String Quartet No. 6 (Shostakovich)

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Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 6 in G major, Op. 101, was composed in the summer of 1956. It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet [1] in October 1956. It carries no dedication. [2] The Beethoven Quartet recorded it on the Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga label.

Contents

Structure

It consists of four movements:

  1. Allegretto
  2. Moderato con moto
  3. Lento (attacca)
  4. LentoAllegretto

Playing time is approximately 22 minutes.

The Allegretto first movement creates a carefree mood using nursery tunes.[ citation needed ] The second movement is a cheerful round dance in E major, the third movement a chaconne in B minor. The final movement leads into a complex Allegretto showing the influence of both Alban Berg's Lyric Suite and Richard Strauss's Metamorphosen .[ citation needed ][ further explanation needed ] The quartet also features the only vertical appearance of the DSCH motif (the notes D, E, C, and B played at the same time), at the final cadence at the end of each movement.

The quartet was written in Komarovo, Russia.

References

  1. Harris, Stephen (2021). "quartet no. 6". Shostakovich: the string quartets. Retrieved May 27, 2024.
  2. Lesser, Wendy (2011). Music for Silenced Voices. Yale University Press. p. 122. ISBN   978-0-300-16933-1.