M u Ottawa L'Unh-wsiie eanadienne Canada's university FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES IfisSJ FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND ET POSTOCTORALES U Ottawa POSDOCTORAL STUDIES L'Universite canadienne Canada's university Jada Watson AUTEUR DE LA THESE /AUTHOR OF THESIS M.A. (Musicology) GRADE/DEGREE Department of Music lATJULfEJ^LTbliP^ Aspects of the "Jewish" Folk Idiom in Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 4, OP.83 (1949) TITREDE LA THESE/TITLE OF THESIS Phillip Murray Dineen _________________^ Douglas Clayton _______________ __^ EXAMINATEURS (EXAMINATRICES) DE LA THESE / THESIS EXAMINERS Lori Burns Roxane Prevost Gary W, Slater Le Doyen de la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales / Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies ASPECTS OF THE "JEWISH" FOLK IDIOM IN DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH'S STRING QUARTET NO. 4, OP. 83 (1949) BY JADA WATSON Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master's of Arts degree in Musicology Department of Music Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Jada Watson, Ottawa, Canada, 2008 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-48520-0 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-48520-0 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF TABLES & FIGURES vi LIST OF EXAMPLES vii NOTES ON TRANSLITERATION , , ix ABBREVIATIONS x OFFICIAL PUBLICATION TITLES xi ABSTRACT xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xiii INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter Outline 3 CHAPTER 1: Shostakovich & the Jewish Idiom: Literature Review 6 Shostakovich & Jewish Musical Culture 8 Literature Review: 12 The Gap : 12 Modality and Shostakovich's Jewish musical Language 17 Shostakovich's "Jewish" Compositions 20 Historical Context 22 CHAPTER 2: Zhdanovschina & Shostakovich's Creative Response (1948-1953) 26 Soviet Ideology: Socialist Realism 27 iii 1936: From a Public 'Muddle' to Private 'Music' 28 1946-1948: Zhdanovshchina 30 1948: Resolution on Music 32 Persecution of Shostakovich 37 Shostakovich's Creative Response 38 Works "for the Drawer" 40 String Quartet no. 4, op. 83 42 Summary 47 CHAPTER 3: Stalin's Anti-Semitic Campaign, 1948-1953 48 A History of anti-Semitic Tendencies 48 The Growth of the Anti-Jewish Campaign 51 "Official" Anti-Semitism 55 "Rootless Cosmopolitanism" and the Charge of Zionist Conspiracy 58 "Jewish" Folk Idiom in Soviet Culture 66 Shostakovich & the Jewish Folk Idiom 68 Summary 69 CHAPTER 4: Analytical Tools: Shostakovich's "Jewish" Musical Language 71 Jewish Folk Idiom in Soviet Music 71 Modal Theory 74 Shostakovich's Modal Language 75 Jewish Altered Modes 76 Joachim Braun: Shostakovich's "Jewish" Musical Language 80 iv Ambiguities of the Jewish Idiom: 'Laughter Through Tears' 85 Summary 88 CHAPTER 5: Analysis: Aspects of "Jewishness" in String Quartet No. 4 89 Shostakovich and the String Quartet 90 String Quartet no. 4, op. 83 92 Movement I: Allegretto 94 Movement II: Andantino 102 Movement III: Allegretto 107 Movement IV: Allegretto 113 How Do These Movements Link Together? 122 Chorale Motive 123 "Laughter Through Tears" , 128 Summary 132 CHAPTER 6: Conclusion: "The Power of Music" 134 String Quartet no. 4: Thoughts on Style and Meaning 135 The End of Stalin's Rule 138 "The Power of Music" 139 Intention vs. Interpretation 143 Conclusions 146 Appendix A: Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich's Three "Jewish" Periods 149 Appendix B: The Alexandrian Pentachord 153 Bibliography 159 v LIST OF TABLES & FIGURES Tables Chapter 3: 3.1: Table from Agitprop Report on the "Selection and Promotion of Personnel in the Arts": Report on the Bolshoi Administration 53 3.2: Table from Agitprop Report on the "Selection and Promotion of Personnel in the Arts": Report on the Music Conservatories 54 3.3: Table from Agitprop Report on the "Selection and Promotion of Personnel in the Arts": Report on Art Critics 55 Figures Chapter 5: 5.1: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement I, structural overview of form 97 5.2: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement II, structural overview of form 104 5.3: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement III, structural overview of form 108 5.4: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement IV, structural overview of form 115 vi LIST OF EXAMPLES Chapter 4: 4.1: Jewish Altered Dorian Mode from Moshe Beregovskii 78 4.2: Jewish Altered Phrygian Mode from Moshe Beregovskii 79 4.3: Iambic Prime from the "Lullaby" in From Jewish Folk Poetry, op. 79 82 4.4: Fusion of Altered Dorian and Phrygian Modes (Shostakovich's "Jewish" Mode) from Esti Sheinberg 83 4.5: Alexandrian Pentachord III - 6 from Alexander Dozhanskii 84 Chapter 5: 5.1: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement I: Theme A 98 5.2: "Thoughtful Mother and Aunt", From Jeww/zFo/A:Po^ry, op. 79 98 5.3: String Quartet No. 3, op. 83; Movement I: Development of Theme A 100 5.4: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement I: Theme B 101 5.5: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement II: Theme A 105 5.6: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement II: Cadence to Cadenza 106 5.7: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement II: Coda 106 5.8: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement III: Theme A 110 5.9: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement III: Motive from Theme A 110 5.10: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement III: Theme B Ill 5.11: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement III: Motive from Theme B 111 5.12: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement III: Theme C 112 5.13: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement III: Motive from Theme C 113 vii 5.14: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement IV: Introduction 116 5.15: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement IV: Theme A 116 5.16: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement IV: Theme B 117 5.17: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement IV: Octatonic Transition in Theme B 118 5.18: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement IV: mm. 155-159 119 5.19: Alexandrian Pentachord 6 Type III 119 5.20: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement IV: Introductory Material in Recap 120 5.21: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement IV: Coda 121 5.22: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83: Movement I: "Chorale Motive", Rehearsal 13 126 5.23: DSCH Motive 126 5.24: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement II: "Chorale Motive", Rehearsal 31 126 5.25: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement II: "Chorale Motive", Rehearsal 34, 35 127 5.26: String Quartet No. 4, op. 83; Movement IV: "Chorale Motive", Rehearsal 98, 99.... 127 Appendix B: B.l: 10 Possible Combinations of Alexandrian Pentachords 154-155 B.2: Enharmonic Musical Scales of AP 2 156 B.3: The Sixth Formula of the Alexandrian Pentachord 158 B.4: Five Variants of AP, Sixth Formula 158 B.5: Jewish Altered Phrygian and Dorian Modes with APIII 158 viii NOTES ON TRANSLITERATION For this thesis, I have adopted, with some modification the Library of Congress system of transliteration. The Russian 'ti' is rendered by the English character 'y', the Russian soft sign (b) by the Latin ', and the Russian 'M' is transliterated T. The Cyrillic vowels V and '10' appear as 'ia' and 'iu', and the Cyrillic 'e' is rendered by the English 'e', except at the beginnings of words, where it is rendered as 'ye'. The Russian in, m, and H are rendered as 'sh', 'sch' and 'ch'. I have shortened names ending in 'HH', to 'y' (instead of 'iy'). However, I have also retained the familiar spellings of proper names, for example, 'Kabalevsky' instead of 'Kabalevskii'. IX ABREVIATIONS Agitprop: Otdelpropagandy i agitatsii: Department of Agitation and Propaganda of the Central Committee AP: A lexandriiskii pentakhord: Alexandrian Pentachord AP6-III: Alexandriiskiipentakhord: Alexandrian Pentachord Variety 6, Type III CC: Tsentral'nyi komitet: Central Committee (of the Communist Party) CPSU: Kommunisticheskaia Partiia Sovetskogo Soiuza: Communist Party of the Soviet Union GOSET: Moskovskii Gosudarstvennyi Evreiskii Teatr: Moscow State Jewish Theater JAC: Evreiskii Antifashistskii Komitet: Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee NKVD: Narodnyi komissariat vnutrennikh del: People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs MVD: Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del: Ministry of Internal Affairs1 Orgkomitet: Organizational Committee TASS: Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union USSR: Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 1 In 1946 the NKVD was renamed the Ministry of Internal Affairs, known as the MVD.