Salute to Spain was a play by Alexander Afinogenov of the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians, written in late 1936 to support the Democrats in the Spanish Civil War. It was scheduled to be presented in November at the Pushkin Theater in Leningrad, and the producer called on Shostakovich to compose three slight pieces of incidental music for the play. Although apparently reluctant at first, Shostakovich quickly turned out three pieces which according to contemporary reviews were "simple, warm, unpretentious (and) infused with stylized Spanish folklore" (Shostakovich, a Life, Laurel Fay, page 95). Afinogenov's play, however, was criticized by the Party and pulled quickly from the stage. Shostakovich's music has since disappeared and now exists only as an opus number in his catalog and in piano transcriptions done by the composer of two of its movements.

© James Leonard, All Music Guide