An Introduction to Intervallic Organization and Dodecaphonic Approach in Shostakovich's Music

This paper examines the intervallic organization and coherency in Shostakovich’s music, both in a movement as a whole and in a particular segment, for instance, in a harmonic progression. The questions revealed are: “What are the factors that result in coherency and certain sonorities in Shostakovich’s music?” “How did he consider intervals of the materials?” To this end, in the first step, the focus is on the mottos such as “DSCH” and “SASCHA” in Shostakovich’s works. Whereas previous studies about DSCH aimed at exploring the origins of DSCH and its direct use in Shostakovich's music, this paper tries to find implied or indirect use of the motto in harmonic progression and in alteration of diatonic modes. Inasmuch as they apparently represent certain qualities and sonorities in most of his works, studying the potentiality of the mottos is helpful to find the intervallic correlation. In other words, Shostakovich not only used these mottos directly but also benefitted from their potentiality in melodic lines, harmonic progressions, scales, and finally in forming the intervallic structures of a movement. As a case in point, analyzing Quartet No.8 illustrates that transposition of DSCH and its simultaneous use as a harmonic progression. It further demonstrates that these mottos are a way to select certain intervals and to use them in different aspects of a piece to achieve coherency in music. On the other hand, Shostakovich’s works can be seen as a struggle between tonality and atonality. Especially in the last decade of his life, he had a tendency toward twelve-tone rows. Therefore, in the second step, the focus of this paper is on the approach of Shostakovich toward dodecaphony. Similar to mottos, the same approach toward selecting intervals in choosing the rows seemed to be functioning. In other words, Shostakovich’s favorite intervals and intervallic organization can be seen in the rows, too. One of the most important points about Shostakovich’s application of dodecaphony is his different approach toward dodecaphony compared with the Second Viennese School. He used different rows along with tonal elements in the same piece. However, it may pose the risk of incoherency. It can be observed, therefore, that dodecaphony doses not have the pivotal role in making in his work coherent but his intervallic organization, which similar to his approach in choosing mottos, results in coherency. Analyzing several instances extracted from his works, the paper will test the conclusion that some common features result in coherency and specific sonorities of his music. One of these factors is the presence of cell 3-5 which can be found in different works such as symphony No.15. It should be noted that using dodecaphonic rows and atonal elements did not damage the coherency of Shostakovich’s music whilst also resulting in a unique musical language in his works. Indeed, Shostakovich enriched tonal materials by atonal elements. Therefore, his approach toward the material, both in selecting mottos and dodecaphonic rows, can be described as a systematic intervallic organization which leads to coherency of his works.