String Quartet No. 2 (Shostakovich)
Encyclopedia
Dmitri Shostakovich's
String Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 68, was composed in 1944. It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet
and is dedicated to the composer Vissarion Shebalin
.
Playing time is approximately 35 minutes, one minute shorter than his longest, the Fifteenth Quartet
.
The work has four movements
:
The overture that the work begins with is in sonata form
, traditional for the first movement of such a work. The music is strong, forceful, and animated. This strong tone is subdued by the lyrical, wandering mood of the recitative. The first violin leads a slow, distressed line of music over soft seventh chords, and eventually finds calm in the romance.
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
String Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 68, was composed in 1944. It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet
Beethoven Quartet
The Beethoven Quartet was founded between 1922 and 1923 by graduates of the Moscow Conservatory: violinists Dmitri Tsyganov and Vasily Shirinsky, violist Vadim Borisovsky and cellist Sergei Shirinsky...
and is dedicated to the composer Vissarion Shebalin
Vissarion Shebalin
Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin was a Soviet composer.-Biography:Shebalin was born in Omsk, where his parents were school teachers. He studied in the musical college in Omsk. He was 20 years old when, following the advice of his professor, he went to Moscow to show his first compositions to...
.
Playing time is approximately 35 minutes, one minute shorter than his longest, the Fifteenth Quartet
String Quartet No. 15 (Shostakovich)
The String Quartet No. 15 in E flat minor was Dmitri Shostakovich's last quartet. It was completed on 17 May 1974 and premiered in Leningrad by the Taneyev Quartet on 15 November...
.
The work has four movements
Movement (music)
A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...
:
- OvertureOvertureOverture in music is the term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera...
: Moderato con moto - RecitativeRecitativeRecitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
and RomanceRomance (music)The term romance has a centuries-long history. Applied to narrative ballads in Spain, it came to be used by the 18th century for simple lyrical pieces not only for voice, but also for instruments alone. During the 18th and 19th centuries Russian composers developed the French variety of the...
: Adagio - WaltzWaltzThe waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
: Allegro - Theme with VariationsVariation (music)In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.-Variation form:...
: Adagio
The overture that the work begins with is in sonata form
Sonata form
Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...
, traditional for the first movement of such a work. The music is strong, forceful, and animated. This strong tone is subdued by the lyrical, wandering mood of the recitative. The first violin leads a slow, distressed line of music over soft seventh chords, and eventually finds calm in the romance.