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A question for you Shostakovich fans

208.3.223.22

Posted by Neil E. on June 9, 2000 at 14:36:49

I was listening to the String Quartet #15 last night for the first time (Naxos/Eder Quartet). The first movement, or Elegy, had a theme or melody that the liner notes describe as chant-like. I realize what the the 15th represents, being his state of health and loss of several friends. That chant-like melody seemed very familiar. It reminds me of an old hymn I remember being sung in church. Does anyone know if this part of the Elegy is based on a hymn? Don't know if the "Schos" would be up on church music given his problems with "da Man". However if the string quartetes were more of a private diary, expressing his more inner thoughts and feelings, and given the fact that the 15th was written in the early '70s or so, maybe he could have used something like that.

The song I am referring to is "It Is Well With My Soul" - Words by Horatio Spafford (1873) and music by Phillip Bliss. Had to look it up, as I don't know a lot of hymns by heart. Spafford wrote the words after he lost three daughters at sea when their ship sank in the Atlantic (at least I think that is the story). Seems like using the melody in the Quartet would fit the mood.

Also noticed that at one or more point in the Funeral March, the strings are plucked in a way that reminds me of someone playing "Taps". Could that also have been intentional? Don't know if "Taps" is a universal melody, or more or less common to the US and/or England.

Neil

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