String Quartet No. 8

String Quartet No. 8, Op. 110 in C minor

Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich

Date of publication: 10/2/1960

Nickname: Dresden Quartet

Written in 1960 on a trip to compose the score for "Five Days-Five Nights film" (a film about the destruction of Dresden) in East Germany, this is the only major piece that Shostakovich composed outside of Russia. Every movement is in a minor key, with the 1st and 5th movements being in C minor, a historically tragic key. It was widely believed before the 1979 publication of "Testimony" that Shostakovich chose this key since the goal of his quartet was to convey the gloom and anguish he felt about the "Victims of Fascism and War". People even came to the conclusion that the repeated 3 notes in the 4th movement (a chord/double-stop of F ##(enharmonic equivalent of G)/A natural) with the sustained droning A# represented bomber planes flying high above. However, after the publication of "Testimony" in 1979, it was revealed that the piece had nothing to do with fascism, and in fact that Shostakovich dissented against Communism, but instead was an autobiographical piece with the quote "Exhausted by the hardships of prison". Clues to this being the case are allusions to themes of Shostakovich's piano trio and first symphony, and the four note motif in the last movement D, E b , C B, which in German are D, S, C, H, primary letters in Dmitri Schostakowitsch's name. As a result, the doom and gloom about the piece is not centered around fascism, but instead Shostakovich's depression, which came from losing his first wife, and his self-guilt of joining the communist party, something he swore to never do. The small triumphant tones can be attributed to the success of his first and fifth symphonies, but much like how those were unable to compensate him for his losses and deteriorating physique, the triumph is unable to compensate for the gloom in the atmosphere. The quartet premiered on October 2nd 1960 in the Leningrad Glinka Concert Hall, performed by the Beethoven quartet (Dmitri Tsyganov, Vasili Shirinsky, Vadim Borisovsky and Sergei Shirinsky).

Fun fact:

It took only 3 days for Shostakovich to compose this piece, from July 12th to 14th.

Movements:

I. Largo

II. Allegro molto

III. Allegretto

IV. Largo

V. Largo