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The String Quartet No. 8 Analysis

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MUSICAL ANALYSIS The String Quartet No.8 is a complex, melancholy work written ambiguously after witnessing the ruins of the Dresden bombings while Shostakovich was under Soviet rule, which he did not agree on as he could not express his art properly under media laws. The overall piece has a nervous, confused tone. The indecisiveness in every note is most likely due to the ambiguity of the motivations for the composition, that is to say was he really mourning the victims of the Dresden bombing or was he releasing his inner emotions about the society at the time? The somber aspect of this piece is contributed by the narrow range and use of low notes and the use of descending minor thirds, essential to the DSCH motif. It is paramount to this piece that the use of musical cryptograms or the motif (DSCH) is used to tantalise and provoke, so we as the listener can understand inner most thoughts. The ambiguity is not as simple to analyse and there …show more content…

2. The motif is heard here in a vague waltz interpretation. Another waltz type of theme is heard, scarcely parting from the eerie feeling, and soon the central subject from the Cello Concerto No. 1 appears. In the third movement, there is a repetitive series of crotchet chords which replicate that of a knocking sound (war imagery). The fourth movement (Largo) is the darkest of all movements: it includes a three-note theme that continually debilitates the other voices, which it imparts to the motif, contrasting with the central subject is sweetly forlorn. An important aspect of this movement is the sustained A# continued form the third movement with fortissimo (ff) harsh chords. This movement refers to Shostakovich 's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. The finale (Largo) is a shortened rendition of the opening section. Christiansen, WAR IMAGERY AND

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