A Study Of The Musical Language And Structure Of Shostakovich's Late String Quartets

Dmitri Shostakovich possesses an extremely important position in the history of Soviet music as well as in the music history of human race. Based on the long-standing tradition established by great figures such as Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Mahler, Shostakovich's fifteen symphonies depicted, with a magnificent vision, the glory and suffering that the Soviet people witnessed and experienced in the first half of the 20th century. Meanwhile, his fifteen string quartets can be viewed as a personal "diary" of his internal world, for they demonstrated the mental course of the composer under the overwhelming external pressure, by both the obscure musical language presented and the deep significance expressed.This dissertation mainly focuses on the analysis and interpretation of the seven late string quartets by Shostakovich, aiming to study the characteristic music language and the conception of these works and thus define the position and impact they have in the creative career of the composer. In the dissertation, the music language and formal structure are analyzed, the historical context and the intention of the composer are examined, and the evolution of string quartet genre as well as the composer's other works of the same time are considered. Moreover, the author tries to apply Northrop Frye's Archetypal criticism, borrowed from literary critical theory, to the study of these late quartets, with the intention to provide valid interpretation of the significance, implication and conception that can be found in these works.The dissertation consists of four chapters. The first chapter traces the development of the genre of string quartet, mainly focused on the period from Haydn through Beethoven to the early 20th century. Shostakovich's composition of string quartets is also periodized in order to define the range of the study attempted in this dissertation. The other three chapters center on Shostakovich's seven late string quartets, applying the "standing back" approach and the receding perspective from Northrop Frye's critical theory. The second chapter includes both analysis and interpretation of the works. The former is mainly concerned with the structure and musical language, while the latter deals with the characteristics and significance of the works. The final two chapters employ Frye's archetypal criticism to give a further discussion, based on the analysis made in the previous chapter. The third chapter examines the idea of circulation in these late quartets from three different hierarchical levels and suggests an idea of "cohesion" that exists in Shostakovich's structural thinking. Looking at the penetrating elements in the musical language of these works, the fourth chapter explores the "musical archetype" that can be found in Shostakovich's composition and suggests an idea of "dispersion" which is characteristic of Shostakovich's musical language. These two ideas led to the feature of "deviation" and thus shaped Shostakovich's distinct personal style. At the same time, Frye's Archetypal criticism is proved to be applicable to the analysis and interpretation of musical works.