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 [log in to unmask] Alameda, CA