Sample Solution

hostakovich’s tribute to all those that were sent to labor camps and lost their lives.  It could be interpreted as the loss of old Mother Russia. In the finale of the Fifth Symphony, Shostakovich goes to great lengths to prolong the resolution of the work. The movement itself builds out of the passion of the third movement and continuously intensifies into a march at rehearsal 121. However, the primary focus of attention on this movement is towards the end from just before rehearsal 133 through the end.  Here, Shostakovich adds more and more accidentals, taking the melodic pattern he states in the brass and continuously moving it upward. Because the other instruments are playing an ostinato that does not change keys, this adds a level of grotesque dissonance that makes it seem as though the piece is moving farther away from a satisfactory ending. It is not until rehearsal 134, where the brass plays the repeating three note motive from the beginning of the piece that we start to get some sense of the piece coming to a cadence. The accompaniment gets more and more bombastic throughout this section until the piece closes with unison hits on the bass drum and timpani underneath a blaring D major chord. The final movement of the symphony is a march played in a quick tempo. The march was an acceptable form of social realism. One theme found in this movement has a militaristic feeling, and an opposing theme seems to be expressing thoughtful resignation. Shostakovich uses ascending chromaticism and an ostinato section in the violins to suggest the success of the system, and the more serious middle section signifies the hard work of the individual.  On the surface, these ideas promote the Party agenda. Shostakovich claimed that this movement was satirizing the need for positive, uplifting music by the Party.  The movement ends in a major key on an A that is played over and over by the violins.  Sheinberg asks, “Is this a satirical sneer at the demand for optimism, or is it a genuine even if banal and overstated, expression of happiness?”   In this manner, he is expressing his opinion in a subtle musical manner. Shostakovich alludes to the song Vozrozhdenije (Op. 46 No.1) in the final movement that was based on a poem by Alexander Pushkin dealing with renewal or rebirth. This is Shostakovich’s new start or his rehabilitation as a composer Soviet style.  The Fifth Symphony is open to many interpretations pro-Stalin or musical satire. The Fifth Symphony was to be an example of his political transformation on display to the p