Friday, February 04, 2005
Why does everybody love Shostakovich? I mean, I can listen to and enjoy his music, but I just don't understand why everybody talks about him as if he is the only necessary Soviet composer, or as if the quality of his music even comes close to that of Stravinsky's or Prokofiev's. From what I've heard, the man understood and loved music deeply, but his compositions often seem to me half-assed and unfinished. In some of his symphonies, for instance, he seems to be concerned with melody and counterpoint and little else... the principle of a Bach partita elevated to a grand 65-minute symphonic extreme. He seems totally uninterested in orchestration; rarely are more than two groups of instruments playing at the same time.
The thing about Shostakovich, I guess, is that his music is indelibly wrapped up in the era of Soviet Stalinism. You can't find a CD of Shostakovich's music that doesn't have a 79-page liner booklet that explains the political meaning of his art. And that's fine, I don't want to sound insensitive to the victims of Stalin, but it puzzles me that Shosto's music has so vigorously outlived the Berlin Wall. Perhaps it is this abstract sense of angst that is appealing. Not to me especially, but to the grandfathers of today's emo kids, perhaps.
I think this is why I like Prokofiev. At the height of Stalin's purges on the arts, the apolitical Prokofiev was writing apolitical, dreamy music. Listen to his music for the ballet The Stone Flower: it's optimistic, rustic Russian folk music. Or the fifth and sixth symphonies. Both create pure, original, wonderfully abstract worlds... it's like a fantasy. Maybe I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, I'm certainly not a music scholar. But to oversimplify, I conclude that Shostakovich used his music as a weapon against Stalin, while Prokofiev used his music as a refuge from him.
The thing about Shostakovich, I guess, is that his music is indelibly wrapped up in the era of Soviet Stalinism. You can't find a CD of Shostakovich's music that doesn't have a 79-page liner booklet that explains the political meaning of his art. And that's fine, I don't want to sound insensitive to the victims of Stalin, but it puzzles me that Shosto's music has so vigorously outlived the Berlin Wall. Perhaps it is this abstract sense of angst that is appealing. Not to me especially, but to the grandfathers of today's emo kids, perhaps.
I think this is why I like Prokofiev. At the height of Stalin's purges on the arts, the apolitical Prokofiev was writing apolitical, dreamy music. Listen to his music for the ballet The Stone Flower: it's optimistic, rustic Russian folk music. Or the fifth and sixth symphonies. Both create pure, original, wonderfully abstract worlds... it's like a fantasy. Maybe I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, I'm certainly not a music scholar. But to oversimplify, I conclude that Shostakovich used his music as a weapon against Stalin, while Prokofiev used his music as a refuge from him.
