Dmitri Shostakovich - the 1900's

from Testimony- The memoirs of Shostakovich, as related to & edited by Solomon Volkov, pages 181-182:

Meaning in music- that must sound very strange for most people. Particularly in the West. It’s here in Russia that the question is usually posed: What was the composer trying to say, after all, with this musical work? What was he trying to make clear? The questions are naïve, of course, but despite their naiveté and crudity, they definitely merit being asked. And I would add to them, for instance, Can music attack evil? Can it make man stop and think? Can it cry out, and thereby draw man’s attention to various vile acts to which he has grown accustomed? To the things…   more >>

cite as

Dmitri Shostakovich, and Soloman Volkov (ed.), Testimony- The memoirs of Shostakovich, as related to & edited by Solomon Volkov (London, 1979), p. 181-182. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1431348786092 accessed: 29 March, 2024

Listeners

Dmitri Shostakovich
Composer, Pianist
1906-1975

Experience Information

Date/Time the 1900's

Originally submitted by verafonte on Mon, 11 May 2015 13:53:06 +0100
Approved on Wed, 18 Nov 2015 13:24:09 +0000