Dissertation Index



Author: Hibberd, Kristian P. G.

Title: Shostakovich and Bakhtin: A Critical Investigation of the Late Works (1974-1975)

Institution: Goldsmiths College, University of London

Begun: October 1999

Completed: June 2005

Abstract:

Shostakovich's late music (from the late 1960s to 1975) has attracted comparatively little Western scholarly attention, perhaps because it seems "reduced" and introverted when compared with the earlier, more overtly expressive works, which continue to attract often vitriolic and polemical debate. The first intention of this thesis is to redress this imbalance in Shostakovich studies by means of close analysis of three late works: String Quartet No. 15 (Op. 144), the Viola Sonata (Op. 147) and Four Verses of Captain Lebiadkin (Op. 146) (all 1974-5). The second intention is to contribute to the development of the interdisciplinary, hermeneutic study of Shostakovich, by returning predominantly to sources contemporaneous with his Soviet Russian context. Thirdly, this thesis engages with the increasingly influential work of Mikhail Bakhtin, representing the first large-scale development of Bakhtinian thought for the study of music in general, and for the study of the music of Shostakovich in particular.

Keywords: Shostakovich, Mikhail Bakhtin, Boleslav Yavorsky, musical utterance, quotation, allusion, DSCH monogram, linear analysis, interdisciplinary studies

TOC:

PART 1 — BAKHTIN AND THE MUSIC OF SHOSTAKOVICH Ch 1. The Musical Utterance Ch 2. Quotation and Allusion in the Music of Shostakovich Ch 3. DSCH: Shostakovich as Composer and Character

PART 2 — AN ANALYTICAL STRATEGY
Ch 4. Schenker and Yavorsky: An Analytical Strategy for the Late Music of Shostakovich

PART 3 — SHOSTAKOVICH: 1974-1975
Ch 5. A Composer’s Personal Requiem? Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 15: An Introductory Study Ch 6. The Final Requiem: In Memory of ‘A Great Composer’
Ch 7. Four Verses of Captain Lebiadkin: Shostakovich’s ‘Exit Into Immortality’

Postscript
Appendix: Analytical Graphs

Contact:

Address: 4 Braxfield Road, London SE4 2AN, United Kingdom
E-mail: k.hibberd@gold.ac.uk
Phone: 07980 889537


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