SEMANTIC OVERTONES OF D. SHOSTAKOVICH'S NINTH SYMPHONY
Authors:   Dmitri Hvorostovsky Siberian State Academy of Arts (Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation), Naiko Natalia M. 
Published: December 2020

The ninth symphony, created by D. Shostakovich in 1945 and a few years later defined as the “scherzo symphony”, was met with bewilderment by critics who expected a grandiose work praising the Victory. The deep layers of its content, the direction of the author’s thought, become accessible to understanding only as a result of the analysis of the composer’s work with thematic material having a “secondary” nature. This is material I (sonata allegro), III (scherzo) and V (final). The main themes of parts I and III are generalized in genre, they are characterized by being ori-entated at classicist style models. The remaining thematism reveals domestic origins: march (theme of the Second subject group of part I), tarantella (theme of the episode of part III), gallop (theme of the First subject group of the final), march song (theme of the Second subject group of the final). The reliance on these genre models determines the melodic-rhythmic, harmonic, textural, and structural characteristics of the corresponding themes. In the purest form, typical signs of genre-stylistic models appear during the exhibition. In the process of development of the themes, a general pattern is the exposure of the proto-intonation layer (E. Nazaikinsky's term), putting in the foreground the biological, the animal in a person – which is connected with the instinct of destruction, uncontrolled aggression, etc. Just as a predatory grimace disfigures a human face, in the aspect of musical decisions, protointonation is manifested through the deformation of the genre and style models comprising all the levels of musical organization, which is most clearly represented in the developments and reprises. These means serve as a metaphor for the destruction of the cultural layer, which determined the way of artistic imprinting of Homo agens, Homo sapiens, Homo ludens, Homo communis. In the Ninth Symphony, Shostakovich models the process of disintegration of human culture and a person, who has lost the spiritual core, the release of the dark component of his nature. This way he reveals the inner content of the themes-images that initially fit into the traditions and norms of musical culture – prima-ry, household, or professional, artistic. Since such techniques contribute to the detection of meaning, they are included in the sphere of superintonation, simultaneously expressing the author's concept. The result of the figurative development of parts II and IV is the repression of the living human principle, rooted in the native culture and at the same time addressed to the sublime, which manifests itself in feeling and thought. These processes express the idea of the doom of Personality under the pressure of vulgarity and dirt, which, refracted in the mind of the Artist, is generalized and grows up to the level of a symbol. The specificity, tangibility of images in the presence of a plan of philosophical understanding al-low us to speak about the presence in the given symphony of features of the parable genre. Author's musical “narration” contains, in a coded form, a system of value directions and modeling of the conditions under which ideals are destroyed.