Structure
The concerto lasts around 35 minutes and has four movements, with a cadenza linking the final two:
- Nocturne: Moderato - A semi-homage to the first movement of Elgar's Cello Concerto.
- Scherzo: Allegro - Demonic dance. The DSCH motif can be heard in the background at times, with a final appearance near the end in the solo violin part.
- Passacaglia: Andante - Cadenza (attacca) - Utilizes Beethoven's fate motif, incorporating it into the pre-burlesque cadenza. The DSCH motif is incorporated into a set of chords in the cadenza.
- Burlesque: Allegro con brio - Presto - The theme in the solo violin's entrance resembles that of the solo flute's entrance in Stravinsky's Petrouchka.
Read more about this topic: Violin Concerto No. 1 (Shostakovich)
Famous quotes containing the word structure:
“... the structure of our public morality crashed to earth. Above its grave a tombstone read, “Be tolerant—even of evil.” Logically the next step would be to say to our commonwealth’s criminals, “I disagree that it’s all right to rob and murder, but naturally I respect your opinion.” Tolerance is only complacence when it makes no distinction between right and wrong.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 2, ch. 2 (1962)
“Vashtar: So it’s finished. A structure to house one man and the greatest treasure of all time.
Senta: And a structure that will last for all time.
Vashtar: Only history will tell that.
Senta: Sire, will he not be remembered?
Vashtar: Yes, he’ll be remembered. The pyramid’ll keep his memory alive. In that he built better than he knew.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“I’m a Sunday School teacher, and I’ve always known that the structure of law is founded on the Christian ethic that you shall love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself—a very high and perfect standard. We all know the fallibility of man, and the contentions in society, as described by Reinhold Niebuhr and many others, don’t permit us to achieve perfection.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)