhelming triumph, the four-sided timpani played the central theme of the movement and the whole song ended.

When a composer is engaged in creation, there are always some special "situations" to stimulate his creative inspiration, whether it is a major event in society at that time, an emotional connection between relatives and friends, or his own meditation on life experience or life, etc. As listeners, we can always look for * * * sounds and feelings from what they want to express, or "review" their creative situation from music. Shostakovich's seventh symphony, Leningrad, naturally has this nature. However, due to his environment at that time, this original simple creative motivation became more complicated.

Leningrad, formerly known as Petrograd, was renamed St. Petersburg in memory of Lenin. Since 1703 was founded, Leningrad has been the capital of the Russian empire and the political, economic and cultural center. Many artists have been active here. When the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union, Shostakovich lived in the city and personally assisted at the front. The first three movements of the Seventh Symphony were completed here in Chengwei. As for the last movement, as the Germans cut off all external contacts in Leningrad in September, 194 1, Shostakovich evacuated to kuibyshev with his family and finished the work at the end of the same year. Judging from the time of creation, the Seventh Symphony was indeed born in Leningrad.

The title of this song "Leningrad" has roughly told us the theme it wants to present: it was written for Leningrad, which was besieged by Nazi legions during World War II. However, the publication of Shostakovich's so-called memoir Testimony in 1979 added complicated factors to the original simple writing motivation, such as: "When I was writing this theme (note: referring to the theme of" invasion "in the first movement, the melody of drumming repeatedly), I was actually thinking about another enemy who destroyed human nature". However, because the contents of this memoir are controversial, the contents stated in it can be used as one of the references for our study of Shostakovich, but we don't have to accept them all. In a word, no matter what Shostakovich's real motivation is, the German siege of Leningrad is definitely the most important catalyst for his creation of the Seventh Symphony.

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Symphony No.11 in G minor-"1905" (Op. 103)

This symphony was written for the 40th anniversary of the great October socialist revolution.

1957 10 the Soviet national symphony orchestra performed in Moscow for the first time, with H. Rakhlin as its conductor; The music score was first published by Music Publishing House and Soviet Composers Publishing House in 1958, and the piano music score adapted by the author was published by Music Publishing House in 1958. 1958 symphony won Lenin Prize.

Band composition: piccolo (= flute III), 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 1 English clarinet (= oboe III), 2 clarinets, 1 bass clarinet (= clarinet III), 2 bassoons, 1 bass clarinet (= Xylophone, celestite, chime, harp (2-4), first violin (16-20), second violin (14- 18), viola (12-/kloc-0) (Playback time -58 minutes)

Many characteristics of this symphony are inherited from the composer's previous symphonies, and at the same time, it reflects something new to a great extent, that is, the composer's experience of vocal music genres (oratorio, chorus and chorus poem) in the past ten years.

If you don't count the second and third symphonies of a single movement (an experimental work that was not performed on the music stage at that time), then the eleventh symphony is Shostakovich's first symphony with a title. A veritable symphony with a title, that is, the title published by the composer in the manuscript of the symphony (the symphony and its movements have names), rather than some remarks that were not written into the manuscript (and the title of the first movement of the seventh symphony is even the plot, but

1905 The theme of the revolution has aroused Shostakovich's interest before: it is embodied in the long chorus (in the words of revolutionary poets). The core poem of the divertimento is 1 9th of the month. Its theme material was used in the eleventh symphony. In addition, Shostakovich also used1the theme of Russian revolutionary songs from the 9th century to the early 20th century-"Listen, Prisoner, You Sacrifice, Crazy, Tyrant", Warsaw revolutionary songs and the operetta "Jin Ping Mei in Asia" selected from the famous Soviet composer T sviridov. The plot took place in the early 20th century. This shows that the title of this symphony is certain. It is not only the name of symphony and its movement, but also the general meaning (and specific words) of vocal melody used in symphony.

The Eleventh Symphony is essentially a new type of title symphony, which combines vivid picture modeling, profound expressive force and extremely complete symphony drama.

In the first movement, Adagio (G minor) embodies the dark and depressing image of the palace square and becomes the embodiment of czarist Russia, autocratic monarchy, barracks and prisons.

The theme at the beginning of the symphony can be called "Palace Square Theme". It is played by a string with a mute (assisted by a harp) at the same time with the weakest sound in the five octaves.

This theme is very unique in mode, which creates an overall image of "space with temperature" and "indifference", and at the same time creates a feeling of melancholy, pain and depression. Some have the theme of mechanical timpani and war signal at the same time (setting a silent trumpet on the background of a small drum to make the scene concrete).

The theme of timpani is based on the three notes and the fourth note in Shostakovich minor (flat C in G minor instead of the usual original C key). These tones, which use the scales I, III and IV, are also of great significance in the later movements of the symphony.

The sum total of the whole description theme-"the theme of the Palace Square" and its theme components-appears repeatedly (with change marks). Then there is a new variation on the theme of "Palace Square", such as the recitation of prayer, and finally the transition to the second part of the first movement according to the melody of the song "Listen".

Let's look at the first paragraph of this song (the word of H Gorz-Miller).

Autumn night is dark, like the treachery of a tyrant, like his conscience. Darker than this night is the gloomy ghost of the prison rising in the fog. The sentries around are walking lazily step by step in the dead of night, and sometimes they hear a long, melancholy voice, like moaning and listening ... (The chorus only sings one word "listen" in each paragraph)

The melody (in A flat major) is played by the flute in the symphony, and its short chorus ("listening")-played by the bass horn and trombone.

The appearance of the song is very natural, not accidental: at the beginning of its melody, there is a repetition (octave triplet), which comes from a similar repetition of a sound in the theme of the timpani (this theme continues to be played as the background while singing).

After the theme prompt of "Palace Square", the melody of the song "Listen" appeared again-this time played with a silent trumpet. In addition, if the whole melody of the song remains unchanged in the first sentence, then when the composer repeats it now, there will be a more vivid climax, and then there will be a free expansion of the song motivation. Finally, a new song, Prisoner (H. Ogarev's word):

The night is deep, seize the opportunity! The prison wall is impregnable, and two iron locks lock the gate.

The melody is played by cello and double bass, and then repeated by flute and clarinet. Playing at the same time as the melody is the motivation to "listen" to this song.

Since then, the previous theme materials have repeatedly appeared in compressed form, but in the opposite order: first, the song "Listen" (Bassoon) was opened, and then the theme of "Palace Square" and the theme of timpani, signal and prayer recitation (the signal melody was repeated violently: the melody was played by two trumpets, and the second trumpet entered a bar later than the first trumpet, five degrees lower, forming two cannons).

The first movement ended with two gentle shouts of the chorus of the song "Listen" played by the trumpet. The symmetry of five voices in free processing is the musical basis of the first movement. If the sum of the initial themes (theme of palace square, theme of timpani, signal and prayer recitation) is marked with A, the melody of the song "Listen" is marked with B, and the passage of the song "Prisoner" is marked with C, then the overall schematic diagram of the whole first movement is: ABCBA. In this case, the symmetry of musical form once again emphasizes the limitation, daze and depressed character of the basic image of this movement.

The second movement, Allegro (G minor), is the central movement of the work in terms of its dramatic significance, and the activities of the main plot of the work are carried out. For this allegro, the first movement of the symphony can be regarded as a very unfolding prelude.

Formally speaking, the second movement is a sonata allegro with very free interpretation (no reproduction). The second movement is clearly divided into two halves, separated from each other by the statement of the theme of the palace square in the previous movement. The first half of Allegro (Presentation Department) is the image of people marching, their petition to the czar, and the second half is the answer of autocratic monarchy to this kind of petition crime.

After that, like the last few bars of the first movement, the sound of strings stopped, only the sound of brass music set off by the harp. Finally, the chorus "Listen" (trumpet) quieted down, and the second movement began with the rapid movement of viola, cello and double bass.

This "whirlwind" theme can be regarded as a turbulent "sea of people" theme. B-flat, G-flat and C-flat.

A few bars later, on the background of the theme of "whirlwind", another more singing theme (played by clarinet and bassoon) was stated. It is not difficult to see that according to the outline, the new theme is similar to the "background" theme, but its expression uses a large sound value and a natural minor commonly used in Russian folk songs (no degradation).

This theme is quoted by Shostakovich from his chorus poem "January 9th", in which the lyrics of this melody are: "Well, you, the czar, our master, look around: the servants of the czar make us unable to live and can't stand it" (in the symphony, the melody changes a little: every sentence is repeated, which strengthens the overall scope, and the structure of Russian folk songs is A+A+B+. The folk style of the theme is obvious: its tone is similar to the melody of Russian folk instruments. With this tone, Shostakovich realized the tradition of music in a new way.

Variations with rich themes form two big waves, strengthening and weakening, which are in line with the main and auxiliary parts of sonata presentation. At the end of the first wave, the trumpet whispered a new theme, which was also borrowed from the chorus poem January 9. This theme unveiled the long poem, and its lyrics are: "Take off your hat!" " This theme is of great significance in this symphony and has become one of its leading themes. Its initial appearance seems to herald a sad event.

Judging from the above two parts (The Waves), the first part uses the main theme (G minor), and the second part, "Be kind to you, Tsar, our master" in that theme uses a new tonality (B minor), which is equivalent to the deputy part of the presentation part. -The structure of the main part and the auxiliary part uses the same theme material, which is rare in the music of18th century, but rare in the music of19th century.

At the beginning of this part, the first and second violins of the theme song are played three times in parallel. In that long chorus poem-"For your own good, Tsar ..." is also stated in parallel for three times, which is unique to folk songs. In symphonies, this factor is most associated with low requests and expressive voices.

The second wave of climax gained more power than the first wave, and then, Yuan Jiao and Da Ti made a new and resolute variant of the motivation of "taking off their hats".

This motivation was repeated by different musical instruments. The theme of "For your own good, Tsar ……" gradually subsided, and then the theme of the court (A minor) appeared. The theme of woodwind performance is callousness. Then there is its "answer sentence"-the theme of the timpani and the signal of the trumpet (the last two are stated by Cannon, just like the end of the first movement, but Cannon is more compressed in time and narrower in interval-three degrees).

After the signal, the drums suddenly invaded. The core tragedy begins: the terrible machine of violence and death begins. The fugue theme (A minor) played by cello and double bass is the strongest. In the first few sections of the theme, three different tones are always used: minor, I, III and lower IV. Like the timpani theme, the fugue theme is also reproduced from there. )

The strong strengthening of fugue led to the main climax. In the process of several bars, only the sound of small drums, supplemented by the percussion of big drums and gongs, was heard, and then the theme of the Palace Square played by the whole band was "dumped" on the audience's head.

The theme has become almost unrecognizable. That is, in essence, the other side has unfolded: cold and darkness have become crazy-cruel and bloody. This theme was suddenly interrupted, and the timpani played the fugue theme motivation (based on the above-mentioned three notes) with the greatest strength (on the background of other percussion instruments). Have the illusion of firing a gun ...

Once again, the theme of the palace square, once again the fireworks, once again the madness, blood flowed all over the square-then at the same time, the fireworks exchanged with each other, and the whole band played the leading theme of "taking off the hat" twice.

"Paipao" came to an abrupt end. The vibrato of strings gives the theme sound of Palace Square the weakest (in the theme of G minor). Its shape is close to the original, but it is new after all: it seems to hear the chorus of human voices and cry in a low voice here. On the background of string vibrato, the signal of trumpet, the recitation of prayer and the melody of the changed song "Listen" flashed by. This movement ends with the original style of timpani theme.

In the whole knot of the whole movement, fugue and the interlude that reached its climax after it play the role of the middle part of Allegro sonata, but in terms of its image content and formal position, it is similar to the "invasion interlude" in the seventh symphony in many ways. However, due to the intention stated in the title, there is no third part of the main part-the reproduction part in the sonata form, and the whole movement consists of two halves. However, the ending part) plays the role of the reproduction part to some extent. Go back to that theme (G minor), but the theme material is not from the presentation of Allegro, but from the first movement of the symphony. It is important that the theme of the first movement is played in different tonality (especially in large tonality). At this time, at the end of the second movement, there is a theme: the original theme turns to a tonality, which is the characteristic of the reproduction department of classical sonata.

The above situation reminds us once again that the first two movements of a symphony (each music chapter has its own form) should be regarded as a unified composition structure and a unique small (two movements) suite in the big (four movements) suite. We have mentioned the significance of the independent prelude of the first movement, and its theme materials (especially the theme of the palace square) later played an important role in the sonata Allegro, and finally occupied a dominant position.

The small divertimento in the big divertimento can also be seen in Shostakovich's other works (such as the prelude and fugue in the five-movement quintet). In the music literature, we can see an independent suite of two movements. The first (slow) movement is a prelude to the sonata Allegro (scriabin's fourth sonata). Moreover, in some works, we can also see the tendency that the reappearance part and the ending part of the sonata merge. However, despite all kinds of inheritance, the structure of the first two movements of the eleventh symphony (whether viewed separately or together) is perfect and original, which is mechanically derived from the intention of the title of the work.

The third movement, Adagio (G minor)-a funeral song for the victims who were shot on 1 9.

This form of Adagio trilogy (compressed copy). The melody of the famous revolutionary funeral song "You Sacrifice" is the foundation of both ends, and the middle part provides another theme material, which was written by the composer in the spirit of funeral songs and singing revolutionary songs.

Allegro begins with two low chords (plucked strings), and then, these two high chords fade like the low vibrato of the previous movement before the end of a stringed instrument. Then the cello and double bass played the theme of a dark prelude in a dull and intermittent way (vibrato). After a few bars, it became the background of the melody "You Sacrifice" played by Viola (where there is silence and weak voice). Close to the strength of human voice and its timbre in this range.

The composer kept the melody unchanged for the whole 32 bars. The accompaniment part contains Shostakovich's typical low-key sound level, which darkens the color and makes the feeling of sadness stronger (this is meaningful for the unity of the symphony, and the first three sounds of the accompaniment part-are still those three sounds, that is, the three sounds that constitute the theme of the timpani in the first movement at the end of the second movement.

After the melody "You Sacrifice" was played for the first time, it started for the second time. But here, the composer only kept the original three bars, and then developed the theme motivation in a new way, making it have the characteristics of personal melody style, making the melody line wider and the personal tone more sad.

Similarly, the melody of the song "Listen" was originally the same in the first movement, and then the author's free variant was used. The middle part begins with the chords of the bass brass music and the rhythm of the funeral music (F flat minor). Then play a relatively lively and rhythmic Song tune, which later developed into a eulogy, as if to celebrate the beautiful ideal for which the martyrs gave their lives. Following the melody of ode, as the climax of Adagio's "hat off" theme, it is very natural and psychologically justified. Later, under the background that trumpets and timpani repeatedly made loud sounds, the motivation of adagio prelude appeared again. But now the whole string group plays with the strongest sound. Then each phrase of the song "You Sacrifice" is generated, and finally the song itself (reappearance) is returned-its variation is used in the second sentence (that is, the new variation written by the author is not the original). This time, the reproduction part is very simplified.

The fourth movement "Allegro for Non-Frobo" (B minor -G minor) reflects the answer to the people's revolution of 1 9. In Lenin's words, the belief in the czar was shot at that time. This sport is characterized by high enthusiasm, rapid development and diverse movements.

The form of the finale-the trilogy of free processing, the composer skillfully unified a large number of different melodies. The finale is based on the revolutionary song "Go crazy, tyrant"-"Go crazy, tyrant, fool us and brutally threaten us with prisons and chains; Our strength lies in the spirit. Even if we are afraid of being smashed into pieces, it is shameful to ruin you, tyrant! " At the beginning of the first phrase, brass and bass woodwind play the strongest sound.

Allegro not too fast

The progress of the melody and the rhythm of the song play a major role in the first part, and sometimes there are other themes here. In this climax, horns and trumpets solemnly played the leading theme "Hats off".

The middle part is mainly based on the melody of the revolutionary song "Warsaw Revolutionary Song". Melody (like the melody of the song "Crazy, Tyrant") is not stated all at once, but repeated quickly with a single phrase (stringed instrument).

Then, in this part, the trumpet plays the theme of T. sviridov's light play "Jin Ping Mei in Asia" (in the light opera, this melody is a song, and the workers take to the streets to sing).

This is the only theme of the finale, which seems to reflect the joy of fighting.

In the reappearance department, (the trumpet signal in the first movement of the symphony shows this point) expanded the theme of "Crazy, Tyrant" (the sound length is very long-bass woodwind, brass tube, string), and at this time not only stated the first phrase, but also stated the melody of the whole song:

The signal trumpet and the garden horn are both the theme of the song. Then there is the climax of the theme of the operetta "Jin Ping Mei in Asia" (strings and woodwinds are the strongest), then there is the motivation for the third movement to flash carols, and then there is the signal of trumpet and garden horn (Happy Chapter).

In the main climax of the finale (Moderato), the theme of the people (many instruments of the band are expressed in octave) is very strong, "Be kind to you, Tsar, our master". This is a typical tragic climax of Shostakovich's symphony, which strongly and angrily announces the truth and calls for revenge and struggle. There is nothing better than the melody of crying and pleading at the beginning of the second movement.

The climax was suddenly interrupted. Memories of experienced events will immediately arise in consciousness. The strings gently play the theme of the palace square. This is another feature of Shostakovich's symphony: after the tragic climax, there is a sad and lyrical "hat-off" melody, but unlike the first few words that have appeared in the symphony more than once so far, the whole long melody is like the beginning of a long chorus poem of 1 9/month.

Then end the beginning of the department. The theme of "whirlwind" in the second movement of the symphony is played by the bass clarinet with a strong voice-the whirlwind of people's anger, destroying the tyrant. Cyclone motion is enhanced. On its background, the garden horn loudly played the main theme of "taking off the hat". The Garden also added other musical instruments. The whole dominant theme is expanding more and more, characterized by howling-hero. Time is running out. The people are invincible. They will fight.