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Copyright by Yun-Jin Seo 2003 The Treatise Committee for Yun-Jin Seo certifies that this is the approved version of the following treatise: Three Cycles of 24 Preludes and Fugues by Russian Composers: D. Shostakovich, R. Shchedrin and S. Slonimsky Committee: David Neumeyer, Supervisor Gregory Allen, Co-Supervisor Rebecca A. Baltzer Sophia Gilmson Timothy Lovelace Thomas J. O’Hare Three Cycles of 24 Preludes and Fugues by Russian Composers: D. Shostakovich, R. Shchedrin and S. Slonimsky by Yun-Jin Seo, B.M., M.M. Treatise Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Musical Arts The University of Texas at Austin May 2003 Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to Dr. David Neumeyer for his assistance and patience in guiding this study. I also wish to extend my special appreciation to Mr. Gregory Allen for his wisdom and understanding as a co-supervisor of this study, as well as for inspiring me as a piano professor with his profound music. I am likewise deeply grateful to these professors: Rebecca A. Baltzer, Sophia Gilmson, Timothy Lovelace, Thomas J. O’Hare, who graciously served on the committee for this study. In addition, this work would not have been possible without the encouragement and the continuous emotional support of my family. Finally, my thanks go out to the followings: G. Schirmer Inc., New York, for granting me special permission to use musical examples from 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, by D. Shostakovich (Edition Sikorski); Compozitor Publishing House, St. Petersburg, Russia, and S. Slonimsky for permission to cite from his 24 Preludes and Fugues; Masters Music Publications, Inc., for information that the 24 Preludes and Fugues by R. Shchedrin are in the public domain in the U.S.A. (they may not be in the public domain in other countries). iv Three Cycles of 24 Preludes and Fugues by Russian Composers: D. Shostakovich, R. Shchedrin and S. Slonimsky Publication No._____________ Yun-Jin Seo, D.M.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 2003 Supervisors: David Neumeyer and Gregory Allen Although the Prelude and Fugue pair is most strongly associated with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (48 Preludes and Fugues), modern treatments of fugue and other Baroque forms were common in the 1920s and 1930s. Interest in fugal composition decreased in the second half of the twentieth century, but three leading Russian composers, Dmitry Shostakovich, Rodion Shchedrin and Sergey Slonimsky, wrote large collections of fugal compositions after 1950. It is remarkable that they left these tremendous and encyclopedic works, because there are not many such large-scale works written for the piano in recent decades. These cycles, all with twenty-four preludes and fugues, were influenced by Bach’s preludes and fugues in various ways. v Dmitry Shostakovich’s cycle of twenty-four preludes and fugues, Op. 87, composed in 1950-51, follows very closely Bach’s collection both structurally and tonally, while displaying his distinctive musical style. Rodion Shchedrin (b. 1932) connected twentieth-century musical ideas to the Baroque concept of music in a much more radical way. He created a very different style of music in his own set of twenty-four preludes and fugues for piano (1964-70), but fundamentally, his cycle still uses the basic formal idea of the Baroque prelude and fugue. Finally, despite the fact that Sergey Slonimsky (who was born in the same year as Shchedrin) composed his twenty-four preludes and fugues for piano very recently (1994), his cycle is more conventional than Shchedrin’s, is more closely related to Shostakovich’s, and stylistically is sometimes closer to Bach’s. vi Table of Contents List of Tables .........................................................................................................ix List of Musical Examples........................................................................................ x Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1: 24 Preludes and Fugues for Piano, Op. 87, by D. Shostakovich.......... 5 Dmitry Shostakovich ..................................................................................... 5 Shostakovich's Musical Style......................................................................... 5 24 Preludes and Fugues for Piano, Op. 87 ..................................................... 6 Analysis of Selected Preludes and Fugues .................................................. 16 Prelude and Fugue No. 7 in A major .................................................. 16 Prelude and Fugue No. 15 in D-flat major ......................................... 21 Chapter 2: 24 Preludes and Fugues for Piano by R. Shchedrin ........................... 30 Rodion Shchedrin ........................................................................................ 30 Shchedrin's Musical Style ............................................................................ 31 24 Preludes and Fugues for Piano................................................................ 32 Analysis of Selected Preludes and Fugues .................................................. 46 Prelude and Fugue No. 7 in A major .................................................. 46 Prelude and Fugue No. 14 in E-flat minor ......................................... 54 Chapter 3: 24 Preludes and Fugues for Piano by S. Slonimsky........................... 66 Sergey Slonimsky ........................................................................................ 66 Slonimsky's Musical Style ........................................................................... 67 24 Preludes and Fugues for Piano................................................................ 67 Analysis of Selected Preludes and Fugues .................................................. 77 Prelude and Fugue No. 6 in D minor ................................................. 77 Prelude and Fugue No. 22 in B-flat minor ......................................... 83 vii Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 86 Bibliography.......................................................................................................... 88 Vita ..................................................................................................................... 92 viii List of Tables Chapter 1 Table 1: Entries of Each Fugue – 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, by Shostakovich .............................................................................. 11 Table 2: The Number of Countersubjects – 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, by Shostakovich ................................................................. 15 Chapter 2 Table 1: Entries of Each Fugue – 24 Preludes and Fugues by Shchedrin...... 34 Table 2: Intervals and Types of Answers in 24 Preludes and Fugues by Shchedrin.......................................................................................... 37 Table 3: Meters of Preludes in 24 Preludes and Fugues by Shchedrin .......... 45 Chapter 3 Table 1: Starting and Ending Pitches of Fugue Subjects in the Three Cycles............................................................................................... 69 Table 2: Entries of Each Fugue – 24 Preludes and Fugues by Slonimsky..... 70 Table 3: Intervals and Types of Answers in 24 Preludes and Fugues by Slonimsky......................................................................................... 75 ix List of Musical Examples Chapter 1 Example 1: Fugue No. 8 in F-sharp minor by Shostakovich............................... 10 Example 2: Fugue No. 14 in E-flat minor by Shostakovich................................ 14 Example 3: Prelude No. 5 in D major (mm. 1 – 4), BWV 874, from WTC Book II, by Bach .............................................................................. 17 Example 4: Prelude No. 7 in A major (mm. 1 – 4) by Shostakovich.................. 17 Example 5: Chromatic Passage in Shostakovich’s Prelude No. 7 in A major (mm. 13-16)...................................................................................... 18 Example 6: Fugue No. 7 in A major by Shostakovich ........................................ 19 Example 7: Fugue No. 7 in A major (mm. 31-57) by Shostakovich................... 20 Example 8: Fugue No. 15 in D-flat major by Shostakovich ............................... 22 Example 9: Dominant-Tonic Chord Progressions in the Final Section of Fugue No. 15 in D-flat major by Shostakovich (mm. 120-150) ...... 23 Example 10: Dominant-Tonic Chord Progressions at the End of Fugue No. 15 in D-flat Major by Shostakovich (mm. 161-182)............................. 24 Example 11: The End of Prelude No. 15 in D-flat major by Shostakovich .......... 25 Example 12: Opening of the Prelude No. 15 in D-flat major by Shostakovich .... 26 Example 13: Quotation from Prelude No. 15 – Fugue No. 15 in D-flat major by Shostakovich (mm. 111-125) ..................................................... 26 x Example 14a: Chromatic Passage in the Prelude No. 15 in D-flat major by Shostakovich (mm. 23-29) ............................................................... 27 Example 14b: Chromatic Passage in the Prelude No. 15 in D-flat major by Shostakovich (mm. 57-61) ............................................................... 27 Example 15: B (Trio) section of the Prelude No. 15 in D-flat major