Similar in concept to “Bolero” by Maurice Ravel. A simple theme, innocuous at first, developing against the background of the dry knock of a snare drum, eventually grew into a terrible symbol of suppression. In 1940, Shostakovich showed this composition to colleagues and students, but did not publish it or perform it publicly. When the composer began writing a new symphony in the summer of 1941, the passacaglia turned into a large variation episode, replacing the development in its first movement, completed in August.

Premieres

The premiere of the work took place on March 5, 1942 in Kuibyshev, where the Bolshoi Theater troupe was evacuated at that time. The seventh symphony was first performed at the Kuibyshev Opera and Ballet Theater by the USSR Bolshoi Theater orchestra under the direction of conductor Samuil Samosud.

The second performance took place on March 29 under the baton of S. Samosud - the symphony was performed for the first time in Moscow.

A little later, the symphony was performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Evgeny Mravinsky, who was evacuated in Novosibirsk at that time.

The foreign premiere of the Seventh Symphony took place on June 22, 1942 in London - it was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Henry Wood. On July 19, 1942, the American premiere of the symphony took place in New York - it was performed by the New York Radio Symphony Orchestra under conductor Arturo Toscanini.

Structure

1. Allegretto
2. Moderato - Poco allegretto
3. Adagio
4. Allegro non troppo

Orchestra composition

Performance of the symphony in besieged Leningrad

Orchestra

The symphony was performed by the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee. During the days of the blockade, some musicians died of hunger. Rehearsals were stopped in December. When they resumed in March, only 15 weakened musicians could play. To replenish the size of the orchestra, musicians had to be recalled from military units.

Execution

Exclusive importance was attached to execution; on the day of the first execution, all artillery forces of Leningrad were sent to suppress enemy firing points. Despite the bombs and airstrikes, all the chandeliers in the Philharmonic were lit.

Shostakovich's new work had a strong aesthetic impact on many listeners, making them cry without hiding their tears. Great music reflects a unifying principle: faith in victory, sacrifice, boundless love for one’s city and country.

During its performance, the symphony was broadcast on the radio, as well as over the loudspeakers of the city network. It was heard not only by the residents of the city, but also by the German troops besieging Leningrad. Much later, two tourists from the GDR who found Eliasberg confessed to him:

Galina Lelyukhina, flutist:

The film “Leningrad Symphony” is dedicated to the history of the performance of the symphony.

Soldier Nikolai Savkov, artilleryman of the 42nd Army, wrote a poem during the secret operation “Squall” on August 9, 1942, dedicated to the premiere of the 7th symphony and the secret operation itself.

Memory

Famous performances and recordings

Live performances

• Among the outstanding interpretive conductors who performed recordings of the Seventh Symphony are Rudolf Barshai, Leonard Bernstein, Valery Gergiev, Kirill Kondrashin, Evgeny Mravinsky, Leopold Stokowski, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Evgeny Svetlanov, Yuri Temirkanov, Arturo Toscanini, Bernard Haitink, Carl Eliasberg, Maris Jansons , Neeme Jarvi.
• Starting from its performance in besieged Leningrad, the symphony had enormous propaganda and political significance for the Soviet and Russian authorities. On August 21, 2008, a fragment of the first movement of the symphony was performed in the South Ossetian city of Tskhinvali, destroyed by Georgian troops, by the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev. The live broadcast was shown on the Russian channels “Russia”, “Culture” and “Vesti”, the English-language channel, and was also broadcast on the radio stations “Vesti FM” and “Culture”. On the steps of the parliament building destroyed by shelling, the symphony was intended to emphasize the parallel between the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict and the Great Patriotic War.
• The ballet “Leningrad Symphony” was staged to the music of the 1st movement of the symphony, which became widely known.
• On February 28, 2015, the symphony was performed at the Donetsk Philharmonic on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War as part of the charity program “Siege survivors of Leningrad - children of Donbass”.

Soundtracks

• The motives of the symphony can be heard in the game “Entente” in the theme of completing a campaign or online game for the German Empire.
• In the animated series "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", in the episode "Day of Sagittarius", fragments of the Leningrad Symphony are used. Subsequently, at the concert "Suzumiya Haruhi no Gensou" the Tokyo State Orchestra performed the first part of the symphony.

Notes

1. Koenigsberg A.K., Mikheeva L.V. Symphony No. 7 (Dmitri Shostakovich)// 111 symphonies. - St. Petersburg: “Kult-inform-press”, 2000.
2. Shostakovich D. D. / Comp. L. B. Rimsky. // Heinze - Yashugin. Additions A - Y. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia: Soviet Composer, 1982. - (Encyclopedias. Dictionaries. Reference books:

Galkina Olga

My research work is of an informational nature; I wanted to get to know the history of the siege of Leningrad through the history of the creation of Symphony No. 7 by Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich.

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Research

in history

on the topic of:

“Fire Symphony of Siege Leningrad and the Fate of its Author”

Completed by: 10th grade student

MBOU "Gymnasium No. 1"

Galkina Olga.

Curator: history teacher

Chernova I.Yu.

Novomoskovsk 2014

Plan.

1. Siege of Leningrad.

2. The history of the creation of the “Leningrad” symphony.

3. Pre-war life of D. D. Shostakovich.

4. Post-war years.

5. Conclusion.

Leningrad blockade.

My research work is of an informational nature; I wanted to get to know the history of the siege of Leningrad through the history of the creation of Symphony No. 7 by Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich.

Soon after the start of the war, Leningrad was captured by German troops, and the city was blocked on all sides. The siege of Leningrad lasted 872 days - on September 8, 1941, Hitler’s troops cut the Moscow-Leningrad railway, Shlisselburg was captured, Leningrad was surrounded from land. The capture of the city was part of the war plan developed by Nazi Germany against the USSR - the Barbarossa plan. It stipulated that the Soviet Union should be completely defeated within 3-4 months of the summer and autumn of 1941, that is, during the “blitzkrieg”. The evacuation of Leningrad residents lasted from June 1941 to October 1942. During the first period of evacuation, the blockade of the city seemed impossible to the residents, and they refused to move anywhere. But initially, children began to be taken away from the city to areas of Leningrad, which then began to rapidly be captured by German regiments. As a result, 175 thousand children were returned back to Leningrad. Before the blockade of the city, 488,703 people were taken out of it. At the second stage of the evacuation, which took place from January 22 to April 15, 1942, 554,186 people were taken along the ice “Road of Life”. The last stage of the evacuation, from May to October 1942, was carried out mainly by water transport along Lake Ladoga to the mainland; about 400 thousand people were transported. In total, about 1.5 million people were evacuated from Leningrad during the war. Food cards were introduced: from October 1, workers and engineers began to receive 400 g of bread per day, all others- to 200. Public transport stopped because by the winter of 1941- 1942 there were no fuel reserves or electricity left. Food supplies were rapidly declining, and in January 1942 there was only 200/125 g of bread per person per day. By the end of February 1942, more than 200 thousand people died from cold and hunger in Leningrad. But the city lived and fought: the factories did not stop their work and continued to produce military products, theaters and museums operated. All this time, when the blockade was going on, the Leningrad radio, where poets and writers spoke, did not stop talking.In besieged Leningrad, in darkness, in hunger, in sadness, where death, like a shadow, trailed on his heels... there remained a professor at the Leningrad Conservatory, the most famous composer throughout the world - Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich. A grandiose plan for a new work matured in his soul, which was supposed to reflect the thoughts and feelings of millions of Soviet people.With extraordinary enthusiasm, the composer began to create his 7th symphony. With extraordinary enthusiasm, the composer began to create his 7th symphony. “Music burst out of me uncontrollably,” he later recalled. Neither hunger, nor the onset of autumn cold and lack of fuel, nor frequent artillery shelling and bombing could interfere with inspired work.”

Pre-war life of D. D. Shostakovich

Shostakovich was born and lived in difficult and controversial times. He did not always adhere to the party’s policies; he sometimes conflicted with the authorities, sometimes receiving their approval.

Shostakovich is a unique phenomenon in the history of world musical culture. His work, like no other artist, reflected our complex, cruel era, the contradictions and tragic fate of humanity, and embodied the shocks that befell his contemporaries. All the troubles, all the suffering of our country in the twentieth century. he passed it through his heart and expressed it in his works.

Dmitri Shostakovich was born in 1906, “at the end” of the Russian Empire, in St. Petersburg, when the Russian Empire was living out its last days. By the end of the First World War and the subsequent revolution, the past had been decisively erased as the country embraced a new radical socialist ideology. Unlike Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Rachmaninov, Dmitri Shostakovich did not leave his homeland to live abroad.

He was the second of three children: his older sister Maria became a pianist, and his younger sister Zoya became a veterinarian. Shostakovich studied at a private school, and then in 1916-18, during the revolution and the formation of the Soviet Union, he studied at the school of I. A. Glyasser.

Later, the future composer entered the Petrograd Conservatory. Like many other families, he and his loved ones found themselves in a difficult situation - constant starvation weakened the body and, in 1923, Shostakovich urgently went to a sanatorium in Crimea for health reasons. In 1925 he graduated from the conservatory. The young musician's diploma work was the First Symphony, which immediately brought the 19-year-old boy wide fame at home and in the West.

In 1927, he met Nina Varzar, a student studying physics, whom he later married. That same year he became one of eight finalists at the International Competition. Chopin in Warsaw, and the winner was his friend Lev Oborin.

Life was difficult, and in order to continue to support his family and his widowed mother, Shostakovich composed music for films, ballets and theater. When Stalin came to power, the situation became more complicated.

Shostakovich’s career experienced rapid ups and downs several times, but the turning point in his fate was 1936, when Stalin attended his opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” based on the story by N. S. Leskov and was shocked by its sharp satire and innovative music. The official reaction followed immediately. The government newspaper Pravda, in an article entitled “Confusion Instead of Music,” subjected the opera to real destruction, and Shostakovich was recognized as an enemy of the people. The opera was immediately removed from the repertoire in Leningrad and Moscow. Shostakovich was forced to cancel the premiere of his recently completed Symphony No. 4, fearing that it might cause even more trouble, and began work on a new symphony. During those terrible years, there was a period when the composer lived for many months, expecting arrest at any moment. He went to bed dressed and had a small suitcase ready.

At the same time, his relatives were arrested. His marriage was also in jeopardy due to an affair. But with the birth of their daughter Galina in 1936, the situation improved.

Pursued by the press, he wrote his Symphony No. 5, which, fortunately, was a great success. It was the first culmination of the composer’s symphonic work; its premiere in 1937 was conducted by the young Evgeniy Mravinsky.

The history of the creation of the “Leningrad” Symphony.

On the morning of September 16, 1941, Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich spoke on Leningrad radio. At this time, the city was being bombed by fascist planes, and the composer spoke to the roar of anti-aircraft guns and bomb explosions:

“An hour ago I finished the score of two parts of a large symphonic work. If I manage to write this work well, if I manage to finish the third and fourth parts, then it will be possible to call this work the Seventh Symphony.

Why am I reporting this?... so that the radio listeners who are listening to me now know that life in our city is going well. We are all now on our combat watch... Soviet musicians, my dear and numerous comrades in arms, my friends! Remember that our art is in great danger. Let us protect our music, let us work honestly and selflessly..."

Shostakovich - outstanding master of the orchestra. He thinks orchestrally. Instrumental timbres and combinations of instruments are used with amazing precision and in many ways in a new way by him as living participants in his symphonic dramas.

Seventh (“Leningrad”) Symphony- one of Shostakovich's significant works. The symphony was written in 1941. And most of it was composed in besieged Leningrad.The composer completed the entire symphony in Kuibyshev (Samara), where he was evacuated by order in 1942.The first performance of the symphony took place on March 5, 1942 in the hall of the Palace of Culture on Kuibyshev Square (modern opera and ballet theater) under the direction of S. Samosud.The premiere of the seventh symphony took place in Leningrad in August 1942. In a besieged city, people found the strength to perform a symphony. There were only fifteen people left in the Radio Committee orchestra, but at least a hundred were required for the performance! Then they called all the musicians who were in the city and even those who played in the army and navy front orchestras near Leningrad. On August 9, Shostakovich's seventh symphony was played in the Philharmonic Hall. Conducted by Karl Ilyich Eliasberg. “These people were worthy to perform the symphony of their city, and the music was worthy of them...”- Olga Berggolts and Georgy Makogonenko wrote then in Komsomolskaya Pravda.

The Seventh Symphony is often compared to documentary works about the war, called a “chronicle”, “document”- It conveys the spirit of events so accurately.The idea of ​​the symphony is the struggle of the Soviet people against the fascist occupiers and faith in victory. This is how the composer himself defined the idea of ​​the symphony: “My symphony is inspired by the terrible events of 1941. The insidious and treacherous attack of German fascism on our Motherland rallied all the forces of our people to repel the cruel enemy. The seventh symphony is a poem about our struggle, about our impending victory.” This is what he wrote in the Pravda newspaper on March 29, 1942.

The idea of ​​the symphony is embodied in 4 movements. Part I is of particular importance. Shostakovich wrote about it in the author’s explanation, published in the program of the concert on March 5, 1942 in Kuibyshev: “The first part tells how a formidable force burst into our beautiful peaceful life - war.” These words defined two themes contrasted in the first part of the symphony: the theme of peaceful life (the theme of the Motherland) and the theme of the outbreak of war (fascist invasion). “The first theme is the image of joyful creation. This emphasizes the Russian sweeping, broad theme, filled with calm confidence. Then melodies embodying images of nature sound. They seem to dissolve, melt. A warm summer night fell to the ground. Both people and nature – everything fell asleep.”

In the episode of the invasion, the composer conveyed inhuman cruelty, blind, lifeless, creepy automatism, inextricably linked with the appearance of the fascist military. Leo Tolstoy’s expression – “evil machine” – is very appropriate here.

This is how musicologists L. Danilevich and A. Tretyakova characterize the image of an enemy invasion: “To create such an image, Shostakovich mobilized all the means of his compositional arsenal. The theme of the invasion is deliberately blunt, square, reminiscent of a Prussian military march. It is repeated eleven times - eleven variations. The harmony and orchestration change, but the melody remains the same. It repeats itself with iron inexorability - exactly, note for note. All variations are permeated with a fractional march rhythm. This snare drum rhythmic figure is repeated 175 times. The sound gradually increases from subtle pianissimo to thunderous fortissimo.” “Growing to gigantic proportions, the theme depicts some kind of unimaginably gloomy, fantastic monster, which, growing larger and denser, moves forward more and more rapidly and menacingly.” This topic is reminiscent of “the dance of learned rats to the tune of the rat catcher,” A. Tolstoy wrote about it.

How does such a powerful development of the theme of enemy invasion end? “At the moment when it would seem that all living things are dying, unable to resist the onslaught of this terrible, all-crushing robot monster, a miracle occurs: a new force appears on its path, capable of not only resisting, but also entering into the fight. This is the theme of resistance. Marching, solemn, it sounds with passion and great anger, resolutely opposing the theme of invasion. The moment of its appearance is the highest point in the musical dramaturgy of part 1. After this collision, the theme of invasion loses its solidity. It fragments and becomes smaller. All attempts to revive are in vain - the death of the monster is inevitable.”

Alexey Tolstoy very precisely said about what wins the symphony as a result of this struggle: “The threat of fascism- dehumanize a person- he (that is, Shostakovich.- G.S.) responded with a symphony about the victorious triumph of everything lofty and beautiful created by the humanitarian..."

In Moscow, D. Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony was performed on March 29, 1942, 24 days after its premiere in Kuibyshev. In 1944, the poet Mikhail Matusovsky wrote a poem called “The Seventh Symphony in Moscow”.

You probably remember
How the cold then penetrated
Night quarters of Moscow,
Entrances of the Hall of Columns.

The weather was stingy
A little powdered with snow,
As if this cereal
We were given cards.

But the city, shrouded in darkness,
With a sadly crawling tram,
Was this siege winter
Beautiful and unforgettable.

When the composer is sideways
I made my way to the foot of the piano,
In the orchestra, bow by bow
Woke up, lit up, shone

As if from the darkness of nights
Blizzard gusts reached us.
And immediately all the violinists
The sheets flew off the stands.
And this stormy darkness,
Whistling gloomily in the trenches,
Wasn't anyone before him
Written like a score.

A thunderstorm was rolling over the world.
Never before at a concert
I never felt the hall so close
The presence of life and death.

Like a house from floors to rafters,
Immediately engulfed in flames,
The orchestra, maddened, screamed
One musical phrase.

The flames were breathing in her face.
The cannonade drowned it out.
She was breaking through the ring
Siege nights of Leningrad.

Humming in the deep blue,
I was on the road all day.
And the night ended in Moscow
Air raid siren.

Post-war years.

In 1948, Shostakovich again had trouble with the authorities; he was declared a formalist. A year later, he was fired from the conservatory, and his compositions were banned from performance. The composer continued to work in the theater and film industry (between 1928 and 1970 he wrote music for almost 40 films).

Stalin's death in 1953 brought some relief. He felt relative freedom. This allowed him to expand and enrich his style and create works of even greater skill and range, which often reflected the violence, horror and bitterness of the times the composer lived through.

Shostakovich visited Great Britain and America and created several more grandiose works.

60s pass under the sign of increasingly deteriorating health. The composer suffers two heart attacks, and a disease of the central nervous system begins. Increasingly, people have to spend long periods in hospital. But Shostakovich tries to lead an active lifestyle and compose, although he is getting worse every month.

Death overtook the composer on August 9, 1975. But even after death, the all-powerful authorities did not leave him alone. Despite the composer's desire to be buried in his homeland, Leningrad, he was buried at the prestigious Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

The funeral was postponed to August 14 because foreign delegations did not have time to arrive. Shostakovich was an “official” composer, and he was buried officially with loud speeches from representatives of the party and government who had criticized him for so many years.

After his death, he was officially declared a loyal member of the Communist Party.

Conclusion.

Everyone performed heroic deeds during the war - on the front line, in partisan detachments, in concentration camps, in the rear in factories and hospitals. Musicians who wrote music in inhuman conditions and performed it at the fronts and for home front workers also performed feats. Thanks to their feat, we know a lot about the war. The 7th Symphony is not only musical, it is a military feat of D. Shostakovich.

“I put a lot of strength and energy into this composition,” the composer wrote in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. – I have never worked with such enthusiasm as I do now. There is a popular expression: “When the guns roar, then the muses are silent.” This rightly applies to those guns that suppress life, joy, happiness, and culture with their roar. Then the guns of darkness, violence and evil roar. We are fighting in the name of the triumph of reason over obscurantism, in the name of the triumph of justice over barbarism. There are no more noble and sublime tasks than those that inspire us to fight the dark forces of Hitlerism.”

Works of art created during the war are monuments to military events. The Seventh Symphony is one of the most grandiose, monumental monuments; it is a living page of history that we should not forget.

Internet resources:

Literature:

1. Tretyakova L.S. Soviet music: Book. for students of Art. classes. – M.: Education, 1987.
2. I. Prokhorova, G. Skudina.Soviet musical literature for the 7th grade of children's music school, ed. T.V. Popova. Eighth edition. – Moscow, “Music”, 1987. Pp. 78–86.
3. Music in grades 4–7: a manual for teachers / T.A. Bader, T.E. Vendrova, E.D. Kritskaya et al.; Ed. E.B. Abdullina; scientific Head D.B. Kabalevsky. – M.: Education, 1986. Pp. 132, 133.
4. Poems about music. Russian, Soviet, foreign poets. Second edition. Compiled by A. Biryukova, V. Tatarinov, under the general editorship of V. Lazarev. – M.: All-Union edition. Soviet composer, 1986. Pp. 98.

They sobbed furiously, sobbing
For the sake of one single passion
At the stop - a disabled person
And Shostakovich is in Leningrad.
Alexander Mezhirov

Dmitri Shostakovich's seventh symphony is subtitled "Leningrad". But the name “Legendary” suits her better. And indeed, the history of creation, the history of rehearsals and the history of performance of this work have become almost legendary.

From concept to implementation

It is believed that the idea for the Seventh Symphony arose from Shostakovich immediately after the Nazi attack on the USSR. Let's give other opinions.
conducting before the war and for a completely different reason. But he found the character, expressed a premonition."
Composer Leonid Desyatnikov: “...with the “invasion theme” itself, not everything is completely clear: considerations were expressed that it was composed long before the start of the Great Patriotic War, and that Shostakovich connected this music with the Stalinist state machine, etc.” There is an assumption that the “invasion theme” is based on one of Stalin’s favorite melodies - the Lezginka.
Some go even further, arguing that the Seventh Symphony was originally conceived by the composer as a symphony about Lenin, and only the war prevented its writing. The musical material was used by Shostakovich in the new work, although no real traces of the “work about Lenin” were found in Shostakovich’s handwritten legacy.
They point out the textural similarity of the “invasion theme” with the famous "Bolero" Maurice Ravel, as well as a possible transformation of Franz Lehar's melody from the operetta "The Merry Widow" (Count Danilo's aria Alsobitte, Njegus, ichbinhier... Dageh` ichzuMaxim).
The composer himself wrote: “When composing the theme of the invasion, I was thinking about a completely different enemy of humanity. Of course, I hated fascism. But not only German - I hated all fascism.”
Let's get back to the facts. During July - September 1941, Shostakovich wrote four-fifths of his new work. The completion of the second part of the symphony in the final score is dated September 17th. The end time of the score for the third movement is also indicated in the final autograph: September 29.
The most problematic is the dating of the beginning of work on the finale. It is known that at the beginning of October 1941, Shostakovich and his family were evacuated from besieged Leningrad to Moscow, and then moved to Kuibyshev. While in Moscow, he played the finished parts of the symphony in the editorial office of the newspaper "Soviet Art" on October 11 to a group of musicians. “Even a quick listen to the symphony performed for piano by the author allows us to talk about it as a phenomenon of enormous scale,” testified one of the meeting participants and noted... that “there is no finale of the symphony yet.”
In October-November 1941, the country experienced its most difficult moment in the fight against the invaders. Under these conditions, the optimistic ending conceived by the author (“In the finale, I want to talk about a wonderful future life, when the enemy is defeated”) did not appear on paper. The artist Nikolai Sokolov, who lived in Kuibyshev next door to Shostakovich, recalls: “Once I asked Mitya why he didn’t finish his Seventh. He replied: “... I can’t write yet... So many of our people are dying!” .. But with what energy and joy he set to work immediately after the news of the defeat of the Nazis near Moscow! Very quickly, he completed the symphony in almost two weeks." The counteroffensive of Soviet troops near Moscow began on December 6, and brought the first significant successes on December 9 and 16 (liberation of the cities of Yelets and Kalinin). A comparison of these dates and the work period indicated by Sokolov (two weeks) with the completion date of the symphony indicated in the final score (December 27, 1941) allows us to place with great confidence the start of work on the finale in mid-December.
Almost immediately after finishing the symphony, it began to be practiced with the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra under the baton of Samuil Samosud. The symphony premiered on March 5, 1942.

"Secret weapon" of Leningrad

The Siege of Leningrad is an unforgettable page in the history of the city, which evokes special respect for the courage of its inhabitants. Witnesses of the blockade, which led to the tragic death of almost a million Leningraders, are still alive. For 900 days and nights, the city withstood the siege of fascist troops. The Nazis had very high hopes for the capture of Leningrad. The capture of Moscow was expected after the fall of Leningrad. The city itself had to be destroyed. The enemy surrounded Leningrad from all sides.

For a whole year he strangled him with an iron blockade, showered him with bombs and shells, and killed him with hunger and cold. And he began to prepare for the final assault. The enemy printing house had already printed tickets for the gala banquet in the best hotel in the city on August 9, 1942.

But the enemy did not know that a few months ago a new “secret weapon” appeared in the besieged city. He was delivered on a military plane with medicines that were so needed by the sick and wounded. These were four large voluminous notebooks covered with notes. They were eagerly awaited at the airfield and taken away like the greatest treasure. It was Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony!
When conductor Karl Ilyich Eliasberg, a tall and thin man, picked up the treasured notebooks and began to look through them, the joy on his face gave way to grief. For this grandiose music to truly sound, 80 musicians were needed! Only then will the world hear it and be convinced that the city in which such music is alive will never give up, and that the people who create such music are invincible. But where can you get so many musicians? The conductor sadly recalled the violinists, wind players, and drummers who died in the snows of a long and hungry winter. And then the radio announced the registration of the surviving musicians. The conductor, staggering from weakness, walked around hospitals in search of musicians. He found drummer Zhaudat Aidarov in the dead room, where he noticed that the musician’s fingers moved slightly. "Yes, he's alive!" - the conductor exclaimed, and this moment was the second birth of Jaudat. Without him, the performance of the Seventh would have been impossible - after all, he had to beat the drum roll in the “invasion theme”.

Musicians came from the front. The trombone player came from a machine gun company, and the violist escaped from the hospital. The horn player was sent to the orchestra by an anti-aircraft regiment, the flutist was brought in on a sled - his legs were paralyzed. The trumpeter stomped in his felt boots, despite the spring: his feet, swollen from hunger, did not fit into other shoes. The conductor himself looked like his own shadow.
But they still gathered for the first rehearsal. Some had arms roughened by weapons, others shaking from exhaustion, but all tried their best to hold the tools as if their lives depended on it. It was the shortest rehearsal in the world, lasting only fifteen minutes - they did not have the strength for more. But they played for those fifteen minutes! And the conductor, trying not to fall from the console, realized that they would perform this symphony. The wind players' lips trembled, the string players' bows were like cast iron, but the music sounded! Maybe weakly, maybe out of tune, maybe out of tune, but the orchestra played. Despite the fact that during the rehearsals - two months - the musicians' food rations were increased, several artists did not live to see the concert.

And the day of the concert was set - August 9, 1942. But the enemy still stood under the walls of the city and was gathering forces for the final assault. Enemy guns took aim, hundreds of enemy planes were waiting for the order to take off. And the German officers took another look at the invitation cards to the banquet that was to take place after the fall of the besieged city, on August 9.

Why didn't they shoot?

The magnificent white-columned hall was full and greeted the conductor's appearance with an ovation. The conductor raised his baton and there was instant silence. How long will it last? Or will the enemy now unleash a barrage of fire to stop us? But the baton began to move - and previously unheard music burst into the hall. When the music ended and silence fell again, the conductor thought: “Why didn’t they shoot today?” The last chord sounded, and silence hung in the hall for several seconds. And suddenly all the people stood up in one impulse - tears of joy and pride rolled down their cheeks, and their palms became hot from the thunder of applause. A girl ran out from the stalls onto the stage and presented the conductor with a bouquet of wild flowers. Decades later, Lyubov Shnitnikova, found by Leningrad schoolchildren-pathfinders, will tell that she specially grew flowers for this concert.

Why didn't the Nazis shoot? No, they shot, or rather, they tried to shoot. They aimed at the white-columned hall, they wanted to shoot at the music. But the 14th artillery regiment of Leningraders brought down an avalanche of fire on the fascist batteries an hour before the concert, providing seventy minutes of silence necessary for the performance of the symphony. Not a single enemy shell fell near the Philharmonic, nothing stopped the music from sounding over the city and over the world, and the world, hearing it, believed: this city will not surrender, this people are invincible!

Heroic Symphony of the 20th Century

Let's look at the actual music of Dmitry Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony. So,
The first movement is written in sonata form. A deviation from the classical sonata is that instead of development there is a large episode in the form of variations (“invasion episode”), and after it an additional fragment of a developmental nature is introduced.
The beginning of the piece embodies images of peaceful life. The main part sounds broad and courageous and has the features of a march song. Following it, a lyrical side part appears. Against the background of a soft second-long “swaying” of violas and cellos, a light, song-like melody of the violins sounds, which alternates with transparent choral chords. A wonderful end to the exhibition. The sound of the orchestra seems to dissolve in space, the melody of the piccolo flute and muted violin rises higher and higher and freezes, fading against the background of a quietly sounding E major chord.
A new section begins - a stunning picture of the invasion of an aggressive destructive force. In the silence, as if from afar, the barely audible beat of a drum can be heard. An automatic rhythm is established that does not stop throughout this terrible episode. The “invasion theme” itself is mechanical, symmetrical, divided into even segments of 2 bars. The theme sounds dry, caustic, with clicks. The first violins play staccato, the second violins strike the strings with the back of the bow, and the violas play pizzicato.
The episode is structured in the form of variations on a melodically constant theme. The topic goes through 12 times, acquiring more and more new voices, revealing all its sinister sides.
In the first variation, the flute sounds soulless, dead in a low register.
In the second variation, a piccolo flute joins it at a distance of one and a half octaves.
In the third variation, a dull-sounding dialogue arises: each phrase of the oboe is copied by the bassoon an octave lower.
From the fourth to the seventh variation, the aggressiveness in the music increases. Brass instruments appear. In the sixth variation the theme is presented in parallel triads, brazenly and self-satisfied. The music takes on an increasingly cruel, “bestial” appearance.
In the eighth variation it reaches a terrifying fortissimo sonority. Eight horns cut through the roar and clang of the orchestra with a “primordial roar.”
In the ninth variation the theme moves to trumpets and trombones, accompanied by a groaning motif.
In the tenth and eleventh variations, the tension in the music reaches almost unimaginable strength. But here a musical revolution of fantastic genius takes place, which has no analogues in world symphonic practice. The tonality changes sharply. An additional group of brass instruments enters. A few notes of the score stop the theme of invasion, and the opposing theme of resistance sounds. An episode of the battle begins, incredible in tension and intensity. Screams and groans are heard in piercing heartbreaking dissonances. With superhuman effort, Shostakovich leads the development to the main climax of the first movement - the requiem - weeping for the dead.

Konstantin Vasiliev. Invasion

The reprise begins. The main part is widely presented by the entire orchestra in the marching rhythm of a funeral procession. It is difficult to recognize the side party in the reprise. An intermittently tired monologue of the bassoon, accompanied by accompaniment chords that stumble at every step. The size changes all the time. This, according to Shostakovich, is “personal grief” for which “there are no more tears left.”
In the coda of the first part, pictures of the past appear three times, after the calling signal of the horns. It’s as if the main and secondary themes pass through in a haze in their original form. And at the very end, the theme of invasion ominously reminds itself of itself.
The second movement is an unusual scherzo. Lyrical, slow. Everything about it evokes memories of pre-war life. The music sounds as if in an undertone, in it one can hear echoes of some kind of dance, or a touchingly tender song. Suddenly, an allusion to Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” breaks through, sounding somewhat grotesque. What is this? Are these not the memories of a German soldier sitting in the trenches around besieged Leningrad?
The third part appears as an image of Leningrad. Her music sounds like a life-affirming hymn to a beautiful city. Majestic, solemn chords alternate with expressive “recitatives” of solo violins. The third part flows into the fourth without interruption.
The fourth part - the mighty finale - is full of effectiveness and activity. Shostakovich considered it, along with the first movement, to be the main one in the symphony. He said that this part corresponds to his “perception of the course of history, which must inevitably lead to the triumph of freedom and humanity.”
The coda of the finale uses 6 trombones, 6 trumpets, 8 horns: against the backdrop of the powerful sound of the entire orchestra, they solemnly proclaim the main theme of the first movement. The conduct itself resembles the ringing of a bell.

During the Great Patriotic War, interest in real art did not wane. Artists from dramatic and musical theaters, philharmonic societies and concert groups contributed to the common cause of fighting the enemy. Front-line theaters and concert brigades were extremely popular. Risking their lives, these people proved with their performances that the beauty of art is alive and cannot be killed. The mother of one of our teachers also performed among the front-line artists. We bring it memories of those unforgettable concerts.

Front-line theaters and concert brigades were extremely popular. Risking their lives, these people proved with their performances that the beauty of art is alive and cannot be killed. The silence of the front-line forest was broken not only by enemy artillery shelling, but also by the admiring applause of enthusiastic spectators, calling their favorite performers to the stage again and again: Lydia Ruslanova, Leonid Utesov, Klavdiya Shulzhenko.

A good song has always been a fighter's faithful assistant. He rested with a song in the short hours of calm, remembering his family and friends. Many front-line soldiers still remember the battered trench gramophone, on which they listened to their favorite songs to the accompaniment of artillery cannonade. A participant in the Great Patriotic War, writer Yuri Yakovlev writes: “When I hear a song about a blue handkerchief, I am immediately transported to a cramped front-line dugout. We are sitting on the bunks, the meager light of the smokehouse is flickering, the wood is crackling in the stove, and there is a gramophone on the table. And the song sounds, so familiar, so understandable and so tightly fused with the dramatic days of the war. “A modest blue handkerchief fell from drooping shoulders...”

One of the songs popular during the war contained the following words: Who said that we should give up Songs during the war? After the battle, the heart asks for doubly Music!

Taking this circumstance into account, it was decided to resume the production of gramophone records at the Aprelevsky plant, interrupted by the war. Beginning in October 1942, gramophone records went from the press of the enterprise to the front along with ammunition, guns and tanks. They carried the song that the soldier needed so much into every dugout, into every dugout, into every trench. Along with other songs born during this difficult time, “The Blue Handkerchief”, recorded on a gramophone record in November 1942, fought with the enemy.

Seventh Symphony by D. Shostakovich

Beginning of the form

End of form

Events of 1936–1937 for a long time they discouraged the composer from composing music to a verbal text. Lady Macbeth was Shostakovich's last opera; Only during the years of Khrushchev’s “thaw” will he have the opportunity to create vocal and instrumental works not “on occasion”, not to please the authorities. Literally deprived of words, the composer concentrates his creative efforts in the field of instrumental music, discovering, in particular, the genres of chamber instrumental music: the 1st string quartet (1938; a total of 15 works will be created in this genre), piano quintet (1940). He tries to express all the deepest, personal feelings and thoughts in the symphony genre.

The appearance of each Shostakovich symphony became a huge event in the life of the Soviet intelligentsia, who expected these works as a genuine spiritual revelation against the backdrop of a wretched official culture suppressed by ideological oppression. The broad mass of Soviet people, the Soviet people, knew Shostakovich’s music, of course, much worse and were hardly able to fully understand many of the composer’s works (so they “worked” Shostakovich at numerous meetings, plenums and sessions for “overcomplicating” the musical language) - and this despite the fact that reflections on the historical tragedy of the Russian people were one of the central themes in the artist’s work. Nevertheless, it seems that not a single Soviet composer was able to express the feelings of his contemporaries so deeply and passionately, to literally merge with their fate, as Shostakovich did in his Seventh Symphony.

Despite persistent offers to evacuate, Shostakovich remains in besieged Leningrad, repeatedly asking to be enlisted in the people's militia. Finally enlisted in the fire brigade of the air defense forces, he contributed to the defense of his hometown.

The 7th symphony, completed already in evacuation, in Kuibyshev, and performed there for the first time, immediately became a symbol of the resistance of the Soviet people to the fascist aggressors and faith in the impending victory over the enemy. This is how she was perceived not only in her homeland, but also in many countries around the world. For the first performance of the symphony in besieged Leningrad, the commander of the Leningrad Front, L.A. Govorov, ordered a fire strike to suppress enemy artillery so that the cannonade would not interfere with listening to Shostakovich’s music. And the music deserved it. The ingenious “invasion episode”, courageous and strong-willed themes of resistance, the mournful monologue of the bassoon (“requiem for the victims of war”), with all its journalisticism and poster-like simplicity of the musical language, actually have enormous artistic impact.

August 9, 1942, Leningrad besieged by the Germans. On this day, the Seventh Symphony of D.D. was performed for the first time in the Great Hall of the Philharmonic. Shostakovich. 60 years have passed since the Radio Committee orchestra was conducted by K.I. Eliasberg. The Leningrad Symphony was written in the besieged city by Dmitry Shostakovich as a response to the German invasion, as resistance to Russian culture, a reflection of aggression on a spiritual level, on the level of music.

The music of Richard Wagner, the Fuhrer's favorite composer, inspired his army. Wagner was the idol of fascism. His dark, majestic music was in tune with the ideas of revenge and the cult of race and power that reigned in German society in those years. Wagner’s monumental operas, the pathos of his titanic masses: “Tristan and Isolde”, “Ring of the Nibelungs”, “Das Rheingold”, “Walkyrie”, “Siegfried”, “Twilight of the Gods” - all this splendor of pathetic music glorified the cosmos of German myth. Wagner became the solemn fanfare of the Third Reich, which in a matter of years conquered the peoples of Europe and stepped into the East.

Shostakovich perceived the German invasion in the vein of Wagner's music, as the victorious, ominous march of the Teutons. He brilliantly embodied this feeling in the musical theme of the invasion that runs through the entire Leningrad symphony.

The theme of invasion has echoes of Wagner's onslaught, culminating in Ride of the Valkyries, the flight of warrior maidens over the battlefield from the opera of the same name. In Shostakovich, her demonic features dissolved in the musical rumble of the oncoming musical waves. In response to the invasion, Shostakovich took the theme of the Motherland, the theme of Slavic lyricism, which in a state of explosion generates a wave of such force that cancels, crushes and throws away Wagner’s will.

The Seventh Symphony immediately after its first performance received a huge resonance in the world. The triumph was universal - the musical battlefield also remained with Russia. Shostakovich's brilliant work, along with the song "Holy War", became a symbol of the struggle and victory in the Great Patriotic War.

“The Invasion Episode,” which seems to live a life separate from other sections of the symphony, despite all the caricature and satirical sharpness of the image, is not at all so simple. At the level of concrete imagery, Shostakovich portrays in it, of course, a fascist military machine that has invaded the peaceful life of the Soviet people. But Shostakovich’s music, deeply generalized, shows with merciless directness and breathtaking consistency how an empty, soulless nonentity acquires monstrous power, trampling everything human around. A similar transformation of grotesque images: from vulgar vulgarity to cruel, all-suppressive violence is found more than once in Shostakovich’s works, for example, in the same opera “The Nose”. In the fascist invasion, the composer recognized and felt something familiar and familiar - something about which he had long been forced to remain silent. Having found out, he raised his voice with all the fervor against the anti-human forces in the world around him... Speaking out against non-humans in fascist uniforms, Shostakovich indirectly painted a portrait of his acquaintances from the NKVD, who for many years kept him, as it seemed, in mortal fear. The war with his strange freedom allowed the artist to express the forbidden. And this inspired further revelations.

Soon after finishing the 7th symphony, Shostakovich created two masterpieces in the field of instrumental music, deeply tragic in nature: the Eighth Symphony (1943) and the piano trio in memory of I.I. Sollertinsky (1944), a music critic, one of the composer’s closest friends, who understood, supported and promoted his music like no one else. In many respects, these works will remain unsurpassed peaks in the composer's work.

Thus, the Eighth Symphony is clearly superior to the textbook Fifth. It is believed that this work is dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War and is at the center of the so-called “triad of war symphonies” by Shostakovich (7th, 8th and 9th symphonies). However, as we have just seen in the case of the 7th Symphony, in the work of such a subjective, intellectual composer as Shostakovich, even “poster” ones, equipped with an unambiguous verbal “program” (which Shostakovich, by the way, was very stingy with: the poor musicologists, no matter how hard they tried, could not extract from him a single word that would clarify the imagery of his own music) the works are mysterious from the point of view of specific content and do not lend themselves to superficial figurative and illustrative description. What can we say about the 8th symphony - a work of a philosophical nature, which still amazes with the greatness of thought and feeling.

The public and official criticism initially received the work quite favorably (largely in the wake of the ongoing triumphal march through concert venues of the world of the 7th Symphony). However, the daring composer faced severe retribution.

Everything happened outwardly as if by chance and absurdly. In 1947, the aging leader and Chief Critic of the Soviet Union I.V. Stalin, together with Zhdanov and other comrades, deigned to listen at a closed performance to the latest achievement of multinational Soviet art - Vano Muradeli’s opera “The Great Friendship”, which by this time had been successfully staged in several cities of the country . The opera was, admittedly, very mediocre, the plot was extremely ideological; in general, the Lezginka seemed very unnatural to Comrade Stalin (and the Kremlin Highlander knew a lot about Lezginkas). As a result, on February 10, 1948, a resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was issued, in which, following the severe condemnation of the ill-fated opera, the best Soviet composers were declared “formalistic perverts” alien to the Soviet people and their culture. The resolution directly referred to the odious articles of Pravda of 1936 as the fundamental document of the party's policy in the field of musical art. Is it any wonder that at the top of the list of “formalists” was the name of Shostakovich?

Six months of incessant reproach, in which each was sophisticated in his own way. Condemnation and actual banning of the best works (and above all the brilliant Eighth Symphony). A heavy blow to the nervous system, which was already not particularly resilient. Deepest depression. The composer was broken.

And they elevated him to the very top of official Soviet art. In 1949, against the will of the composer, he was literally pushed out as part of the Soviet delegation to the All-American Congress of Scientific and Cultural Workers in Defense of Peace - on behalf of Soviet music, to make fiery speeches condemning American imperialism. It turned out quite well. From then on, Shostakovich was appointed the “ceremonial façade” of Soviet musical culture and mastered the difficult and unpleasant craft of traveling around various countries, reading out pre-prepared texts of a propaganda nature. He could no longer refuse - his spirit was completely broken. The capitulation was consolidated by the creation of corresponding musical works - no longer just compromises, but completely contrary to the artist’s artistic calling. The greatest success among these crafts - to the horror of the author - was the oratorio “Song of the Forests” (text by the poet Dolmatovsky), glorifying Stalin’s plan for the transformation of nature. He was literally stunned by the enthusiastic reviews of his colleagues and the generous rain of money that rained down on him as soon as he presented the oratorio to the public.

The ambiguity of the composer’s position lay in the fact that, using Shostakovich’s name and skill for propaganda purposes, the authorities, on occasion, did not forget to remind him that no one had repealed the 1948 decree. The whip organically complemented the gingerbread. Humiliated and enslaved, the composer almost abandoned genuine creativity: in the most important genre of the symphony, a caesura of eight years appeared (just between the end of the war in 1945 and the death of Stalin in 1953).

With the creation of the Tenth Symphony (1953), Shostakovich summed up not only the era of Stalinism, but also a long period in his own work, marked primarily by non-program instrumental works (symphonies, quartets, trios, etc.). In this symphony - consisting of a slow, pessimistically self-absorbed first movement (sounding over 20 minutes) and three subsequent scherzos (one of which, with very harsh orchestration and aggressive rhythms, is supposedly a kind of portrait of a hated tyrant who has just died) - like no other another, a completely individual, unlike anything else, interpretation by the composer of the traditional model of the sonata-symphonic cycle was revealed.

Shostakovich’s destruction of the sacred classical canons was not carried out out of malice, not for the sake of a modernist experiment. Very conservative in his approach to musical form, the composer could not help but destroy it: his worldview was too far from the classical one. The son of his time and his country, Shostakovich was shocked to the depths of his heart by the inhuman image of the world that appeared to him and, unable to do anything about it, plunged into dark thoughts. Here is the hidden dramatic spring of his best, honest, philosophically generalizing works: he would like to go against himself (say, joyfully reconcile with the surrounding reality), but the “vicious” inside takes its toll. The composer sees banal evil everywhere - ugliness, absurdity, lies and impersonality, unable to oppose anything to it except his own pain and sorrow. The endless, forced imitation of a life-affirming worldview only undermined one’s strength and devastated the soul, simply killing. It’s good that the tyrant died and Khrushchev came. The “thaw” has arrived – it’s time for relatively free creativity.

There are examples in the history of music that make you wonder who a musician or composer really is: a person who naturally has certain psychological characteristics - or a prophet?

At the end of the 1930s. decided to repeat the experiment carried out in the famous "" - to write variations on the melody of an ostinato. The melody was simple, even primitive, in the rhythm of a march, but with some hint of “dancing”. It seemed harmless, but the timbre and texture variations gradually turned the theme into a real monster... Apparently, the author perceived it as a kind of composer’s “experiment” - he did not publish it, did not care about the execution, and did not show it to anyone except his colleagues and students. So these variations would have remained a “prototype”, but very little time passed - and not a musical, but a real monster revealed itself to the world.

During the Great Patriotic War, Dmitry Dmitrievich lived the same life with his fellow citizens - under the slogan “Everything for the front!” Everything for Victory! Digging trenches, being on duty during air raids - he participated in all this along with other Leningraders. He also devotes his talent as a composer to the cause of the fight against fascism - front-line concert brigades received many of his arrangements. At the same time he is thinking about a new symphony. In the summer of 1941, its first part was completed, and in the fall, after the start of the blockade, the second. And although he completed it already in Kuibyshev - in evacuation - the name “Leningradskaya” was assigned to Symphony No. 7, because its concept matured in besieged Leningrad.

The wide, “endlessly” unfolding melody of the main part opens the symphony, epic power is heard in its unisons. The image of a happy, peaceful life is complemented by a cantilena side part - the rhythm of calm swaying in the accompaniment makes it similar to a lullaby. This theme dissolves in the high register of the solo violin, giving way to an episode that is usually called the “theme of the fascist invasion.” These are the same timbre and texture variations created before the war. Although at first the theme, carried out alternately by the woodwinds against a backdrop of drumming, does not seem particularly scary, its hostility to the themes of the exposition is obvious from the very beginning: the main and secondary parts are of a song nature - and this marching theme is absolutely devoid of such. The squareness, which is not characteristic of the main part, is emphasized here, the themes of the exposition are extended melodies - and this one breaks up into short motives. In its development, it reaches colossal power - it seems that nothing can stop this soulless war machine - but the tonality suddenly changes, and a decisive descending theme (the “theme of resistance”) appears in the brass, which enters into a fierce struggle with the theme of invasion. And although there was no development involving the themes of the exposition (it is replaced by an episode of the “invasion”), in the reprise they appear in a transformed form: the main part turns into a desperate appeal, the side part into a mournful monologue, only briefly returning to its original appearance, but in the end part, the drumbeat and echoes of the invasion theme appear again.

The second movement, a scherzo at a moderate tempo, sounds unexpectedly soft after the horrors of the first movement: chamber orchestration, grace of the first theme, length, songfulness of the second, conducted by the solo oboe. Only in the middle section do images of war remind of themselves with a terrible, grotesque theme in the rhythm of a waltz, turning into a march.

The third movement - the adagio with its pathetic, majestic and at the same time heartfelt themes - is perceived as a glorification of the native city to which the Leningrad Symphony is dedicated. The intonation of the requiem is heard in the choral introduction. The middle section is characterized by drama and intense feelings.

The third part flows into the fourth without interruption. Against the background of the tremolo of the timpani, intonations gather, from which emerges the energetic, impetuous main part of the finale. The theme sounds like a tragic requiem in the rhythm of a saraband, but the main part sets the tone for the finale - its development leads to a coda, where the brass solemnly proclaim the main part of the first movement.

Symphony No. 7 was first performed in March 1942 by the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, which was then in evacuation in Kuibyshev, conducted by. But the true example of heroism was the Leningrad premiere, which took place in August. The score was delivered to the city on a military plane along with medicines, the registration of the surviving musicians was announced on the radio, and the conductor looked for performers in hospitals. Some musicians who were in the army were sent to military units. And so these people gathered for the rehearsal - exhausted, with hands roughened by weapons, the flutist had to be brought in on a sleigh - his legs were paralyzed... The first rehearsal lasted only a quarter of an hour - the performers were not able to stand any more. Not all the orchestra members lived to see the concert, which took place two months later - some died from exhaustion... It seemed unthinkable to perform a complex symphonic work in such conditions - but the musicians, led by the conductor, did the impossible: the concert took place.

Even before the Leningrad premiere - in July - the symphony was performed in New York under the direction of. The words of an American critic who was present at this concert are widely known: “What devil can defeat a people capable of creating music like this!”

Musical Seasons