Elegiac Piano Trios: Portrayals of Grief in Selected Trios of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, and Sviridov

ABSTRACTELEGIAC PIANO TRIOS: PORTRAYALS OF GRIEF IN SELECTED TRIOS OF TCHAIKOVSKY, RACHMANINOFF, SHOSTAKOVICH, AND SVIRIDOV Abigail Faith Zuniga, D.M.A. George Mason University, 2022 Dissertation Director: Dr. Charles Ciorba The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how the elegiac piano trios of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, and Sviridov are related and to place them into their historical context within the musical narrative. An elegy is “a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.” It can also be defined as “a song of lament for the dead or for some melancholy event, or an instrumental composition with that suggestion, such as Elgar’s Elegy for Strings and Faure’s Elegie.” From the term elegy comes the adjective “elegiac,” which is defined as “relating to or characteristic of an elegy.” The term “elegiac” is pronounced /ˌeləˈjīək/ and is “relating to or characteristic of an elegy.” One genre that has been chosen time and again by Slavic composers as elegiac music is the piano trio. There is a large repertoire of Slavic elegiac trios, including those composed by Arensky, Taneyev, Dvorak, Forster, Smetana, Klein, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, and Sviridov. Due to the immense size of these works, in addition to time and space limitations, only four elegiac trios (by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, and Sviridov) will be discussed in this document. I will include both an analysis of the piano trio music itself in addition to (a) an analysis of the circumstances surrounding the moment of composition, (b) a discussion of who the composers commemorated, and (c) how the composers talked about their own piano trios. This dissertation aims to answer the following research question: How did the composers Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, and Sviridov create elegiac meaning in their piano trios? It has become apparent to me that they added meaning to their trios through musical quotation and imitation. All four of these composers dedicated their elegiac trios explicitly, or implicitly, to the memory of a composer and mentor, a friend, or a country by using compositional references, including quotation and imitation of previous compositions by others and by themselves. Each of these composers would have been familiar with the trios of the preceding and contemporary composers. Tchaikovsky was an esteemed mentor of Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich was Sviridov’s teacher. Each composer built his elegiac trio on the ideas of the composers that came before him, while also creating a unique composition. In order to create a fuller picture of how tightly these trios are woven into the overall musical narrative, I will explain how the trios influenced works that came after them as well.

Author

• Zuniga, Abigail Faith

• elegy
• Rachmaninoff
• Shostakovich
• Sviridov
• Tchaikovsky
• trio

Identifier

hdl:1920/13902

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:MARS:1920/13902