Red Insight: Socio-Tonal Battles of Dmitri Shostakovich

Abstract

While any research on Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–75) discusses either the tonal/modal properties of his music or the composer’s civic position and Stalin’s criticism against him, this article intends to discuss both these topics: the chronology of the accusations and criticism, and the corresponding features of Shostakovich’s musical language influenced by each of these attacks. The classification of the stylistic features of Shostakovich’s music addresses the composer’s style as it had developed by the 1940s, characterized by its unique relationships between modality and tonality, as well as the use of twelve-tone techniques from the mid-1960s on. The writing style, which sometimes embraces the irony typical of the composer himself throughout his works, from the earliest to the latest, is a way of avoiding the insensitive or, vice versa, the pathetic manner of narration. It reflects, rather, the artistic method of research, which conveys the characteristics of the studied material into the writing style.