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Shostakovich: A Life, by Laurel E. Fay
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For this authoritative post-cold-war biography of Shostakovich's illustrious but turbulent career under Soviet rule, Laurel E. Fay has gone back to primary documents: Shostakovich's many letters, concert programs and reviews, newspaper articles, and diaries of his contemporaries. An indefatigable worker, he wrote his arresting music despite deprivations during the Nazi invasion and constant surveillance under Stalin's regime.
Shostakovich's life is a fascinating example of the paradoxes of living as an artist under totalitarian rule. In August 1942, his Seventh Symphony, written as a protest against fascism, was performed in Nazi-besieged Leningrad by the city's surviving musicians, and was triumphantly broadcast to the German troops, who had been bombarded beforehand to silence them. Alone among his artistic peers, he survived successive Stalinist cultural purges and won the Stalin Prize five times, yet in 1948 he was dismissed from his conservatory teaching positions, and many of his works were banned from performance. He prudently censored himself, in one case putting aside a work based on Jewish folk poems. Under later regimes he balanced a career as a model Soviet, holding government positions and acting as an international ambassador with his unflagging artistic ambitions.
In the years since his death in 1975, many have embraced a view of Shostakovich as a lifelong dissident who encoded anti-Communist messages in his music. This lucid and fascinating biography demonstrates that the reality was much more complex. Laurel Fay's book includes a detailed list of works, a glossary of names, and an extensive bibliography, making it an indispensable resource for future studies of Shostakovich.
- Sales Rank: #452732 in Books
- Published on: 2005-07-07
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.10" h x 1.40" w x 9.00" l, 1.53 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 488 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Fay, an academic specializing in Russian music, notes in her introduction to this careful and detailed study of the Soviet composer's life and work that "there is not a single even remotely reliable resource in Russian, English, or any other language for the basic facts" about him. She has therefore set herself dutifully to sort fact from tendentious politicizing as best she canAwhether from the "right" (a dutiful Soviet official biography) or the "left" (Solomon Volkov's highly suspect Testament, which suggested the composer was a closet rebel against state conformism all his life). Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975) was certainly the pre-eminent composer who lived his entire creative life under the Soviet regime (Prokofiev escaped to Paris for an extended period). As such, he became, perforce, a cultural icon, despite his occasional fallings from grace with the Kremlin. One of the virtues of Fay's book is her picture of the endless mundane tasks to which Shostakovich was subjected: rote speeches, statements, interviews, appearances at conferences. In many ways his life was that of a senior civil servant, a role he performed with extraordinary conscientiousness. As a personality, however, he remains profoundly elusive. Fay reports that Shostakovich was frequently witty and sardonic, but gives few glimpses of this side of him. More importantly, it is never explained whether his apparent equivocations about deplorable aspects of Soviet artistic policy sprang from cowardice or cynicism. What is certain was that this enormously prolific, hard-working artist left behind a legacy of powerful, often agonizingly somber, work that is even more striking considering the circumstancesAoften feeble health, worries about money and personal securityAunder which he wrote. Fay has done a notable job of clearing the brush; a more substantial and penetrating portrait remains to be constructed on that cleared site. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The Cold War has ended, but writers on Shostakovich now face its effects on information, as Fay's own published criticism of some Shostakovich-related work has shown. This meticulously documented biography bravely offers a thoughtful, painstaking search for the truth regarding the great, tormented composer's actions and public reaction to his music, but sources themselves often conflict. For example, Fay presents a dozen versions of what happened and why regarding the 1936 withdrawal of the Fourth Symphony, some from the same people at different times. Other facts are equally elusive, and Fay leaves many questions open. A chronological report with a smattering of insights from Fay, this important contribution to Shostakovich scholarship presents the result of many years of study in archives and published accountsAgroundwork future scholars will appreciate. For academic and large public libraries.ABonnie Jo Dopp, Univ. of Maryland Lib., College Park
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The USSR's foremost composer, Shostakovich (1906^-75), combined romanticism and modernism. His preference for programmatic music led him to include elements of folk song along with dissonance in many compositions, and his forays into the twelve-tone idiom produced memorable melodic strains woven into a romantic fabric. Raised in St. Petersburg, he lived there and in Moscow, teaching students, performing, and serving on various national arts councils for most of his life. He supported the Communist regime by composing music with historical programs, but he eventually denounced the most egregious transgressions of the Stalin years. Most important to his reputation, his music was played throughout the West. Fay's well-written but pedantic biography does little to bring out the man Shostakovich. Instead, Fay represents him through his music, especially his operas, songs, and choral symphonies, arguing that it is in the librettos and poetic texts of Shostakovich that his sadness and dissent are most evident. So far, the music of this prodigious figure has endured, continuing to be played for its aesthetic value, regardless of its politics. Alan Hirsch
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Nice book, a few kudos in the Kindle version
By Robert W. Van Hoeven
Informative book, written in a pleasant style. Perhaps at places a bit objective, but I prefer that over speculative juicy stories that you can find elsewhere. I do not think this is the last word on DHSC and I will certainly give Elisabeth Wilson's book a try,
I read the Kindle version and, as with a number of other Kindle books, I found a number of errors. One chapter missing the first word 'The', various words 'glued' together over the whole book. It could be that it is the specific Kindle version (IOS) that is causing this and it was not disruptive in any way, but I have read other Kindle books on the same medium that did not have formatting errors like this one.
76 of 89 people found the following review helpful.
A dead and lifeless "life"
By Diane Wilson
I have two fundamental problems with Fay's book, both of which really prevent me for giving it a solid endorsement, much less considering it a benchmark in biography.
First, Fay has taken the position that all of her sources must be written (and generally published). This not necessarily a safe thing to do in a society with a free and open press, and becomes very problematic for a prominent Soviet citizen. Were articles published in Soviet books, journals, and newspapers true and accurate? Were they free of political influence? Can anyone verify the authorship of any of these? Even with the extensive endnotes offering references with publication sources and dates, it's hard to consider her work to be any more valid than, say, Solomon Volkov's "Testimony", which Fay hates so much that she cannot be objective about it.
I draw here on the statistical definitions for reliability and validity, in which "reliable" merely means that a result can be reproduced reliably, while "valid" implies that a result accurately represents what it claims to represent. This seems to be a useful distinction, and I will hedge, and grant Fay's book reliability, but not validity.
What she leaves out is equally troubling. There are many people still alive who knew Shostakovich. How many of them did Fay talk to? How many of them did she quote? Virtually none. Are such sources really any less valid than, say, an article in Pravda? In each case, one should note the source. If there are contradictory statements, one should note the contradictions. If sources may be less than credible, one should say why. Fay's biography is noticeably lacking in contradictions, which is remarkable in a biography of a man who himself seems to have been full of contradictions, and who lived in a society that was full of contradictions.
I wouldn't have such a problem with all of this if Fay had taken the position that "these are what the published sources say" rather than "this is Shostakovich". As long as a reader understands the difference, then yes, Fay's biography is an invaluable source. I do wish that Fay had drawn this distinction.
Finally, along these same lines, I have to question Fay's position of objectivity. Selection and omission of sources are always a source of bias. And there are times, particularly in relation to the Jewish issues of 1948 (the existence of the "doctor's plot" and the question about how much Shostakovich really knew about the risks of using Jewish subject matter in writing his music), where Fay takes a strong stand that is not supported in her sources, and which does not hold up in light of Shostakovich's previous use of Jewish themes or his previous connections to the Russian Jewish community. While Fay paints an unflattering picture of Shostakovich, the person she really defames is herself.
My second concern, much of which flows out of the first, is that this is a bloodless biography. I finished the book with a sense of the history, or at least one version of it, but in no way did I ever feel in Fay's book any presence of Shostakovich himself. There are glimpses, such as the quote by Shostakovich about party criticism of the eighth symphony (which he looked forward to as "one step forward, rather than one step back"), but the irony of this statement came across more because I knew of Shostakovich from other sources (writing, and of course the music), rather than from Fay herself. If I knew nothing of Shostakovich, would I have noticed this? It's hard to get a feeling whether Fay even likes or respects Shostakovich, either as a man or as a composer. There is no life in "Shostakovich: A Life". There is no music in "Shostakovich: A Life". Without these things, what is the point?
Good biography does not have to be this way. As an example of what *can* be accomplished, I highly recommend "Patton: A Genius for War" by Carlo d'Este. D'Este accomplishes what Fay fails to do, which is to capture the full humanity of a brilliant, complex, difficult, enigmatic, and controversial public figure. If there is a standard for judging biographies, it starts with this book; one comes away knowing what formed and motivated Patton, and more importantly, one learns to see both the private and the public man in everything he did and said. D'Este combines Fay's level of documentation with Elizabeth Wilson's level of personal insight in "Shostakovich: A Life Remembered", and it is a remarkable achievement. For anyone looking for a single volume on the life of Shostakovich, Elizabeth Wilson's book is the one to get.
In fairness, I don't think we'll ever see such a biography of Shostakovich, because the documentary record is much, much weaker, and because Shostakovich was so closed about himself. But I do wish that Fay had at least tried to capture "A Life". As it stands, Fay is only one of several "required readings", and I wouldn't put her at the top of the list unless one has need of her endnotes.
39 of 50 people found the following review helpful.
A new "standard reference," but not the definitive work
By Autonomeus
Having recently discovered Shostakovich, I quickly ran into the controversy regarding the official versus private accounts. Fay includes the official denunciations by the Stalinist regime, most infamously in 1936 and 1948, and so clearly moves beyond the "loyal son of the Communist Party" propaganda line, but rejects as unreliable much of the recent testimony of those who knew Shostakovich, including the memoirs called "Testimony." Personally, I am convinced by the mass of testimony that Shostakovich was indeed a passionate dissident, and that his music expressed that "to those with ears to hear," in the words he often used.
Take this volume for what it's worth. For now it is the standard biography, and has no competition in that regard. It tells the whole story, but leaves us feeling that we are missing the true inner story. For that story, other sources are clearly invaluable -- the book of reminiscences compiled by Elizabeth Wilson ("Shostakovich: A Life Remembered"), Solomon Volkov's "Testimony," and "Shostakovich Reconsidered," which contains much valuable commentary beyond simply defending Volkov's book.
I am listening to Rostropovich conducting Shostakovich's Fifth as I write, and nothing seems more absurd than the notion that the composer was a party apparatchik. Shostakovich's music expresses deep sorrow and suffering, and his defiant humanism. The music speaks for itself, but I am confident that Fay's biography will be surpassed by accounts that more fully convey the spiritual significance of Shostakovich's life and music.
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