CDXCIII. SHOSTAKOVICH, Dmitri (1906-1975)
Having lived through the executions of his friends (Meyerhold) by the Secret Police; the personal denunciations (twice, '34-35; and '46); the constant fear of the late-night knock on the door -- Shostakovich bravely sought to put to music the words of the young poet, Yevgeny Yevtushenko -- to wit: Babi Yar.
After Stalin's death, Shostakovich may have thought he was done with censorship, but the censors weren't done with him.
1. Babi Yar
DS and YY had to change the opening from
I feel myself a Jew
Here I tread across old Egypt
Here I die, nailed to the cross
And even not I bear the scars of it
I become a gigantic, soundless scream
Above the thousand buried here
I am every old man shot dead here
I am every child shot dead here
to
Here I stand at the fountainhead
That gives me faith in brotherhood
Here Russians lie, and Ukrainians
Together with Jews in the same ground
I think of Russia's heroic dead
In blocking the way to Fascism
To the smallest dew-drop, she is close to me
In her being and her fate
2. Humour
Tsars, kings, emperors
Rulers of the world
Commanded parades
But humour -- humour they could not
To the palaces of the eminent
Who, well groomed, all day reclined
...
They wanted to buy humour
Only he cannot be bought!
They wanted to kill humour
But humour thumbed his nose
3. In the Store
Some in shawls, some in kerchiefs
As if to a heroic feat or labour
Into the store one by one
Women silently enter
4. Fears
Like the ghosts of yesteryears
Only on church steps here and there like old women
They are begging for bread
5. Career
Was a wicked and a senseless man
But, as time demonstrated
He who is senseless is much wiser
...
Thus -- salute to the career!
When the career is similar
To Shakespeare and Pasteur,
Newton and Tolstoy,
And Tolstoy
Leo?
Leo!
The symphony comes to a close, dying out on a celesta solo over a soft B-Flat Minor chord:
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