The Evolution of DSCH?

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75) engaged in a musical practice frequented by other composers. He included in some of his works a musical signature built from letters of a name, his own in this case, and corresponding with note names. J. S. Bach did this with his own name, B-flat, A, C, B-natural, Robert Schumann had his ABEGG Variations, and Schumann also composed a piano piece built from the last name of a close friends of his, GADE. For Shostakovich he used the first initial of his name followed by the German spelling of his last name, Schostakowitsch, to form his musical signature, DSCH. This signature appeared in some of his later works, most notably in his Tenth Symphony, Op. 93 (1953) and his Eighth String Quartet, Op. 110 (1960). But I believe there are two earlier appearances that foreshadow the use of this motive. They come from a time before Shostakovich mentioned anything about a motive, or developing one. So, I consider these earlier examples to be a playful stage in the development of DSCH.

To begin, neither of these early examples are the motive since there is a slight variation in the tonal cell. DSCH comes from the German spelling of Shostakovich's name, and he chose the German spelling of his name so it could fit musically. In German Es is E-flat, and he simply took the letter S and applied it to the German spelling of E-flat. In the German notational system, H is B-natural. So the motive translates musically to D, E-flat, C, B-natural. My first example comes from the middle section of the finale to his Sixth Symphony, Op. 54 (1939). In this example, the tonal cell (the pattern of tones and semitones), (0134) if you want to get post-tonal about it, is intact, but at the wrong pitch. Instead of D, E-flat, C, B-natural, the motive is a semitone high at E-flat, F-flat, D-flat, C. While a graduate student at Indiana University, I mentioned my observation to Shostakovich specialist Malcolm Brown, and he agreed with me. This is the earliest appearance of this tonal cell, well before DSCH entered Shostakovich's landscape and mind.

The next example comes from the second movement to his First Violin Concerto, Op. 77/99 (1948). In her book Shostakovich: A Life Remembered, Elizabeth Wilson states that the DSCH motive was used in the First Violin Concerto. But Wilson is not correct about this. Shostakovich is off by one semitone. In the second movement to the First Violin Concerto, the soloist double stops, in octaves, something that sounds similar to the D, E-flat, C, B-natural motive, yet the motive in the Concerto is actually D, E-flat, C, B-flat (not B-natural). Once again Shostakovich was close to using his musical signature, but he was off by one semitone at the very end. Yet, the personal and political implications at the time he composed his Concerto must be taken into account. Had Shostakovich considered the use of a personal motive at this point in his career? So far, there is not enough evidence to support this. This example, and the previous one, may suggest that this was a melodic cell Shostakovich favored and liked to use. Perhaps so much so that he decided to transform it into a melodic motive to represent himself.

Certainly by the time of his Tenth Symphony and Eighth String Quartet, Shostakovich crystallized this motive and its integration into these works. Particularly with the Eighth String Quartet, where he included so many quotations from previous works and dedicated the string quartet to the memory of his life. Shostakovich planned to commit suicide after he completed the quartet, and it stands to reason why he would represent himself through this musical signature.

Below is a collage of the motive as it appears in the Sixth Symphony, the First Violin Concerto, The Tenth Symphony, and the Eighth String Quartet.