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:
“Why does philosophy use concepts and why does faith use symbols if both try to express the same ultimate? The answer, of course, is that the relation to the ultimate is not the same in each case. The philosophical relation is in principle a detached description of the basic structure in which the ultimate manifests itself. The relation of faith is in principle an involved expression of concern about the meaning of the ultimate for the faithful.”
—Paul Tillich (1886–1965)
“The verbal poetical texture of Shakespeare is the greatest the world has known, and is immensely superior to the structure of his plays as plays. With Shakespeare it is the metaphor that is the thing, not the play.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Each structure and institution here was so primitive that you could at once refer it to its source; but our buildings commonly suggest neither their origin nor their purpose.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)