wtka roundtable
2020 minnesota

WTKA Roundtable 10/29/2020: Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony Comment Count

Seth October 29th, 2020 at 6:53 PM

Things discussed:

  • Offense things: YUM YUM YUM! Joe Milton had the training wheels on but his ability to run was fantastic.
  • Craig thinks there are some coded messages in the offense, e.g. Hey Donovan Edwards, look at this!
  • How they used Ben Mason: you've got a great fist and you can use him to scare people: Seth thinks the MLB screwed up his fit on the 70-yard Charbonnet run because he was terrified of a Ben Mason gap appearing on the other side of the formation.
  • What happened to split zone? It's still in the arsenal; the great thing about this game is it had counters.
  • Is Minnesota's defense terrible? Michigan accentuated their flaws.
  • Defense things: Don Brown messes with what you want to do.
  • Hutchinson, Kwity, and Gemon Green hoy!
  • 3-3-5 Talk: get Jean-Mary to teach you!
  • Edge issues?

[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]

You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream.

Segment two is here. And you can watch the recording here:

THE USUAL LINKS

Man it was coherent. This is how it's supposed to look!

Comments

IndyBlue90

October 29th, 2020 at 7:11 PM ^

Did Craig correct himself on the symphony number? The Fifth Symphony is the one that is known for being subversive and thumbing its nose at Stalin secretly. 

Joined: 05/07/2011

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IndyBlue90

October 30th, 2020 at 6:34 AM ^

This is one of the things I love about the UM fanbase, but especially the MGoBlog subsection of it. There are many people who have dedicated their lives, or a beyond hobbyist level of study, to a field they are passionate about. I have been very lucky to make my life as musician and I get paid to teach people about music performance and history! 

Joined: 05/07/2011

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CR

October 29th, 2020 at 8:19 PM ^

I am sure you are right. I concede to being not very sophisticated re: classical music, to say the least. Seth was just cleaning up my errors/strained analogies. 

But I think DS was often flirting with criticism of the state by codes in his music. I think his 9th was not well accepted by Stalin and the 10th was published right at the time of Stalin's death. But I will defer to anyone who knows about these things. As of this moment I assume you are right; that his Fifth was the subversive one. 

Joined: 10/23/2009

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bassclefstef

October 29th, 2020 at 8:42 PM ^

It's not the most subversive- the 10th is up there too, like you said- most writers tend to explain the second movement of the 10th as an unflattering portrait of Stalin, and then the whole trajectory of that piece, with the DSCH motive becoming more and more common through the piece could be thought of as Shostakovich celebrating his survival as Stalin died.  The 11th is up there too- it's a phantom critique of the Red Army invading Hungary the year before in order to quash a rebellion. The 13th also explicitly criticizes widespread hunger in Soviet Union.

Joined: 09/01/2019

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cjgrape

October 29th, 2020 at 11:49 PM ^

You were on the right track, Craig.To clear up a few things...Shostakovich fell out of favor with Stalin in the 1930s with the opera "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk." So he decided not even to release his next symphony, #4. Instead he wrote #5 which was much more of a crowd-pleaser. Some people hear the last movement--which can be very exciting--as Shostakovich saying to Stalin, "See? I can write loud music in C Major--and you have no idea that I'm making fun of your lack of knowledge or taste!" But the Symph #5 had its first performance in 1937. The connection with Stalin's death you're thinking of is that Sergei Prokofiev (the other great Russian composer of the 20th century who also encountered problems with the Soviet regime) died the exact same day as Stalin, March 5, 1953. There WILL be a quiz at halftime on Saturday.

Joined: 04/18/2009

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IndyBlue90

October 30th, 2020 at 6:30 AM ^

Your pick has a better narrative anyway. The idea that Stalin is dead and "look what I can do now" unfortunately matches up well with the changing of the guard at quarterback. "Look at what our offense can do now" and of course the secret initials in the 10th symphony match with the coded messages to Donovan Edwards.

The things I'm referring to in the 5th are the sarcastic scherzo: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S3MSyrdZfg 

And then the generally grotesque underpinning to some of the peppier parts. 

Joined: 05/07/2011

MGoPoints: 1752