The Early Film Music of Dmitry Shostakovich
Joan Titus
Abstract
In the late 1920s, Dmitry Shostakovich emerged as one of the first Soviet film composers. With his first score for the silent film New Babylon (1928–29) and the many sound scores that followed, he was positioned to observe and participate in the changing politics of the film industry and to negotiate the role of the film composer. This book provides an examination of Shostakovich as a composer for early Soviet cinema, and the relationship between musical narration, audience, filmmaker, and composer. Six case studies selected from Shostakovich’s early film scores, from 1928 through 1936, are th ... More
In the late 1920s, Dmitry Shostakovich emerged as one of the first Soviet film composers. With his first score for the silent film New Babylon (1928–29) and the many sound scores that followed, he was positioned to observe and participate in the changing politics of the film industry and to negotiate the role of the film composer. This book provides an examination of Shostakovich as a composer for early Soviet cinema, and the relationship between musical narration, audience, filmmaker, and composer. Six case studies selected from Shostakovich’s early film scores, from 1928 through 1936, are the primary focus, and each engages the construct of Soviet intelligibility, the filmmaking and film scoring processes, and the cultural politics of Soviet film music. These discussions are enriched by archival materials and recently discovered musical manuscripts that illuminate the collaborative processes of the film teams, studios, and composer. Audience and critical reception was integral to these processes, and informed the attempts to satisfy contemporaneous aesthetic demands. How audiences heard Shostakovich went beyond cinema and his death. The last chapter of the book muses on the connections between cinema, listener expression, and current audiovisual media.
Keywords:
Soviet,
cinema,
film music,
Shostakovich,
cultural politics,
intelligibility,
Kozintsev,
Lenfil’m,
manuscripts,
reception
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2016 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199315147 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2016 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199315147.001.0001 |
