Some discussion of the quartets
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Shostakovich's String QuartetsTempo, New Series, No. 87 (Winter, 1968-1969), pp. 9-16Published
JSTOR is a very rich source of material on music in general and there is a great deal on Shostakovich and the quartets here. Reviews on each of the quartets and more.
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Shostakovich's Twelth QuartetA review of the twelth quartet upon its publication in 1970 by Hans Keller. This appered in Tempo, New Series, No. 94 (Autumn, 1970), pp. 6-15.
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Rhetoric of ReferenceAnalysis of the Ghost Quartet
Russian sources
There are so many avenues for finding material at a large university library. But Google Scholar can be extremely helpful. If you search in Russian you will find a large number of articles. There are also very useful Russian webistes such as http://magazines.russ.ru that will provide access to the full text of many of the literary-cultural journals, many with full text for the last 15 years.
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ВЗАИМОДЕЙСТВИЕ ЛИРИКО-ЭПИЧЕСКОГО И ДРАМАТИЧЕСКОГО НАЧАЛ В ФИНАЛЕ ВТОРОГО СТРУННОГО КВАРТЕТА ДД ШОСТАКОВИЧАArticle by Osipenko of TomskState University, in Russian
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К ПРОБЛЕМЕ ПЕРИОДИЗАЦИИ КВАРТЕТОВ Д. ШОСТАКОВИЧАArticle on the periodization of the Shostakovich quartets.
The Quartets
There is a website that provides an overview on each of the 15 quartets, Shostakovich: the string quartets. There are also numerous avenues for locating reviews of individual performances: any one of the databases on music, Google Scholar, online newspaper archives, such as the Historical Archive of the New York Times (UIUC database).
A Few More Discussions - in Russian
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О РОЛИ АВТОРСКОЙ ИНТЕРПРЕТАЦИИ...Article by Vera Sumarokova on Shostakovich's string compositions.
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О претворений жанровых особенности...Article on the Shastokovich's particular style in instrumental works.
Western Sources
There are a wealth of sources available through most libraries that will make finding material on Shostakovich fairly easy. There is one thing to keep in mind. Cyrillic alphabet words are rendered in a variety of ways into latin characters. See "A Few Considerations" for a list of possible spellings.
The number of results you retrieve from a search will be radically affected by the spelling you use. Some of the most useful"subscription" databases include:
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Music Periodicals Database This link opens in a new windowIndex of articles dating from the late 19th century with links to the full text of the citations. Available at UIUC library
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JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJSTOR provides access to the full text of journal articles. It is a subscription database. If you have access to it you will find it very useful.
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Project Muse This link opens in a new windowFull text of hundreds of journals that span the century.
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RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals This link opens in a new windowIdentifies articles on composers, performers, and compositions, and music history from the 19th Century to the mid-20th century. Although focused on the 19th Century, the project will eventually encompass music periodical literature to the mid-20th century as well.
Available at UIUC Library. -
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature This link opens in a new windowRILM is a comprehensive music bibliography featuring citations, abstracts, and indexes. Publications originate from 151 countries and are in 214 languages. There are currently over 550,000 records in RILM on traditional music, popular music, and classical music. Coverage of all document types begins in 1967. Coverage of Conference Proceedings goes back to 1835.
Available at UIUC Library.
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Shostakovich Catalogue2002 edition of Hulme's excellent catalogue of the works of Dmitri Shostakovich. For each entry there is information on when the work was composed, performed, premiered, recorded and much more. There is an extensive bibliography acccompanied by a list of BBC broadcasts of Shostakovich works.
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ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowFull text of newspapers dating back to the 19th century, including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and many other titles.