Preface
My original intention with this dissertation was to engage
in a generalised discussion on the interaction of music and
ideology in the Soviet Union under Communism. This was a very
wide area to cover, and as I progressed with my research,
I inevitably narrowed my focus to eventually deal with a single
piece of music which lies at the heart of the issues I wished
to deal with. Also, with the progress of my research into
the Soviet system, I found that some of my original aims were
founded on misconceptions about the nature of the dictatorship
that I was studying. One of the most important aspects of
this discovery was that Marxist political ideology was merely
the tool by which the Dictatorship preserved itself. The rule
of Stalin, which is synonymous with terror and atrocities,
was based not on an attempt to liberate the people through
communist ideals, but to completely subjugate them. With this
knowledge, I found that it was almost useless to discuss the
interaction of the political ideals with music, because Marxism
was merely incidental in the entity known as the Soviet Union
once the original idealists had been disposed of. The reality
of political life in under the Communists was an Orwellian
party machine which existed solely to keep itself in power.
LeninŐs original belief that any means were justified in the
creation of communism simply became the means by which the
Party perpetuated its own power base.
However, my attempts to pursue the matter of the interaction
of art and state led, inevitably, to the music and person
of Shostakovich. From evidence that is still emerging, the
possibility that he was a sometime, if not lifelong, dissident
becomes clear. This has led me to the study of music which
may have emerged as a direct reaction against the regime.
The work I have chosen to concentrate on is one of the pivotal
works in the career of the composer from this point of view.
At its most basic level, I feel that the Seventh Symphony,
the Leningrad , raises the issue of the interaction of music
and ideals that I set out as my general area of discussion
in my original dissertation proposal. In particular, it is
something that I did not expect to find - instrumental music
that contains criticism of the Soviet State and the system
of government that existed there. In Shostakovich and the
Leningrad I arrived at the investigation of a specific example
of the interaction of music and idealism which is also a critique
of the misapplication of those ideals.
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