A Soviet Credo

In this book, Pauline Fairclough tackles one of the most significant and least understood of Shostakovich's major works. She argues that the Fourth Symphony was radically different from its Soviet contemporaries in terms of its structure, dramaturgy, tone and even language, and therefore challenged the norms of Soviet symphonism at a crucial stage of its development. Fairclough meticulously examines the score to inform a discussion of tonal and thematic processes, allusion, paraphrase and reference to musical types, or intonations. Such analysis is set deeply in the context of Soviet musical culture during the period 1932-6.

Dr Pauline Fairclough is Lecturer in Music in the Department of Music at the University of Bristol, UK.

Contents: Foreword; Introduction; The Soviet symphony in the 1930s: political and aesthetic background; Analytical approaches to the Fourth Symphony; First movement: allegretto poco moderato; Second movement: moderato con moto; Third movement: largo - allegro; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.