#shostakovich

[classycoffeesublime]

Night drive home from the theatre, discussing classical music and falling deeply in love

[masonyin]

50 composers

[victorian-wizard]

I am so very tempted to make my yearbook quote “He fell like a chicken into the soup”.

[halemerry]

So I was going through the season taking some screen caps for a different piece of meta when I stumbled on something interesting: the record Aziraphale listens to.

So in 1934, Shostakovich wrote an opera called Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. It was popular but after Stalin himself deemed the work corrupt he wound up banned by the Soviet Union. This had a huge impact of Shostakovich's life and was a very dangerous thing to have happen to you. There are even stories of him sleeping in stairwells to avoid arrest. So by 1937 he released the Symphony No. 5 in D minor. It is a piece written to get him back into the good grace of the authorities and as such it is informally called A Soviet Artist’s Practical and Creative Response to Just Criticism. This worked. Which on the surface makes sense but I urge you to go listen to this song. It starts out very angry. Then retracts itself into a very hesitant sonata. And then the music cuts into a harsh pattern of notes. It's cuts are jarring and there's something just slightly off in nearly all the melodies. Notably, most symphonies shift to a major key by the end. This one, despite spending a great deal of time leading up to the shift into one, refuses to. It's all false triumph. It's all about pretending to folk under the authority's pressure without actually making something that would glorify it. And it worked. Stalin approved of him again.

This was what Az was listening to. Az who is about to make a series of not quite right choices that to the right eyes look like him bowing back again under authority's pressure. He's listening to a song built to deceive those with power over the composer into letting him back into the fold. Whatever Metatron did to him and whether Aziraphale was magically and/or mundanely manipulated (I suspect and) I don't think it entirely took hold.

[dalliancekay]

Aziraphale vs Shostakovich

For a long time now I wanted to write something about Aziraphale's choice to listen to Shostakovich at the beginning of S2. Shostakovich is not an 18th century composer as some joke about Aziraphale being stuck in the past. He's not a romantic, sweet composer either. But a composer who wrote most of his work in the middle of 20th Century. Under the oppressive Soviet regime of Stalin and more.

There's so much about...the way he lived and worked, in constant fear, that just, begs to be compared to how Aziraphale feels. I just never felt I knew enough about Shostakovich to make a post about him and do it justice. I still don't. But. I was listening to this classical music and history course today - not focused on Symphony No. 5 (1937) that Aziraphale was listening to, but Symphony No. 13 (1962) - written in the brief 'Thaw' of Khrushchev, who condemned Stalin's just ended, rule of terror. The professor (Robert Greene - all his courses are amazing btw) nails it when he describes how Shostakovich's career felt:

There's a lot more in the whole chapter but I was struck by how Aziraphale copes and has coped with living in fear, in terror for 6000 years (and much more, since we see him worried in Before the Beginning too). Not just for himself, but like everyone in Russia, for his loved ones too.

Imagine. Living in terror of your friends being taken away. Your spouse. Your parents.. Of you being found a traitor and executed. Afraid of talking to anyone, about anything. Constantly having to praise the regime you live in or you will disappear. Never knowing who is watching. Who is listening.

Constantly. Afraid. Of. A. Knock. At. The. Door.

[sixty-silver-wishes]

Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) in an interview with The Guardian:

[bussyplease]

I made this a while ago on paint at midnight in a fever like state and needed to post it here

[fuwbuki]

"Russia has no good generals. The only exception is Bagration." 

Pyotr Bagration (just imagine theres also chair and table)

Dmitry Shostakovich

This ones so stupid im sorry

JFKs "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech but in animal crossing? (i know the implication with the donut is not historically accurate but still... this ones even more stupid)

Charcoal Jared Harris as Hari Seldon i picked bc i wanted to practise beard, but kinda messed up his nose lol

[gojisaurus]

classical composers in style of Clone High i did from 2020

[shosty-we-understand]

Above is a portrait of Dmitri Shostakovich painted by a friend of his and famous artist, Nikolai Sokolov.

Sokolov was among the many people Shostakovich knew aboard the infamous “Railcar No. 7”, which evacuated some of the Soviet Union’s greatest composers, musicians, artists, and dancers out of Moscow in October of 1941. For six days, an uncomfortable amount of people were packed into the railway car, which moved painfully slowly eastward across the Russian countryside away from the advancing Wehrmacht. During the night, the men would stand and let the women and children sleep. During the day, they would switch, and let the men sleep. This was life aboard their carriage.

At one point, after they’d left the station in Moscow, Shostakovich realized that two of his family’s bags were missing, including all of his clothing and his children’s clothing. Not only that, but a certain third bundle was also missing: the unfinished manuscript for his seventh symphony. While those around him, including his friend Sokolov, managed to spare some clothing for him and his children, they couldn’t quite as easily replace the manuscript. Forlorn, Shostakovich had no choice but to wait on the carriage until they reached their intended destination of Kuibyshev (now known as Samara).

It’s almost a miracle that the Shostakovich family didn’t depart the train sooner like many of those on board had, because on the fourth day, while taking a trip to the toilet, Shostakovich and his wife Nina discovered a familiar looking blanket in a puddle on the floor. Upon unwrapping it, they discovered the manuscript for Shostakovich’s seventh symphony, almost completely untouched despite the conditions in which it was found (they didn’t keep the blanket). Their suitcases, on the other hand, were never found, and were believed to have been left behind on the platform in Moscow during the chaos of evacuation.

That bundle of music would become the most famous piece of music to be composed during the Second World War, and would launch Dmitri Shostakovich into global fame. How incredibly lucky for Shostakovich that the bundle wasn’t thrown out before he had a chance to recover it, or else the world may have never heard his Symphony No. 7.

[polytonalterrapin]

Listening to Shostakovich is very fun because you'll get to the Silly Part, and then you read any biography of Shostakovich and you learn that the Silly Part was written during the single shittiest moment of his life up to that point and had like five different top-ranking government officials ready to assassinate him at any given moment

[professor-beaker]

So two things about me;

1. Im aroace

2. Im a music major

This leads to the discovering of music history facts that constantly astonish me. Like, robert schumann falling in love with clara when she was a minor, them engaging in a forbidden romance and communicating mainly through notes delivered by their mutual friend and him composing pieces for her to play on tour. Then there was brahms's infatuation with clara and his distancing from them cuz he didnt want to ruin their marriage. And then there was berlioz writing a symphony about a character (based on himself) being so obsessed with an opera singer that he basically went crazy and od'd on opium. The last two movements are literally representing hallucinations from this od and depicting the singer as an old hag driving him insane.

And then meanwhile, my favorite composer, dmitri shostakovich, wrote music while under pressure from the russian government and each of his pieces conveys the pure instability and rage he felt.

Glad to know my priorities are reflected in my tastes in music.

[koifishei]

hello tumblr im sorry for being dead, please take this shostakovich as a peace offering :) (he is one of my favorite composer)

(also, thank you for all the compliments on my other drawings :3 it means a lot)

[victorian-wizard]

My new favourite historical discrepancy is the height of Walt Disney. I was trying to figure out how tall Shostakovich was, because I was tempted to get a life-size cardboard cutout of him because Tesco sell cardboard cutouts now.

Anyways I saw two pictures of Shostakovich with Disney and they look a similar height. Which is odd because Disney is apparently 5’10” and Shostakovich is approximately shorter than 5’7”

On the second picture, Shostakovich far left and Disney is the fourth from the left.

So it’s either, Disney lied about his height, all estimates of Shostakovich’s height are wrong or Disney started shrinking as he got older?

—————————

Does anybody actually know how tall Shostakovich is? I want my cardboard cutout to be accurate… I can’t even figure it out from pictures. I’m very close to downloading TikTok to ask the Asian height guy to figure it out.

[m-i-m-i-4]

Sitting on his lap would probably make me worse 🥵

Needed to make an amendment and add another very ✨fine✨ man to this list.

Bill fumbled fr

Two more additions of some fine ass webtoon men

[sixty-silver-wishes]

everyone shut up this is ACTUALLY what fans of different composers are like

Mahlerians are PROUD TO BE ABSOLUTELY INSUFFERABLE DRAMA QUEENS, THE LIKES OF WHICH EVEN THE WAGNER CULT COULD NEVER SO MUCH AS ASPIRE TO BE. WE ARE ONE WITH THE UNYIELDING EBB AND FLOW OF THE BOUNDLESS UNIVERSE, DAMN IT ALL!

Shostakovich fans are like Mahler fans except they actually understand what sarcasm is. We also all really like the Muppets for some reason. Most of us own cats and likely have at least one mental illness.

Liszt fans are either tweenagers who love anime or salty old pianists who know a disturbing amount about music theory. These two factions are constantly at war.

Copland fans are either very, very far right or very, very far left. Either way, neither side actually listens to all of Copland's repertoire.

Tchaikovsky fans are either Russian grandmas or LGBT orchestra kids on Tiktok. Either those or the one noob who heard there were cannons once.

Wagner fans. Yes, there are the cringey neo-Nazi Wagnerians, but anti-Nazi Wagnerians are a whole new level of chaotic good. They spend their time dreaming up the most disastrous, chaotic Ring productions possible, with the sole purpose of making Richard Wagner's entire family simultaneously spin in their graves. They take "death of the author" to a whole new level and constantly run on nothing but 100% pure spite. You want a Wagnerian who would beat up Wagner in a Denny's parking lot on your side.

Prokofiev fans will unironically say "ackshually...". That's it.

Dvorak fans are homeschool kids. They're either soul-crushingly innocent or devastatingly horny.

Sousa fans are just high school band directors who try to convince themselves they like Sousa to get through the semester.

Joplin fans constantly argue over whether Joplin's music should be played twice as quickly or twice as slowly than it's actually written. Also sick of hearing about Janis.

Chopin fans are exactly like Liszt fans, except there are 20% more "uwu softboi flowercrown" edits of Chopin than Liszt floating around on Instagram and Tumblr.

Holst fans will drag you into an alleyway and beat you up with their bare hands if you so much as mention The Planets.

Bernstein fans are either horny theatre kids or communists, but it's more likely they're both at once. They are very opinionated about recordings, and express their approval of the ones they like by gyrating excessively to them. If you put a Bernstein fan, a Mahler fan, and a Shostakovich fan in one room, they will either topple a national government or have a threesome.

Ravel fans are inherently Wes Anderson fans. You can be friends with one for years without knowing a single thing about their personality.

Schoenberg fans are like Mahlerians but with worse memes.

Brahms fans are... I have never met a Brahms fan. I'm sure they exist, but I'm pretty sure my own taste in music scares them off.

Paganini fans are almost always TwoSet kids, particularly the ones who try to convince people that "classical music isn't boring because it's basically metal." If you tell them Paganini played viola, they will spontaneously combust.

Rachmaninov fans are ultimately really chill, but are often socially awkward. If you ask a Rachmaninov fan "how are you?", they will most likely respond with "you too."

Schumann fans are Mahlerians on medication.

Stravinsky fans think they're chaotic and unhinged and listen to the most obscure underground shit, but in all actuality they just decided to enter their edgy phase after a lifetime of being sheltered and forced to listen to nothing but Handel by their parents. Possibly homeschooled.

Ysaye fans are like Paganini fans, except they're depressed graduate music students with permanent calluses on their fingers.

Debussy fans go to art school, decide they don't like art school, but have been doing art school too long to turn back, so they can't get out of art school. They may be high on weed at any given moment.

Satie fans are just possessed vessels of Erik Satie. Death cannot hinder Erik Satie. Erik Satie will return to this mortal plane. Search your feelings. You are already Erik Satie.