String Quartet No. 5 (Shostakovich)

Last updated

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 5 in B-flat major , Op. 92, was composed in autumn 1952. It was premiered in Leningrad in November 1953 by the Beethoven Quartet, to whom it is dedicated. [1]

Contents

Structure

It consists of three movements, performed without a break:

  1. Allegro non troppo
  2. AndanteAndantinoAndanteAndantinoAndante
  3. ModeratoAllegrettoAndante

Playing time is approximately 30 minutes.

The work grows from a five-note motif, C–D–E–B–C, which contains the four pitch-classes of the composer's musical monogram: DSCH (E being Es and B being H in German). This motif appears in a number of his other string quartets, including String Quartet No. 8, the first Violin Concerto, and the Symphony No. 10. [2]

Notes

  1. Harris (2014)
  2. Griffiiths (2012)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 12 (Beethoven)</span>

Ludwig van Beethoven completed his String Quartet No. 12 in E major, Op. 127, in 1825. It is the first of his late quartets. Commissioned by Nicolas Galitzin over a year earlier, the work was not ready when it was scheduled to premiere. When it finally premiered by the Schuppanzigh Quartet, it was not well received. Only with subsequent performances by the Bohm Quartet and the Mayseder Quartet did it begin to gain public appreciation.

C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature consists of three flats. Its relative major is E major and its parallel major is C major.

F major is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative minor is D minor and its parallel minor is F minor.

B-flat major is a major scale based on B, with pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative minor is G minor and its parallel minor is B-flat minor.

E-flat major is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats. Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E minor,.

A-flat major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has four flats.

B-flat minor is a minor scale based on B, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has five flats. Its relative major is D-flat major and its parallel major is B-flat major. Its enharmonic equivalent, A-sharp minor, which would contain seven sharps, is not normally used.

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 6 in G major, Op. 101, was composed in 1956. It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet but carries no dedication. The Beethoven Quartet recorded this work on the Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga label.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 10 (Shostakovich)</span> 1964 string quartet by Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 10 in A-flat major, Op. 118, was composed from 9 to 20 July 1964. It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet in Moscow and is dedicated to composer Mieczysław (Moisei) Weinberg, a close friend of Shostakovich. It has been described as cultivating the uncertain mood of his earlier Stalin-era quartets, as well as foreshadowing the austerity and emotional distance of his later works. The quartet typified the preference for chamber music over large scale works, such as symphonies, that characterised his late period. According to musicologist Richard Taruskin, this made him the first Russian composer to devote so much time to the string quartet medium.

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 12 in D-flat major, Op. 133, was composed in 1968. It is dedicated to Dmitri Tsyganov, the first violinist of the Beethoven Quartet, which premiered the work in Moscow on June 14.

DSCH is a musical motif used by the composer Dmitri Shostakovich to represent himself. It is a musical cryptogram in the manner of the BACH motif, consisting of the notes D, E-flat, C, B natural, or in German musical notation D, Es, C, H, thus standing for the composer's initials in German transliteration: D. Sch..

Antonín Dvořák wrote his String Quartet No. 10 in E major, Op. 51 (B. 92), in 1879 at the request of Jean Becker, the leader of the Florentine Quartet. It is sometimes nicknamed the Slavonic Quartet. The quartet was dedicated to Jean Becker; it was first performed by the Joachim Quartet at a private chamber music evening on July 29, 1879, in Berlin. It was published by Simrock, Berlin, in 1879.

The six string quartets, K. 168–173, were composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in late 1773 in Vienna. These are popularly known as the Viennese Quartets. Mozart may have hoped to have them published at the time, but they were published only posthumously by Johann André in 1801 as Mozart's Op. 94.

References