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From: edhall@randvax.UUCP (Ed Hall)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Out-of-place Codas
Message-ID: <2471@randvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-May-85 22:25:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: randvax.2471
Posted: Tue May  7 22:25:49 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 11-May-85 02:03:42 EDT
References: <2429@randvax.UUCP> <1219@cornell.UUCP> <10435@brunix.UUCP>
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 32

> >In article <2429@randvax.UUCP> Ed Hall says of the coda of
> >Shostakovitch's 5th: ``as part of the work as a whole, the coda seems
> >strangly out of place, although it satisfied the Soviet officialdom as
> >demonstrating "Socialist Realism" (where all struggles have happy
> >endings).''
> >
> 
> I really don't agree with this:  to argue that the coda is out-of-place is
> to miss an essential point of this piece.  All struggles don't have happy
> endings, and Shostakovich is quoted in the liner notes of the recording I
> have as saying something along the lines of "I'm not fooling anyone with
> this coda"--meaning that yes, he bowed to the official Soviet music czar and
> wrote in a happy ending, but it is an ending that--simply because it
> "shouldn't" be there--makes his point all the more poignant.
> 
> Scott Oaks {decvax, allegra, ihnp4}!brunix!sdo

This forms an object lesson in how partial quotes can be used to twist
ones words to mean anything!  The next sentence of my article (after the
one quoted) was:

> I suspect that this was all intentional on Shostakovich's part, but not as
> a concession.  Instead, he was mocking the simple-mindedness of those
> who condemned him.

As a matter of fact, my article made the very same point Scott Oaks does.

Please, folks, be careful when you quote; make sure you are preserving
the authors intentions!

		-Ed Hall
		decvax!randvax!edhall