View source for String Quartet No. 8 (Shostakovich)

{{Short description|1960 string quartet by Dmitri Shostakovich}}
{{One source|date=July 2025}}
[[Dmitri Shostakovich]]'s '''String Quartet No. 8 in [[C minor]]''', [[Opus number|Op.]] 110, was written in three days (12–14 July [[1960 in music|1960]]).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110, Dmitri Shostakovich |url=https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/3734/string-quartet-no-8-in-c-minor-op-110 |access-date=2025-07-06 |website=LA Phil |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Burns |first=Alex |date=2021-09-20 |title=Dmitri Shostakovich 'String Quartet No.8': A Personal Twist |url=https://classicalexburns.com/2021/09/20/dmitri-shostakovich-string-quartet-no-8-a-personal-twist/ |access-date=2025-07-06 |website=Classicalexburns |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==Composition and performances==
The piece was written shortly after Shostakovich reluctantly joined the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]]. According to the score, it is dedicated "to the victims of [[fascism]] and the [[World War II|war]]"; his son [[Maxim Shostakovich|Maxim]] interprets this as a reference to the victims of all [[totalitarianism]], while his daughter Galina says that he dedicated it to himself, and that the published dedication was imposed by Soviet authorities. Shostakovich's friend, [[Lev Lebedinsky]], said that Shostakovich thought of the work as his epitaph and that he planned to commit [[suicide]] around this time.<ref name="auto">Shostakovich, ed. Glikman; pp. 90–91.</ref> Peter J. Rabinowitz has also pointed to covert references to Richard Strauss's ''[[Metamorphosen]]'' in the Eighth Quartet.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Rabinowitz|first1=Peter J|title=The Rhetoric of Reference; or, Shostakovich's Ghost Quartet|journal=Narrative|date=May 2007|volume=15|issue=2|pages=239–256|doi=10.1353/nar.2007.0013|s2cid=170436624 |url=https://www.academia.edu/630315|accessdate=5 December 2017}}</ref>

The work was written in [[Dresden]], where Shostakovich was to write music for the film ''[[Five Days, Five Nights (1960 film)|Five Days, Five Nights]]'', a joint project by Soviet and East German filmmakers about the [[bombing of Dresden]] in [[World War II]].<ref name=":0" />

The quartet was premiered in 1960 in [[Leningrad]] by the [[Beethoven Quartet]]. In the [[liner notes]] of the [[Borodin Quartet]]'s 1962 recording, music critic Erik Smith writes, "The Borodin Quartet played this work to the composer at his Moscow home, hoping for his criticisms. But Shostakovich, overwhelmed by this beautiful realisation of his most personal feelings, buried his head in his hands and wept. When they had finished playing, the four musicians quietly packed up their instruments and stole out of the room."<ref name="chung steinhardt">{{cite web |url=https://www.coursera.org/learn/string-quartet/lecture/GDyuW/a-stunning-shostakovich-quartet |author1=Mia Chung |author2=Arnold Steinhardt |title=Lecture 57- A Stunning Shostakovich Quartet |quote=In the liner notes of the Borodin String Quartet’s recording of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet, critic Erik Smith wrote, "The Borodin Quartet played this work for the composer at his Moscow home, hoping for his criticisms. But Shostakovich, overwhelmed by this beautiful realization of his most personal feelings, buried his head in his hands and wept. When they had finished playing, the four musicians quietly packed up their instruments and stole out of the room." |website=Coursera.org |accessdate=6 January 2017}}</ref>

==Music==
The quartet is in five interconnected movements and lasts about 20 minutes:

{{ordered list|list_style_type=upper-roman
|Largo
|Allegro molto
|Allegretto
|Largo
|Largo}}

The first movement opens with the [[DSCH motif]], Shostakovich's musical signature. This theme can also be heard in his [[Cello Concerto No. 1 (Shostakovich)|Cello Concerto No. 1]], [[Symphony No. 10 (Shostakovich)|Symphony No. 10]], [[Violin Concerto No. 1 (Shostakovich)|Violin Concerto No. 1]], [[Symphony No. 15 (Shostakovich)|Symphony No. 15]], and [[Piano Sonata No. 2 (Shostakovich)|Piano Sonata No. 2]]. The motif is used in every movement of this quartet, and is the basis of the faster theme of the third movement.

The work is filled with quotations of other pieces by Shostakovich: the first movement quotes his [[Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich)|Symphony No. 1]] and [[Symphony No. 5 (Shostakovich)|Symphony No. 5]]; the second movement uses a Jewish theme first used by Shostakovich in his [[Piano Trio No. 2 (Shostakovich)|Piano Trio No. 2]]; the third movement quotes the [[Cello Concerto No. 1 (Shostakovich)|Cello Concerto No. 1]]; and the fourth movement quotes the 19th century [[revolutionary song]] "Tormented by Grievous Bondage" ({{lang|ru|Замучен тяжёлой неволей}} {{Transliteration|ru|''Zamučen tjažóloj nevolej''}}, by [[Grigori Machtet]])<ref name="auto"/> and the [[aria]] "Seryozha, my love" from Shostakovich's opera ''[[Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (opera)|Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District]]''. The fifth contains a play upon another motif from ''Lady Macbeth''.<ref name=":0" />

[[Rudolf Barshai]] transcribed the quartet for string orchestra, in which version it is known as Chamber Symphony in C minor, Op. 110a.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Kammersinfonie für Streichorchester op. 110a; bearb. nach dem Streichquartett N.r 8 = Chamber symphony for string orchestra|date=January 23, 2007|oclc = 913052276}}</ref> [[Boris Giltburg]] arranged the quartet for piano solo.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.573666|title=SHOSTAKOVICH: String Quartet No. 8 (arr. Boris Giltburg for solo piano) [+Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2] &#124; Naxos Records, 2017 (UPC: 747313366675)|website=www.naxos.com}}</ref> Other arrangements include Lucas Drew's ''Sinfonia'' for string orchestra<ref>{{Cite book|title=String quartet no. 8, op. 110: sinfonia for string orchestra|date=January 23, 1984|oclc = 14389813}}</ref> and Abram Stasevich's ''Sinfonietta'' for string orchestra and timpani.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sinfonietta (quartet no. 8) arranged for string orchestra and timpani, op. 110(b)|date=January 23, 2011|oclc = 917141107}}</ref>

==Notes==

{{Reflist}}

==References==
* Ardov, Michael (2004); ''Memories of Shostakovich''; Short Books. {{ISBN|1-904095-64-X}}
* Fay, Laurel (1999); ''Shostakovich: A Life''; Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-513438-9}}
*Shostakovich, Dmitry, ed. Glikman, Isaak (2001). ''Story of a Friendship: The Letters of Dmitry Shostakovich to Isaak Glikman''. Cornell Univ Press. {{ISBN|0-8014-3979-5}}.
* Yves Senden (2002); ''String Quartet No. 8 in c''; Brilliant Classics 6898 [Rubio Quartet: "Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets"]

==External links==
* [http://www.quartets.de/compositions/ssq08.html Shostakovich: the string quartets]
{{Dmitri Shostakovich}}
{{Portal bar|Classical Music}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:String quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich|#08]]
[[Category:1960 compositions]]
[[Category:Compositions in C minor]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Works about the bombing of Dresden]]