The Music of Dmitri Shostakovich Essay -- Musicians

Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia on September 25, 1906, Shostakovich was the second of three children born to Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina. His father was of Polish descent but both his parents were Siberian natives. Dmitri was a child prodigy as a pianist and composer. He began taking piano lessons from his mother at the age of nine. He displayed an incredible talent to remember what his mother had played at the previous lesson and would get caught pretending to read the music, playing the music from his last lesson instead of what was placed in front of him. In 1919, at the age of thirteen, he was allowed to enter the Petrograd Conservatory in Saint Petersburg and studied piano with Leonid Nikolayev. Because the conservatory was poorly funded, it did not have heat; the students had to wear coats, hats and gloves constantly only taking off their gloves when composing. Because of these poor living conditions Dmitri developed tuberculosis of the lymph glands in spring 1923 and had to have an operation. Nevertheless, he completed his final piano examinations at the conservatory in June with his neck still bandaged. Shostakovich, though very intelligent and talented, was seen as immature in his final year at the conservatory Shostakovich initially failed his exam in his Marxist method class. When another student was asked to explain the difference between the music of Liszt and Chopin on sociological and economic grounds, the young composer burst out laughing. Luckily, he was able to petition the decision and re-take the test with a str aight face. In the future, he would learn not to be so casual about politics. His first major musical achievement was the First Symphony, premiered in... ...lder). Works Cited †¢ Burkholder, J. Peter, Donald Jay Grout, and Claude V. Palisca. A history of western music. 8th ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 2010. Print. †¢ Fanning, David. Shostakovich studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Print. †¢ Hurwitz, David, and DmitriÄ ­ Dmitrievich Shostakovich. Shostakovich symphonies and concertos: an owner's manual. Pompton Plains, N.J.: Amadeus ;, 2006. Print. †¢ Norris, Christopher. Shostakovich, the man and his music. Boston: M. Boyars, 1982. Print. †¢ Volkov, Solomon, and Antonina W. Bouis. Shostakovich and Stalin: the extraordinary relationship between the great composer and the brutal dictator. New York: Knopf, 2004. Print. †¢ David Fanning and Laurel Fay. "Shostakovich, Dmitry." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 14 Apr. 2012 .