Movements
The work has eleven linked movements, each a setting of a poem:
- Adagio. "De profundis" (Federico García Lorca)
- Allegretto. "Malagueña" (Federico García Lorca)
- Allegro molto. "Loreley" (Guillaume Apollinaire)
- Adagio. "Le Suicidé" (Guillaume Apollinaire)
- Allegretto. "Les Attentives I" (On watch) (Guillaume Apollinaire)
- Adagio. "Les Attentives II" (Madam, look!) (Guillaume Apollinaire)
- Adagio. "À la Santé" (Guillaume Apollinaire)
- Allegro. "Réponse des Cosaques Zaporogues au Sultan de Constantinople" (Guillaume Apollinaire)
- Andante. "O, Del'vig, Del'vig!" (Wilhelm Küchelbecker)
- Largo. "Der Tod des Dichters" (Rainer Maria Rilke)
- Moderato. "Schlußstück" (Rainer Maria Rilke)
The first movement begins with the violins playing a theme reminiscent of the Dies irae, which plays a prominent role in the history of Russian music. Fragments of the theme are developed in various sections throughout the symphony; it recurs in its entirety in the climactic penultimate movement.
The work shows Shostakovich's willingness to adopt new techniques. All but two of the movements include themes using tone rows, which he uses to convey a sense of the abstract. He also makes dramatic use of tone clusters, such as the fortissimo chord illustrating the lily growing from the suicide's mouth in the fourth movement.
Read more about this topic: Symphony No. 14 (Shostakovich)
Famous quotes containing the word movements:
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“The movements of the eyes express the perpetual and unconscious courtesy of the parties.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Virtues are not emotions. Emotions are movements of appetite, virtues dispositions of appetite towards movement. Moreover emotions can be good or bad, reasonable or unreasonable; whereas virtues dispose us only to good. Emotions arise in the appetite and are brought into conformity with reason; virtues are effects of reason achieving themselves in reasonable movements of the appetites. Balanced emotions are virtue’s effect, not its substance.”
—Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274)