Piano Trio No. 2 by D. Shostakovich: How to Read the «Chronicle of the Era» (To the Issue of Semantic Text Analysis)

Main Article Content

Yelena G. Isaeva
Ilyas V. Uzbekov

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of musical text semantics, one of the key ones in musical semiotics. Today, the theory of musical content is being actively developed, the semantics of musical language discrete elements is being studied, but texts written in it remain a research terra incognita. Meanwhile, only “reading” texts allows us to understand what exactly functions as a sign in them, how signs relate to referents, agree with each other and form systems. In this article we present a procedure for semantic text analysis using the example of D. Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2, whose music is respectfully defined as “a chronicle of the era”, and – irreverently – as «entertaining reading» (V. Suslin). In this regard, the task of «reading» the Trio, one of the brightest pages of this chronicle, seems quite justified. We compared our Trio interpretation with the interpretation of V. Bobrovsky, an authoritative researcher of D. Shostakovich’s chamber music, performed in the middle of the last century. It must be admitted that the discrepancies that have been emerged are numerous, significant and due to fundamental differences in methods of analysis. The corresponding argument is presented in the conclusion of the article; where the principle of semantic text analysis is derived and that is the main goal of our work.


Keywords: Shostakovich, trio, text, sign, semantics, plot, meaning.

Article Details

How to Cite
Isaeva Е. Г., & Uzbekov И. В. (2024). Piano Trio No. 2 by D. Shostakovich: How to Read the «Chronicle of the Era» (To the Issue of Semantic Text Analysis). Music Scholarship / Problemy Muzykal’noj Nauki, 55(2), 95–112. https://doi.org/10.17674/2782-3601.2024.2.095-112
Section
History and Theory of Music
Author Biographies

Yelena G. Isaeva, Kazakh National University of Arts, Astana, Kazakhstan

Lecturer

Ilyas V. Uzbekov, Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow, Russia

Student