Steve Schwart wrote:

>However, the Bartok parody of Shostakovich misses the point that
>the Shostakovich is itself a parody.  Bartok doesn't get the joke, and
>apparently most of the negative critics of the Seventh don't get it
>either.  Shostakovich uses as a German "victory" march the song from
>Lehar's Merry Widow, "I'm Going to Maxim's" (don't know what it is in
>German), an obvious reference to the German occupation of France.

I think it's interesting that Lehar may have (unconsicously) taken this
tune from a phrase in Strauss's "Till Eulenspiegel."  They certainly match
almost exactly.  Then Shostakovich took the humor out of it, not Bartok.

Jeff Dunn
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Alameda, CA