Shostakovich - How to Compose Music Despite [ R E D A C T E D ]

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fucking hell

👍︎︎ 9 👤︎︎ u/forbidden_name 📅︎︎ Jun 17 2019 🗫︎ replies

I think this is pretty sad. The video is clearly an honest attempt to tell a historical story well. There's no malice in it at all.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/Gongle_Plus 📅︎︎ Jun 17 2019 🗫︎ replies

Saw the original video, can't believe it was taken down - he should create a video called 'How to compose with YouTube watching'

👍︎︎ 4 👤︎︎ u/paul_thomas84 📅︎︎ Jun 18 2019 🗫︎ replies

I saw this the first time. How unfair.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/AnanyaPatel1982 📅︎︎ Jun 17 2019 🗫︎ replies

Come on YouTube! What's the problem here?

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/lazy_susanissimo 📅︎︎ Jun 17 2019 🗫︎ replies

Hadn't seen this. I do wonder to myself how the first video must have felt without all the bleeps. Hope he manages to reclaim those lost views.

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/Malleus_The_Gowl 📅︎︎ Jun 17 2019 🗫︎ replies

Hypocrisy

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/OfrivilligAntagonist 📅︎︎ Jun 17 2019 🗫︎ replies

Anyone know why the video got taken down the first time?

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/legend_kda 📅︎︎ Jun 18 2019 🗫︎ replies
Captions
A quick note before we begin: This video is a re-upload ...which is attempting to correct a slightly ridiculous problem. You see, ...despite being a completely uncontroversial video about music composition and Shostakovich, ...it was flagged by YouTube, ...who thought they detected content unsuitable for advertisers. So, they automatically stopped paying me ...and ceased recommending my video. Now, their detection systems are highly sophisticated. First, they look for certain keywords, ...and then they run them through an incredibly complex- No, I- I'm joking. They just flag keywords and they haven’t a clue how to understand context or anything. This is the company developing DeepMind, by the way. Anyway, as you can probably imagine, ...many of the keywords they tend to target ...relate to the turmoil that took place around the 1930s and '40s. Take a wild guess what I’m talking about here. The problem for me is that ...this also happens to be the period where Shostakovich wrote some of his most famous music, So, whenever I say things like: ‘This piece was dedicated to the victims of...' [insert name of famous battle or horrible event here] ...an alarm bell at YouTube HQ starts to ring! So, to fix this, ...here’s what I’m going to do. When I say the name of this famous leader, ...uh, let’s just call him I’m going to add a little bleep. L- let’s try it out now. *clears throat* ...wasn't a very nice man. Okay, there we go. Oh, and- Oh, and there will be a few other instances of this too. Uh, one of them is going to be the name of a certain famous militant group, ...led by um Hold on, let me just draw him... Uh, this guy. Let’s just call them 'The Patsies'. Uh- and I- I'm I’m also gonna bleep out one or two other keywords, ...where i mention in passing ...some of the terrible things the Patsies did. I mean, what’s the alternative? Just make something up? In 1944, ...Shostakovich wrote this tragically sad piece uh ...for no particular reason! It was just either... Urgh, just go swimming! But anyway, enough about all that. Let’s get Shosting! When I get asked by other composers to name some of my favourite music, ...I often get a weird response if I mention the name 'Shostakovich'. A look that almost says: "Huh?" "I thought you were cool?" It feels a bit like saying to a art student ...that your favourite painting is the Mona Lisa. And I can kind of understand why I get this reaction. In an era where the great pioneers were contributing new ideas: Bartok’s ethnomusicology, ...Schoenberg’s 12-tone technique, ...Stravinsky’s use of polyrhythm and additive rhythm, ...Lutoslawski’s aleatoricism, ...Cage’s use of chance, ...Messiaen’s mode of limited transposition, ...Xenakis’s application of mathematical models, ...et cetera, ...Shostakovich’s music does not really seem quite so experimental by comparison. But I feel that this attitude does him a big disservice. Of the composers I just mentioned, ...all certainly suffered during the political upheavals of the '30s and '40s. But Shostakovich stands alone ...for having to write music under the perpetual scrutiny of ideological sociopaths ...for the majority of his life. Sociopaths who imposed conservative rules ...about how art should be created, ...and who often killed those suspected of disobedience. So, part of Shostakovich’s unique contribution to music, ...which isn’t obvious on first listen, ...is how he worked his way around these restrictions. While all other forms of artistic dissent were being obliterated in the 50ᴠ|ᴇᴛ Union, ...he still managed to express an intense outrage and sadness ...via double meaning and clever sleight-of-hand. So in this video, ...I’m going to look at some of these interesting features in his music ...to understand how he composed, ...along with some wider context to appreciate why. To begin, ...we need to quickly touch on the political circumstances that he lived through. In 1926, at the age of 19, ...he achieved international success with his 1st symphony. During this time, ...avant-garde and experimental art was tolerated by the 50ᴠ|ᴇᴛ powers, ...and new and exciting music from the west was still being performed, ...especially ...Bartok, ...Les Six, ...Krenek, ...Hindemith, ...and the ‘foreign Russians’ ...Stravinsky and Prokofiev. And in his early years, ...Shostakovich was influenced by many of these composers, ...particularly Stravinsky. However, between the mid '20s and early '30s, ...as the 50ᴠ|ᴇᴛ government solidified their power, ...they began banning art forms they disapproved of, ...especially those from the West. By 1932, the official style of the 50ᴠ|ᴇᴛ Union was announced: 'Socialist Realism'. Its stated purpose was to promote the agenda of the party: Spreading messages that were uplifting, ...while also being comprehensible to the common person. In music, this encouraged composers to produce work laced with patriotism and sentimentality. And new pieces now required official approval too, ...which further pushed composers towards ...unimaginative positivity, ...conventional storytelling, ...and above all, ...simplicity. And although this clearly contradicts how we feel about artistic freedom today, ...it’s sometimes easy to read about this period ...without appreciating quite how insane it was. So to help us get our heads in the game, ...I’ve devised a little segment called Hello there. My name is Joseph- And today, ...we're going to look at a few artworks together. Jolly good. Let’s get started. Oh, wow. What a way to begin. Look at this commissar dying on the field ...while his compatriot shields him. What bravery! Laying down his life in service of his ideals. The public will learn they shouldn’t mind dying if I ask them to. Very good. What's next? Oh, golly. Uh... this is awful, terrible stuff. Look at these meandering black lines and ...bits of things going everywhere. Abstraction for the sake of abstraction. There’s no story, ...there’s no heroes or horses. Uh, rubbish! And no one’s going to do what I say if I show them this. Next! Oh, this one’s good. Lots of common folk all dancing and laughing. People will be able to look at this and think, "I remember that time when I went dancing!" And, let me check... Yeah, uh... None of them seem to be foreign. That’s great. Okay, I’m enjoying this. Subscribed! What's next? Oh, dear... Hell no. This is just childish degeneracy. Colour-dy squares everywhere. It doesn’t look like anything you’d see in the real world, ...although ...I suppose it does look a bit like a ladder. But, n- no, no, no. No, this is awful. I’d like this man shot, please. And... We hear some music. Oh, Soliko! I do love this. So tragic, ...about coming to terms with the loss of a loved one. Useful. Very, very useful message there, ...especially with my schedule. Oh no, not this. Ha- Not having words is bad enough. But without those, you have to have harmony, ...that at least reminds people of things. All this reminds me of is music I don’t like. If people hear weird harmony ...they’ll act inharmoniously. And I can’t stand it. Have this man killed. Oh, w- what's this now? Turtles? Wha- what are they? Oh, they- They band together to help society ward off foreign invaders? Ok- okay, I- I think this might have promise. Oh. I- I don’t understand. Weird-looking animals that live in a ball? This feels very abstract to me, ...doesn’t remind me o- of anythi- No. No, I won’t tolerate this. Have these pakemans killed, ...e- especially that one! But seriously, ...this is the kind of mindset that artists living in the 50ᴠ|ᴇᴛ Union had to deal with. And imagine for a moment that this comedic situation was one that actually applied to your life. If you were disobedient, ...your work might be banned. And if that didn’t force you back into step, ...then you’d likely meet a worse fate, ...like the theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold (a close friend of Shostakovich) ...who was ...and killed in 1940. Shostakovich observed this happening around him all the time. In the words of his son, Maxim Shostakovich: So with all this in mind, ...It’s interesting to listen to Shostakovich’s music ...BEFORE this cultural repression really took hold. For example, ...listen to this proto-Ligeti texture from his 2nd symphony: As time went on, ...and artistic experimentation came under closer scrutiny, ...he began providing official justifications ...that tried to put his music in a context the authorities would find acceptable. One example would be the programme note he wrote for his ballet ‘The Golden Age’, ...where a 50ᴠ|ᴇᴛ football team travelling abroad ...comes into contact with Western culture for the first time. But when you listen to the result, ...it’s pretty obvious that the more interesting musical developments ...are those representing the West. In the words of the lecturer and conductor Michael Parloff, "The West gets all the best lines." And this helps to highlight an ongoing argument about Shostakovich’s legacy: Are the words we just heard those of a jingoistic, communist ideologue, ...or a somewhat desperate workaround used to justify an interesting musical experiment? The Golden Age was not well-regarded by the authorities ...and his work came under ever greater scrutiny. But Shostakovich’s real woes began in 1936, when ...attended his opera ‘Lady Macbeth', ...only to storm out midway through the performance. A few days later, an anonymous article, ...which everyone knew was actually approved by ...himself, ...appeared in the official newspaper Pravda, ...titled 'Muddle Instead of Music'. Here’s an excerpt: And then came the most famous line of the article, ...a threat that must have made Shostakovich’s blood run cold: After this event, ...many of his friends distanced themselves ...and his rate of commissions dropped significantly. It was the beginning of his back-and-forth ...in-favour, out-of-favour relationship with ...and his successors, ...who consistently threatened his personal safety. ...as a means of controlling his musical output. Typically, they wanted his music to celebrate military victories ...or to extol the progress of the state. Directions that, if followed, ...would result in crass, bombastic or overly sentimental nonsense. And so began Shostakovich’s musical double dealings. An artistic tightrope walk that became the stuff of legend. This aspect of his music began with his fifth symphony, ...which was accompanied with the telling programme note: The music is certainly simpler and less experimental than his previous music, ...part of an attempt to convince the Party to stop vilifying him and banning his work. Since the 5th is so often discussed in detail elsewhere, ...I’m not going to dwell on it too much here. One thing of interest to note about it though, ...is that it was considered a triumph both by the party, ...who felt it satisfied their aesthetic requirements, ...and the public, ...who largely saw it as an expression of rage and sadness ...in the face of homegrown tyranny. Two almost diametrically opposed interpretations. This same duality of interpretation can be seen in his 7th symphony, ...written in defiance of the ...siege of Leningrad. This is probably Shostakovich’s biggest moment on the international stage. It was also propaganda gold for the 50ᴠ|ᴇᴛ Union, ...so much so, that the ...devised plans to try and disrupt its Leningrad premiere. Probably the only time military operations were devised with classical music in mind. However, despite its clear function as an expression of ...resistance, ...again, many thought they also detected a critique of ...woven into its fabric. When interviewed about this symphony's meaning, ...Flora Litvinova, a friend and neighbour of Shostakovich, ...said the following: But I think Shostakovich’s true feelings about 50ᴠ|ᴇᴛ rule and ...in particular ...can be seen most clearly in his 9th symphony, ...a work where his disobedience and humour is on full display. The year was 1945. Germany was defeated, and ...delighted with the success of the 7th symphony, ...made it clear that he wanted the 9th symphony to be a massive triumphant celebration. 9 is a powerful number when it comes to symphonies. Think of the grand 9th’s of ...Beethoven, ...Bruckner and ...Mahler. ...was aware of this lineage ...and wanted Shostakovich’s 9th to be even more 9th-y. Louder. Longer. Even more dramatic! This footage of the victory parade at the Red Square in Moscow ...gives a sense of the kind of atmosphere we’re talking about here. Doesn’t exactly get the creative juices flowing, does it? Hey, Shosty! Make THIS! So, he was faced with a choice: Should he deliver the self-congratulatory, disingenuous clunker that was being asked of him? Refusing would jeopardize his, along with his family’s safety, ...so he began writing. However, what he delivered was something entirely unexpected. On the surface, it seems like the genuine article. But on closer inspection, ...it’s dripping with sarcasm and disobedience. First off, listen to the opening and ask yourself: Does this sound epic and heroic to you? No, it sounds chirpy and unconcerned. Not at all appropriate for the event. Let’s do a quick contrast here: And the more you listen, ...the more out-of-place things you notice. There’s one recurring phrase which seems to promise a big martial moment: ...but instead just leads to this frivolous little tune: And this idea is used again later, ...where Shostakovich seems to be openly easing the 50ᴠ|ᴇᴛ-faithful in the audience ...by constantly reusing that clumsy-sounding ...'bum buuuuum' ...over and over again. It’s like the player, getting ahead of himself, ...keeps missing his cue. And then, finally, after six tries, ...he manages to land it in the right place: Shostakovich’s music is often sprinkled with little jokes like this. Jokes that many interpreted as a comment about the over-eagerness and crassness of the celebration, ...with the party-faithful tripping over themselves to bleat their approval and shout patriotic slogans. One other thing I’ve always found funny about this movement ...is the way he repeats the opening twice, ...harking back to the symphonies of Haydn. It’s like a little wink just for composers, ...reusing a really outdated version of the classical sonata form in, ...of all things, ...the opening of a modern 9th symphony. To me, it's like a secret note that says, ‘Look how hard I’m trying.' Another thing I find funny about this piece is the key: It’s in E-flat major. Uh... Just bear with me here. E-flat major was commonly thought of as the most 'heroic' key, ...famously used in Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. This seems more like a canny optics manoeuvre rather than an artistic choice. Official authorities needed to rubber-stamp the symphony before it could be performed, ...and the words ‘E-flat major’ appearing on the score ...would have been seen as a sign that Shostakovich was intending on being a good boy. In actuality, ...the ‘heroic' key is undermined right at the outset. ...with the opening phrase being punctuated ...by this silly-sounding G-flat chord: It at once transforms the effect into something that sounds, well, ...just completely circus-y and silly. However, this time around, ...Shostakovich’s disobedience was a little too obvious, and ...took it for what it was: A personal insult. And this event marked the beginning ...of another falling out of favour, ...culminating in his second denunciation ...along with Prokofiev and Khachaturian In 1948. Here’s a video of the official reprimand, ...where we can see him ...pathetically clapping along with his name dragged through the mud. After this event, ...he was, again, marked as an ‘enemy of the people’ ...and fired from his teaching positions. He would eventually manage to find his way out of this predicament, ...helped in no small part by ...death in 1953. But this video is more about his musical voice than his biography, ...so I’ll leave it at that. In the description, I’ve made a few book recommendations ...for those who're interested in learning more. Just a quick note before we go any further: I personally prefer Shostakovich’s chamber music to his orchestral works. One of the reasons for this, I think, ...is that his chamber works were considered less consequential by the official authorities, ...and were probably not scrutinised as closely. And for this reason, they feel freer and sharper to me. One thing I love particularly in his string quartets ...is how he’s able to generate so much music out of very sparse material. For example, ...the last movement of his 9th string quartet features these two contrasting motifs: …he then goes on to reuse these with remarkable efficiency: The 9th quartet also features one of my favourite moments of pure musical rawness: This sound is characteristic of much of his chamber music, ...which has a lack of frills that I find appealing, ...partly because it resembles the spirit of the punk music that I loved growing up. The music is completely exposed, ...not buried behind any auditory tricks. And yet this rawness is a quality that many of his symphonies don't seem to have, ...probably due to their highly political nature. I’ve often found this a little disappointing, ...because it’s his symphonic work that’s most often presented to the public. And while we’re here, I should probably point out that typical ...rhythm that he uses all the time: If you keep a lookout, you’ll find this rhythm popping up all over the place. Another notable feature of his music ...is his keen sense of the grotesque. I think it's best represented by the final movement of his 2nd piano trio, ...one of the pieces that made me want to be a composer, ...which presents a ghastly, twisted version of a traditional Jewish wedding dance: Listening to this main theme, ...it’s not hard to identify the use of the altered Dorian mode, ...which is also called 'Mi Shebeirach' ...in the traditional Jewish music known as I also noticed a flattened 2nd later in this theme, ...which is in keeping with another commonly used mode in Klezmer: The altered Phrygian. This offers us another example of potential double meaning in Shostakovich’s music. Written in 1944, ...it was dedicated to his closest friend, Ivan Sollertinsky, ...who died that same year. The fact that Sollertinsky was Jewish ...offers one clue towards understanding the nature of this final movement. But apart from that, ...since rumours of ...were beginning to reach the 50ᴠ|ᴇᴛ Union, ...it’s entirely possible that Shostakovich was making a wider statement about ...both abroad, and also at home, under This isn’t the only time he incorporated obvious Klezmer elements into his work. And considering the times he lived in, ...where Jewish culture was heavily suppressed, ...it’s hard to read it as anything other than a protest against 50ᴠ|ᴇᴛ misrule, ...as well as a show of solidarity with the Jewish people. Another celebrated aspect of Shostakovich’s music ...is his constant use of quotation, ...which almost seems like his second language, ...used to communicate all manner of emotions and ideas. One that often baffles people ...is his fascination with the gallop theme from Rossini’s 'William Tell': Here it is in his 15th symphony: And returning back to his 9th quartet, ...which is my personal favourite quartet by the way, ...here it is again: Another repeated motif you'll find used a lot in his music ...is his now-famous signature: D, E-flat, C, and B. Or to use the pronunciation of German notation: The most famous use of this signature is in his 8th string quartet, ...which is also a great example of his ability to efficiently create music from very little material: And in the 8th quartet there're no lack of quotations either, ...although in this case, he’s quoting himself. Right away, you can hear a quote from his 1st symphony: ...and later on, the warped Jewish wedding music we just heard from his 2nd piano trio: And then there's quotes from his 5th, 10th and 11th symphonies, ...as well as a reference to Lady Macbeth. Why did he do this? One explanation is that the piece was written during a moment of intense personal turmoil, ...and that there are some signs in his surviving correspondence ...that he was actually intending to kill himself. And in this context, ...the 8th quartet paints a very bleak picture ...of a composer reflecting on his greatest achievements just before death. Towards the end of his life, ...his music enters into its ‘late period’, ...which is often so bleak, ...I sometimes find it difficult to listen to. In his last 15 years, ...he lived in constant pain, ...and you can hear his fear of death and pessimism taking over in his music, ...especially in his final quartets. Then after his death in 1975, ...Shostakovich’s music became mired in contrary opinions. Official 50ᴠ|ᴇᴛ representatives decided to ignore previous denunciations ...and held up his work as a shining example of 50ᴠ|ᴇᴛ genius, ...whereas in the West, ...the press were happy to characterize him as a sort of weird ideologue. In their obituary, ...the New York Times noted: Yeah. You really nailed it with that description, guys. And there’s also a lot of bitter disagreement between biographers and musicologists too. The book ...which was presented as a signed set of pages documenting the actual words of Shostakovich ...caused a sensation when it was released after his death, ...and still heavily influences how we in the West interpret his work today. However, ...serious suspicion about the authenticity of 'Testimony' emerged ...after numerous academics and close family members cried foul. Many of the lines supposedly recorded during interviews ...were plagiarised word for word from previously published articles. And Shostakovich’s signature, ...the sole proof of its authenticity, ...only appears on 8 pages, ...and those pages contain fairly mundane, uncontroversial material. This has begun a war between those who back the book ...and those who want to see it completely discredited. Sadly, it does appear that the anti-50ᴠ|ᴇᴛ bias of the Western press ...led to ‘Testimony’ being readily accepted. This is a pity because its general presentation of Shostakovich’s dislike of 50ᴠ|ᴇᴛ rule ...have been largely corroborated by those who knew him best. But since the author took so many shortcuts, ...we just don’t know which quotes are true and which are fabrications. And what we’re left with is endless speculation about the true meaning of his work, ...from the 5th symphony onwards, ...and his use of coded language continues to fascinate academics today. However, just to put my own cards on the table here: Regardless of which stories and interpretations are overblown, ...I feel we've enough surviving correspondence, ...factual material, and interviews with those who knew him ...to get a good idea of where his general sympathies lay, ...and the version of him I’ve presented here is the one I have the most faith in. I mean, ...twice denounced him ...and also killed a whole bunch of his friends and family. He was hardly going to love the guy. So, to answer those who criticise Shostakovich ...because he didn’t author some new technique like serialism, ...I hope I’ve successfully made the case that he deserves a place among the great pioneers, ...due to his legacy of overcoming ludicrous artistic repression ...and connecting with listeners through a mixture of intricate musical messages ...and sheer raw talent. And even if you don’t buy that response ...or if you think his music was nothing more than safe, easy listening, ...one thing that can’t be denied ...is that his voice is among the most easily identifiable in all classical music. No one else sounds like him, ...and that alone is probably the highest praise you can give a composer.
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Channel: Tantacrul
Views: 418,678
Rating: 4.9385219 out of 5
Keywords: dmitri shostakovich (musical artist), dmitri shostakovich (composer), dmitri shostakovich, dmitri shostakovich string quartet no 8, dmitri shostakovich symphony 7, dmitri shostakovich symphony no. 5, dmitri shostakovich symphony no. 9, dmitri shostakovich piano trio no. 2, dmitri shostakovich Lady McBeth, Socialist Realism, classical music, leningrad symphony, socialist realism music, Music composition, how to compose music, redacted, solomon volkov, Shostakovich
Id: MCxzMYVvHBg
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 26min 44sec (1604 seconds)
Published: Mon Jun 17 2019
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