{"id":308,"date":"2007-05-02T22:53:07","date_gmt":"2007-05-03T06:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/05\/02\/thoughts-on-shostakovich-eighth-symphony\/"},"modified":"2013-02-07T18:09:52","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T02:09:52","slug":"thoughts-on-shostakovich-eighth-symphony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/05\/02\/thoughts-on-shostakovich-eighth-symphony\/","title":{"rendered":"thoughts on shostakovich’s eighth symphony"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past eight years I’ve had more than a passing acquaintance with the music of Dmitri Shostakovich<\/a>. With the two string quartets that I’ve been part of, I’ve performed the quartets nos. 1, 3, 8, 9 and 15. In various orchestras I’ve performed the symphonies nos. 1, 4, 5, 7 and 9 (coincidentally, DSCH wrote 15 quartets and 15 symphonies).<\/p>\n

With this experience of performing his works, plus listening to and studying many of his other works, I am convinced that the Eighth Symphony is a very different sort of animal than all the rest of his output. The first thing that strikes one as both performer and listener is the sheer breadth of the symphony. The opening movement lasts close to 25 minutes – similar to the massive world-encompassing first movement of Mahler’s Third Symphony for a sense of sweeping scope. What makes this scope even more impressive is Shostakovich’s monochromatic palate: the movement is almost uniformly bleak and desolate, like a blasted, apocalyptic landscape. If you’ve read Cormac McCarthy<\/a>‘s bleak yet terribly beautiful Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road<\/em><\/a>, this is the musical equivalent. You don’t want to hear what you’re hearing, but you’re mesmerized by its hypnotic power, held in its thrall by its single-minded intensity of expressing of the inexpressible.<\/p>\n

People often ask why there is “ugly” or “unpleasant” music. I ask, is life always pleasant and beautiful? Great works of art reflect the times in which they are made, and the best of these take and transform and transcend their times, becoming cultural touchstones for future generations. The photojournalism of James Nachtwey<\/a>, most terribly and honestly expressed in his monograph Inferno<\/em><\/a> is an example of how the awful expressions of humanity at its worst can be turned into art which inspires change. Picasso’s Guernica<\/a> is a similar example in the realm of fine art.<\/p>\n

To me, music which enables us to imagine the unimaginable and to empathize with those who have gone before us is the highest calling to which music and musicians can aspire. Shostakovich, regardless of where his true loyalties lay and how much he truly suffered for his art, found a way to speak for the thousands which were being killed or exiled during his lifetime, and whom we remember each time one of his unique and uncompromising works enter our concert hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past eight years I’ve had more than a passing acquaintance with the music of Dmitri Shostakovich. With the two string quartets that I’ve been part of, I’ve performed the quartets nos. 1, 3, 8, 9 and 15. In various orchestras I’ve performed the symphonies nos. 1, 4, 5, 7 and 9 (coincidentally, DSCH […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[55,62,3656],"class_list":["post-308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-orchestra","tag-symphony","tag-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-4Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":795,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/22\/seattle-symphony-08-09-season-announced\/","url_meta":{"origin":308,"position":0},"title":"seattle symphony 08-09 season announced","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"There's not a lot that I'm finding compelling in the Seattle Symphony's 2008-2009 season, but there some events worth noting if you're ever in the habit of taking in a couple concerts in the Emerald City. The San Francisco Symphony w\/ Michael Tilson Thomas - they're making two concert stop:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12654,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/13\/beethovens-tenth\/","url_meta":{"origin":308,"position":1},"title":"beethoven’s tenth","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Beethoven's Tenth Symphony\" was the moniker assigned (by the noted conductor and pundit Hans von B\u00fclow) to Johannes Brahms' First Symphony, which was some twenty years in its gestation, such was both his own penchant for draconian self-criticism (it's said that he destroyed at least six completed string quartets, allowing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/xyUpyFm_O-k\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4647,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/05\/11\/the-hurt-locker\/","url_meta":{"origin":308,"position":2},"title":"the hurt locker","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I've decided to keep track of pieces that are excruciating for violists to play. \u00a0There seems to be an evolving canon (a pantheon, if you will)\u00a0of works which violists seem to universally dislike playing. \u00a0Usually this is due to the physical demands of the piece. \u00a0The viola needs a bit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7464,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/04\/01\/concert-report-for-march-31\/","url_meta":{"origin":308,"position":3},"title":"concert report for march 31","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight we played a concert that seems completely standard by modern symphony orchestra standards. It followed the time-honored format of overture, concerto, intermission, major symphony. But, as is always the case, things weren't quite as they appeared. The Haydn Overture to his last opera, The Soul of the Philosopher, or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Garrick Ohlsson (c) Wojciech Grzedzinski","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Ohlsson-c-Wojciech-Grzedzinski-300x450.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13712,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/05\/08\/2014-2105-a-retrospective-part-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":308,"position":4},"title":"2014-2105: a retrospective, part two","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"And now, for the big list - the stuff I played with the Oregon Symphony this past season*. Lots of variety, and some holes in repertoire that I really couldn't believe when I looked at the list - only one work by Brahms, for example? Hm... Barber - Adagio for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/noble-oso-pic-e1408736178252.jpg?fit=451%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5380,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/10\/01\/new-musicians-join-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":308,"position":5},"title":"new musicians join symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We had a spate of auditions at the end of last season, and the results netted us three new musicians who are all now settled in Portland and playing with the orchestra.\u00a0 They are Principal timpanist Jonathan Greeney, oboist and English hornist Kyle Mustain, and violist Silu Fei.\u00a0 Here's a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "auditions"","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/jonathangreeney.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}