Dmitri Shostakovich was a revolutionary composer known for exploring genres unlike anyone else during his time. Shostakovich was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1906, 16 years before it would be transformed into the Soviet Union. Living in such a socially and politically enigmatic time period in Russia caused Shostakovich to have an extremely unique experience in the life of a composer, and this most definitely shaped his style of composing and it is reflected through every note that pours out of his works. As soon as Dmitri took piano lessons from his mother as a young child, it became obvious that he was compellingly talented at music; playing music that his mother played the lesson before, completely from his memory.
Shostakovich had a wide range of differing pieces, including orchestral works, chamber pieces, piano works, operas, and film music. He was also quite prolific in his endeavors, with 15 symphonies, six concerti, 20 chamber pieces, many piano preludes and fugues, and many more musical enterprises. Shostakovich’s most well-known work is “The Second Waltz, Op. 99, which was music created for the film The First Echelon in 1955.
When he was only thirteen years old, Dmitri was accepted into the prestigious music school, “Petrograd Conservatory”. Upon enrollment, he stayed under the wing of his mentor Alexander Glazunov. Shostakovich had a composition class with his instructor being Maximillian Steinberg. Steinberg was particularly tough on Dmitri, saying that he was undermining his talent on imitating one of his influences, Igor Stravinsky. At the time of Shostakovich’s graduation, for a graduation piece he finished his first symphony, in 1926.
After graduation one of the first thing Shostakovich perused was the International Chopin Piano Competition. Unfortunately, he was suffering from appendicitis during the competition, and according to Dmitri it affected him negatively and causing him to lose. He also blamed his loss on the fact that the judges were all Polish, and they had a prejudice against him. Despite these facts, he managed to get an honorable mention at least. After that pesky appendix was removed, he met a composer named Bruno Walter, who was particularly fond of Dmitri’s First Symphony. Walter then composed the work in Berlin 1927. This inspired Shostakovich to stick to focusing on composing and performing his own works, instead of competitions or things of that nature.
His second symphony was subtitled “To October”, and was a patriotic song about Soviet Russia. But due to the “experimental nature” of the piece, there was not much public acclaim to it, and his third symphony followed down that same path. In contrast to his second symphony of patriotism, Shostakovich completed a satirical Opera called “Nose” shortly after. He had a fondness for satirical works throughout his whole life, being influenced by Gogol, Chekhov, and Zoschenko. The plot of the piece involved an official of Dmitri’s hometown Saint Petersburg, whose nose comes off his face and begins a life of its own. This piece caused a lot of turbulence in Shostakovich’s career. The Russian Association of Proletarian Music did not take this piece kindly whatsoever, and began making “attacks” on Shostakovich. The public also didn’t enjoy the piece, with generally poor reviews, and “a widespread incomprehension amongst musicians”. He then managed to compose another opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, but this one actually being appreciated, and “the result of the general success of socialist construct…” This was until Stalin came to watch the Opera. It was reported that Stalin often “shuddered” in points of the Opera due to his distaste of the performance. Two days after Stalin watched the performance, an article was released by a Russian newspaper called Pravda titled “Muddle Instead of Music”. The article stated that the music was “democratic” “coarse, primitive, and vulgar.” These opinions are believed to be backed by Stalin, but there are no direct quotes or reviews from him. Shortly after the article the Opera lost 75 percent of its average commission, and the previous critics of the opera that gave a positive review were forced to take back their statements by saying something along the lines of “I failed to detect the shortcomings of Lady Macbeth as pointed out by Pravda.” 1936 also marked the year of The Great Terror, or the Great Purge, where many communist party members and government officials were killed in a crusade of political repression in the Soviet Union. In this “Great Purge” an abounding amount of Shostakovich’s friends and relatives were killed or imprisoned..
During the same time, Dmitri was also working on his fourth symphony, a symphony in which he was in the middle of completely changing his style, adding more western-styled composition into his writing. With the harsh words of Shostakovich already flying through the public ear, Shostakovich decided to withdraw the symphony from public perception. Some of his close friends reported that the piece was actually banned and Shostakovich was persuaded to say that he personally wanted to withdraw it. Regardless, Dmitri was in fear of losing his and more of his families lives, so It is looked back on as a good decision. Eventually the work was premiered though, in 1961, after the fall of Stalin.
In an attempt to reconcile his public view, Shostakovich decided to pull back on his new-found style, and return to a more “conservative” one. And he did just that, after the fifth symphony was premiered, it was an instant success, bringing many emotions out of people. Also within the realm of his rebirth he won multiple Stalin Prizes in arts, in 1941-1952, for Piano Quintet, The 7th (Leningrad) Symphony, and film music: Encounter at the Elbe.
When world War 2 started, Shostakovich decided he wanted to join The Red Army, and fight in the communist force, but due to his poor eyesight he was rejected. To make restitution, and contribute something to the Soviet cause, he became a “volunteer for the Leningrad Conservatory’s firefighter brigade and delivered a radio broadcast to the Soviet people.”.
Music was not the only source of avocation for Shostakovich; one main hobby of his was playing football (or soccer), and refereeing football as well, he was a qualified referee. Shostakovich also appreciated the card game patience, which coincides with the mindset he had to have being a composure at the time he was alive and where he lived. Shostakovich also thoroughly enjoyed his vodka and cigarettes, even when he was terminally ill, he didn’t give them up.
Much of Shostakovich’s personality seemed ambiguous because he often conformed to the governments command without hesitation but then would acutely and randomly express his animosity towards the establishment through his music or other means.
Alongside those Stalin art prizes, Shostakovich won many other awards and prizes for his wonderful work: The International Peace Prize (1954), People’s artist of the USSR (1954), Hero of Socialist Labor (1966), and many more, even receiving an Oscar nomination for Khovanschina, Best score in musical (1961). Another piece of his work that America took notice of was his score on the film Hamlet in 1964, where the music was called “splendid” and a “stirring musical score”.
Towards the end of his life, Dmitri had a series of unfortunate health problems, involving multiple heart attacks, bad falls that broke both legs, and a debilitating condition in his right hand called poliomyelitis. All of this forced him to quit his piano career, but did not stop him from composing more music. He still pumped out another symphony, his fourteenth, in 1969. This symphony reflected his approach to death as it surely was on his mind. But yet again, to flip-flop like many other aspects of Shostakovich’s life, he made one more symphony, his fifteenth, with a much jollier and one of the most memorable melodies of western-art music involved. Shostakovich ended up dying 5 years after on the 9th of august in 1975 due to lung cancer. The last piece that Dmitri finished was a Viola Sonata, which was premiered four months after his death.
Even with an abundant amount of trial and tribulation throughout all of Shostakovich’s life, nothing ever managed him to stop doing what he loved most, making music. Through his incredible perseverance and talent as well, you manage still hear him today, through many composers who were inspired by his work. Most notably John Williams, who mastered Shostakovich’s style in some of the most iconic films of today’s society. Or even the musical scores of Family Guy seem to be heavily influenced by Dmitri.
“The climax of joy is not when you’re through a new symphony, but when you are hoarse from shouting, with your hands stinging from clapping, your lips parched, and you sip a second glass of beer after you’ve fought for it with 90,000 other spectators to celebrate the victory of your favorite team.” -Dmitri Shostakovich