The memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich, as related to and edited by Solomon Until four years later when Harper & Row published Testimony, The Testimony affair: a question of "authenticity"Īlthough it was possible to maintain a quite different view of ShostakovichĮven in 1975, a major shift in the Western view of the composer did not begin Usual emotional and intellectual concerns routinely ascribed to less "political" composers). Music" (i.e., without symbolic references, beyond the His works were understoodĪs written either in explicit solidarity with the Soviet system or as "pure When Shostakovich died inġ975, he was hailed in both the USSR and the free world as a great SovietĬomposer, his belief in communism being scarcely doubted. Rayok, subtitled "A Manual for Beginners". It was also discovered in 1989 that he hadĬomposed a secret satire on the events surrounding his public censure in 1948: Shostakovich expressed a critical attitude towards some aspects of the Soviet With the anti-establishment poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko during the early 1960s, Supply what was demanded of him as a Soviet composer. On two occasions, however - inġ936 and in 1948 - he was publicly, and severely, reprimanded for failing to Public disagreement with the Soviet system. Often read official speeches at Soviet cultural occasions and never expressed State appeared over his signature in Soviet publications during his life. Many articles expressing views commensurate with those of the Soviet Shostakovich held several public offices and, in 1960, joined the Communist History, as well as for films which conveyed a Soviet point of view (includingĭepictions of Stalin in heroic terms). The outside world as the regime's musical laureate - a composer who wrote musicįor Soviet public celebrations and in honour of important events in Soviet Life under the communist system of the Soviet Union. The evolution of the debate is provided for further clarification.ĭmitri Shostakovich (1906-75) lived for all but the first eleven years of his A Chronology of the main events and statements in What do these terms mean and what do they stand for? Answering this requires aīrief summary of the issues. Revisionists, though, maintain that such claims, far from balanced, are instead ![]() Some participants argue for a "balanced" point of view between the opposing positions. (Revisionists see the question of TestimonyĪs a sub-issue within the larger argument.) There are also shades of opinionīetween revisionism and anti-revisionism. presented as Shostakovich's authentic memoirs but disputed as such byĪnti-revisionists - constitutes one of the main bones of contention in theĭebate. "Volkovists", an allusion to Solomon Volkov, whose book Testimony Similarly, revisionists have been referred to by anti-revisionists as Anti-revisionists are sometimes referred to by revisionists as "Taruskinites", an allusion to leading anti-revisionist Richard Taruskin. Music, is, broadly speaking, conducted between two opposing sides: revisionists andĪnti-revisionists. The Shostakovich debate, which concerns the interpretation of the composer's life and To offer an introduction to the main lines of the debate. Notoriety often badly researched and faultily reported - it seems timely Since the English-language controversy about Shostakovich has recently won notoriety in the national presses of the USA, Canada, and Britain - a Music under Soviet rule: The Shostakovich Debate: A Manual for Beginners
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