The Classical Music Minute

Shostakovich & The Great Patriotic War

January 17, 2022 Steven Hobé, Composer & Host Season 1 Episode 38
The Classical Music Minute
Shostakovich & The Great Patriotic War
Show Notes Transcript

Description
Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony was composed amidst significant upheaval during the “Great Patriotic War” which began in 1941. No composer before Shostakovich had ever written a symphony during a raging war, “and no composer had ever attempted to describe a future victory, in music, with such power and conviction.” Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop!

Fun Fact
Shostakovich’s “War Symphony” was finally performed on 9 August 1942 in Leningrad. A playwright in the audience wrote, “People who no longer knew how to shed tears of sorrow and misery now cried from sheer joy. It was not an impression, but a staggering experience.” The siege of Leningrad was finally lifted two years later, but almost one million of the city’s civilian population had by then perished.

About Steven
Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.

A Note To Music Students et al.
All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.

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At the beginning of the “Great Patriotic War” in 1941, Shostakovich, being the good patriot, sought to enlist in the Red Army. Despite this enthusiasm, he was rejected due to poor eyesight. 

Instead, he enlisted in a home guard unit drawn from members of the Leningrad Conservatory where he was a faculty member. He also joined a firefighting brigade charged with extinguishing shells that might land on the roof of the Conservatory. 

To be honest, this posting was largely symbolic but proved to generate some great publicity at the time. Photos were taken of Shostakovich wearing a golden helmet and holding a fireman’s nozzle. This was even featured on an issue of Time Magazine with the famous caption, “Fireman Shostakovich: Amid bombs burning in Leningrad he heard the chords of victory.” 

And this was true. Shostakovich began writing a large-scale composition, his Leningrad Symphony. He dedicated this to quote, “our struggle against fascism, to our coming victory and to my native city of Leningrad”.