Developing Ogolevets's Doubly Augmented Prime: Semitonal Voice Leading in the Music of Shostakovich Page: 30
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the twelve-note themes that Shostakovich uses in this symphony in that each is either
predominantly 'harmonic' or 'linear' in design. The melodic process that characterizes
the 'harmonic' twelve-note themes is arpeggiation, the presentation of structurally
significant disjunct pitch collections. A 'linear' theme, by contrast, features conjunct
motion, both among consecutive pitches and in the way that the underlying skeletal
melodic structure is formed.74
Child highlights resolutions of scale-degree 6 (Db) to scale degree 5 (C) in the brass, one
measure after rehearsal 10, and in the cello, two measures before rehearsal 20. This resolution
from Db to C unites the two different textures with one similar voice-leading element, semitonal
motion. The texture he illustrates, though initially specific to Symphony No. 15, is a trait that
Child generalizes for much of Shostakovich's late works.
Much of Shostakovich's music involves a blank slate of C major, in which he makes use
of any accidental needed for one or more modes. One author, David Fanning, takes a
musicological approach to Shostakovich's music. Specifically, he discusses the use of C major
throughout many of Shostakovich's works.75 His ultimate premise was that of Nicolas Nabokov
who, in 1951, sarcastically stated that Shostakovich was "the present-day master of the C major
key" in an effort to draw attention to the Soviet's view of the arts; that their "policies could
reduce even as fine a composer as Shostakovich to the level of children's talk."76 Fanning,
instead, sought out to present more symbolic meaning behind Shostakovich's use of the key.
Beginning with a general review of C major in Shostakovich and other twentieth-century works,
Fanning's symbolistic perspective of C major consists of three main types: Authority, childlike
74 Child (1993), 74.
75 In a later publication, McCreless describes the opening movement of the First String Quartet in C major as a "pale
(or joyous?) key and "the key with which to 'wipe the slate clean.' See Patrick McCreless 2009, "Dmitri
Shostakovich: The String Quartets," From Intimate Voices: The Twentieth-Century String Quartet, Volume 2:
Shostakovich to Avante-Garde, Ed. by Evan Jones, 5.
76 David Fanning, 2001, "Shostakovich: 'The Present-Day Master of the C Major Key,"' Acta Musicologica 73, no.
2, 139.30
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Hatch, Amy M. Developing Ogolevets's Doubly Augmented Prime: Semitonal Voice Leading in the Music of Shostakovich, dissertation, May 2022; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1944286/m1/41/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .