Peter Lundin writes:

>Each work placed itself in the middle of the ever ongoing struggle
>for human dignity and freedom, and will continue to do so, because as
>Shostakovich himself so precisely expressed it: "History, as we see,
>repeats itself." Sofia Khentova phrased it "Everything he wrote was, in
>essence, a protest against slavery; music, the creative process, remained
>the last refuge of the free spirit".  Shostakovich himself wrote:"We need
>brave music.  I mean brave, because it is truthful"

I am a great admirerer of this composer's work.  It is indeed expressive
of the twentieth century in ways that are not always easy to pin down, It
is gloriously messy music, and I can understand Charles Rosen's comment
that Shostakovich wrote noise pollution or some such, although I think that
Rosen is wrong, and probably would say the same of Mahler.  However, S's
relationship to the totalitarian government is complex, controversial and
open to more than one interpretation.  A recent New Yorker article by Alec
Ross summarizes the controversy very nicely.

But does it really matter? As a matter of cultural history and the
interaction between music and society it surely does.  But at the end
of the day we have the music and that is the most important thing.

Professor Bernard Chasan
Physics Department, Boston University