This new book on Shostakovich’s
8th String Quartet is part
of the series entitled Landmarks
in Music since 1950. David Fanning
is a leading figure in the field of
Shostakovich scholarship, and this particular
work undoubtedly rates as a suitable
case for treatment.
The general standard
of production is first class, and the
plan is clearly structured and imaginatively
laid out, both in design and on the
page. The music is put into the context
of the composer’s life and times, and
there is a thorough and detailed analysis
of the quartet. Finally a collection
of appendices offers some relevant documentary
material. There is even an accompanying
CD featuring an excellent performance
by the Rosamunde Quartet, of which more
anon.
The opening chapter
is entitled ‘Pacing the 8th
Quartet’, and ‘considers some of
the problems associated with Shostakovich’s
reputation and historical position’.
Since this work is absolutely central,
both chronologically, musically and
psychologically, to the composer’s nature
and achievement, such an approach is
fully justified as a means of introducing
it. A good deal of time is spent trading
comments about the various approaches
to these matters, as found among the
offerings of the many writers and commentators
who have published commentaries about
the music. After a while this roll-call
began to feel an indulgence, with too
much attention paid to others and too
little of the (perceptive and well informed)
thoughts of Mr Fanning himself. A pity.
Preparing the ground
continues in an extended chapter entitled
‘The USSR and Shostakovich in the
Thaw’. This explores both thoroughly
and compellingly the composer’s life
and times, and the range and nature
of his creative work during the years
up to the composition of the Quartet.
The Quartet No. 8 was
completed in 1960, and was closely connected
with a visit to Dresden which rekindled
in Shostakovich many vivid memories
of the war. At this time he was working
on the score of a film to be directed
by his friend Lev Arnstam, a Russian-East
German collaboration entitled Five
Days and Five Nights, dealing with
how Russian soldiers saved many priceless
paintings from the city's art gallery
following the intense Allied bombing
raids in 1945, which caused more civilian
deaths than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.
The imagery of Dresden
in Ruins (Shostakovich's own title
for the film music) was transferred
in more personal terms to the music
of the Quartet, which can the thus be
regarded as an instrumental war requiem.
For this is an intensely private and
emotionally committed composition, containing
several quotations from earlier compositions,
as well as the obsessive deployment
of the composer's musical motto D-S-C-H
(D-E flat-C-B, in German notation).
There are five clearly
defined movements, and these are played
in a single sweep, without pauses. The
Quartet opens with the motto, which
is treated obsessively. From this point
and throughout the work the analysis
is substantial and thorough (though
some might call it pedantic). Fanning
is concerned to articulate his ideas
about the music as lucidly as possible,
and he therefore organises the process
of analysis with due care and attention.
It is a tribute to his achievement that
he succeeds in this exacting aim. What
seems less convincing, however, is the
attempt to link a large proportion of
the Quartet with ‘allusions and affinities’
in addition to the unequivocal series
of ‘quotations’. The latter need not
be contested, since they are beyond
doubt; but the former can only be described
as a can of worms. To be fair, Fanning
admits as much on page 51: ‘These uncontested
quotations may be supplemented by allusions
and affinities that are less explicit
and whose status is unconfirmed. . .
. All will be discussed in the following
analysis.’ But even the carefully prepared
lists and charts fail to clinch the
argument, and don’t really convince.
Each of the thorough
sections of analysis, delivered movement
by movement, has interesting and compelling
ideas to propose. And each section is
followed by a summary, clearly articulated
in such a way that the musically untrained
should be able to follow and understand.
At first sight it seems
a thoughtful and positive bonus that
a CD recording should be included as
part of the package. In his admittedly
restricted discussion of recommended
recordings, Fanning praises that of
the Rosamunde Quartet, and justly so.
But on closer consideration the bonus
of the attached CD brings its frustrations
also. The details of content are hidden
away in the later stages of the book,
and why should the approach be so shame-faced?
Moreover the music by Burian and Webern,
also contained on the disc, is otherwise
ignored, which is particularly frustrating,
not least because the artists clearly
extol its virtues in their performances.
The whole attitude is conveyed, moreover,
by the sloppy packaging which puts the
CD in a flimsy polythene cover ‘arbitrarily’
attached to the inside cover of the
book.
I go further. If the
purpose of the book is to communicate
about the music in question, then why
not – at least in the case of the shorter
analytical commentaries – include timing
details for the CD in connection with
the main points under discussion? For
anyone with the required time, knowledge
and skill, to organize this is not so
difficult a task. Surely if a job is
worth doing it is worth doing well,
and the inclusion of the CD here is
not done well at all. This is a real
disappointment, an essentially good
idea undermined by half-hearted editorial
compromise.
However, to complain
long and loud about these frustrations
would be unfair. The general achievement
of this book is positive, and does justice
to one of the greatest works in the
chamber music literature of the 20th
century. This is confirmed by the compelling
series of documents gathered in the
various appendices, which include the
transcripts of interviews with Shostakovich
and those who knew him.
Terry Barfoot
Other
Ashgate Books
