Batterie from "The Nose"

Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich (arr. William A. Schaefer)

General Info

Year: 1928 / 1978
Duration: c. 2:00
Difficulty: IV (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Shawnee Press
Cost: Score and Parts - Out of print.

Instrumentation

Full Score
Percussion, including:

• Bass Drum
• Castanets
• Crash Cymbals
• Gongs (pitched)
• Snare Drum
• Suspended Cymbal
• Tom-toms
• Triangle

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

The Nose was Dmitri Shostakovich’s first opera, a satire inspired by the story with the same title by Nikolai Gogol. The rather absurd plot line tells the unlikely tale of a St. Petersburg official whose nose leaves him and begins a life of its own.

Between scenes three and four of the opera, Shostakovich composed a percussive entr’acte entitled Intermezzo. The four-minute interlude includes exclusively percussive elements, requiring nine performers and incorporating traditional percussion instruments: snare drum, bass drum, triangle, tambourine, castanets, concert toms, suspended cymbal, crash cymbals, and several pitched gongs. The work is composed in A-B-A form, with the first section culminating in an extended snare drum roll. The metric feel shifts smoothly into triple meter in the B section, and the work builds momentum through the addition of all instruments and an increase in volume through a sudden and unexpected conclusion of silence.

There is speculation that this operatic entr’acte may be considered the first or one of the first known percussion ensembles. The absence of additional instrumental or vocal contributions during the four-minute interlude lends credibility to this conjecture. The work predates Ionization by Edgard Varése (historically regarded as the first known percussion ensemble) by three years.

- Program Notes by Jade Sparks for the Marcus High School Wind Symphony

Media

(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

• Marcus High School (Flower Mound, Tex.) Wind Symphony (Kennan Wylie, conductor) - 13 February 2015 (2015 TMEA Conference, San Antonio)

Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music

• Waltz No. 2 (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Brown) (post 1956/2021)

All Wind Works

• Allegro from "Symphony No. 10" (tr. Fisher) (1954/2010)
• Ballet Suite #4 (arr. Pappajohn) (1953)
• Batterie from "The Nose" (arr. Schaefer) (1928/1978)
• Concertino (orch. Singleton) (1953/)
• Dance I. See: Jazz Suite No. 2
• Ein Volksfest (arr. Rembach) (1955/1995)
• Ein Volksfest. See: Folk Festival
• Excerpts from "Symphony No. 5" Finale (arr. Longfield) (1937/2007)
• Festive Overture (arr. Frost) (1954/2016)
• Festive Overture (tr. Hunsberger) (1954/1965)
• Festive Overture (tr. Martin) (1954/2016?)
• Festive Overture (tr. Patterson) (1954/)
• Festive Overture (tr. Takahashi) (1954/1998)
• The Fire of Eternal Glory (tr. Timothy Rhea) (1960/2011)
• Fire of Eternal Glory (arr. Curnow) (1960/2011)
• Folk Dances (tr. Reynolds) (1942/1979)
• Folk Dances (arr. Erickson) (1942/1979)
• Folk Dances (arr. Curnow) (1942/2000)
• Folk Festival (tr. Hunsberger) (1955/1971)
• Folk Festival. See also: Ein Volksfest
• Fortinbras March from "Hamlet" (tr. Suchoff) (1932/1967)
• The Gadfly (1955/)
• The Gadfly (tr. Patterson) (1955/)
• Galop (tr. Hunsberger) (1959/1971)
• Galop (from "The Limpid Stream") (tr. Miller) (1935)
• Hamlet Suite (tr. Suchoff) (1964/1975)
• Intermezzo (arr. Cahn) (1928/1986/1994)
• Jazz Suite No. 1 (1934)
• Jazz Suite No. 2 (arr. de Meij) (post-1956/1994)
  • March (arr. de Meij) (post-1956/1994)
  • Lyric Waltz (arr. de Meij) (post-1956/1995)
  • Dance I (arr. de Meij) (post-1956/1994)
  • Dance II (arr. de Meij) (post-1956/1994)
  • Waltz No. 2 (arr. de Meij) (post-1956/1994)
  • Finale (arr. de Meij) (post-1956/1994)
• March (arr. Curnow) (2014)
• March (arr. de Meij). See: Jazz Suite No. 2
• March of the Soviet Militia (ed. Iakubov) (1970/2006)
• October, Op 131 (arr. Mitchell) (1967)
• Overture on Russian and Kirg (arr. Janssen)
• Overture on Russian and Kirghiz Folk Songs (tr. Duker) (1963/1989)
• Overture to "The Gadfly" (arr. Geert Flik) (1955/2006)
• Piano Concerto No 2 (tr. Pontini) (1957/2012)
• Piano Concerto No 2 in F Major (arr. Bamonte)
• Piano Trio No. 2 (arr. Graham)
• Priest and His Servant Balda, The (1934)
• Prelude, Op. 34, No. 14 (arr. Reynolds) (1988)
• Prelude 21 and Fugue 1 (arr. McCullough) (1952/)
• Prelude (Variations) from "Ballet Suite No. 4" (arr. Blankenship) (1953/)
• Romance (arr. Peel) (1955/1985)
• Spanish Dance from "The Gadfly" (arr. Curnow)
• Suite for Jazz Orchestra no. 1. See: Jazz Suite No. 1
• Symphony No. 1 (tr. Scarbrough) (1924-25)
• Symphony No. 5, Mvmt I (tr. Schaeffer)
• Symphony No. 5, Mvmt II (tr. Smith) (1937/1944)
• Symphony No. 5: Finale (tr. Righter) (1937/1947)
• Symphony No. 5, Mvmt IV (tr. Rogers) (1937/2003)
• Symphony No. 5, Mvmt IV (tr. Bocook) (1937/2005)
• Symphony No. 9 (arr. Mertens and Suykerbuyk) (1945/1986)
• Symphony No. 9 (tr. Schaefer) (1945/1976)
• Symphony No. 10, Mvt. II (tr. Fisher) (tr. Fisher) (1954/2010)
• Symphony No. 10, Mvmt II (tr. O'Brien) (1954)
• Symphony No. 11: Second Movement Excerpts (arr. Daehn) (1957/1989)
• Tahiti Trot (tr. Brubaker) (1927/2009)
• Three Symphonic Preludes (arr. Reed)
• Two Scarlatti Pieces (1928)
• Waltz No. 2 (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Brown) (post 1956/2021)
• Waltz No. 2 (arr. Connery) (post 1956/1996)
• Waltz No. 2 (arr. Curnow) (post 1956/2010)
• Waltz No. 2 (arr. De Meij). See: Jazz Suite No. 2

Resources

• Shostakovich, D.; Schaefer, W. (1978). The Batterie: From the Opera "The Nose" [score]. Shawnee Press: Delaware Water Gap, Pa.