Dmitri Shostakovich

[Jonathan]

Dmitri (Lytov, not Shostakovich himself) says: ILI
"BK" (on Dmitri's site) says: IEI (i.e., still Ni)
Filatova says: LII

?

By the way, if you haven't heard them, listen to his string quartets. There are some at http://www.classicalarchives.com/live/.

[aestrivex]

dunno what type but one of my favorite composers.

[discojoe]

dunno what type but one of my favorite composers.

Same.

[Rubicon]

from his first piano concerto:



I love it.

So what type do you think he is?

He was in many ways an obsessive man … he was obsessed with cleanliness, he synchronised the clocks in his apartment; he regularly sent cards to himself to test how well the postal service was working. …the composer was "fragile and nervously agile" … "The fact that he was more vulnerable and receptive than other people was no doubt an important feature of his genius"

In his lighter moods, sport was one of his main recreations, although he preferred spectating or umpiring to participating (he was a qualified football referee. He also enjoyed playing card games, particularly Patience. Both light and dark sides of his character were evident in his fondness for satirical writers such as Gogol, Chekhov and Mikhail Zoshchenko. The influence of the latter in particular is evident in his letters, which include wry parodies of Soviet officialese.

… the contradictions in the composer's character: "he is … frail, fragile, withdrawn, an infinitely direct, pure child … [but he is also] hard, acid, extremely intelligent, strong perhaps, despotic and not altogether good-natured (although cerebrally good-natured)"

He was diffident by nature: … he was "completely incapable of saying 'No' to anybody." This meant he was easily persuaded to sign official statements, including a denunciation of Andrei Sakharov in 1973; on the other hand he was willing to try to help constituents in his capacities as chairman of the Composers' Union and Deputy to the Supreme Soviet. … "he tried to help so many people that … less and less attention was paid to his pleas."

Also - though he mastered the piano technically - apparently his performances weren't very expressive or moving.

[consentingadult]

I think he's a logical Fe valuing type. His at time very ingenious approach to to be able to write compositions that 'conform' to soviet ideas about good music (shows understanding of Ti) an at the same time making it ridiculous in such a way that it couldn't be held against him (Ne), makes me believe he's LII.

I love his music, btw, especially his later works. My favorite is the 14th symphony.

[Rubicon]

I think he's a logical Fe valuing type. His at time very ingenious approach to to be able to write compositions that 'conform' to soviet ideas about good music (shows understanding of Ti) an at the same time making it ridiculous in such a way that it couldn't be held against him (Ne), makes me believe he's LII.

I was thinking that he might be ILI ... because it seems to me like he satirises Alpha by randomly inserting those "happy", light-hearted tunes ... but presenting them stridently so that they almost assault your ears and come out sounding kinda grotesque. I can't see any evidence of Si-valuing in his music. I agree about the making his music ridiculous thing, but I think he does that in a dark, satiric way which is more typical of Gamma imo.

[Rubicon]

This sort of idea:

The rejoicing is forced, created under threat.... It's as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, "Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing," and you rise, shaky, and go marching off, muttering, "Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing.

[consentingadult]

I was thinking that he might be ILI ... because it seems to me like he satirises Alpha by randomly inserting those "happy", light-hearted tunes ... but presenting them stridently so that they almost assault your ears and come out sounding kinda grotesque. I can't see any evidence of Si-valuing in his music. I agree about the making his music ridiculous thing, but I think he does that in a dark, satiric way which is more typical of Gamma imo.

Could be. we need some videos.