1916-1919 started composing music at Yaser Music Primary School; 1919-1925 studied piano and composition at the Petersburg Conservatory of Music. During this period, I became interested in the music of modern writers such as Stravinsky and Schoenberg, and my own creation also tended to the modern trend; Graduated from 1923 and 1925 respectively, majoring in piano and composition. Became famous for playing the graduation work "The First Symphony"; 1927 won the honorary prize in the Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, and then devoted himself to writing.
In the late 1920s and 1930s, he wrote many works with different genres and contents. The Seventh Symphony, written shortly after the Great Patriotic War, expressed the struggle between the Soviet people and fascism with a strongly opposing musical image, which aroused strong repercussions at home and abroad. He used conventional artistic means to express the new theme of revolution and construction, and his music was bright and fresh, which was widely praised.
1957, 1962 caused controversy because of the appearance of the tenth symphony and the thirteenth symphony, 1960 joined the Soviet * * * production party; 1960-1968 as the first secretary of the board of directors of the Russian Federation Composers Association; He served as the representative of the 6 th to 9 th Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union; 1965, received a doctorate in art.
* * * Composed about 65,438+050 works, with the representative works as follows: Symphony No.1, Symphony No.5, Symphony No.7 (Leningrad), Symphony No.10, Symphony No.11 (65,438+0905), Symphony No.13, Cantata's Song of the Forest, Sunlight shining on our motherland and cappella.
Shostakovich was awarded the title of Soviet People's Actor (1954) and Socialist Labor Hero (1966), and was also awarded the Soviet State Medal (194 1, 1942, 1946. In addition, universities and academies of science in many countries in the world have awarded him the honorary title. Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, a Soviet composer, was born in St Petersburg on September 25th, 1906, and died in Moscow on August 9th, 1975.
His mother studies piano in the Conservatory of Music. Under the guidance of his mother, he began to receive music education at Greasyl Music School. At the age of 9 ~ 1 1, he composed 1 batches of music, including piano music Ode to Freedom and Funeral March in Memory of Revolutionary Martyrs. These childhood works reveal the important characteristics of his life creation: trying to reflect the major themes of real life through music and expressing the author's feelings and attitudes with passion.
19 19 Shostakovich was admitted to Petrograd Conservatory of Music, where he studied under Ⅲ B. nikolayev (piano) and M.O. Steinberg (composer). During this period, he became interested in the music of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, hindemith and the French "Six Groups", and his creation also tended to the modern trend.
1923 and 1925 graduated from piano major and composition major. His graduation work, Symphony No.1 (1924 ~ 1925), implies the influence of A.H. scriabin, Stravinsky and C.C. prokofiev, but it also shows its own uniqueness. From the second half of the 1920s to the early 1930s, Shostakovich was in a period of intense exploration of creative themes and artistic styles. He extensively absorbed the artistic experience of Russian and western modern music schools and created various genres of works. He tried to express the new theme of revolutionary change with new styles and techniques. The second symphony (dedicated to October, 1927) and the third symphony (Mayday, 193 1) are examples of this. The former uses the line counterpoint method (13 noisy combination of independent voices) to try to show the people's course from darkness and ignorance to awakening, struggle and victory; The latter tries to describe the scenes of mass gatherings in streets and squares. However, in these two works, there is an obvious contradiction between subjective creative intention and objective artistic effect.
During the period of 1927 ~ 1932, Shostakovich composed a lot of drama music: two operas, two ballets, five drama scores and four movie music. In some of his works, satirical and grotesque themes and styles have been further developed. HisNo. 1 opera Nose (1927 ~ 1928) reproduces the fantasy image in H.B. Nikolai Nikolai Gogol's original works in a grotesque way, satirizing the arrogant and ugly old Russian officials. At that time, the public opinion in the Soviet Union destroyed the opera more than its reputation. After the first performance, it disappeared in obscurity, and it was not until more than 30 years later (1970) that it was staged again. Ballet Golden Age (1927 ~ 1930) and Screw (1930 ~ 193 1) are both attempts to reflect contemporary life through ballet. The latter also highlights the cartoon brushwork and outlines the faces of all kinds of negative characters in reality. Some of his movie music also mocked the vulgar tastes of popular ordinary citizens.
1930 to 1932, Shostakovich composed the opera Lady Macbeth in Mitzensk County (also known as Katerina IzMuhlova) based on the novel of the same name by Russian writer H.C. Leskov, which is one of the works that marked Shostakovich's artistic maturity. The plot describes the story of a businessman's wife who committed murder and was destroyed out of the pursuit of love freedom. The author calls this opera "the tragedy of irony", and he tries to combine two important aspects of his creation-tragedy and revealing irony. The opera premiered in Leningrad on June 1934+0, and was performed in many theaters in Europe and America. 193665438+1On October 28th, Pravda published a monograph "Chaos Replaces Music", which totally denied this work, resulting in the opera being suspended for more than 20 years, and it was not until 1963 that it met the audience again. 1February 6, 936, Pravda published an editorial article "The Falsehood of Ballet", which denied Shostakovich's ballet "Clean Stream" (1934). This is a relaxing music work, and the author's creative attempt is to "seek a concise and clear language that both audiences and actors like." Pravda's repeated accusations made Shostakovich stop composing opera and ballet music.
Shostakovich's instrumental music creation in 1930s was mainly composed of three symphonies. The fourth symphony (1935 ~ 1936) is his 1 philosophical tragedy symphony, which marks the development of his symphony creation to a new stage. Due to the severe social atmosphere, the author had to cancel the premiere of this work, and its first performance was held 25 years later. The Fifth Symphony (1937) is also a philosophical tragedy symphony, which typically reflects the spiritual life of Soviet intellectuals at that time, and has a higher ideological realm and artistic charm than the Fourth Symphony. Symphony No.6 (1939) was conceived to be a transition from sad thinking and memory to joy in life, but its artistic achievements were not immediately recognized.
Shostakovich also composed other instrumental works. For example, Prelude to Piano for Twenty-four (1932 ~ 1933), Piano Concerto No.1 (1933), String Quartet No.1 (Spring, 1938) and so on. The style of these works is completely different from his operas and symphonies, but they belong to the same style as his ballet music. The last large-scale work of this period is Piano Quintet (1940), which is his only instrumental work with large scale, harmonious feelings and no tragic conflict. Shostakovich's important works during the Great Patriotic War were two symphonies. The seventh symphony (194 1) was written about 1 month after the war broke out, and it took only over three months to complete. Most of the music is written in the besieged Leningrad, which is war-torn and dedicated to this heroic city.
This symphony is a 1 large-scale work reflecting the Great Patriotic War, and it is an outstanding example of a symphony that quickly reflects major social events, which greatly inspired the Soviet people's will to resist the enemy. Its image and content not only reflect the specific event of the Great Patriotic War, but also are clear and specific. At the same time, it also goes beyond the scope of this specific event, and highly summarizes the struggle between light, reason and darkness and barbarism.
The Eighth Symphony (1943) is a tragic symphony of Shostakovich. The author said that he "tried to show the people's experience and reflect the terrible tragedy of the war". It was immediately taken seriously in Europe and America, but the Soviet music circle was quite indifferent to it, and it took many years to recognize the symphony. After the war, his 1 large-scale work was Symphony No.9 (1945). Contrary to the expectations of ordinary people, this is not a triumph symphony to celebrate victory, but a classic and lyrical comedy, which also contains several pages of mourning. The first violin concerto, completed between 1947 and 1948, was profound and difficult to perform, but it was not released immediately. 1948 65438+ 10 * * (Bolshevik) The Central Committee of the Union criticized the so-called formalism tendency among Soviet composers, which delayed the premiere of this work for seven years. Shostakovich bears the brunt of this critical movement. His sixth, eighth and ninth symphonies were all called "formalism works" and disappeared from the repertoire.
Since 1948, Shostakovich has created a large number of vocal music works. In terms of music language and style, it still highlights his inherent characteristics of coexistence of profundity and popularity. The most prominent is the oratorio Song of the Forest (1949), which shows the great cause of the Soviet people to transform nature. Song forms are interspersed with other vocal forms, and grandeur and lyricism are combined. This is a new oratorio which is different from the previous similar genre. Others include the unaccompanied mixed chorus suite Ten Poems (adapted from the poems of revolutionary poets and the tones of revolutionary songs), orchestral festival overture (1954), piano concerto No.2 (1957), and movie music such as The Elbe River Convergence (1948).
The main genre of Shostakovich's creation in this period is still symphony. The tenth symphony (1953) continues the route of the philosophical tragedy symphony initiated by the fourth symphony. The author points out that the humanitarianism of the Soviet Union against aggression and tyranny is its basic theme. The evaluation of this work has caused sharp differences in the Soviet music industry. After that, Shostakovich turned to another type and theme symphony-the title symphony of revolutionary epic. Symphony No.11 (1905),1957; The chorus suite "Ten Poems" comes down in one continuous line and describes the historical picture of the first Russian revolution. For the first time, the author quoted a large number of foreign melodies in his symphony, and applied several popular revolutionary songs in various movements to enhance the realism of the times and the clarity of image association. The twelfth symphony ("19 17", 196 1) continues the former's thought and style, but its artistic skill is inferior.
After that, Shostakovich's creative thinking turned to a new aspect-vocal music-instrumental symphony based on contemporary and ancient materials. The 13th Symphony (1962) consists of five poems by the Soviet poet E.A. Evtushenko, which is close to the genre of oratorio, but the layout and development of music are vaguely related to his previous pure instrumental symphonies. The work pointed out the disadvantages of the times with a sharp and powerful pen, so it met with resistance when it premiered in the Soviet Union. The orchestral "The Death Penalty in Stepan Razin" (1964) also uses Evtushenko's poems as lyrics to describe the tragic ending of17th century Russian peasant uprising leader Racine. This is the most operatic work in Shostakovich's non-opera works, which combines many of the author's past creative experiences and opens a new chapter in the vocal-instrumental symphony. Although Shostakovich was ill, he still wrote 27 works, most of which were multi-movement suites. He is still using political themes, such as "Prelude to Mourning and Victory" (1967), symphonic poem "October" (1967), eight male chorus ballads "Loyalty" (1970) and so on. However, he prefers the theme of philosophy of life. The themes of sadness, loneliness and death have increased, the music language has become more complicated and the style has developed. Symphony No.14 (1969) consists of 1 1 movements of different sizes, with poems written by poets (mostly symbolists) of four different times and countries as lyrics, for soprano and bass soloists and chamber bands. This tragic work pays attention to death, whips evil and tyranny, and praises the artist's personality and the immortality of artistic creation. The Fifteenth Symphony (197 1) is the last work of his genre, and the review and reflection on his life journey is the basis of his conception. The second cello concerto (1966) is also an important creation in this period and a tragic symphony.
Chamber music is a prominent creative field in Shostakovich's later works. He wrote seven distinctive vocal divertimentos. For example, Seven Romances (1967) composed by A.A. Brock, Six Poems (197 1) with originality in form, content and artistic style, and Suite (composed by Michelangelo).
Shostakovich wrote one-third of all his string quartets in the following years, namely 1 1 ~ 15. Their thoughts have their own characteristics, but in general, they are internally related to his last two symphonies and vocal divertimento. His masterpiece Sonata for Viola and Piano (1975) was completed 1 month before his death.