String quartet 7 shostakovich biography

The String Quartet no. 7 in F sharp minor, opus 108, completed in March 1960, is the shortest of all Shostakovich's quartets lasting only about 13 minutes. It has three linked movements marked:

1. Allegretto, attacca
2. Lento, attacca
3. Allegro – Allegretto

The Quartet, the original manuscript of which is lost, was dedicated by Shostakovich "In Memoriam" to his wife Nina². She had studied at the prestigious Leningrad School of Physics³ and shortly after her graduation Shostakovich and Nina married. Their relationship had not been easy but her sudden death in December 1954, after an emergency operation for a previously undetected cancer of the colon, affected Shostakovich deeply. This is mirrored in his choice of key for the work, F sharp minor, traditionally associated with pain and suffering. Bach, for example, uses it in the St. John Passion when the penitent Peter cries out his remorse. This is also the key of Mahler's tortured and unfin