Harmonic Syntax in the "Serial" Works of Dmitri Shostakovich

Abstract

Abstract: The works of the last decade of Shostakovich's life are peppered by a peculiar phenomenon; the inclusion of twelve-tone rows. Classification of these works, often labeled (and subsequently unlabeled) as "serial," remains problematic. Elements of Western serialism are present, albeit in highly unconventional forms. To start, Shostakovich does not utilize the familiar canonic operations of serial theory including transposition, inversion and/or retrograde. Alternative techniques instead include the use of multiple rows, juxtaposition of serial and non-serial elements, and the near exclusive use of the row as a linear rather than harmonic resource. No discussion of Shostakovich's serialism would be complete without a survey of Soviet music at the time. Isolated from the West throughout most of the 20th century, Russian composers had limited access to Western "formalist" scores. Given such isolation, it is little wonder that composers developed their own stylistic approaches. These experiments--fueled in part by lack of information and natural curiosity--shaped the development of a Russian school of serialism based on a range of "twelve-toneness." According to such definitions, Shostakovich's music overlaps with the broad category of twelve-tone, allowing for a preliminary examination of his harmonic grammar according to both serial and non-serial stylistic features. Recent research regarding the composer's late harmonic style in turn allows for a more detailed form of codification. Most importantly, Peter Child's article on interval collections in late Shostakovich centers around the reconciliation of serial and non-serial elements in his Symphony No. 15. Stephen Brown, on the other hand, describes a mapping and coordinate system in which harmonic and melodic intervals can be graphed spatially. Brown notes Shostakovich's propensity to use ascending fifths as a primary aspect of harmonic syntax and ascending semitones as a neighbor-note feature of melodic motion. The present inquiry, then, will focus primarily on the historical background and harmonic idiolect of Shostakovich's so-called "serial" works, composed between 1967 and 1974. The analysis will center on pertinent collectional similarities shared by his serial and non-serial approaches to pitch organization.