Analysis Of Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony

The siege of Leningrad in 1941 to 1944 was one of the most significant events for the city now called St. Petersburg. It had such an impact on composer Dmitri Shostakovich that he created the “Leningrad” symphony, his seventh symphony. My essay will analyse the reflections of war in the music and explain them in their historical context.

Shostakovich's symphony had a huge impact on the people of Leningrad as they could identify with it. As Shostakovich was evacuated to the town Kuibyshev to escape the war, his completed score was transported in a special aircraft to Leningrad for the premier in the city. In a Times magazine dedicated mostly to Shostakovich, the composer said “I introduce the main theme, which was inspired by the transformation of these ordinary people into heroes by the outbreak of war.” (“The Phenomenon of the Seventh”, Christopher H. Gibbs) (Ordinary refers to ordinary, good, quiet people, going about their daily life, not distinguished by any special features or talents). After this preliminary theme is a requiem for the people who perished

In a 1951 article “On True and So-Called Program Music”, Shostakovich told the critic David Rabinovich that “The Invasion” passage represented the abrupt irruption of war into the tranquil lives of the people. He also wrote that “the theme of war governs the middle passages”. This theme begins as an insipid fragment of a tune played by the strings col legno. A Soviet writer, Rabinovich, described the theme to be a “psychological portrait of the enemy” (“The Phenomenon of the Seventh”, Christopher H. Gibbs). It reflects the agony the people felt, as the music “marches and fights, it struggles and kills, it stands up and says there are a thousand terrible deaths” (“The Phenomenon of the Seventh, Christopher H. Gibbs). The people would rather die than to be under the rule of the