ABSTRACT
Dmitri Shostakovich's extended sonata form first movement embodies a powerful tension between structure and content. Shostakovich's decision to cast this movement in sonata form is an obvious gesture not only to the Rimskian conservatoire tradition in which he had been schooled, but also to nineteenth-century Austro-German symphonism as practised by composers from Beethoven to Gustav Mahler. Mahler provided Shostakovich with both an ideological and a musical way forward: the new Soviet symphonism was to be epic and monumental, yet accessible enough in its language to communicate to a broad spectrum of listeners. In Shostakovich's exposition, no theme has reached a natural end; no climax has provided fulfilment, and no scene change has been smooth. Shostakovich thus signposts this oscillating figure as one associated with the tensions of cadential drive in a way that will bear fruit. In Shostakovich's own manipulation of their interaction, the supplication theme itself is of critical importance.
