Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Dmitri Shostakovich
Song of the Great Rivers, Music to the Documentary Film, Op. 95 (1954)
- G Schirmer Inc (USA, Canada and Mexico only)
Le Chant Du Monde (France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Andorra, French speaking African countries)
G Schirmer is the publisher of the work in the USA, Canada and Mexico only. Le Chant du Monde is the publisher of the work in France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Andorra, French speaking African countries.
- 2+pic.3.2+Ebcl.2+cbn/4.3.3.1/timp.perc/hp/str
- Choir
- Bass
- Semyon Kirsanov
Programme Note
Song of the Great Rivers, Op. 95, is a film score by Dmitri Shostakovich, written for the 1954 documentary The Song of the Rivers (Das Lied der Ströme), directed by Joris Ivens and produced by the East German studio DEFA.
The film presents a large-scale portrait of international workers’ movements across six major rivers—the Volga, Mississippi, Ganges, Nile, Amazon, and Yangtze—combining footage from multiple countries into a unified narrative celebrating labor and industrial progress. The score incorporates songs with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, performed by Ernst Busch and Paul Robeson, who also serves as narrator.
Conceived as an ode to international solidarity, the music plays a central role in reinforcing the film’s ideological message, combining lyrical passages with more declamatory and collective expressions.