In this post we’ll be discussing fugue by Shostakovich which consists of nothing but perfect harmony. First of all a fugue is a complicated musical form which we’ll not be talking about today. It may, however, appear in this web page when we discuss form.
- First of all, what is harmony? Harmony is very simply the superposition of two or more notes together (for example, playing the notes C, E, and G (Do, Mi, Sol) at the same time). Now, in the study of harmony there are two groups: consonances and dissonances. Consonances are usually thought of as notes that sound good when they’re put together, and dissonances are usually thought of as notes that sound bad when put together.
The piece we’re going to be talking about relies only on perfectly consonant harmony, i.e. perfect major and perfect minor chords. Major and minor chords are groups of three notes put together, a third above each other. This means that if we take the diatonic scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B (american notation) or Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si (british notation), in order to obtain a perfect chord, we have to take every other note until we have three notes, and thus a perfect chord. e.g., in order to make a C (Do) major chord, we take Do (C), skip Re (D), Mi (E), skip Fa (F), Sol (G), thus making our perfect chord Do, Mi, Sol (C, E, G). For Mi (E) minor, we start with Mi (E), skip Fa (F), Sol (G), skip La (A), Si (B), thus making our perfect chord Mi, Sol, Si (E, G, B). We will not be discussing the difference between major and minor chords.
- Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was one of the leading figures of 2oth century music worldwide. Living under the crushing dictatorial regime of Stalin, his music is notorious for its immense use of dissonance in order to represent the agony and oppression he felt on a daily basis (listen to his Symphonies nºs 5 and 10 and his string quartets nº8 and 15). In this piece, however, he makes use only of perfect consonance. The reason why is virtually unknown, although, in my opinion, it’s a symbol of hope, as if the consonance here represents a beacon of light in the middle of darkness.