Effects Of Communism On Shostakovich

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Communism and its effect on Shostakovich The music of Dimitri Shostakovich has been steeped in political turmoil for its entire existence. Shostakovich was one of many notable composers to arise in the twentieth century and he and his music were both handled very carefully by the Communist Party in Russia at the time. While Shostakovich had a deep love of his homeland, often criticising composers who left after the revolution, he was also very critical of the social injustice present in their new society (Bryner 1). He had become such an important figure in Russia, due to his music’s popularity, that the soviet government attacked him and his music, being incredibly critical and even blacklisting Shostakovich for many years. Shostakovich …show more content…
In a way this slaughter inspired a sort of patriotism in Shostakovich that hadn’t been seen before; he even tried to join the Red Army, but was denied each time he applied (A Life 123). Shostakovich dedicated his 7th symphony to Leningrad and it was hailed as a masterpiece, picked up and placed into the repertoire of the major orchestras from around the world. This symphony brought great recognition to Shostakovich to the point the he was made the the spokesperson of Stalin’s regime, and he went along with it without question. However, Shostakovich’s views on Stalin were known to be very different from his public persona; Shostakovich stated that his Leningrad symphony was not only about Leningrad after the Nazi’s siege, but it was about the destruction of Leningrad from Stalin’s regime as well as that of the Nazi regime (McCannon). Shostakovich faced a life of turmoil alongside the communist party of Russia, and it deeply impacted his music and his existence as a …show more content…
However, Shostakovich did not choose to play along with the plans of the regime through writing a triumphant and victorious symphony. Instead he wrote a piece that was almost comical in its nature, with the same satirical wit that was present in his earlier works. Shostakovich wrote a piece intended to tell off Stalin and his regime that he blamed for the destruction in his workplace. This very obvious disrespect did not go unnoticed by the regime and Shostakovich was promptly fired from his teaching position at the Leningrad conservatory, his compositions were banned, and he was totally blacklisted. The dismissal from his teaching position sent Shostakovich into a deep depression during which he practically stopped composing completely. Ironically, Shostakovich was still sent to Western music conferences by the Soviet Regime as a composer representative for the union, because, in the Western world, Shostakovich was still the most notable Russian composer. This lasted for quite some time and can be seen as a fairly long dry spell for the great composer, however, once Stalin died in 1953, Shostakovich regained some freedom in his composition and was able to publish some of the many works that he had decided not to premier due to his fear of the

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