Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 5 in

B-flat major B-flat major is a major scale based on B, with pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative minor is G minor and its parallel minor is B-flat minor. The B-flat major scale is: : Many transposing instr ...

, Op. 92, was composed in autumn

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

. It was premiered in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

in November 1953 by the

Beethoven Quartet The Beethoven Quartet (russian: Струнный квартет имени Бетховена, ''Strunnyĭ kvartet imeni Betkhovena'') was a string quartet founded between 1922 and 1923 by graduates of the Moscow Conservatory: violinists Dmitri T ...

, to whom it is dedicated.

Structure

It consists of three

movement Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

s, performed without a break: Playing time is approximately 30 minutes. The work grows from a five-note motif, C–D–E–B–C, which contains the four pitch-classes of the composer's musical monogram: DSCH (E being ''Es'' and B being ''H'' in German). This motif appears in a number of his other string quartets, including String Quartet No. 8, as well as his Symphony No. 10.Griffiiths (2012)

Structure

Notes

References

External links