Misplaced Pages

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "String Quartet No. 11" Shostakovich – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 122 was finished on January 30, 1966, in Moscow. It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet and is the first in a series of four quartets to be dedicated to members of the Quartet. Vasily Shirinsky [ru] was the dedicatee of the Eleventh, the quartet's second violinist, who died on August 16 of the previous year.

Structure

The piece has seven movements, all of them in continuous playing, without pause:

1. Introduction: Andantino
2. Scherzo: Allegretto
3. Recitative: Adagio
4. Etude: Allegro
5. Humoresque: Allegro
6. Elegy: Adagio
7. Finale: Moderato — Meno mosso — Moderato

The quartet begins with a violin which introduces the main theme; this will be developed throughout the quartet. It is immediately followed by the second movement, always with a dialogue in two voices and adorned with glissandi; this movement's structure is similar to a canon. The second movement leads to the dissonant beginning of the third, with the whole quartet playing a series of fast notes and long, dissonant chords. The fourth movement and the fifth form a diptych in which fast melodies and repetitive motions are present. In the fourth, the first violin plays fast notes while the rest of the group plays long chords; in the fifth, the ostinato in the second violin simplifies the motion presented in the previous movement. The sixth movement is much longer and consists of long chords and short melodic lines. The last movement is a recapitulation of all the themes presented in the previous movements.

Playing time is approximately 16 minutes.

v t e Dmitri Shostakovich
List of compositions
Operas and operettas	The Nose Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District/Katerina Izmailova The Big Lightning (unfinished) Orango (unfinished) The Twelve Chairs (unfinished) Katyusha Maslova (unfinished) The Gamblers (unfinished) Moscow, Cheryomushki
Ballets	The Golden Age The Bolt The Limpid Stream
Symphonies	No. 1 in F minor No. 2 in B major (To October) No. 3 in E♭ major (The First of May) No. 4 in C minor No. 5 in D minor No. 6 in B minor No. 7 in C major (Leningrad) Leningrad première American premieres No. 8 in C minor No. 9 in E♭ major No. 10 in E minor No. 11 in G minor (The Year 1905) No. 12 in D minor (The Year 1917) No. 13 in B♭ minor (Babi Yar) No. 14 in G minor No. 15 in A major
Concertos	Piano No. 1 in C minor No. 2 in F major Violin No. 1 in A minor No. 2 in C♯ minor Cello No. 1 in E♭ major No. 2 in G major
Orchestral works	Tahiti Trot Suite from The Golden Age Suite from The Bolt Suite from The Limpid Stream Five Fragments Scherzo (1922) Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1 Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2 (orch. McBurney) Suite for Variety Orchestra No. 1 (arr. Atovmyan) Festive Overture Suite from Encounter at the Elbe Suite from The Gadfly (arr. Atovmyan) Novorossiisk Chimes, the Flame of Eternal Glory October "Intervision"
Concert/brass band	"March of the Soviet Militia"
Film music	The New Babylon Alone Golden Mountains Counterplan The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda The Youth of Maxim Girl Friends The Return of Maxim The Vyborg Side Friends The Great Citizen Zoya Simple People The Young Guard Pirogov Michurin Meeting on the Elbe The Fall of Berlin Belinsky The Unforgettable Year 1919 The Gadfly Five Days, Five Nights Sofiya Perovskaya Hamlet King Lear Gogoliad (unfinished)
Vocal music	Suite on Finnish Themes Song of the Forests The Sun Shines Over Our Motherland Antiformalist Rayok From Jewish Folk Poetry The Execution of Stepan Razin Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok Loyalty Six Poems by Marina Tsvetayeva Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin
Chamber music	String quartets No. 1 in C major No. 2 in A major No. 3 in F major No. 4 in D major No. 5 in B♭ major No. 6 in G major No. 7 in F♯ minor No. 8 in C minor No. 9 in E♭ major No. 10 in A♭ major No. 11 in F minor No. 12 in D♭ major No. 13 in B♭ minor No. 14 in F♯ major No. 15 in E♭ minor No. 16 in B major (unrealized) Other Cello Sonata in D minor Piano Quintet in G minor Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor Quartet Movement in E♭ major (c. 1960s) Violin Sonata Viola Sonata
Piano music	Three Fantastic Dances 24 Preludes Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor Children's Notebook 24 Preludes and Fugues
Family	Galina Shostakovich (daughter) Maxim Shostakovich (son)
Named for Shostakovich	Dmitri Shostakovich-class ferry Saint Petersburg Academic Philharmonia Named After D. D. Shostakovich 2669 Shostakovich International Shostakovich Chamber Music Competition London Shostakovich Orchestra Shostakovich (1969–1981) Shostakovich Peninsula Shostakovich Quartet
Related articles	Concerto DSCH DSCH motif Europe Central Ian MacDonald Muddle Instead of Music The Noise of Time Shostakovich v. Twentieth Century-Fox Solomon Volkov Testimony: book film The War Symphonies: Shostakovich Against Stalin Wihuri Sibelius Prize
Category

• Classical Music

Notes

1. "http://quartets.de/compositions/ssq11.html"

This article about a composition for a chamber music group is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• String quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich
• 1966 compositions
• Compositions in F minor
• Chamber music composition stubs