Analysis Shostakovich Piano Trio No
Catastrophic dedicated the Piano Trio No. 2 to the memory of Ivan Avionic Solitariness, who was one of a very close friend of him, had died at the hands of the Nazis on February 11, 1944. During this hard war time, the Jews in the Nazi death camps were forced to dance beside the graves which their bodies would soon be thrown. Therefore, Catholicism’s personal grief of the death of Solitariness he expressed in this trio was accompanied by another equally strong sentiment: the resentment at the atrocity – thousands deaths of targeted specific citizens – under the totalitarian regimes.
The whole piece is under the shadow of the death, and the first movement sets the funereal tone for the whole work. The beginning is an introduction with fugal elegy subject, and then it followed with a ternary form. This movement is based on a main theme and some short themes that derived from the main theme, connected with the same motives, and number of short motives (composed of patterns of eighth and quarter notes) which are varied, fragmented, and combined with each other throughout this movement.
The E minor fugal opening is with six-measure idea, introduced by the cello alone, playing an Andante elegy theme a with mute and in high-pitched harmonics that appear to illustrate a spirit or ghost. The theme a tends to be arch-shaped, containing motif x (dactyl rhythm) in m. 1 and motive y (downscale tetra chord, later with four quarter notes) in m. 2. The pitches in the cello part are so high that when the muted violin enters with theme a in m. 7, it serves as a baseline to the cello’s melody that sound like they are in different dimensions.
The piano takes over the role soon with totally different timbre features the subject with bass octaves in m. 13. While the piano playing in the baseline, the violin represents the “reality’ aspect opposite to the ghostly flinched harmonies by the cello. Due to the wide arrangement of the pitches creating a sensation of emptiness, it allowed the linear aspect of the music of each instrument to be heard clearly. At m. 26 when the theme a comes back to the violin part, the right hand of the piano served a chromatically rising scale from m. 26-m. 7 and then took over by the left hand at m. 38 with rising scales to reach the Moderate main section A Of the movement at m. 46. The piano goes to the pavement’s main theme b (in E minor) at m. 48, which is derived from the theme a (contains motif x and y) from the introduction. Although still in octave, the piano part has now shifted to the upper voice of the keyboard. The theme b is accompanied by the repeated-notes in the strings as background. The repeated eighth notes are throughout the whole movement and considered as an alarm that people would hear during the war-time.
Up until now, the movement has stayed in E minor solidly; the first hint of another key appears at mm. 56-58, presenting theme b’ out fugal in B flat ajar, but soon goes back to E minor at m. 59. This juxtaposition of two distantly related keys is a typical composition way by Catastrophic that occurs several times in this Trio. The theme b’ includes motif u (anapest rhythm) and motif y. The repeated eighth notes are taken over by the piano while the violin plays the theme c back to E minor (with augmentation of motif y at mm-64-65) from m. 1. The variation of theme b’ appears in the violin part from m. 75, but was interrupted by a fragment of theme “b” by the cello at m. 77. From mm. 46-76, the accompaniment repeated eighth notes has en gradually rising in pitch, building rising tensions that is broken for four measures (77-80) then arise again at m. 81, arriving next section with increasing tempo. From m. 81 , the smooth textures are replaced by more accent and dissonant chords; this technique will be used more frequently when the movement gets closer with its climax.
The violin and the piano part from m. 81 include chromatically rising scales, building the atmosphere up to the excitement. In other hand, the piano holds the accompanied eighth notes figure as usual, but it turns to a sinuous two-note oscillation instead of updated notes. Besides these, the motives and theme fragments are integrated: the theme d appears at m. 81 and m. 91 in the violin part, containing the x and y motives as previous themes; the motif t emerges at mm. 88-89, 97-98 in the cello part; and the fragments of theme b’ (includes motives u and y) arise at m. 7 and m. 100 with the violin, at m. 1 00 with the piano, and at m. 101 with the cello. By the end of this section, the dynamic level reaches forte, and the previous long line has been cut into one or ;o- bar, reaching the next big folk-like section B. The B section from m. 107 has a aster tempo, modulating from E minor to G major, introduced several motives – motif z in the cello part from m. 107 and in the piano part from the last beat of m. 107; the motif w (syncopation with octaves) played by the violin from mm. 08-1 10; and motif v (chords or notes with all down bow) played by the violin from mm. 1 10-112, 1 16-1 18. Mitotic fragments overlap and break up each other to a greater degree in this section than before. Each of the three instruments plays different fragments at the same time, making a bigger intension of this movement. After those furious combinations, the USIA drop back at m. 146 with the pizzicato of the strings, preparing to get ready for the next crazy section. The varied theme “b” was plucked out by the violin and at m. 60 by the cello, accompanied by the piano playing the theme e from mm. 154-60. The violin plays the fragment of theme b’ (m. 169) after the pizzicato with the motif t in cello part (m. 168-170). The piano entered with the variation of motif v (combined with the violin part), and inserted the motif u during those variations. After a short scalar buildup with the theme do in the violin part from mm. 82-5, this movement reaches its climax with the main melody b theme which is shouted out by the unison strings from m. 86, where can also be referred as the A’ section of this piece. The piano follows the fugal technique, entered one measure later with the same theme, supported by the E pedal note to establish the E minor key with the sinuous two-note oscillation. Instead of collapsing down to the dark mood of the movement after reaching the climax, Catastrophic presents one more energetic point – a “peasant-like” dance (motif s) with the violin from mm. 198-214 in the sunny keys of E major and A major.
