String Quartet No. 13 (Shostakovich)

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Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 13 in B flat minor (Op. 138) was first conceived in 1969, and completed in 1970 as Shostakovich was undergoing treatment at an orthopedic clinic in Kurgan. It consists of one movement:

I. Adagio - Doppio movimento - Tempo primo

The piece was dedicated to Vadim Borisovsky, violist of the Beethoven Quartet, and the viola is accordingly given a prominent role in the piece. The quartet opens with a twelve-tone row played on the viola, and concludes with a long viola solo in the high register. The work also requires the players to tap on the bodies of their instruments with their bows at several points; such techniques had become almost commonplace in the West by this time, but were not typically used in Soviet music of this period.

[edit] References

• Wilson, Elizabeth (1994). Shostakovich: A Life Remembered. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-04465-1. 

v • d • e String quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich No. 1 in C major · No. 2 in A major · No. 3 in F major · No. 4 in D major · No. 5 in B flat major · No. 6 in G major · No. 7 in F sharp minor · No. 8 in C minor · No. 9 in E flat major · No. 10 in A flat major · No. 11 in F minor · No. 12 in D flat major · No. 13 in B flat minor · No. 14 in F sharp major · No. 15 in E flat minor List of compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich