Dmitri Shostakovich’s Suite on Verses by Michelangelo and 20th Century Russian Philosophical Thought
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Abstract
This article examines from a philosophical perspective one of
Dmitri Shostakovich’s last compositions – the Suite to the Verses
of Michelangelo. In this work the composer ponders upon the
most important life-related universal phenomena: Truth, Love,
Creativity, Death and Immortality. The musical interpretation of
these concepts unearths a connection between the composer’s
worldview foundations and those of the Russian philosophers.
The interpretation of truth combines objective and subjective
qualities and brings it closer to Shostakovich’s category of
Conscience. The frail and withdrawn image of the lyrical numbers
brings closer to Nikolai Berdyayev’s understanding of fatality
and vulnerability of true Love on earth. The sacrificial quality of
Creativity, denoted by Russian philosophers, is disclosed in the
Suite through the intonations of the theme of the cross and the
Prelude in B-flat minor from Book I of Bach’s Well-Tempered
Clavier. In the final movements of the work, which are devoted to
the themes of Death and Immortality, Shostakovich discloses an
important thought, which is close to Berdyayev and Frank, of the
significance and profundity of the act of Dying. Death becomes a
salutary sleep, a form of counteraction against Evil (depicted by
Shostakovich by the passacaglia) and an indispensable condition
for approaching Truth.
Keywords: Dmitri Shostakovich, composers of Russia,
music and philosophy, vocal suite
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