Sample Solution

Shostakovich doubles the string part and doubles the violins an octave up from their counterparts, which gives the motive a very mournful, weeping quality. The strings draw out a sad melody then the flute and oboe float above it.  Various solos in the winds weave throughout the piece. The powerful melody eventually gives way to a chorale-like moment at rehearsal marking 78. The accompanying strings begin to play sustained notes under a singing sorrowful melody from the first violin. The section sounds almost like a church hymn. The religious undertone is another example of the interjection of familiar material to appeal to his audience. As the movement continues, the strings fade into a drone that sits beneath other soloing instruments presenting their haunting renditions of the violin melody. The music builds slowly until it reaches the high point expressed by the xylophone and violin as the rest of the strings play a tremolo.  This movement could be interpreted as a solemn tribute to the perseverance of the worker, or it could be Shostakovich’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 accomp