Aspects of Prolongation in the Music of Shostakovich
David Castro, University of Texas at Arlington
Thorough analyses dealing primarily with pitch structure in the music of Dmitri
Shostakovich are relatively rare. One reason for this condition may be that there still exists
something of an analytical conundrum with regard to how best to understand so-called centric
music. Orthodox Schenkerian scholars deny the plausibility of prolongation in centric music, but
the systems that have been developed for the analysis of post-tonal music don't adequately
reflect the way that I hear and experience centric music. The current study proceeds from James
Baker's article, Schenkerian Analysis and Post-Tonal Music, in which he proposes the
question, "In what way is this piece tonal?" as the starting point for a potentially problematic
prolongational analysis.1
I examine the first two Preludes from Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, and
the first movement of his Ninth Symphony, showing that although strict adherence to the ursatz
model is at times impossible, genuine prolongation exists on several levels of structure. In
addition to demonstrating the potential for Schenkerian analytical practice to foster a deeper
understanding of Shostakovich's music, I scrutinize the nature of centricity, tonality, and
prolongation itself, paying particular attention to the analytical value of the concept of centricity.
1James Baker, "Post-tonal Prolongation," Aspects of Schenkerian Theory, ed. David Beach (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983), 168.