Songs for Solo Voices, Choir and Piano 1941-1957. Songs from Films.

Songs

For Solo Voices, Choir and Piano

1941-1957

Oath to the People’s Commissar. Words by Vissarion Sayanov /1941
Song of the Guards’ Division. Words by Lev Rakhmilevich /1941
The Invincible Red Army (co-authored by Aram Khachaturian). Words by Mikhail Golodny /1943
To the Health of Our Motherland. Words by Iosif Utkin /1944
The Black Sea. Words by Sergey Alymov and Nikita Verkhovsky /1944
Our Song. Words by Konstantin Simonov /1950
March of the Peace Supporters. Words by Konstantin Simonov /1950
Long Live the Army of Our Nation (co-authored by Aram Khachaturian). Words by Sergey Mikhalkov /1951
[Glory to Our Soviet Nation]. Words by Mikhail Issakovsky /1956
October Dawn (co-authored by Aram Khachaturian). Words by Vladimir Kharitonov /1957
We Cherish the October Dawns in Our Hearts. Words by Valentin Sidorov /1957
We Sing Glory to Our Country. Words by Valentin Sidorov /1957
Glory to Our Communist Country (co-authored by Valentin Makarov). Words by Yakov Belinsky /1950

Songs

From Films

Song of the Counterplan from the film The Counterplan. Words by Boris Kornilov
[Where the Waters Lap] from the film Volochayevka Days (Arranged for Choir and Piano by Aleksandr Pirumov). Words by Andrey Apsolon
[Native Land] from the film Zoya. Words by Konstantin Simonov
Song of Peace from the film The Meeting on the Elbe. Words by Yevgeni Dolmatovsky
Longing for the Native Country from the film The Meeting on the Elbe. Words by Yevgeni Dolmatovsky
Daybreak from the film The Meeting on the Elbe. Words by Yevgeni Dolmatovsky
[A Beautiful Day] from the film The Fall of Berlin. Words by Yevgeni Dolmatovsky
People’s Power from the film Belinsky. Words by Nikolay Nekrasov
Peaceful Labour from the film Song of the Great Rivers. Words by Semen Kirsanov
Song of Unity from the film Song of the Great Rivers. Words by Berthold Brecht. Translated by Semen Kirsanov
Youth Song from the film The First Echelon. Words by Sergey Vassiliev
The Tender Maiden’s Song from the film The First Echelon. Words by Sergey Vassiliev

Appendix I

Author’s Versions of the Songs

The Great Day Has Come. Words by Vissarion Sayanov
Song of the Counterplan from the film The Counterplan. Words by Boris Kornilov
Song of Peace from the film The Meeting on the E lbe. Words by Yevgeni Dolmatovsky
Longing for the Native Country from the film The Meeting on the Elbe. Words by Yevgeni Dolmatovsky
People’s Power from the film Belinsky. Words by Nikolay Nekrasov
Song of the Working People from the film Song of the Great Rivers. Words by Semen Kirsanov
Youth Song from the film The First Echelon. Words by Sergey Vassiliev

Appendix II

Songs Orchestrated by the Author

Song of the Guards’ Division. Words by Lev Rakhmilevich
The Black Sea Song. Words by Sergey Alymov and Nikita Verkhovsky
Our Song. Words by Konstantin Simonov
March of the Peace Champions. Words by Konstantin Simonov

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Song Compositions

of the 1930s-1950s

Songs are an important, although by no means the most important part of Shostakovich’s musical legacy. In this genre, which the composer himself admits he initially found “difficult”, he composed a series of works that became renowned throughout the world. The “Song of the Counterplan”, which, as Vissarion Shebalin put it, was sung “on every street corner”, enjoyed the greatest popularity. After the release of the film The Counterplan, its main musical leitmotif quickly became popular not only in the Soviet Union, but also far beyond the country’s borders. The “Song of Peace” enjoyed the same popularity, becoming part of the repertoire of Paul Robeson and Ernst Busch, famous foreign singers and active peace champions of that time. Yuri Gagarin sung the famous “The Motherland Hears” from the cycle Four Romances on Verses by Yevgeni Dolmatovsky, Op. 86, on his first space flight. For several years, it was also the jingle for the All-Union Radio programme Latest News.

Shostakovich said that he first began addressing the song genre in the early 1930s while writing music for the film The Counterplan (1932). The first experiment resulted in the “hit” called “Song of the Counterplan”. The next experiment was also associated with film music. In 1937, Shostakovich worked on music for the film Volochayevka Days, the leitmotif of which was the song “Where the Waters Lap”. The composer’s difficulties in mastering the new genre of mass song are evidenced by the fact that there were numerous versions of both “Song of the Counterplan” and “Where the Waters Lap” before the best rendition was chosen.

At the beginning of the war, in July 1941, Shostakovich joined the militia and headed the music section of the Leningrad Theatre of the People’s Militia, where his duties included arranging songs for chamber ensembles that gave concerts at the front and reviewing and selecting newly written songs sent in from all over the country for publication. Publishing songbooks became one of the main creative tasks: “People began waiting for songs as the most important and timely genre”. During the war years, Shostakovich also composed a number of songs of his own: “Oath to the People’s Commissar”, “Song of the Guards’ Division”, “The Invincible Red Army”, “To the Health of Our Motherland” and “The Black Sea”. In 1944, the film Zoya featuring music by Shostakovich was released, where a song (“Native Land”) also became the musical hallmark of national heroine Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

After the war, the peace-keeping theme became one of the main topics in political life around the world. Shostakovich, one of the Soviet peace ambassadors, participated in the Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace (1949), the All-Union Conferences of the Partisans of Peace (1949, 1950 and 1951), the Second World Peace Congress in Warsaw (1950) and the Congress of the Peoples for Peace in Vienna (1952). Shostakovich’s articles and speeches relating to these events were published in the press. In September 1954, Shostakovich was awarded the International Peace Prize. At the turn of the 1940s-1950s, “Our Song” and “March of the Peace Supporters” appeared; the song “A Beautiful Day” features in the film The Fall of Berlin, “Peaceful Labour” and “Song of Unity” in Song of the Great Rivers, and “Song of Peace” in The Meeting on the Elbe.

Shostakovich’s songs were not only published in numerous song collections, but also comprised four author’s collections. The first of these, D. Shostakovich, Songs for Voice, Choir and Piano, was published by Muzgiz in 1956; it was followed by D. Shostakovich. Songs, edited by Levon Atovmian (Sovetskiy kompozitor, Moscow, 1958). Two more were printed after the composer’s death: Shostakovich. Selected Songs, compiled by Galina Konkova (Muzichna Ukraina, Kiev, 1976), and the collection Scarlet Stars (1979), prepared by Vladislav Sokolov. Many of the songs were included in Shostakovich’s Collected Works. Long-playing record collections were also issued—D. Shostakovich. Songs (1959) and Songs by Dmitri Shostakovich (1966).