Study On The Creative Techniques Of Shostakovich’s Seventh String Quartet

Shostakovich is one of the greatest composers in the twentieth century,and he devoted his whole life into music creation.His compositions not only promoted the development of Russian music but also made a great contribution to the development of the entire twentieth century music.His compositions involve various genres and different styles.The Seventh String Quartet is a symbolic piece of he changes his writing style.Shostakovich spent his all life on the traditional writing techniques.Based on traditional writing skills,he also combined modern writing techniques and integrated the creative styles of other composers to form his own unique characteristics.In addition,Shostakovich’s compositions express ideological connotation,wisdom and attitude to life which call for deep thought and thought-provoking.The Seventh String Quartet expresses the composer’s yearning for his beloved wife,his thinking about life and his inner dialogue.In the creation of The Seventh String Quartet,the composer still insists on the consistent writing characteristics,and he combines modern writing techniques with traditional ones.The signature motive with distinct personal characteristics added to the music theme.Based on the traditional composing techniques,this paper makes an analysis and studies of this work by two modern analytical methods: the scale set and the Schenker linear chart.This article can divide into five chapters.The first chapter is a brief introduction about Shostakovich’s creation life and his artistic achievements.Also,this chapter takes about the background information about the creation of The Seventh String Quartet.The second chapter analyzes and studies the macro-structure and creative characteristics of each movement in The Seventh String Quartet.According to the pitch set and Schenker chart,making a circumstantial analysis about the theme material of the movement.Chapter three is an analysis of the chord structure,harmony progression and the comparison of voices in this work.It includes the traditional three-degree overlapping harmony structure and the non-three-degree overlapping harmony structure,horizontal functional harmony progression and linear structural harmony progression,the contraposition between voices,imitation,contrast and the application of Fugue techniques.The fourth chapter analyzes themicro-elements in this work which includes rhythm,theme distortion and signature motive.The fifth chapter reflects the artistic value and gives an inspiration to writer ’ s creation based on the analysis of this composition.The analysis of music works is in order to combine with practice,not only to have a better understanding of music but also to inspire music creation.From the macro-structure to the micro-structure of this piece,writer receives many enlightenments.