“Song of the Great Rivers”. Op. 95 “Five Days, Five Nights”. Op. 111

Music to the Film

Song of the Great Rivers

There are several versions of the film’s title: “Song of the Great Rivers” in the film credits, “Seven Rivers” in the author’s manuscript, and “Unity” in a number of catalogues and printed materials.

This publication is based on the following sources:

- The author’s manuscript of the score kept in RNMM, rec. gr. 32, f. 251: No. 1. Hymn, No. 2. Prologue, No. 3, No. 4. K.K.K. and No. 8. Heavy Labour.
- The author’s manuscript of the score of No. 6 kept in RNMM, rec. gr. 32, f. 265, in the folder entitled “The Return of Maxim”, sheets 21-23.
- The handwritten copy of the score: Cover, No. 1. Hymn, No. 2. Prologue, No. 3. The Indictment Episode, No. 4. K.K.K., No. 6. South Africa, No. 7. Children. Salt (2 versions) and No. 8. Heavy Labour, kept in the Russian State Symphony Cinema Orchestra Library—film 649.
- The edition of the score: Introduction, Song of Unity, The Indictment Episode, Heavy Labour, Children—Dmitri Shostakovich, Collected Works in 42 Volumes, Vol. 42, Muzyka, Moscow, 1987.
- The edition of the score beginning from No. 2: Dmitri Shostakovich, “Poem about Labour” (from the music to the film Unity), the U.S.S.R. Music Fund, Moscow, 1956.
- The edition of the score beginning from No. 6— “Fragments from the Film Trilogy about Maxim”, Sovetsky kompozitor, Moscow, 1961.

All the sources have been verified with the film soundtrack.

The items have been numbered by the editor of this edition. In addition to the music written especially for the film, it also uses fragments of soundtracks from previous works: the Fifth, Seventh, Eighth and Tenth Symphonies, the oratorio “Song of the Forests”, Suite No. 4 and Ballet Suite No. 1, and the films Alone, The Golden Mountains, The Counterplan, Pirogov, Michurin, The Meeting on the Elbe and The Fall of Berlin.

Music to the Film

Five Days, Five Nights

This publication is based on the author’s manuscript kept in RNMM, rec. gr. 32, f. 111, verified with the film soundtrack. The author’s manuscript does not always correspond to the way the music actually sounds in the film—there are cuts in some items, some fragments of items are repeated in different places in the film, and there are also items missing from the soundtrack.

The names of items enclosed in brackets were written in the score in red pencil by an unidentified person.

In 1970, Muzyka Publishers put out a Suite consisting of five items (compiled by Levon Atovmian), comprised of many revised and re-instrumented fragments of Shostakovich’s music.