Shostakovichs Chamber Music and Musical Tradition

Shostakovichs Chamber Music and Musical Tradition To what extent does Shostakovich draw on musical tradition in his chamber music? Your answer must be supported by a discussion of two or three appropriate pieces of chamber music by Shostakovich that you have studied in the module materials. Musical tradition has been part of our cultural heritage for as long as we can remember. Still it is not that simple to define. One can say that traditional music are songs and tunes which have been passed down orally for generations, and are often folk songs, country dance and similar, but it can also be pieces of written music from early composers etc. We are going to look at three compositions of chamber music written by the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75). String Quartet No.2: first movement String Quartet No. 7: second movement Piano Trio No. 2: last movement The discussion is whether these are more of a traditional Classical musical structure, or an expression of a musical artist, that uses different elements to dissent from prevailing political ideologies at a time when the Communist Soviet Union restricted an artists freedom of speech. Originally, chamber music was written with the intention for small groups to play for private functions, and as the number of instrument were so few, there was no need of a conductor. That is one of the reasons that chamber music by its nature is so intimate. They have to learn how to communicate with each other with eye-contact and signs between themselves. String Quartet is a genre of chamber music which originated around 1760-1820, the Classical period of western music. The traditional ensemble is made up of two violins, a viola and a cello, sitting in a slightly curved line to be able to see each other. There are four movements in a Classical string quartet. One of the significant differences of this Shostakovich string quartet is, that in the first movement, it is actually written in a typically classical sonata form. (Samson Diamond, speaking in Shostakovich, scene 5). The first movement of String Quartet No. 2 is divided into three parts: Exposition Development Recapitulation. In the exposition, where the theme is, are two melodic ideas presented, traditionally played by the first violinist. Dominantly and energetic, he is accompanied by the other three. Then, the second violinist is getting more purposeful and intense with her bow strokes, following by the viola. The cello is playing contrasting and forceful in a lower pitch. The second melody coming up, is lacking the forceful strong moves from the previous section, but expresses more intense winding. At this point, Shostakovich decides not to follow the traditional structure, of continuing straight to the development. Instead he dissents from this by showing a hint to repeat the exposition instead of moving on to the development, although he does not. In the development, the melodies changes, and the first violinist becomes again more dominant, and the music becomes more intense and pulsating with a different tone colour to the exposition. Then, after the development, the sonatas recapitulation restates the theme, more intense and reversed. Shostakovich wrote fifteen string quartets, which are highly expressive and very personal. many composers used chamber music to give us the truest portraits of themselves, their most intimate thoughts and feelings. (Reading 6.1 in Richards, 2008, p. 223). Which explains why the quartets he decided to dedicate, were to family and close friends only, unlike his symphonies that were tributes to national events. The String Quartet no. 7, is in F sharp minor, a musical key, which is traditionally associated with pain and suffering. This quartet was written in memory to his wife Nina, whose sudden death affected Shostakovich profoundly, which clearly mirrored the choice of key for this piece. The second movement of a quartet (Lento), is traditionally the most expressive and personal of the four movements, where the music is transmitting the meaning, and that is definitely the case here. In a classical string quartet, there are usually four movements, but for some reason, Shostakovich breaks away from the traditional structure, and uses only three linked movements: Allegretto Lento Allegro The Heath Quartet, which are playing the second movement on the DVD (Shostakovich, 2008, scene 7) opens first with the second violin playing a seductive and controlled melody, which continues throughout the movement. Then the first violinist enters, playing a pitch higher, and the effect is almost hypnotic with the winding melody from the second violin. Both of violins are muted with an object that restricts the vibrations and changes the sound. Shostakovich uses the mute quite often in his work to gain the desired intensity of the movement. I think it adds to the stifled expression, the kind of emotion that is under the surface, that never really shows itself in the slow movement. (Oliver Heath, speaking in Shostakovich, 2008, scene 7) Piano Trio No.2 is another chamber work where Shostakovich expresses his grief and despair. It is a different type of chamber work to Quartet No. 7, for the reason that here there are three solo instruments: violin, cello and piano, and it is made up of four movements. Initially, in the 17th century, the piano trio was in a three movement form, but with the early 19th century, some composers like Beethoven for example, preferred to cast in the four movement form. Shostakovich was the one composer that definitely looked back at other composers. He is very often avant-garde on certain things. But he studied the compositions of great masters like Beethoven. (Michael Gurevich, speaking in Shostakovich, 2008, Scene 1). It was both national and personal tragedy that drove him to write this piece of music. It was finished in the spring of 1944, after WWII. Russia was in a state of exhaustion and the facts of the horrifying death camps and the fate of the Jews had started to unravel. Shostakovich had also lost his closest friend and mentor, Ivan Sollertinsky, when he was composing the Piano Trio. Shortly after, when Shostakovich had finished the trio, he decided to dedicate it in memory of his friend, following in a tradition of Russian elegiac piano trios, similar to Tchaikovsky, who had dedicated his trio to Nicholas Rubinstein. The final movement of Piano Trio No.2 (Shostakovich, 2008, Track 19), brings together many of the various elements being used until now; the ghostly opening, the frenzy crash of chords in a furious pace. Glee and madness following the anguish in the final movement. The whole piece of the fourth movement is under shadow of death and frustration, and it evoked controversial reactions from the critiques. This movement is nothing less than a gruesome dance of death; its quiet ending is the stillness of the mass grave. (Huth, 2005, in Richards, 2008, in Richards, p. 220). The Soviet Communist ideology was idealism, and therefore it expected Shostakovich finales to finish on a high spirit. However, Shostakovich choses to express dissent by showing the truest portrait of reality through his music. The Jewishness in Shostakovichs music was another factor that provoked dissent under the Stalin regime, because; distinctive Jewish culture was anti-Soviet, and therefore undesirable. (Richards, 2008, p.195). Nevertheless, Shostakovich kept making use of Jewish elements in his music, like Jewish folk poetry and melodies. One critique writes, after hearing Piano Trio No. 2; This is Klezmer, the wild music of Jewish celebration,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Philip, 2005, in Richards, p. 221). Shostakovich says in Testimony: Jews were tormented for so long that they have learned to hide their despair. They express despair in dance music. and he adds; Jews became a symbol for meà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ I tried to convey that feeling in my music. (Reading 6.2 in Richards, 2008, p.224). Many of his works were forbidden because of the anti-Semitism, and his use of musical material that provoked dissent. Despite his efforts to hide the real meaning, some of his music could not be performed until long after Stalins death in 1953. Much of Shostakovichs music follows the traditional Classical musical structures, and as any musical tradition that is still alive, it is destined to become tradition. (1317 words) Bibliography Richards, F. (2008) Dmitri Shostakovich, AA 100 Book 2, Chapter 6. Shostakovich (2008) AA 100 Audio CD. Shostakovich (2008) AA 100 DVD Video. The Open University (2014) Exploring Music, https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=855780section=5.4 (Accessed 29 January 2017).

Comparing Reality and Illusion in Glass Menagerie, Death of a Salesman, and A Raisin in the Sun :: comparison compare contrast essays

Reality vs. Illusion in The Glass Menagerie, The Death of a Salesman, and A Raisin in the Sun   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   All three stories are centered on lower income families in urban settings. Each story has one main dreamer with other characters being in various states of reality. Amanda Wingfield, Willy Loman, and Walter Lee Younger are all living on pipe dreams. Amanda dreams of her days on the front porch surrounded by her gentleman callers. Willy is the all time king of pipe dreams bouncing from past to future with imagining how everything would have been different if he had gone to Alaska (or Africa) with his brother Ben or will be different when Howard makes him showroom salesman at the home office or Biff gets ten (fifteen) thousand dollars for his new business idea. Walter Lee is a smart hard working man but he is so eager to be financially successful that his common sense is blurred and he allows con man Willie Harris to take him for the families ten thousand dollars. Amanda's reality check comes from another dreamer, her son, Tom who is totally annoyed by Amanda's nagging and domineering, he thinks that everything will be better if he can just get away. Amanda and her family go on living their fantasy lives. Willy gets it from all sides; primarily his conflict is with Biff but also Charley, Howard, and Bernard. He is an average man who truly believes he is better than those around him, and that his sons, especially Biff, are greater still, but people, he has very little respect for, are all more successful than he is. Biff starts out like Willy perhaps but comes to the realization that being an average man is okay. Willy never comes to that conclusion; in fact he decides he is more valuable dead than alive. Walter Lee probably has the best grasp on reality and the highest hill to climb of all the dreamers in these stories. This story could probably only take place in a northern city in the United States at that time. His reality check comes from Lena Younger, his mother, a highly spiritual woman with a strong sense of what right and wrong is. Lena has raised Walter Lee to be a good man but he is eager to find a shortcut out of the ghetto and be treated with respect.

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design Essay

According to Atlas (2008), Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is a multidisciplinary approach to prevent criminal behavior through environmental design. In order to achieve deterrence effects of criminal behavior, CPTED strategies have been designed to rely on their ability to influence offender’s decision that precedes criminal acts. Therefore CPTED can be seen as an approach to problem solving that takes into account the environmental conditions and the opportunities they offer for criminal behavior occurrence (Cornish and Clarke 1986). Thereafter, it utilizes those perceived opportunities responsible for causing crimes to control access, provide opportunity to see and to be seen and defines ownership while encouraging territory maintenance (Luedtke et al, 1970). In this context CPTED approach to criminology differs greatly from other policing approaches in the sense that CPTED focuses on design in crime prevention unlike other approaches that employ target hardening. Furthermore, CPTED encourage crime prevention through design and place, while policing values effective response to crime incidences by identification and arresting the offenders (Kruger and Liebermann, 2001). In this regard, crime prevention through environmental design can be considered to be slightly different from traditional policing, but its consistent with problem- oriented policing in four ways: first, touches on the broad scope of problem and not crime only; second, involves systematic analysis of crime factors, events and conditions that fosters crime occurrence; third, leads to design of proactive strategies tailored to problem and the specific geographical locations; fourth, involves all stakeholders and makes them active participants for the program for sake of long–term achievement and improvement (Cornish and Clarke 1986). However, it should be noted that CPTED approach focus on design and not safety, and on productive use not security. Therefore this unique focus makes it people centered as opposed to the view that it is police responsibility. However, the tool of design and techniques fall purview of policing prompting it to be a team effort, and thus police participate in the program but do not necessarily control. Historical evolution since 1970s The origin and formulation leading to emergence of CPTED was initially done by criminologist Jeffery Ray who termed it as defensible space and later on it was improved on by architect Newman Oscar (Jeffery1977; Newman1972). It’s a point of worth to note that both Newman and Jeffery were building on the work of Elizabeth Wood. By 1990s Jeffery and Newman models were expanded to involve a multidisciplinary with Newman`s model limiting itself to the built environment. But by 2004, the adopted CPTED model s were those of Newman and Crowe, since Jeffery model was more of psychology and biology and could not fully support the 2nd generation CPTED (Jeffery1977; Newman1972; Crowe, 2000). Furthermore, in 2005 CPTED has gained internationally recognition and acceptance with dropping off Jeffery `s notion of offender’s internal environment (Jeffery1977 Crowe, 2000). The theoretically foundation evolution of CPTED can be traced back in 1960s when Elizabeth Wood developed guidelines aimed at addressing security issues when she was working with Chicago housing authority (Clarke, 1992). In her guidelines, she emphasized on the design that would lead to supporting natural surveillability, though Elizabeth’s ideas were never implemented, they evolved into simple implementation such as street lights to distinguish between outlaws and thieves from legitimate travelers (Luedtke et al, 1970). Today, evolution of theories and research behind CPTED design are rooted in the environmental criminology theories which explain the relationship between place and crime; and also borrow some ideas from rational theories focusing on situational prevention (Clarke, 1992). Both cluster of theories focus on the crime events and how criminal understand and use environmental to their advantage to commit crimes. This evolution in research and theoretical foundation has played a central role in informing strategic design to employ. Strategies utilized in CPTED Strategies formulation in relation to CPTED approach are rooted in the theoretical foundation and scholarly research conducted by criminologists. Crowe (2000) reports that the central tenet used to arrive at the strategies is the analysis of crime and the environment where it occur using an analytic question â€Å"why here†. Furthermore, such analyses have proved that: crimes are specific and situational; crime distribution correlates to land use and transport network; and offenders are usually optimistic and commits crime in place they know well (Atlas, 2008). Moreover, these analyses reveal that opportunities for crime arise out of daily activities and crime places that are often without observer. In reaction to the analyses, criminologists who are proponents of CPTED designed necessary strategies in line with the findings. These are; Natural surveillance, target hardening, terrestrial reinforcement and natural access control (Newman1972; Crowe, 2000) Territorial reinforcement This is physical design that extends a sphere of influence that enhances users to develop sense of territorial control while potential criminals are discouraged while perceiving these controls (Goldstein, 1990). This is promoted and facilitated by features defining property line such as public and private, signs, pavement designs, or gardens well maintained indicate someone takes care of it. This ensures that only persons that belong to a particular place are their. Target hardening Target hardening strategy in CPTED is usually accomplished by features that prohibit access or entry (Kruger and Liebermann, 2001). These features can include locks, interior door hinges or dead bolt for door, gates units points of entry to certain place, fences, trees line, support of alarm system is also useful and can reinforce the design (Cohen, 1979). Natural surveillance These are programs designed aiming at keeping offenders or intruders observable, this is attained by place design that gives an opportunity to see site perimeter or designs that facilitate to see or/and be seen (Kruger and Liebermann, 2001). It is usually achieved through sufficient lighting that enables to observe activities and individuals, building location and orientation, windows that offer two way views. The design features that facilitate natural surveillance need to be supported by observer or CCTV to maximize its effectiveness (Atlas, 2008). Natural access control This strategy aims at decreasing crime opportunity by employing design that denies access to crime targets while at the same time creating a risk perception in criminals (Goldstein, 1990). The strategy is achieved through street designs like side walks, entrance construction and neighbor’s gates; in order to prohibit entrance to private places that discourages ill motives. However, the essence and usefulness of the strategies used in CPTED is not in their effective design, but rather in their implementation and application to offer desired goal (Cornish and Clarke 1986). It`s indisputable that application of CPTED to community has resulted to impressive results that Atlas (2008) reports that accounts to 40% decline in crimes occurrence and prevalence in areas where it has been implemented, this has been accrued to design that minimizes criminal behaviors while encouraging individuals to keep eye on each other, therefore proper implementation is critical to program success. Application and Implementation of CPTED The problem solving approach that uses CPTED is applied in a series of steps that are designed to respond to: what is the problem? Why here? What can be done to solve it? And how well do we solve the problem? (Kruger and Liebermann, 2001) In order to address and satisfy these hypothetical questions in analyzing a crime scene to inform prevention through CPTED approach, application and implementation is usually done through four phases. These four phases of application as stipulated by Goldstein (1990) are: scanning, analyzing, response and assessment (Table1. Application and implementation phases). These phases of application and implementation stages addresses environmental design issues that are critical to applying CPTED strategies in order to solve security problems. Importantly, various factors ought to be considered when applying the program in relation to specific locations and circumstances. As Atlas (2008) acknowledges, easy said than done also do apply to implementation of CPTED program. Challenges in implementing CPTED Like any other project, implementation is usually engulfed in normal problems that face any change process not mentioning resistance. However, the major problems that can be conceptualized in the implementation process of CPTED program are two. First, time allocation for the program implementation may hamper realization of the project goals (Cohen, 1979; Goldstein, 1990). This is in the sense that sometimes time allocated for the implementation of the program may require additional of a longer duration as a result of complexities arising from project implementation while impacting a larger geographical area with a larger number of stakeholders (Table2. Stakeholders involved in CPTED implementation). Secondly, the cost of implementing CPTED program requires significant capital investment (Cohen, 1979) that is really a barrier. However, the challenges of implementation are inventible, yet they can be solved through efficient and effective leadership, increased participation and involvement, and wider consultation with all stakeholders for any given CPTED program.

The Sociological Challenges to Religious Belief Essay

The Sociological Challenges to Religious Belief The sociological approach to religious belief looks at how society behaves on a whole, to answer the question, Why are people religious? Durkheim tried to show that religion, despite its importance to the religious individual, was a separate social experience. He defined religion as a unified system of beliefs and practices related to sacred things. Therefore we must understand sacred symbols and what they represent. As a Functionalist, religion maintains social stability by removing tension that can disrupt social order. Religion is seen in a positive light, promoting harmony in society. He studied the Australian Aborigines, where each clan†¦show more content†¦Marx had a utopian vision of the future in which all people would be equal because the class system would no longer exist and no one would be exploited. He thought society fell into two groups, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The ruling class owned the means of production whilst the working class could sell their labour to the ruling class. The ruling class exploited the proletariat by paying them very little. This resulted in the proletariat feeling alienated from society. He believed that the only way out of this situation was for the proletariat to rise up against the ruling class and seize the means of production. Once the people owned the means of production, social classes would disappear and there would be no need for religion, since it existed only under the old social conditions. Religion was seen as an illusion, it dulls the pain of oppression for the proletariat but at the same time it blinds them form their true reality, stopping them seeing what needs to be done to end their exploitation, as Marx infamously puts it, It is the opium of the people. 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