Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 13 in

B-flat minor B-flat minor is a minor scale based on B, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has five flats. Its relative major is D-flat major and its parallel major is B-flat major. Its enharmonic equivalent, A-s ...

, Op. 138, was first conceived in 1969, and completed in 1970 as Shostakovich was undergoing treatment at the Russian Ilizarov Scientific Center for Restorative Traumatology and Orthopaedics in

Kurgan A kurgan is a type of tumulus (burial mound) constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons, and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into mu ...

. The work consists of one movement: Playing time is approximately 19 minutes. The piece was dedicated to

Vadim Borisovsky Vadim Vasilyevich Borisovsky (; 20 January 1900 – 2 July 1972) was a Soviet-Russian violist. Biography Born in Moscow, Borisovsky entered Moscow Conservatory in 1917 studying the violin with Mikhail Press. A year later, on the advice of violi ...

, violist of the

Beethoven Quartet The Beethoven Quartet (, ''Strunnyĭ kvartet imeni Betkhovena'') was a string quartet founded between 1922 and 1923 by graduates of the Moscow Conservatory: violinists Dmitri Tsyganov and Vasily Shirinsky, violist Vadim Borisovsky and cellist S ...

, and the viola is accordingly given a prominent role in the piece. The quartet opens with a

twelve-tone The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition. The technique is a means of ensuring that all 12 notes of the chromatic scale ...

theme played on the viola, and concludes with a high B♭ held first by the viola, then with the violins in unison until reaching a sforzando. The work also requires the players to tap on the bodies of their instruments with their bows at several points.

References

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External links

* * #13 1970 compositions Compositions in B-flat minor {{chamber-composition-stub