Valley of the Shadow

Palinurus

Palinurus

The Living Force
The Valley of the Shadow was mentioned by the C's in session April 16, 2016. Many artists, mystics and so on are acquainted with this phenomenon and have shown that knowing in their work, for us to experience at least some of it from a (safe ?) distance.

For me, Shostakovitch's string quartet #8 epitomizes this experience in music. It's about 20-30 min. long and has it all: despair, rage, melancholy, false hope, longing, intractability, resignation, quiet regrouping, new equilibrium. It's not for the fainthearted and the following live performance is very intense.

YouTube said:
String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110, written in 1960.

I. Largo
II. Allegro molto
III. Allegretto
IV. Largo
V. Largo

The String Quartet No. 8 is a complex, melancholy work written while Shostakovitch was visiting Dresden, Germany, in 1960, where he was to provide music for the film Five Days-Five Nights. There, amid the rubble still visible from the Allied bombings during World War II, he was inspired to composed this quartet in remembrance of the victims of both Hitler and Stalin. The work is cast in five continuous movements and contains numerous thematic references to other works by Shostakovitch.

- The first movement, marked Largo, opens with the now famous motto theme derived from the composer's initials, DSCH (given in its German equivalents as D, E flat, C, and B natural). It is treated fugally in this dark and tense movement, and later there are thematic quotations from Shostakovitch's First and Fifth symphonies.

- The ensuing Scherzo (Allegro molto) rages with a driving, rhythmic treatment of the motto, then suddenly erupts with a frenzied account of the Jewish theme from the composer's Piano Trio No. 2. The motto returns and the Jewish theme also makes another appearance, before the music settles a bit as the Allegretto third movement begins.

- The motto theme is heard here in a dark waltz rendition, its relative calm quickly divulging underlying menace. Another waltz theme is heard, hardly breaking from the sinister mood, and soon the main theme from the composer's Cello Concerto No. 1 makes an appearance.

- The fourth movement (Largo) is perhaps the most starkly pessimistic: it features a three-note motif that constantly threatens and intimidates in the outer sections, which it shares with the motto theme, while the middle panel is sweetly mournful. This movement also contains thematic references to Shostakovitch's opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and to the song "Tormented by Grave Bondage."

- The finale (Largo) is a condensed version of the opening panel.

The string quartet is dedicated: "In memory of the Victims of Fascism and War".
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More info:
http://www.shostakovichquartets.com/quartets/page/quartet-no-8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_Quartet_No._8_(Shostakovich)



http://cuartetocasals.com/en/about


For those who want to read the score while listening, try this slightly 'softer' performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0nKJoZY64A


Shostakovitch himself said of this work:

I reflected that if I die some day then it’s hardly likely anyone will write a work dedicated to my memory. So I decided to write one myself.
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Thanks for sharing this Palinurus. Shostakovich was one of the Russian composers that stood out to me for some reason in my college years. I don't think I had heard this composition but there was something that I liked about his music.

This does remind one of the "Valley of the Shadow" and knowing his inspiration was the victims of Dresden helps to understand the somber mood of the music. There is something that speaks reality in this piece especially I think. We could dedicate this to the current victims of today I suppose. The mood feels the same to me.

I also liked Hungarian composer Bela Bartok's music which was based largely on slavic folk music.

If anyone's interested here's a link for Béla Bartók - Concerto For Orchestra (1943) (Full) _https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C68SkzGb6Ww

Edit: added note and link for Bartok.
 
Palinurus said:
Thanks goyacobol for the Bartok reference. I know that piece very well and I think that in the current context it's really no match for Shostakovitch's music. In fact it almost seems like commercial in comparison IMHO.

However, did you know Bartok also composed six string quartets which are very intriguing in their own right ? Might be interesting to listen to.

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I agree with on the "commercial" feeling of that piece I posted. I hesitated to mention it since I didn't want to take away from your observation of the depth of feeling in Shostakovitch's Dresden dedication.

Apparently Bartok emigrated to the US in 1943 during WWII when he wrote that piece so maybe he needed the money. I've read that he used to travel to villages and tape record folk songs from the local people so the music would not be lost.

Shostakovitch also had a jazz album (The Jazz Album) with is more modern sounding which you may already know about. He was not really into Jazz as we know it today as this remark from the linked wordpress review indicates:

In his student years, Shostakovich, with his insatiable musical curiosity, frequented concerts of visiting jazz musicians, and reported his delight at a jazz band that accompanied a ‘negro-operetta’ in 1925. However, jazz filtered through from the West to the Soviet Union selectively it was regarded with suspicion and hostility in certain quarters as a residue of bourgeois culture and decadence In 1930 Shostakovich made the acquaintance of the most famous and popular Soviet ‘jazz’ musician, Leonid Utyosov and his orchestra ‘Tea Jazz’ in Odessa This orchestra played a mixed bag of music, much of which it would be fairer to describe as popular light music than jazz. Shostakovich was most favourably impressed by Utyosov, regarding him as the greatest living artist in the Soviet Union.
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The history about these musicians is interesting I think. I was never into history before finding Laura's books and the forum.
 
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