Symphony No. 7 (Shostakovich)

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Symphony No. 7 in C Major "Leningrad", Op. 60 was composed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1941. The work was first performed by Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra under Samuil Samosud in Kuibyshev on 5 March 1942, in the middle of World War II. The symphony is dedicated to the city of Leningrad.

It was extremely popular in both Russia and the west, being adopted as a symbol of resistance to the German invasion. After the war its reputation declined, as it was viewed as mere propaganda. In more recent years, some have suggested that the work, particularly its famous first movement "invasion" theme, can also be interpreted as an anti-Stalinist piece. The interpretation of the work is complicated by uncertainty as to when the composer started to write the symphony.

1 Composition
2 Premières
3 Reception
4 Music
5 Orchestration
6 Trivia
7 Notes
8 References

[edit] Composition

A sign on Nevsky Prospekt from the Siege of Leningrad, now a memorial. The sign reads in Russian: "Citizens! During artillery fire, this side of the street is more dangerous."

Shostakovich completed the symphony on 27 December 1941. There are conflicting accounts as to when he began work on the piece in Leningrad: officially he was said to have composed it in response to the German invasion, but others (e.g. Rostislav Dubinsky) say that he had already completed the first movement a year earlier.

It is known that he continued writing during the Siege of Leningrad, as the German forces tried to starve the city into submission. On 17 September 1941, he spoke on the Leningrad Radio:

An hour ago I finished the score of two movements of a large symphonic composition. If I succeed in carrying it off, if I manage to complete the third and fourth movements, then perhaps I'll be able to call it my Seventh Symphony. Why am I telling you this? So that the radio listeners who are listening to me now will know that life in our city is proceeding normally.

The third movement was completed on 29 September in the city before Shostakovich and his family were evacuated to Moscow on 1 October 1941. They moved to Kuibyshev (now Samara) on 22 October, where the symphony was finally completed.

[edit] Premières

The world première was held in Kuibyshev on 5 March 1942. The Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, conducted by Samuil Samosud, gave a rousing performance that was broadcast across the Soviet Union and later in the West as well. The Moscow première took place on 29 March 1942 in the Columned Hall of the House of Unions, by a joined orchestra of the Bolshoi Orchestra and the All-Union Radio Orchestra.

The microfilmed score was flown to Teheran and travelled to the West in April 1942. The symphony received its broadcast première in Europe by Henry Wood and the London Philharmonic Orchestra on 22 June 1942 in London, and concert première at a Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall. The première in the Western Hemisphere took place in New York on 19 July 1942, by the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini in a studio concert broadcast nationwide on radio. This performance was eventually released on CD by RCA Victor.

The Leningrad première, which took place in the city to which the symphony is dedicated, was given on 9 August 1942 by the Leningrad Radio Orchestra (the only symphony orchestra remaining in Leningrad) under Karl Eliasberg. The city was still blockaded in that time. The score was flown by night in early July for rehearsal, and a team of copyists worked all days long to prepare the parts despite shortages of materials. Members of the orchestra were given special rations to help them through the concert and extra players were drafted in to replace those fighting, evacuated or dead. At the concert, loudspeakers broadcast the performance throughout the city and, in psychological warfare, to the besieging German forces. They had been artillery bombarded in advance to ensure their silence during the performance of the symphony.

[edit] Reception

During the war, the work was very popular both in the West and in the USSR as the embodiment of the fighting Russian spirit. It was played 62 times in the United States in the 1942-43 season. Some critics, however, were dismayed by its apparent crudity; Virgil Thomson wrote that, "It seems to have been written for the slow-witted, the not very musical and the distracted".^[1] After the war this view of the work as overly bombastic Soviet propaganda came to prevail. In recent years it has again become more popular, along with the rest of Shostakovich's work, and the piece has been viewed as a condemnation of both Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism.

Shostakovich had been awarded a Stalin Prize for the symphony.

[edit] Music

The work has four movements in all:

The symphony is Shostakovich's longest (approximately one hour and fifteen minutes in length). It is best known for the so-called invasion theme in the first movement, in which a jaunty 18-bar march, accompanied by a repeated rhythm on the snare drum, is repeated twelve times, louder each time, somewhat in the manner of Maurice Ravel's Boléro. The march lasts for eleven minutes and was traditionally viewed as a clear representation of the fascist invaders. In modern times scholars have argued the march actually shows Russia's destruction emanating from within, noting that the theme is formed from fragments of Russian tunes. Volkov has argued that the march's low-key beginning indicates an insidious takeover rather than the Nazis' frontal invasion. The composer's friend, Flora Litvinova, recalled him saying the work was "not just about fascism, but also about our system".^[2]

The second and third movements are a skittish scherzo and searching adagio respectively, and are followed by a grimly triumphant finale.

[edit] Orchestration

The work is written for:

Woodwinds

3 Concert flutes (2nd doubling piccolo, 3rd doubling alto flute)

Piccolo (doubling 2nd flute)

Alto flute (doubling 3rd flute)

2 Oboes

Cor anglais

3 B♭ Clarinets (3rd doubling piccolo clarinet)

Piccolo clarinet (doubling 3rd clarinet)

Bass clarinet

2 Bassoons

Contrabassoon

Brass: 8 F French horns; 6 Trumpets; 6 Trombones; B♭ Tuba

Percussion: Timpani; Bass Drum; Snare drum; Tam-tam; Cymbals; Xylophone; Triangle; Wood blocks

Keyboard: Piano

Strings: 2 Harps; and a minimum of:; 16 1^st Violins; 14 2^nd Violins; 12 Violas; 10 Cellos; 8 Double basses

[edit] Trivia

It has been alleged that Béla Bartók quoted the march theme of the first movement in the Intermezzo interotto of his Concerto for Orchestra. Even though the supposed 'quotation' is far from exact, and in the absence of any evidence for a satirical or parodistic intention, the resemblance has nevertheless been variously interpreted as an accusation of tastelessness; as a commentary on the symphony's over-popularity in Bartók's eyes, and as an acknowledgment of the position of the artist in a totalitarian society.
Both the opening of the first movement and the "invasion theme" appear prominently in an episode of the anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.