This film music of six pieces used new cinematic inventions and enabled Shostakovich to use a more elaborate symphonic idiom although the forms are generally those arising from popular music forms like the waltz. The last three parts of the suite are played without break.

The Fanfare: Trumpet call is expanded by the full orchestra. The Waltz: this begins with a zither (often played on Hawaiian guitar) and violin solo with (in rapid succession) passages for harp, brass and violins. The mid section features oboe and harp over staccato winds. Fugue: This is in four sections: organ solo; organ and orchestra; organ solo; and organ and orchestra. A composition for organ is rare in Shostakovich's work. This may indeed be the only example. Intermezzo, Funeral Music and Finale: somber music with horn glissando in the Intermezzo, heavily tragic march and finale, short and conventional but in a major key



© All Music Guide