Oratorio Song Of The Forests Op. 81 Analysis

Compared with the Violin Concerto no. 1 op. 77 (1948), and Quartet no. 4 op. 83 (1948), the oratorio Song of the Forests op. 81 is seemingly foreign due to the optimistic atmosphere of the oratorio, the simple melody, the modes, and the original text of the song no. 7 that praises Stalin as a gardener. Therefore, the oratorio Song of the Forests op. 81 has a widely accepted staple as a proof of Shostakovich’s ultimate submission to the regime. The analysis shows that the oratorio also has advanced compositional features shown in his other works, such as the utilization of a motive to unite the songs, the interplay of major and minor modes, the pastoral melody, the changing meter, the application of chromatic chord progression, and the complexity of the form. The oratorio lacks the substantial aspect of the Kuchka Russian style, which is the avoidance of a dominant function, though it occurs only in part of the song no. 2 that is in the C# Aeolian mode, in which the v-i progression ends the section (fig. 20), and in the song no. 7 that ends with a …show more content…
First, the text, rhythm, and the melody of the songs show the optimistic and joyful atmosphere, while they accommodate the socialist realism to compose a beautiful, optimistic and lighthearted music, they also represents the optimistic thought that the Great Stalin Plan would solve the drought and the famine problem permanently. Indeed, the massive Great Stalin Plan could have given a benefit to the people, had it not become a political battle between the Prometheans and the technocrats. Second, the fact that Stalin was the advocate and executor of The Great Stalin Plan causes the text of song no. 7 featuring Stalin as a gardener, though in 1962, Dolmatovsky removed the name Stalin from the text due to the political situation at that time, when Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) was in full swing to implement the