Symphony No. 8. Op. 65. Score.

Form:

1. Adagio—Allegro non troppo
2. Allegretto
3. Allegro non troppo attacca
4. Largo attacca
5. Allegretto

Instrumentation:

4 Flutes (III and IV = Piccolo I and II), 2 Oboes, Cor anglais, E flat Clarinet, 2 Clarinets (B flat and A), Bass Clarinet, 3 Bassoons (III = Contrabassoon)

4 Horns, 3 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, Tuba

Timpani (4 drums), Triangle, Tambourine, Side drum, Cymbals (2 players—I with drumsticks and II normal mode), Bass drum, Gong

Xylophone

1st Violins(16), 2nd Violins (14), Violas (12), Cellos (12), Double-basses (10).

Duration:

Approx. 60 min.

Composed:

In about 40 days, mainly at the Composer’s House at Ivanovo,
between 2 July and 9 September 1943. First three movements completed
on 3, 18, and 25 August respectively.

Dedication:

Yevgeni Aleksandrovich Mravinsky (conductor).

The score of the Eighth Symphony was published in the Soviet Union twice during the author’s lifetime, in 1946 and in 1963, and also after his death, as part of Collected Works (Vol. 4, Muzyka Publishers, Moscow), in 1981.
This publication is based on the 1981 edition. The music text has been collated anew with the author’s manuscript of the score and with the lifetime editions. The author’s manuscripts of the following four fragments of the symphony’s score have also been taken into account:
1) fragment of the first movement from bar 140 to bar 169, inclusive;
2) fragment of the first movement from bar 166 to bar 169, inclusive;
3) fragment of the third movement from bar 122 to bar 175, inclusive, with a dedication: “To Alexei Kruchenykh from Dmitri Shostakovich from the 8th symphony 1943 17 X”;
4) fragment of the fourth movement from bar 15 to bar 84, inclusive.
All four fragments are pages from the fair author’s manuscript of the score, which Shostakovich rewrote because of missing bars or other inaccuracies that arose during writing. The specific differences between the text of the fragments and the final text of the score are specified in the bar-by-bar comments.