Piano Sonata No. 2 (Shostakovich)
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Piano Sonata No. 2 (Shostakovich)
The Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Opus number, Op. 61 by Dmitri Shostakovich, the last of his piano sonatas, was composed in early 1943. It was his first piano composition since the 24 Preludes (Shostakovich), 24 Preludes, Op. 34 from 1933 and his second attempt at composing a piano sonata in the key of B-minor. John Jonas Gruen said that there was "nothing obscure or technically impenetrable" about this sonata, but that "something disquieting—something faintly obsessive—emerges from its deceptively simple structure." Background In the fall of 1942 Shostakovich and his family were living in the city of Samara, Kuybyshev, where they had been evacuated by the Soviet government in order to escape the Operation Barbarossa, Nazi siege of Leningrad. That October the composer learned about the death of his former piano professor Leonid Nikolayev (pianist), Leonid Nikolayev, who had died in Tashkent earlier that month from typhoid fever. "I loved him greatly and it grieves me to think ...
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Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major composer. Shostakovich achieved early fame in the Soviet Union, but had a complex relationship with its government. His 1934 opera ''Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (opera), Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk'' was initially a success, but eventually was Muddle Instead of Music, condemned by the Soviet government, putting his career at risk. In 1948 his work was #Second denunciation, denounced under the Zhdanov Doctrine, with professional consequences lasting several years. Even after his censure was On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, rescinded in 1956, performances of his music were occasionally subject to state interventions, as with his Symphony No. 13 (Shostakovich), Thirteenth Symphony (1962). Shostakovich was a m ...
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Ivan Sollertinsky
Ivan Ivanovich Sollertinsky (3 December 1902, Vitebsk – 11 February 1944, Novosibirsk) (Cyrillic: ''Ива́н Ива́нович Соллерти́нский'') was a Soviet polymath. He specialized in fields including linguistics, theatre, literature, history, and philology, but was most known for his work in the musical field as a critic and musicologist. He was a professor at the Leningrad Conservatory, as well as an artistic director of the Leningrad Philharmonic, and a prominent orator. In these capacities, he was an active promoter of Mahler's music in the Soviet Union. Sollertinsky was also interested in ballet and often wrote essays on the subject during the 1930s, along with teaching ballet history at the Leningrad Choreographic Institute. According to contemporaries – most famously Irakly Andronikov – he had a phenomenal memory, and supposedly spoke 26 languages and 100 dialects. However, Nikolai Malko claimed that Sollertinsky was able to speak 32 languages, some of ...
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Heinrich Neuhaus
Heinrich Gustav Neuhaus ( pl, Henryk (Harry) Neuhaus, russian: Ге́нрих Густа́вович Нейга́уз, Genrikh Gustavovič Nejgauz, 10 October 1964) was a Russian-born pianist and teacher of German and Polish extraction. Part of a musical dynasty, he grew up in a Polish-speaking household. He taught at the Moscow Conservatory from 1922 to 1964. He was made a People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1956. His piano textbook '' The Art of Piano Playing'' (1958) is regarded as one of the most authoritative and widely used approaches to the subject. Life and career Neuhaus was born in Elizavetgrad, which was in the Russian Empire, known since 2016 as, Kropyvnytskyi, in present-day Ukraine. Although both his parents were piano teachers, he was largely self-taught. A major influence on his early artistic development came from Karol Szymanowski, his neighbour and cousin through his mother, Olga, "Marta" née Blumenfeld. Szymanowski himself was tutored by Heinrich's father, Gus ...
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Pavel Serebryakov
Pavel Alexeyevich Serebryakov (February 28, 1909 in Tsaritsyn – August 17, 1977 in Leningrad) was a Soviet pianist. Serebryakov began touring the USSR after ranking 2nd at the I National Competition (1933). A professor at the Leningrad Conservatory, he was the institution's rector from 1938–51 and from 1961 until his death. He was a People's Artist of the USSR (1962). References * The New Grove dictionary of music and musicians. XVII, page 159. Musical Portraits of the 20th Century - LXXVIII The Voice of Russia Voice of Russia ( rus, Голос России, r=Golos Rossii), commonly abbreviated VOR, was the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service from 1993 until 2014, when it was reorganised as Radio Sputnik. Its interval signal w ... 1909 births 1977 deaths Musicians from Volgograd Soviet classical pianists {{pianist-stub ...
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DSCH Motif
DSCH is a musical motif used by the composer Dmitri Shostakovich to represent himself. It is a musical cryptogram in the manner of the BACH motif, consisting of the notes ''D, E-flat, C, B natural'', or in German musical notation ''D, Es, C, H'' (pronounced as "De-Es-Ce-Ha"), thus standing for the composer's initials in German transliteration: ''D. Sch.'' (Dmitri Schostakowitsch). Usage By Shostakovich The motif occurs in many of his works, including: * Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65 * Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77 * Fugue No. 15 in D-flat major, Op. 87 (only once, in the stretto) * String Quartet No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 92 * Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93 * String Quartet No. 6 in G major, Op. 101 (Played all at once by the four instruments at the end of each movement) * Cello Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, Op. 107 * String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110 (appears in every single movement) * Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141. * Piano Sonata No. ...
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Bar (music)
In musical notation, a bar (or measure) is a segment of time corresponding to a specific number of beats in which each beat is represented by a particular note value and the boundaries of the bar are indicated by vertical bar lines. Dividing music into bars provides regular reference points to pinpoint locations within a musical composition. It also makes written music easier to follow, since each bar of staff symbols can be read and played as a batch. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the time signature. In simple time, (such as ), the top figure indicates the number of beats per bar, while the bottom number indicates the note value of the beat (the beat has a quarter note value in the example). The word ''bar'' is more common in British English, and the word ''measure'' is more common in American English, although musicians generally u ...
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Rondo
The rondo is an instrumental musical form introduced in the Classical period. Etymology The English word ''rondo'' comes from the Italian form of the French ''rondeau'', which means "a little round". Despite the common etymological root, rondo and rondeau as musical forms are essentially different. Rondeau is a ''vocal'' musical form that was originally developed as monophonic music (in the 13th century) and then as polyphonic music (in the 14th century). Notably, both vocal forms of rondeau nearly disappeared from the repertoire by the beginning of the 16th century. In French, ''rondeau'' is used for both forms, while in English ''rondeau'' is generally used for the ''vocal'' musical form, while ''rondo'' is used for the ''instrumental'' musical form.Don Neville, "Rondò", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', 4 vols., edited by Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and edit ...
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Ternary Form
Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form consisting of an opening section (A), a following section (B) and then a repetition of the first section (A). It is usually schematized as A–B–A. Prominent examples include the da capo aria "The trumpet shall sound" from Handel's ''Messiah'', Chopin's Prelude in D-Flat Major "Raindrop", ( Op. 28) and the opening chorus of Bach's ''St John Passion''. Simple ternary form In ternary form each section is self-contained both thematically as well as tonally (that is, each section contains distinct and complete themes), and ends with an authentic cadence. The B section is generally in a contrasting but closely related key, usually a perfect fifth above or the parallel minor of the home key of the A section (V or i); however, in many works of the Classical period, the B section stays in tonic but has contrasting thematic material. It usually also has a contrasting character; for example section A might be stif ...
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Bitonality
Polytonality (also polyharmony) is the musical use of more than one key simultaneously. Bitonality is the use of only two different keys at the same time. Polyvalence or polyvalency is the use of more than one harmonic function, from the same key, at the same time. Some examples of bitonality superimpose fully harmonized sections of music in different keys. History In traditional music Lithuanian traditional singing style sutartines is based on polytonality. A typical sutartines song is based on a six-bar melody, where the first three bars contains melody based on the notes of the triad of a major key (for example, in G major), and the next three bars is based on another key, always a major second higher or lower (for example, in A major). This six-bar melody is performed as a canon, and repetition starts from the fourth bar. As a result, parts are constantly singing in different tonality (key) simultaneously (in G and in A). As a traditional style, sutartines disappeared in Li ...
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Symphony No
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section (violin, viola, cello, and double bass), brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their own instrument. Some symphonies also contain vocal parts (e.g., Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). Etymology and origins The word ''symphony'' is derived from the Greek word (), meaning "agreement or concord of sound", "concert of ...
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Sixteenth Note
Figure 1. A 16th note with stem facing up, a 16th note with stem facing down, and a 16th rest. Figure 2. Four 16th notes beamed together. In music, a 1/16, sixteenth note (American) or semiquaver (British) is a note played for half the duration of an eighth note (quaver), hence the names. It is the equivalent of the semifusa in mensural notation, first found in 15th-century notation. Sixteenth notes are notated with an oval, filled-in note head and a straight note stem with two flags (see Figure 1). A single sixteenth note is always stemmed with flags, while two or more are usually beamed in groups. A corresponding symbol is the sixteenth rest (or semiquaver rest), which denotes a silence for the same duration. As with all notes with stems, sixteenth notes are drawn with stems to the right of the notehead, facing up, when they are below the middle line of the musical staff (or on the middle line, in vocal music). When they are on the middle line (in instrumental music) or ab ...
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Efrem Flaks
Efrem Borisovich Flaks (russian: Ефре́м Бори́сович Флакс; — 17 December 1982) was a Soviet singer (bass). A holder of the title of Meritorious Artist of the RSFSR since 1960. He graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory (vocal class) in 1936, from 1939 to 1942 and from 1950 to 1970 worked as a soloist at the Leningrad Philharmonia, from 1943 to 1950 at the Leningrad Radio. He was the original performer of numerous songs by composers Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi, Matvey Blanter, Boris Mokrousov Boris Andreyevich Mokrousov (russian: Бори́с Андре́евич Мокроу́сов; 27 February 1909 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet and Russian composer. Biography He was born in Kanavino, Nizhny Novgorod. He died in Moscow, and wa ..., etc. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Flaks, Efrem 1909 births 1982 deaths Soviet male singers 20th-century Russian male singers ...
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