The Tragedy In Shostakovich's Music

Shostakovich is one of the most important composers in the 20th century. In his works, the intense expression of tragedy is a notable feature, which is embodied in his different styles of music, especially in his symphony. Because of the grand structure, the symphony could show the tragic conflict best, and contains profound connotation of philosophic speculative. Shostakovich's symphony penetrate his music creation of all time, reacts his evolvement of musical thought, what's more, it influences and pushes the development of the symphony in Soviet Russia. It is even said that the symphony of Soviet Russia is the symphony of Shostakovich. Therefore, this dissertation will take Shostakovich's symphony as the illustration to analyze the reasons and effects of tragic style in Shostakovich's music.The dissertation is divided into three chapters. The first chapter analyzes the noumenon of Shostakovich's symphony, and discusses the general characteristics including the techniques in tragedy expression and skills of creation in terms of incidental instrument, tune and rhythm. The second chapter finds out the reasons of the forming of Shostakovich's symphony style, based on the analyses of Russian's mentality of sorrow, Shostakovich's experience of creation, his personality and the influences from other composers. The third chapter states the aesthetic feature of tragedy in Shostakovich's symphony, and then concludes its aesthetic value.In short, the dissertation analyzes the noumenon of Shostakovich's symphony, summarizes his tragic creation technique as well as the reason of his tragic style. Considering music history and music aesthetics, the dissertation concludes the aesthetic feature of the tragedy, artistic value and profound influences to later generations.