Symphony No. 15 (Shostakovich)

Last updated
Symphony No. 15
by Dmitri Shostakovich
Shostakoviz,Shirma (cropped).jpg
Dmitri Shostakovich (far right) in 1974 (photograph by Yuri Shcherbinin)
Key A major
Opus 141
Composedlate 1970–July 29, 1971
Published1972
Publisher Hans Sikorski Musikverlage
Duration45 minutes
Movements4
Scoring Orchestra
Premiere
DateJanuary 8, 1972 (1972-01-08)
LocationLarge Hall of the Moscow Conservatory
Conductor Maxim Shostakovich
Performers All-Union Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra

The Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141, composed between late 1970 and July 29, 1971, is the final symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich. [1] It was his first purely instrumental and non-programmatic symphony since the Tenth from 1953. [2] [3] [4] [5] Shostakovich began to plan and sketch the Fifteenth in late 1970, with the intention of composing for himself a cheerful work to mark his 65th birthday the next year. After completing the sketch score in April 1971, he wrote the orchestral score in June while receiving medical treatment in the town of Kurgan. The symphony was completed the following month at his summer dacha in Repino. [6] This was followed by a prolonged period of creative inactivity which did not end until the composition of the Fourteenth Quartet in 1973.

Contents

The Fifteenth Symphony was first performed privately in a reduction for two pianos for members of the Union of Soviet Composers and invited guests in August 1971. Its scheduled world premiere in September was postponed when Shostakovich suffered his second heart attack earlier that month. Following a two-month hospitalization, Shostakovich recovered well enough to attend rehearsals for the Fifteenth's premiere starting in late December 1971. The premiere took place in Moscow on January 8, 1972, performed by the All-Union Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maxim Shostakovich. The Western hemisphere premiere took place in Philadelphia on September 28, 1972 with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy. Immediate critical reaction to the symphony was overwhelmingly positive in the Soviet Union, but mixed in the West.

Shostakovich's extensive use of musical quotation in the Fifteenth has attracted speculation since its premiere. He initially likened the first movement to a "toyshop", but later cautioned listeners against taking his description too precisely. A quotation from Gioacchino Rossini's William Tell Overture recurs throughout the first movement, while the last movement quotes from a song by Mikhail Glinka and from Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung and Tristan und Isolde . Critics have also detected in the symphony further quotations and allusions, from other composers as well as Shostakovich's own music. Bernard Jacobson wrote in 1972 that the symphony's lasting appeal was secured because it made use of "one of [Shostakovich's] greatest expressive assets—a teasing and often powerfully affective emotional ambivalence". [7]

History

Composition

Maxim Shostakovich, conductor of the Fifteenth Symphony's premiere Maxim Shostakovich 1967.jpg
Maxim Shostakovich, conductor of the Fifteenth Symphony's premiere

Shostakovich began to prepare the Fifteenth Symphony in late 1970. It was originally planned as a present to himself for his 65th birthday. He wrote to Boris Tishchenko that he wanted to write a "merry symphony". [8] Shostakovich completed a sketch outline of the Fifteenth Symphony totaling 18 pages, [9] which used spare notation and extensive shorthand, [10] by no later than April 2, 1971. [3] The sketch manuscript also includes an unfinished and still unpublished setting of Yevgeny Yevtushenko's "Yelabuga Nail", a poem about the suicide of Marina Tsvetayeva. [3] [11]

That June, Shostakovich traveled with his wife to the clinic of Gavriil Ilizarov in Kurgan to continue treatment for his poliomyelitis, [6] which he had been receiving since 1968. [12] While there he began the final draft of the Fifteenth Symphony. He wrote to Marietta Shaginyan that he was working himself to the "verge of tears":

Tears flowed from my eyes not because the symphony was sad, but because my eyes were so exhausted. I even went to an ophthalmologist who suggested that I take a short break. The break was very hard for me. It is annoying to step away when one is at work. [13]

Shostakovich later made similar remarks to Sofia Khentova, telling her that the symphony did not "allow [him] a moment's rest":

It was a work which simply grabbed me, one of the few which appeared in my mind with total clarity from first note to last. There was nothing left for me to do but write it down. [6]

Veniamin Basner recalled that the composer complained to him that work on the finale progressed too slowly. [14]

Shostakovich continued work on the symphony after he left the clinic for his summer dacha in Repino. [3] On July 13, he was visited there by his friend Isaak Glikman, to whom the composer declared that he had completed the first two movements and was working on the third. [3] Shostakovich told him that he still had to "put together a finale, but, you know, somewhat like my Ninth, the symphony lacks a basic idea". [15] Shostakovich completed the symphony on July 29 [16] in the presence of Basner. [17] "The new symphony is still warm and I like it", Shostakovich told Glikman. "But, perhaps after some time has gone by, I will think about it differently". [18] In a letter to Krzysztof Meyer dated September 16, Shostakovich said: "I finished another symphony—my Fifteenth. Maybe I should not compose anymore, but I cannot live without it". [19] Shostakovich wrote to Shaginyan on August 26 that the completion of the symphony he had "worked on day and night" left him feeling as if in a void. [13]

Subsequent to the symphony's completion, Shostakovich experienced a prolonged period of creative inactivity. Aside from an arrangement of the "Serenade" by Gaetano Braga, which was intended for an unrealized projected opera based on Anton Chekhov's "The Black Monk"), Shostakovich composed nothing again until the Fourteenth Quartet in March 1973. [20]

Premiere

Shortly after Shostakovich completed the Fifteenth, he informed his son Maxim, to whom its premiere was eventually entrusted. [2] Kirill Kondrashin, the composer's first choice, had suddenly been stricken with severe heart problems that summer and was unable to conduct. [21] On the same day that Shostakovich completed the symphony, he and his wife returned home to Moscow. There he heard the symphony for the first time, played by Boris Tchaikovsky and Mieczysław Weinberg in a reduction for two pianos.

The completed score of the Fifteenth Symphony was sent to copyists at the Union of Soviet Composers by September 9 in preparation for its world premiere, which had been announced for autumn 1971. [22] A few days later, on September 17, [13] Shostakovich suffered his second heart attack, which required the postponement of the symphony's first performance. [23] [24] He was in the hospital until November 28, whereupon he was released to continue recovery at a sanatorium in Barvikha. [23] Despite continued weakness in Shostakovich's arms and legs, his health had recovered sufficiently to allow him to attend the rehearsals for the rescheduled premiere. [25] It eventually took place at the Large Hall of the Moscow Conservatory on January 8, 1972, performed by the All-Union Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maxim Shostakovich; [23] he also conducted the British premiere with the New Philharmonia Orchestra on November 20, 1972. [26] Leopold Stokowski had vied for the rights to conduct the American premiere, but lost to Eugene Ormandy, who performed it with the Philadelphia Orchestra on September 28, 1972. [27]

Music

Poster from 1973 advertising a performance of Shostakovich's Fifteenth Symphony by the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maxim Shostakovich Koncertplakat.jpg
Poster from 1973 advertising a performance of Shostakovich’s Fifteenth Symphony by the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maxim Shostakovich

The symphony consists of four movements, the middle two played without interruption. [28]

  1. Allegretto
  2. AdagioLargoAdagioLargo
  3. Allegretto
  4. AdagioAllegrettoAdagioAllegretto

A typical performance lasts approximately 45 minutes. [29]

The first movement begins with two chimes on the glockenspiel, followed by a five-note motif on solo flute, accompanied by pizzicato strings. This leads into a galloping motif for trumpet constructed out of all twelve notes of the Western chromatic scale. Hugh Ottaway observed that Shostakovich's use of such motifs in this symphony create an "enlarged tonal field in which 'chromatic' and 'diatonic' cease to be meaningful distinctions". [30] Recurring throughout the movement are quotations from Gioacchino Rossini's overture to his opera William Tell. [31] [32] [30]

A brass chorale opens the second movement, which gives way to a cello solo. These themes alternate with a dotted funereal motif introduced by a pair of solo flutes, then taken up by a solo trombone, which builds up to a fortississimo climax. [33] A muted string restatement of the opening chorale fades away on a timpani roll, after which bassoons announce the start of the scherzando third movement. [34]

The finale contains several quotations, starting with the "fate motif" from Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen , [34] [35] then the opening motif from his Tristan und Isolde, [36] before segueing into a reminiscence of Mikhail Glinka's "Do Not Tempt Me Needlessly". [31] A passacaglia theme which has drawn commentary for its resemblance to the march from Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony [37] [38] builds to another powerful climax. The symphony ends with the celesta restating the symphony's opening motif, [37] followed by an open A-major chord sustained over a percussion part that recalls the scherzo of his Fourth Symphony, [39] which is finally resolved by a three-octave C-sharp. [40]

Instrumentation

The orchestra consists of the following instruments.

The Fifteenth Symphony's use of a large percussion section aside, it is scored for forces smaller than those employed in Shostakovich's First. [28] The composer indicated in the score that the number of instruments listed were the minimum required, but "if there are more, then it would be better". [41]

Reception

David Lynch cited Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15 as an important influence in the making of his film Blue Velvet David Lynch at the 1990 Emmy Awards.jpg
David Lynch cited Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15 as an important influence in the making of his film Blue Velvet

Upon hearing its first performance, Shostakovich remarked that he had composed a "wicked symphony". [42] It was received with an ovation by the audience at its premiere. Among its admirers was his friend Marietta Shaginyan, who after the first performance made the sign of the cross over him and exclaimed: "You must not say, Dmitri Dmitrievich, that you are not well. You are well, because you have made us happy!" [43] Tikhon Khrennikov praised the symphony as one of Shostakovich's "most profound", adding that it was "full of optimism [and] belief in man's inexhaustible strength". [44] The first movement drew especial praise from Norman Kay in England, who called it a "tour-de-force of concentration, self-dissolution, and musical economy". [45] Eric Roseberry noted that the symphony's instrumental timbres and use of passacaglia suggested that Shostakovich had been influenced by the late operas of his friend, Benjamin Britten. [46] Yevgeny Mravinsky, who led the symphony's Leningrad premiere, found himself "overwhelmed" during his study of the score, telling his wife he would continue to return to this "autobiographical" symphony until the "end of his days". [47]

Shostakovich's use of quotations and allusions to various works by himself and other composers has attracted speculation since its premiere. [35] [44] [48] He initially described the first movement as "childhood, just a toyshop under a cloudless sky"; [35] later, he cautioned listeners against taking "this definition too precisely". [49] When describing the music and the process of the symphony's composition, Shostakovich said that he still felt music the way he did as a child. [50] While he maintained that he was unable to explain his extended use of musical quotation, he also said that he "could not, could not, not include them". [51] He reported to Glikman [31] and Krzysztof Meyer that he made use of "exact quotations" from Beethoven, as well as Rossini and Wagner, and that he had been under the influence of Mahler's music while he composed the symphony. [52] According to Maxim Shostakovich, he had been urged by his father not to reveal to the orchestra at the first rehearsal that there would be a quotation from Rossini in the first movement: "I want to see their faces when they come to it". [53]

Maxim Shostakovich expressed the opinion that to him the symphony reflected "the great philosophical problems of a man's life cycle". [4] Later he likened the work to a "chamber symphony" which described human life through the "prison of existence". [54] Another conductor, Kurt Sanderling, heard the music as being about loneliness and death, and that no other work by Shostakovich seemed to him so "radically horrible and cruel". [55] Alfred Schnittke, whose own music was deeply influenced by Shostakovich, [56] [57] held that the Fifteenth was a "crossroads in time" where "the past enters into new relationships with the present, and, like the ghost of Hamlet’s father, intrudes into the reality of the music and actually forms it". [58] To Alexander Ivashkin, Shostakovich's then unusual use of quotation signaled an awareness of the impossibility of composing a "pure" symphony, with the quotations creating a web of their own correspondences atop the "traditional skeleton of the symphony". [59]

Shostakovich's Fifteenth Symphony has also exerted influence beyond music. Director David Lynch cited it as an important influence on his 1986 film Blue Velvet : "I wrote the script to Shostakovich: No. 15 in A major. I just kept playing the same part of it, over and over again". [60] During its filming, Lynch placed speakers on set and played the symphony in order to convey the mood he wanted. [61] He later requested that Angelo Badalamenti compose a score for the film that was "like Shostakovich". [62]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dmitri Shostakovich</span> Soviet composer and pianist (1906–1975)

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer.

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110, was written in three days.

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. 2 in B major, Op. 14, subtitled To October, for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy Capella Choir under Nikolai Malko, on 5 November 1927. After the premiere, Shostakovich made some revisions to the score, and this final version was first played in Moscow later in 1927 under the baton of Konstantin Saradzhev. It was also the first time any version of the work had been played in Moscow.

Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43, between September 1935 and May 1936, after abandoning some preliminary sketch material. In January 1936, halfway through this period, Pravda—under direct orders from Joseph Stalin—published an editorial "Muddle Instead of Music" that denounced the composer and targeted his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Despite this attack and the political climate of the time, Shostakovich completed the symphony and planned its premiere for December 1936 in Leningrad. After rehearsals began, the orchestra's management cancelled the performance, offering a statement that Shostakovich had withdrawn the work. He may have agreed to withdraw it to relieve orchestra officials of responsibility. The symphony was premiered on 30 December 1961 by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra led by Kirill Kondrashin.

The Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47, by Dmitri Shostakovich is a work for orchestra composed between April and July 1937. Its first performance was on November 21, 1937, in Leningrad by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky. The premiere was a "triumphal success" that appealed to both the public and official critics, receiving an ovation that lasted well over half an hour.

The Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65, by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in the summer of 1943, and first performed on 4 November of that year by the USSR Symphony Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky, to whom the work is dedicated. It briefly was nicknamed the "Stalingrad Symphony" following the first performance outside the Soviet Union in 1944.

The Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93, by Dmitri Shostakovich was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky on 17 December 1953. It is not clear when it was written. According to the composer, the symphony was composed between July and October 1953, but Tatiana Nikolayeva stated that it was completed in 1951. Sketches for some of the material date from 1946.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symphony No. 13 (Shostakovich)</span> 1962 symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich

The Symphony No. 13 in B-flat minor, Op. 113 for bass soloist, bass chorus, and large orchestra was composed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1962. It consists of five movements, each a setting of a Yevgeny Yevtushenko poem that describes aspects of Soviet history and life. Although the symphony is commonly referred to by the nickname Babi Yar, no such subtitle is designated in Shostakovich's manuscript score.

The Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 107, was composed in 1959 by Dmitri Shostakovich. Shostakovich wrote the work for his friend Mstislav Rostropovich, who committed it to memory in four days. He premiered it on October 4, 1959, at the Large Hall of the Leningrad Conservatory with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky. The first recording was made in two days following the premiere by Rostropovich and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Aleksandr Gauk.

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Cello Concerto No. 2, Op. 126, in 1966 in the Crimea. Like the first concerto, it was written for Mstislav Rostropovich, who gave the premiere in Moscow under Yevgeny Svetlanov on 25 September 1966 at the composer's 60th birthday concert. The concerto is sometimes listed as in the key of G, but the score gives no such indication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 15 (Shostakovich)</span> 1974 string quartet by Dmitri Shostakovich

The String Quartet No. 15 in E-flat minor, Op. 144 by Dmitri Shostakovich is the composer's last. It was his first quartet since the Sixth which did not bear a dedication.

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..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Sonata No. 2 (Shostakovich)</span> 1943 piano sonata by Dmitri Shostakovich

The Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 61 by Dmitri Shostakovich, the last of his piano sonatas, was composed in early 1943. It was his first solo piano composition since 1933, as well as his second attempt at composing a piano sonata in the key of B minor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Ivashkin</span> Russian cellist and academic (1948–2014)

Alexander Ivashkin, was a Russian cellist, writer, academic and conductor. He was a professor of music and the Chair of Performance Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London since 1999, the director of the Centre for Russian Music, and the curator of the Alfred Schnittke Archive. In 1996, he published the first English-language biography of the composer Alfred Schnittke.

The Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 147, is the last composition by Dmitri Shostakovich. It was completed on July 5, 1975, weeks before his death. It is dedicated to Fyodor Druzhinin, violist of the Beethoven Quartet.

<i>Five Fragments</i> 1935 orchestral suite by Dmitri Shostakovich

The Five Fragments, Op. 42 is a suite for small orchestra composed on June 9, 1935, by Dmitri Shostakovich. It was the only work, apart from film music, that he composed that year. He approached it as preparatory work for the composition of the final version of his Symphony No. 4.

<i>October</i> (Shostakovich) 1967 symphonic poem by Dmitri Shostakovich

October, Op. 131, is a symphonic poem composed by Dmitri Shostakovich to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the October Revolution in 1967. He was spurred to compose the work after reencountering his score for the Vasilyev brothers' 1937 film Volochayev Days, reusing its "Partisan Song" in October. Although Shostakovich completed the work quickly, the process of writing it fatigued him physically because of his deteriorating motor functions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">March of the Soviet Militia</span> 1970 march by Dmitri Shostakovich

The "March of the Soviet Militia", Op. 139 is a march for military band composed in 1970 by Dmitri Shostakovich.

<i>Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin</i> 1974 song cycle by Dmitri Shostakovich

The Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin by Dmitri Shostakovich is a song cycle composed in 1974. It is his final vocal work.

<i>Six Poems by Marina Tsvetayeva</i> 1973 song cycle by Dmitri Shostakovich

The Six Poems by Marina Tsvetayeva: Suite for Contralto and Piano, Op. 143 is a song cycle by Dmitri Shostakovich. It was composed in 1973 and originally scored for contralto and piano. In 1974, the composer produced an arrangement for contralto and chamber orchestra which he designated as Op. 143a.

References

  1. Fairclough 2019, p. 153.
  2. 1 2 Prieto 2013, p. 241.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Fay 2000, p. 270.
  4. 1 2 Blokker & Dearling 1979, p. 150.
  5. Ottaway 1978, p. 63.
  6. 1 2 3 Prieto 2013, p. 243.
  7. Jacobson, Bernard (October 6, 1972). "Eugene Ormandy Leads Shostakovich Premiere". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Chicago Daily News. Archived from the original on December 27, 2021. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
  8. Khentova 1985, pp. 538–539.
  9. Khentova 1985, p. 539.
  10. Kennedy, Laura E. (December 2016). "Sketching the Symphonies: A Brief Report on Shostakovich's Manuscripts in Moscow". Notes. 73 (2): 255. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  11. Khentova 1985, pp. 539–540.
  12. Fay 2000, p. 282.
  13. 1 2 3 Khentova 1985, p. 540.
  14. Wilson, Elizabeth (1994). Shostakovich: A Life Remembered. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 436. ISBN   0-691-02971-7.
  15. Rowell, Bryan (July 2021). "Fifty Years Ago: April 1971–September 1971". DSCH Journal (55): 37.
  16. Fay 2000, pp. 270–271.
  17. Wilson 1994, p. 436.
  18. Rowell 2021, p. 38.
  19. Rowell 2021, p. 40.
  20. Fay 2000, p. 275.
  21. Meyer 2011, p. 393.
  22. Glikman 2001, p. 181.
  23. 1 2 3 Fay 2000, p. 271.
  24. Wilson 1994, p. 423.
  25. Glikman 2001, p. 183.
  26. Walsh, Stephen (November 26, 1972). "Down a private footpath". The Observer (London). Archived from the original on December 27, 2021. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
  27. Webster, Daniel (September 29, 1972). "Ormandy Leads Shostakovich's 15th Symphony". Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on December 27, 2021. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
  28. 1 2 Blokker & Dearling 1979, p. 151.
  29. Sikorski (2011). Dmitri Shostakovich (PDF). Hamburg: Sikorski Musikverlage Hamburg. p. 113. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 2, 2020. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
  30. 1 2 Ottaway 1978, p. 64.
  31. 1 2 3 Fairclough 2019, p. 152.
  32. Blokker & Dearling 1979, p. 152.
  33. Blokker & Dearling 1979, p. 153.
  34. 1 2 Blokker & Dearling 1979, p. 154.
  35. 1 2 3 Prieto 2013, p. 244.
  36. Ottaway 1978, p. 65.
  37. 1 2 Blokker & Dearling 1979, p. 155.
  38. Ottaway 1978, p. 66.
  39. Fairclough 2019, p. 155.
  40. Blokker & Dearling 1979, p. 156.
  41. Shostakovich, Dmitri (1980). Komaritsky, O. (ed.). Collected Works in Forty-Two Volumes, Volume 8 (in Russian). Moscow: Muzika. p. 102. Указано минимальное количество инструментов. Если инструментов будет больше, то ето, будет лучше.
  42. Fairclough 2019, p. 156.
  43. Glikman 2001, p. 185.
  44. 1 2 Fay 2000, p. 272.
  45. Kay, Norman (1972). "New Music: Shostakovich's 15th Symphony". Tempo (100): 38. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  46. Roseberry, Eric (1995). "A debt repaid? Some observations on Shostakovich and his late-period recognition of Britten". In Fanning, David (ed.). Shostakovich Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 250. ISBN   0-521-45239-2.
  47. Mravinskaya, Alya (January 2003). "Remembering Shostakovich: An Interview With Madame Mravinsky, Part 2". DSCH Journal (18): 9.
  48. Lake, Trevor (Summer 1995). "Shostakovich and the Press: Great Britain". DSCH Journal (3): 28.
  49. Shostakovich, Dmitri (1981). Grigoryev, L.; Platek, Ya. (eds.). Dmitry Shostakovich: About Himself and his Times. Moscow: Progress Publishers. p. 316. "I myself have said that the first movement is a bit like something taking place in a toyshop. But it would be wrong to take this definition too precisely".
  50. Khentova 1985, p. 541.
  51. Fairclough 2019, p. 154.
  52. Meyer, Krzysztof (Winter 1995). "Recollections of a Man". DSCH Journal (4): 16.
  53. Albert, John-Michael (Winter 1995). "Notes by Maxim". DSCH Journal (4): 24–25.
  54. Albert 1995, p. 24.
  55. Sanderling, Kurt (Winter 1996). "DSCH Interview: Kurt Sanderling". DSCH Journal (6): 14.
  56. Webb, John (March 1989). "Schnittke in Context". Tempo (182): 19. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  57. Ivashkin, Alexander (1995). "Shostakovich and Schnittke: The erosion of symphonic syntax". In Fanning, David (ed.). Shostakovich Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 254. ISBN   0-521-45239-2.
  58. Schnittke, Alfred (2002). "On Shostakovich: Circles of Influence". In Ivashkin, Alexander (ed.). A Schnittke Reader. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 60. ISBN   0-253-33818-2. "And here I have in mind not the unbroken thread of continuity linking all his works, but the reprises, the self-quotations, the returns to the thematic imagery and material of his earlier works which are so characteristic of the composer, and how he rethinks them and develops them in a new way. String Quartets Nos. 8 and 14 and Symphony No. 15, are, in their way, the most distinctive crossroads in time, where the past enters into new relationships with the present, and, like the ghost of Hamlet's father, intrudes into the reality of the music and actually forms it".
  59. Ivashkin 1995, p. 257.
  60. Lynch on Lynch . ISBN   0-571-22018-5. Page 135.
  61. Schwarz, Jeffrey (June 4, 2002). Mysteries of Love: The Making of Blue Velvet. Automat Pictures.
  62. Chion, Michael (1995). "Blue Velvet". British Film Institute, London: 89.

Sources

Further reading