h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Dmitri Dmitryevich Shostakovich - Soviet composer - A7710266
Author: mikeo_s the gregarious - U201990

Just finished this article on Shostakovich - I realise it is probably too long as a single article, so I am thinking of splitting it into two or even three parts. However, I've tried to be as balanced as possible, certainly as far as the revisionist/anti-revisionist argument goes.

What do you think?

Ooooh! My favourite composer of all time! Would be fantastic to see this in the Guide.

I think you're right - it's very long and "wordy" at the minute, so definitely needs to be broken down some more.

I'm not about for a week, but will give this a good read and make some more comments then.

Agreed - it is rather wordy and I could cut bits of it out or reword them, though I would have to be a bit careful not to cut out particular 'sides' of how pieces are interpreted (e.g. his Eleventh Symphony). Maybe the descriptions of some of his symphonies are a bit long? (I would like to cut some of the Seventh, for instance.)

As I am too lazy at the moment, I'll read the Entry later, but it looks good. As it happens, last month I was in New York City and I went to a performance of Shostakovitch at Avery Fischer Hall.

What did you hear when you were there?

This is great-

A few early thoughts - This sentance - "This Guide Entry will look at Shostakovich's life including his key compositions, a general overview of his music, his character and finally the continuing arguments over whether or not his music contains any extra-musical meanings." You don't need. (Contrary to the old adage tell them what you're going to tell them - tell them it - tell them what you've told them.)

This sentence - "However, Mitya suffered because of his lack of political zeal - he originally failed his examination in Marxist methodology - and from a bout of tuberculosis that lasted for ten years." Would work better the other way round, and allow the hyphens to go. So - However, Mitya suffered from a bout of tuberculosis that lasted for ten years, and a perceived lack of political zeal, due to failing his examination in Marxist methodology.

As you say it is wordy, but its not until the "Musical Works" section that I think you need to seriously edit. That however is simply my opinion, and fans of the man will appreciate what you've put there.

I heard Violin Concerto No. in A minor, Op. 99 and Syphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 33

Thanks for the comments so far.

Re: "This Guide Entry will look at ... " - this was a late addition, as I thought it would be useful to help divide up the Entry (I thought the first part would be about his life and the second about everything else). However, if it's going to remain as a single Guide Entry, I agree it's not needed - so I've taken it out for now.

Re: "However, Mitya suffered ... " - I also agree with that and changed that sentence to how you've suggested with a slight modification (I originally forgot to put "initially" in, as I think he did eventually pass the Marxist methodology exam).

From "Musical Works" onwards, I think I might need a little help to make it less wordy, so any further suggestions would be appreciated.

Sounds like it was a great concert - those are two of my favourite Shostakovich compositions! (There is a long list, but those come near the top.)

They didn't play the violin concerto during the series in Manchester, but I went along to see the 10th symphony played by the Halle orchestra under a great Polish conductor, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski. One of the double bass players who played with the Halle in that concert is a friend of mine (who also conducts a couple of amateur orchestras I play viola in) and he said that he was very nervous, partly because of the conductor (who knew Shostakovich) and partly because he'd been put in as 4th double bass, which meant he had to get everything right. However, it was a really good performance of the symphony.

Well, I've tried cutting it down a little bit ... mainly by taking out some of the less relevant details. However, the bits from his music onwards are still rather lengthy, so again I'd appreciate any advice for trimming them down.

I've also just split up some of the lengthy paragraphs into smaller ones, so while there are still lots of words, they should hopefully be easier to read. Any further suggestions for modifications?

I think it reads better now mikeo -

As you say it's still big, but you've covered a lot of ground, especially with all the idealism. I can see how you could seperate it into two seperate articles, The man and the music - The man and his world. But I think this would produce two articles less worthy than the original one.

Great piece. A thoroughly informative read, and very well constructed.
Thanks.

Thanks.

Any more suggestions?

I think this is ripe,

oh my goodness, this is fabulous.

I'm not one of those who thinks an entry should be XX words long - but there may be some resistance to the length of this one.

I'm fascinated by any artists who survived Stalin's prges and the whole Soviet era thing and this article is marvellous.

Looking very good

I read somewhere that the repeated theme in the first movement of 7th symphony was a variation of "You'll find me at Maxim's" - as a reference to his son. But this could well be unsubstantiated.

Aren't there "screams" in one of the string quartets? (not sure which though - I'll try to check). I believe they were a reference to the Holocaust.

And the 2nd piano concerto was used as one of the stories in the Disney Fantasia 2000, as a re-working of the tale of the tin soldier.

Great work

Thanks.

Yeah, I did hear about the repeated theme in the 7th Symphony being an in-joke in reference to his son Maxim - I went to the live performance of this symphony as part of the Manchester centenary festival and the programme (which I still have) says this theme could be a reference to the entrance aria for a character in Lehár's operetta "The Merry Widow", which is "Da geh' ich zu Maxim" ("Please take me to Maxim's"). Not sure if I should add this to the article, though I could add it to the footnote about the march theme, perhaps?

I didn't know about the "screams" in the Fifteenth Quartet - it's not one of the quartets I know particularly well, although I do know Shostakovich said that the first movement should be played "so that flies drop dead in mid-air, and the audience start leaving the hall from sheer boredom".

I *did* know about the Second Piano Concerto being used in Fantasia 2000 but I forgot to mention it (so I'll add the reference in) ... compared to some of the arrangements/extracts Disney used for both his Fantasia films, it's actually quite faithful to the original - there is additional percussion and an interesting pause between the climatic tutti and the piano cadenza which you don't normally hear. (I have to say though, some of the other pieces used in the Fantasia films were almost butchered - I was definitely not impressed with the Beethoven's Fifth Symphony sequence, for instance.)

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