The String Quartets

Abstract

Few composers have imparted as much pain and melancholy to their compositions as Dmitry Shostakovich. It was not so much that he sought out tragedy in life as a musical inspiration—rather, tragedy and trouble seem regularly to have latched onto him. This 1960 work was dedicated to the memory of his first wife, Nina, who died in 1954. But its sadness may well be related as well to other, more current events in the composer's life. Most of his post-Stalin works were conservative and relatively upbeat, despite the greater freedom he and other artists enjoyed from 1953 (the year of Stalin's death) until 1962, when Shostakovich composed his controversial Symphony No. 13, "Babi Yar," and helped set off a new era of government meddling in the arts.

The String Quartet No. 7 was preceded by the Cello Concerto No. 1 (1959), a work for years thought to be optimistic, but now viewed in a different light as recent interpretations by cellists and conductors have emphasized its darker side. The Quartet No. 8, Op. 110, would come later in the year and divulge not only the kind of bleakness and tragedy heard in the Seventh, but a brutality and harshness as well, a somewhat unusual combination in Shostakovich's works from any period.

It appears from all the evidence that Shostakovich had begun to reassess the direction of his career in the years around 1960, turning away from the less adventurous and simplistic worlds of works like the patriotic 1954 Festive Overture and 1957 Piano Concerto No. 2. Still, he would write the bombastic and relatively weak Symphony No. 12, "The Year 1917," in 1961, fortunately his last major effort to kowtow to party officials.

The Quartet No. 7 is cast in three continuous movements, each quite short; the whole has a duration of only about 12 minutes. The opening Allegretto begins with a descending three-note theme whose character is both cynical and nonchalant. As the movement progresses, the mood darkens, setting the stage for the ensuing Lento. Here the music is brooding and melancholy, with an eerie, lyrical main theme whose chilling harmonies taint the sonic fabric with perversely satisfying color. The finale begins with a rush of anxious energy which is then interrupted briefly for a return to the closing harmonies of the Lento. A nervous, driving theme appears, and now both thematic and rhythmic elements from the previous two movements are presented. The latter half of the finale is somewhat subdued in its restatements of the main theme and other materials.

The work was premiered on May 15, 1960, by the Beethoven Quartet.