Anti-Formalist Rayok (1948)

Full Title: Anti-Formalist Rayok. As an Aid to Students: The Struggle of the Realistic and Formalist Directions in Music

The title on the manuscript is ‘A Learner’s Manual'. ‘Rayok’ meens ‘Little Paradise’, in this context a stall at a fair, where cheap theatrical entertainment is shown. In a sharply satirical way Shostakovich mocks at Stalin and the submissive organizers of the notorious antiformalistic campaign in 1948 which later became known as the ‘Zhdanov decree’ or ‘Zhdanovshchina’. Edinitsyn can easily be identified as a cari cature of Joseph Stalin, Dvoikin fits with Andrei Zhdanov and Troikin corresponds to Dmitri Shepilov, Zhdanov’s deputy. ‘Rayok’ was not released during Stalin’s life time (nor during Shostakovich’s) and was publicly performed for the first time only 32 years after its being composed. Lev Lebedinsky’s claim to have substantially contributed to the script of ‘Rayok’ seems to be untenable. The melodies of the songs ‘Suliko’, ‘Kamarinskaya’ and ‘Kalinka’ were utilized.

Music from ‘Les cloches de Corneville’, an operetta by Jean-Robert Planquette (1877) is heard in the finale. English translation by Elisabeth Wilson. Derek C. Hulme states that the reciter of the Moscow première was Mikhail Kozakov.