Chronicler of His Times
Dmitrii Shostakovich in the Conflict Between Ethics and Aesthetics
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
No other 20th-century composer was interpreted so frequently in terms of politics as Dmitrii Shostakovich. All too often, however, he is measured exclusively in terms of extra-musical criteria. This approach is problematic. Shostakovich may have made the role of chronicler his own, but he preserved truth and moral integrity. As analysis of the middle symphonies shows, however, there are connotations rooted primarily in musical traditions that point to the conflict between ethics and aesthetics, the realm in which Shostakovich moved.
(Osteuropa 8/2006, pp. 5–24)