Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"A major event. . . . This Casebook is not only about Volkov's Testimony, it is about music old and new in the 20th century, about the cultural legacy of one of that century's most extravagant social experiments, and what we have to learn from them, not only what they ought to learn from us." --Caryl Emerson, Princeton University

In 1979, the alleged memoirs of legendary composer Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975) were published as Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitry Shostakovich As Related to and Edited by Solomon Volkov. Since its appearance, however, Testimony has been the focus of controversy in Shostakovich studies as doubts were raised concerning its authenticity and the role of its editor, Volkov, in creating the book.

A Shostakovich Casebook presents 25 essays, interviews, newspaper articles, and reviews--many newly available since the collapse of the Soviet Union--that review the "case" of Shostakovich. In addition to authoritatively reassessing Testimony's genesis and reception, the authors in this book address issues of political influence on musical creativity and the role of the artist within a totalitarian society. Internationally known contributors include Richard Taruskin, Laurel E. Fay, and Irina Antonovna Shostakovich, the composer's widow. This volume combines a balanced reconsideration of the Testimony controversy with an examination of what the controversy signifies for all music historians, performers, and thoughtful listeners.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments
• Notes on Transliteration and on Translation
• Introduction
• Part I
• 1 Shostakovich versus Volkov: Whose Testimony? (1980)
• 2 Volkov's Testimony Reconsidered (2002)
• Part II
• 3 A Side-By-Side Comparison of Texts from Testimony With Their Original Sources
• 4 A Pitiful Forgery: About the So-Called "Memoirs" of D. D. Shostakovich (1979) (A letter to the editor of the newspaper Literaturnaia gazeta)
• 5 The Bedbug (1979) (An editorial published in the newspaper Literaturnaia gazeta) (1979)
• 6 The Official Dossier (1979) (A news item published in the newspaper Literaturnaia gazeta)
• 7 Notes from the Soviet Archives on Volkov's Testimony (1995)
• 8 An Episode in the Life of a Book: An Interview with Henry Orlov (2000)
• 9 An Answer to Those Who Still Abuse Shostakovich (2000)
• 10 On Solomon Volkov and Testimony (1988; 1997)
• 11 The Regime and Vulgarity (1999)
• 12 Shostakovich's World is Our World (1998)
• 13 Shostakovich Remembered: Interviews With His Soviet Colleagues (1992)
• Part III
• 14 A Link in the Chain: Reflections on Shostakovich and His Times (1976)
• 15 A Perspective on Soviet Musical Culture During the Lifetime of Shostakovich (1998)
• 16 The Latest "New Shostakovich" (2000)
• 17 Dialogues About Shostakovich: From the History of Russian Studies About Shostakovich (2002)
• Part IV
• 18 Ian MacDonald's The New Shostakovich (1993)
• 19 Elizabeth Wilson's Shostakovich: A Life Remembered (1996)
• 20 A Response to Papers by Allan Ho and Dmitri Feofanov (1998)
• 21 Whose Shostakovich? (2000)
• 22 The Shostakovich Variations (2000)
• 23 Shostakovich: A Brief Encounter and a Present Perspective (1996; 2002)
• 24 Laurel Fay's Shostakovich: A Life (2000)
• 25 When Serious Music Mattered (2001)
• Bibliography
• Index
• List of Contributors
• List of Contributors:
• Elena Veniaminovna Basner, daughter of composer Veniamin Basner, one of Shostakovich's most trusted friends
• Alla Vladimirovna Bogdanova has published a number of books in Russian on the music of Shostakovich
• Malcolm Hamrick Brown is founding editor of the scholarly series Russian Music Studies
• David Fanning is Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Manchester.
• Laurel E. Fay's scholarly biography, Shostakovich: A Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), received the Otto Kinkeldey Award in 2001 from the American Musicological Society
• Levon Hakobian (in Russia, Lev Oganesovich Akopian) holds a position as Senior Research Fellow at the Russian State Institute for Art Studies in Moscow
• Ludmila Grigorievna Kovnatskaya teaches at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory in St. Petersburg and holds the title, Senior Research Fellow at the Russian Institute of Fine Arts History, St. Petersburg
• Gerard Mcburney composes, arranges, teaches, and writes about music
• Paul Mitchinson is a Canadian writer and historian
• Simon Morrison teaches music history at Princeton
• Irina Nikolaevna Nikolskaya specializes in twentieth-century Polish music
• Henry Orlov (Genrikh Aleksandrovich Orlov) formerly served as Senior Research Fellow at the Leningrad State Scientific Research Institute for Theater, Music, and Film
• Irina Antonovna Shostakovich (née Supinskaya), Shostakovich's third wife
• Richard Taruskin, recognized internationally for his scholarship on Russian music
• Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko, noted Russian composer
• Manashir Abramovich Yakubov, Curator of the Shostakovich Family Archive in Moscow

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

The "casebook" of the title indicates the typical potpourri of articles by different authors. All the essays included here were previously published, some as long ago as the 1970s; some are revised or updated, and some are translated into English for the first time. The book has no direct relationship to the controversial Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich, "as related to and edited by Solomon Volkov" (Eng. tr., CH, Jun'80), although the title of that work is in the title of five essays, and one of them makes side-by-side comparisons of sections of Testimony and previously published sources. This volume differs from others of its kind in its concern for "what does it mean," in this case in reference to Shostakovich's Soviet setting. The essays are historical and biographical; they do not focus on musical analysis. Some were originally book reviews. The contributors--Laurel Fay, Malcolm Hamrick Brown, and Richard Taruskin among them--are well qualified though not all are well known. The seven-page introduction merely summarizes the book; the bibliography includes untranslated Russian language sources; the index is good. ^BSumming Up: Optional. Extensive collections; all levels. R. R. Smith Rhode Island College

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Malcolm Hamrick Brown, a world-renowned authority on Russian and Soviet music, is the founding editor of the Russian Music Studies series at Indiana University Press.