Jazz Suite No. 1: Waltz

• Shostakovich composed this suite in in February of 1934, and it premiered in Leningrad in March 1934.¹
• Shostakovich had to be careful with jazz, as the style was considered “bourgeois” by the Soviet authorities and the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians (RAPM). In 1930, Shostakovich formally “apologized” for writing his 1928 jazzy “Tea for Two” arrangement and professed to oppose jazz and popular styles. However, at times when the party relaxed its stance on jazz a little, he produced pieces like this First Suite for Jazz Orchestra (1934).²
• The Soviet Union experienced a rather abrupt about-face in regard to jazz when the RAPM disbanded in 1932.³

“The former holy terror of the word ‘jazz’ has given way to a veritable ‘jazz bacchanalia.’”

Shostakovich⁴

1.  Laurel E. Fay, Shostakovich: A Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 79.
2.  Laurel Fay and David Fanning, “Shostakovich, Dmitry,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed January 29, 2020,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000052560. 
3.  Laurel E. Fay, Shostakovich: A Life(New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 79.
4. Quoted in Laurel E. Fay, Shostakovich: A Life(New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 79.