String Quartet No. 8

The compositional career of Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) is one of enormous personal achievements set against the backdrop of the Stalinist Soviet Union, and all the perils, extreme limitations, and profound loss that are now the final reminders of that era. In one sense, there are two sides to this composer: one who wrote “acceptable music” when it was required of him, but also one who pushed the boundaries of artistic freedom and independence in his private compositions. Shostakovich was an extremely gifted and acclaimed pianist and composer even in his youth; prize followed prize, and he became the best representative of the avant-garde spirit in Russian music of the 1920s and 30s. But in 1936 everything changed. Avant-garde artists were put on notice to reform, and after a brief respite earned by his “proper” war symphonies, Shostakovich was forced to make a public recantation of his modernist tendencies. He knew very well what would happen if he didn’t.
String Quartet No. 8 is the most frequently performed and well-known of his fifteen string quartets. Tragic in tone, the piece is autobiographical in nature. Shostakovich inserts his musical initials as well as numerous quotations from his previously composed works. The somber first movement opens with the DSCH (D, E-flat, C, B) motif, which serves as Shostakovich’s musical signature and appears in several of his other compositions. The second movement erupts with violent energy. A sinister waltz of the third movement ends with a quotation from his Cello Concerto. The fourth movement depicts a scene of Dresden, one of the most destroyed cities during the World War II. Sonically, it imitates distant gun fire, while a drone pitch represents the menacing whine of a bomber plane. The final movement is fugal and built upon the DSCH theme, combined with the Dies Irae tune, indicating suicidal contemplations by the composer.

(c) Jessica Embach Jankauskas & Jason Stell