#dimitri shostakovich

[cantate-domino]

[thebreadmundfitzgerald]

A crossover between two of my main fields of interest that I certainly wasn't expecting when this book showed up in the mail. King must have had some rather strong feelings about this composer who had already been dead for two decades when the novel released. That, or he just really wanted an excuse to call Stalin "Yawgmoth." Either way, an interesting statement on making art in the face of authoritarianism, one that made choosing a vinyl for tonight quite easy.

[ramens-random-blog]

Dimitri shoshtakovich..., i just discovered him today.. Composer chrush

Hes so fine and he makes good music, im his newest bbg, enjoy!

[b1lliesb1ues]

My fave string quartet.

[chiguirolover]

Dimitri Shostakovich would've used chiptune if he was alive today.

[negativezero2]

This is a musician kinda thing, so I'll try to put it in simplier terms, but

The most horrific tempo I think I've ever seen was in String Quartet No.8 (Number 8) by Dmitri Shostakovich, very specifically Movement 2. It's whole note = 120. Now to most people, that's nonsense, so I'll break it down. Music tends to be in quarter notes, which tend to be the beat. In most music, four quarter notes in one bar. Y'know when you clap along to music? Congrats! You found the quarter note! Now most of the time it's around 120... but this is whole note equals 120... so 120 times four.

that is quarter note = 480, aka extremely fast. You can tell Dmitri was NOT happy writing it. But words don't tend to mean much, so I'll give examples:

[bitchalotl]

[elfinaldelcamino]

Dimitri Schostakovich

Dimitri Schostakovich (San Petersburgo 1906 - Moscú 1975) fue un compositor y pianista. De él recordamos las sinfonías, la óperas y por la implicaciones políticas soviéticas, pese a sus dificultades durante la purga de Stalin. Durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial enalteció el heroismo soviético en sus obras, mostrando la complejidad de la vida cultural bajo el régimen de la URSS.

Retrato de Schostakovich (Roger & Renate Rössing, 1950)

En El Final del Camino utilizo las notas de su último cuarteto de cuerdas, el número 15, en la humilde tonalidad de mi bemol menor, para jugar con ellas construyendo nuevos universos sonoros a partir de la deconstrucción temporal, contrapuntística y harmónica.

[aq-s74]

Disillusioned B²TSM AU character profiles but on pronouns.page :O

JS (Juhan)

Ludwig

Peter

Dimitri

Ama (Amadeus)

Nícolas

[phantom-does-a-thing]

I need to stop assigning random guitar pieces as character songs they make no sense

[dalliancekay]

Singing

I feel, we as a fandom, don’t talk enough about Aziraphale's singing.

Maybe he's not much into whatever pop/rock sensation is currently in most humans earphones*, but we know that he used to be a music tutor and therefore surely knows many great tunes.

On top of that, his music taste isn't as ancient as some might think... yes he likes classical music, but contrary to some opinions of it, not all of it is from 18th century. The symphony (number 5) he buys from Maggie at the beginning of S2 was written in 1937 by Dimitri Shostakovich who had a turbulent life (it being the 1930s AND trying to survive in Stalin's cruel regime).

The piece the Bentley plays for Azi when he asks for music on his way to Edinburgh is one of my favourite pieces of music called Danse Macbre by Saint-Saëns, the opening of which Wikipedia describes thus:

The piece opens with a harp playing a single note, D, twelve times (the twelve strokes of midnight) which is accompanied by soft chords from the string section. The solo violin enters playing the tritone, which was known as the diabolus in musica ("the Devil in music") during the Medieval and Baroque eras, consisting of an A and an E♭—in an example of scordatura tuning, the violinist's E string has actually been tuned down to an E♭ to create the dissonant tritone.

Aziraphale is also clearly aware of the film and the music + songs from The Sound of Music (1965) and Aziraphale, living in Soho as he does, I bet is a great lover of not just drama in theatre, but also musicals.

Therefore it is not a huge reach to conclude he would knows some fabulous songs to sing while making himself a pot of tea and a cup of coffee for Crowley on one the countless idyllic mornings in their cottage. Nor is it a stretch to assume that he loves to sing Crowley to sleep, playing with his hair as he does so, much like we all love to see in art and fics that this wonderful fandom provides.

So my question is, what does Aziraphale love to sing? Is it Maria from West Side Story? Singing in the Rain?

Does he love Jesus Christ Superstar (much like he loves his collection of misprinted Bibles)? Did he and Crowley go see Hamilton?

I also think they would have a huge collection of instruments in their cottage, perhaps even a beautiful grand piano... that, of course, they both can play. *but neither is the Bentley, who plays Queen to Crowley basically indiscriminately, even though he tries to play other things when driving. Whether he tried to play music in his car before the 70s, I'm not sure we know?

[ezra-fell-and-co]

Aziraphale & Shostakovich

The moment in the record shop when Aziraphale said he was picking up a Shostakovich record I had So Many Thoughts.

The symphony he's listening to is Symphony No.5 in D Minor, Op. 47, composed in 1937 and premiered in Leningrad to a thirty+ minute long standing ovation. Prior to this piece, Dimitri S. spent many nights sleeping in the hallway outside of his apartment so that his family wouldn't see if the government police in charge of enforcing Stalin's brutal rule came for him in the middle of the night. His last pieces had been received harshly by critics and called unpatriotic, which was just about the worst thing a composer living during The Great Terror (1936-1938) could do. Those who were not loyal to the regime and explicitly portrayed it in their art were branded as traitors and sent to gulags or were straight up executed.

The San Francisco Symphony describes the 5th symphony as "the story of a fall from grace and redemption.". Shostakovitch has gone from being a golden example to being eyed as a traitor almost overnight, the 5th Symphony becoming his redemption back into good graces.

So basically Dimitri S. was a man with contrasting ideologies to the powers that be, so to say, who was living under the threat of death, torture, or excommunication from his homeland. Haha, so weird that Aziraphale would want to listen to his music specifically.

(If you've never listened to Symphony No. 5, I highly encourage you to go listen!)

To set the scene-

From The Houston Symphony's 2018 Fighting the Barbarian Artist article on Symph. 5:

"In January 1934, Dmitri Shostakovich scored one of the biggest triumphs of his career with the premiere of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, a work official critics hailed as the first great Soviet opera. Based on a nineteenth-century novella by Leskov, it follows the misadventures of Katerina, the illiterate wife of a well-to-do country merchant who is driven to murder in order to be with her handsome but unworthy lover, the laborer Sergei. By turns satirical and tragic, Lady Macbeth explored themes of oppression with a potent combination of sex, violence and some truly beautiful music that played to full houses for two years. Then on January 26, 1936, Stalin went to see it. Two days later, on page 3 of Pravda (“Truth”—the newspaper that continues to serve as the official mouthpiece of the Russian Communist Party to this day), Shostakovich found an anonymous review of Lady Macbeth headlined “Muddle Instead of Music.” One representative quote declared that the opera “tickles the perverted tastes of the bourgeoisie with its fidgety, screaming, neurotic music…”" ...

There is debate about if Stalin himself wrote the review to make a point, or if he just signed off on it being printed. It's also unclear if Shostakovitch was being targeted specifically, or just because of his notoriety to prove that no matter how big a name you are you're not safe if you don't fall in line, or if he was just being used as a pawn in the ongoing power struggles of the day.

Either way, he was very aware that he was in danger. A friend of Stalin's was vanished when he wrote to Stalin in defense of Shostakovitch's work after the fateful review.

The 5th was a result of Dimitri knowing he needed to get back into good graces, so he had to give them something that they wanted. Or at least something that sounded like what they wanted.

Symphony No. 5 is very sneaky in how it subverts the expectations and requirements of Stalin's Russia.

For one, it's form- a symphony is a very structured form and very Western, popularized by Beethoven and co. It's also instrumental, which allowed Shostakovitch to hide a lot of references, subversions, and musical sarcasm/critiques without the untrained critics and government officials being any the wiser.

D minor, the main tonality of the symphony, has been described by various music theorists about what kind of emotional experience it portrays. John Mattheson in 1713 described it as "Serious, Pious, Ruminating. Melancholy, feminine, brooding worries, contemplation of negativity."

However, for our purposes, Aziraphale is listening to the fourth movement, which is also the most political. (More excellent write ups about the entire work can be read here, here, here, and here. There is a PBS documentary about it here.) ((It also shifts to an ironic D Major as one point, which Mattheson describes as "Triumphant, Victorious War-Cries. Screaming hallelujah’s, rejoicing in conquering obstacles. War marches, holiday songs, invitations to join the winning team."))

The fourth movement is bombastic, letting the brass section loose right at the start. The main theme in this section is from an unpublished song that Shostakovitch had written as a setting for a Pushkin poem. The piece as a whole and specifically this movement is a direct critique of Stalin himself.

The poem?

With sleepy brush the barbarian artist The master’s painting blackens; And thoughtlessly his wicked drawing Over it he is daubing. But in years the foreign colors Peal off, an aged layer: The work of genius is ‘gain before us, With former beauty out it comes. Thus my failings vanish too From my wearied soul, And again within it visions rise, Of my early purer days.

Which I think speaks for itself in what kind of mentality Aziraphale might have listening to the symphony.

I'm not sure which recording he listens to, but in the record shop we are shown that it's a record with a blue label on the disk. There are several recordings that have blue labels including the 1972 Moscow Philharmonic with Kiril Kondrashin and the 1989 Scottish National Orchestra with Neeme Jarvi. Leonard Bernstein and the NY Philharmonic have a very famous recording as well.

But I think the most likely is the 1962 Vienna Philharmonic with Constantin Silvestri. Why? Well, here's the record:

[milkywayrollercoaster]

Dimitri Shostakovich

Sinfonia n. 10

Orquestra Filarmónica de Berlim

Herbert von Karajan

Deutsche Grammophon

[mannekinni]

friendly reminder to the two (2) other people on earth who care about harrow faire that Dimitri Shostakovich (the composer simon repeatedy references) wasn’t even born until 1906. Someone had to introduce Simon to Shostakovich because god damn it no matter how hard he tries he’s still a part of this family. Okay? I’m grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking you till you think about it.

[thescribeoflostmemories]

MY VOWS TO YOU of pierro x f!Reader in canon genshin universe please!!! So excited for june!!!!

Flaming bonds being tested.

Reader x Pierro

Fandom: Genshin Impact

Music: Waltz No. 2 by Dimitri Shostakovich & Priestess in the darkness musicbox+orchastra (Fire emblem)

note : Implied cursed/ khaenri’ah reader, take that into account and I just randomly puke these all out while I was bored out of my mind during a meeting.Y’all proud of me? Also I have no such thing as summer vacation 🫠 I hope you like it.

- P

"Delusions too die hard, only the savage can reign supreme in this twisted wonderland. But what say, you? Who kindled but the last light of day." - Scribe

“I will lift up your sorrows,”

How many thousand suns have passed, and how many thousand moons, you must?

When did you exchange vows with one such as the man titled as your forevermore lover?

"My lady, Lord Harbinger Jester has arrived."

Jester, it does nothing to ring a bell in your mind on who that was.

"My lady, Breakfast is served." You’d rather spend the days alone, even with a cold bed to dream.

You had no recollection outside of your own name, broke away from sweet repose to this strange rozen land. The tall and small were under this Jester’s command, only a few could only withstand.

“Is it you, who have brought me here?” The bed is stale like bread, and it seems it only occupies you as the owner. Wallowing in contempt as you stare longingly out for the remainder until the blue hours come and go. You’re on the cusp of being exposed in your enclosure, frail and darkness inches closer than the ones that glances up from below.

‘Your cup will never empty,’

Upon the round table the man has laid for you, a small party he did threw.

Pierro is the name that you accrue. He had roused you from the hold of the archon, he did not dispute.

“Meister,” You heard of that title once before. Under the waking moonlight, he speaks of those that dare to oppose them with their might. Surely, what does he propose to justify his price?

“Evr’ything would come to light.” He says as if he had found the path to destroy the hand of heavenly edifice.

‘For I shall be your wine,’

Arrogance, a slow and insidious murderer. “For whom do you serve?” an inadequate query for one fittingly such as thy father. Voice hoarse from years of

“The lady of solemn promise.” he replied back, hollow and alone whisked away by the thread of fate tied to ev’rmore fractured amore.

March on the sands that strayed, from dimmed Khaenri’ah.

‘I light your way in darkness,’

Tearing, progress. You had exhausted all efforts, unplugged.

Realize your epiphany as gentle hands covet yours. Feeling the spine-chilling wind against your back.

In the past, you had recall of twin suns that sink into one, and strange black stars that soar through your scry.

Searching for dark Khaenri’ah

‘With this ring, I ask you to be mine.’

Your hand blessed once more with his soft whispers of perennial burning blue pyre.

To dine. Intruth; your fleeting light he cannot deny. Their love, shall cry, and die. In lost Khaenri’ah.