Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....

 composed Sonata for Violin and Piano Op. 134 in the autumn of 1968 in Moscow, completing it October 23. It is set in three 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...

 and lasts approximately 31 minutes. Op. 134, along with The Violin Concerto No. 1 Op. 77

Violin Concerto No. 1 (Shostakovich)

The Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Opus 99, was originally written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1947-48. He was still working on the piece at the time of the Zhdanov decree, and in the period following the composer's denunciation the work could not be performed...

 and Violin Concerto No. 2

Violin Concerto No. 2 (Shostakovich)

The Violin Concerto No. 2 in C sharp minor, Opus 129, was Dmitri Shostakovich's last concerto. He wrote it in the spring of 1967 as an early 60th birthday present for its dedicatee, David Oistrakh...

 Op. 129 is dedicated to the violinist David Oistrakh

David Oistrakh

David Fyodorovich Oistrakh , , David Fiodorović Ojstrakh, ; – October 24, 1974, was a Soviet violinist....

, who premiered the work May 3, 1969 in the Large Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

Oistrakh's contribution

According to the dedicatee, the sonata was "greeted enthusiastically everywhere", and indeed, the third movement was the Russian piece on the set list for violinists at the 1970 Tchaikovsky Competition. The autograph resides in the Glinka Museum of Musical Culture in Moscow.

Oistrakh collaborated with Shostakovich on several of the composer's major works, purportedly contributing his own insight and suggestions based on the violin's strengths and technical limitations. The work's inscription reads: "For the 60th birthday of David Oistrakh", who offered an explanation for its composition:

Dmitry had been wanting to write a new, second concerto for me as a present for my 60th birthday. However, there was an error of one year in his timing. The concerto was ready for my 59th birthday. Shortly afterwards, Dmitri seemed to think that, having made a mistake, he ought to correct it. That is how he came to write the Sonata . . . I had not been expecting it, though I had long been hoping that he would write a violin sonata.

Before the official public premier in May, Oistrakh and Shostakovich recorded the work informally in the latter's apartment, though the composer's physical handicap (he was diagnosed with polio in 1965) and a relative lack of rehearsal and polish is evident in the performance. Oistrakh later recorded Op. 134 with Sviatoslav Richter

Sviatoslav Richter

Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter was a Soviet pianist well known for the depth of his interpretations, virtuoso technique, and vast repertoire. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Childhood:...

 on piano.

Contents

Lasting approximately 31 minutes, the sonata is cast in three contrasting movements originally titled Pastorale, Allegro Furioso, and Variations on a Theme, respectively, but simply given roman numerals in all published editions.

Movement 1

In soft quarter-note octave

Octave

In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...

s, a tone-row in the piano opens the work, reminiscent of the first bars of Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...

's Op. 80

Violin Sonata No. 1 (Prokofiev)

Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op 80, written between 1938 and 1946 , is one of the darkest and most brooding of the composer's works.The work is about 30 minutes long and is in four movements:...

 (1946), his first work in the same genre. Prokofiev's tempo indication is Andante assai for Op. 80, Shostakovich writes Andante for his Op. 134. Beyond a parallel austerity, Prokofiev's structural and textural

Texture (music)

In music, texture is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition , thus determining the overall quality of sound of a piece...

 influence in the movement is clear, particularly regarding the violin parts. Both composers follow darkly threatening opening material with hushed tracery that returns near the movements' respective finishes, and both end as inconclusively as they begin. Moreover, the composers share a preference for empty or open harmonies (primarily octaves) to those more tonally definite. Of particular note in the Shostakovich work is a relative freedom with meter, allowing for effective diminution and augmentation of the opening tone-row. First stated in the violin at Rehearsal 1, the movement's "theme" is given similar rhythmic treatment. The movement lasts approximately ten minutes.

Movement 2

Marked Allegretto (half-note equals 100), the second movement is abrasively energetic and violent. Visibly in ABA form, its harshness comes from a complete indulgence in rhythmic, tonal, and dynamic angularity. Tempo remains constant throughout its six-minute duration, however, so various rhythms diversify and give structure to the movement, characterized overall by a gritty relentlessness.

The opening motif

Motif (music)

In music, a motif or motive is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition....

, stated in the violin, provides the rhythmic and thematic germ for the movement. Instead of actually adjusting tempo or dynamics, Shostakovich often prefers growing perceived accelerandos and crescendos out of thickening textures and shorter note values, which, particularly at Rehearsal 32, 47, and 51 give the movement the effect of frenzy or perhaps desperation. A grim tone-row (beginning 4 after Rehearsal 56) repeated in shorter and shorter note values during the recapitulation signals a departure from previous material, which is followed by a sarcastic herald call and the movement's abrupt end.

Movement 3

Originally marked Variations

Variation (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:...

 on a Theme

Theme (music)

In music, a theme is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based.-Characteristics:A theme may be perceivable as a complete musical expression in itself, separate from the work in which it is found . In contrast to an idea or motif, a theme is...

, the third (and longest) movement evolves from a bland and passive pizzicato

Pizzicato

Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of stringed instrument....

 motif at Rehearsal 59. Inversion

Inversion (music)

In music theory, the word inversion has several meanings. There are inverted chords, inverted melodies, inverted intervals, and inverted voices...

, augmentation, and transposition

Transposition (music)

In music transposition refers to the process, or operation, of moving a collection of notes up or down in pitch by a constant interval.For example, one might transpose an entire piece of music into another key...

 among other techniques carry that original line towards the impassioned denouement at Rehearsal 74, where gruesome cadenza

Cadenza

In music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing for virtuosic display....

s in the piano and then violin bifurcate the previous two-voice texture. Upon their reunion, a final heroic (or perhaps antiheroic) statement of the theme is made in full (Rehearsal 77). Again like the final movement in Prokofiev's Op. 80, a nostalgic restatement of the first movement's filigree occurs at Rehearsal 80, one of several devices, subtle and overt, which help unify the entire work.