This post is about the Russian composer, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich. He lived from September 25 1906 to August 9 1975. He had a taste for ciggarettes and vodka and refused to give either up, even later in life when it was thought to be a life threatening health risk. While most other composers at the time were exploring new musical areas/ideas with relative freedom, Dmitri was in a very different situation. Stalin was in power and was not to fond of new music. Several of Shostakovichs contemporaries were killed for making such sounds. He was forced to write within certain confines for his own safety throughout most of his life. Certain early compositions were not performed until much later in his life because of the risk. Despite all this Shostakovich still wrote some great music during his life.
He also looked a lot like Harry Potter.
These are some of his string quartets. The second movement of #8 is especially bass heavy and, like the right of spring, totally would work as a metal song.
Download here.
NO! They're not ready. Next it will be the right wing hacks ready to wage more lies. We aren't ready for that yet.
ReplyDeleteThough his music went through many stylistic permutations; the use of atonality in his last string quartets, the high dissonance of the 4th symphony, and the large Mahler influence of his middle works, in contrast to the Hindemith influence in the early years. So how far out there do metalheads want to go? Most people love the 5th symphony.
Peter holding down the fort while Daddy is away. Hell yeah! Let's drink his liquor and bang some skanks in his bed. He'll never know.
ReplyDeleteSymphony Eleven has some seriously metal moments (2nd mvmt has a couple of old school death metal riffs and the 4th is total aggro-prog), but Fourteen is all about death.
ReplyDeleteThem string quartets is nice too.
Im glad you guys know about the symphonies. I didn't have any recording to put up and I was under time constraint so I had to make it pretty concise. It would probably be good to save some stuff for later anyway.
ReplyDeleteAnd James, I dont know how far I should go with technicality. Anyone who wants to give feedback, its much appreciated. I don't want it to get to academic or stale. And anonymous, you get the skanks over there, Im on my way.