Songs of the Night, Nights of Fear
Fear in the Music of Dmitri Shostakovich
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
During the Stalin era, music had the privilege of saying things that could not be said aloud. Dmitri Shostakovich developed a veritable system of hidden meanings that imbued his music a double meaning that could be discerned only by those who felt similarly and understood this language. He gave expression to the fears that plagued an entire era and that were particularly prevalent at night.
(Osteuropa 10/2025, pp. 57–68)