Dilettante Music

In the U.S.S.R. of 1950, there was no greater crime for a composer than being a "formalist." To write music that had no greater purpose than to exist as an object of pure aesthetic contemplation was to ignore the proper role of the composer in the Soviet society. The proper role was to write with utilitarian value in mind, to produce music for marches and massed choruses, music for operas with a meaning and oratorios with a message, music that praised the greatness of Communism, music which that inculcate in the people the highest ideals of Communism.

It was a daunting role for a composer, but one Shostakovich played in this period in his oratorios Poem of the Motherland (1947) and Song of the Forests (1949). But while he could play the role publicly, privately he composed music that had no greater purpose than to exist as an object of pure aesthetic contemplation. The 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, composed between October 10, 1950, and February 25, 1951, are such, and the purest of these is the first in C major.

The prelude is a lyrical sarabande in the style of Handel with occasional modulations to the flat third and flat sixth degrees that only serve to deepen its lyricism. The four-voice fugue that follows is perhaps the purest C major fugue composed in the twentieth century. Strictly composed and wholly abstract, the fugue does not once use an accidental to effect its modulations or inflect its melodies. Rather it moves moderately, pianissimo, legato sempre, through a texture of radiant clarity towards a final cadence of utter serenity. The C major Prelude and Fugue is as pure as a Grecian urn. ~ All Music Guide