In the autumn of 1915, Shostakovich began taking piano lessons with I.A. Glyasser.
In 1917, he began studying the piano with conservatory professor A.A. Rozanova.
Ignati Albertovich Glyasser with his students: Mitya Shostakovich (second from the right in the first row), Maria Shostakovich (fourth from the right in the second row). 1917.
First Childhood Compositions of Shostakovich: “The Soldier”, “Hymn to Freedom”, “Fineral March”.
Autumn 1915: enrolment on I.Glasser’s piano course.
Spring 1917: start of lessons with A. Rozanova.
“My ability to compose came to light very early, at the same time as my piano lessons began...”
“I do not think it is of great interest to know which Gymnasium I went to, or what my marks were for Handwriting. <...>
I began trying to compose at the same time as embarking on the piano. The first composition which I can still remember was some kind of long piece called “The Soldier”. What inspired that was the war of 1914. At that time, I was composing in response to nothing apart from external events and things around me ... like the War, marching soldiers, the noises of the street, woods, water, fire.
When I was very small, I saw a forest fire. This was what led me to write some sort of ‘fiery sonata’ for the piano.
At the same time, I was reading a lot of Gogol. I even tried to compose an opera ‘Taras Bulba’, but nothing came of it.
During the February Revolution when I was coming home from school I got caught up in a crowd and walked along with it for a long time. There were shots being fired and shouting. All this I tried to portray in a ‘revolutionary symphony’.
At the same time, I composed a ‘funeral march’ in memory of the victims of the revolution.
I first encountered the October Revolution on the streets as well, and what’s more I saw a small boy being shot before my eyes (according to the newspapers, he was shot by a former gendarme). The tragic episode imprinted itself on my memory and when I was composing the symphony ‘Dedication to October’, I recalled that incident very clearly and I devoted an episode to it before the chorus comes in.
I could have told you far more about that period of my life and in much more detail, but not long ago I burned an enormous pile of papers, because they were taking up too much space.
The titles of the compositions from that time (as far as I can remember) were: ‘In the Forest’, ‘The Noise of the Train’, ‘The Tempest’ , ‘Thunderstorm’ and so on. This shows how only outward stimuli inspired my writing.”
January 1918.
Shostakovich composed the "Funeral March in Memory of the Victims of the Revolution" for piano, which he reported in April of the same year in a letter to N. V. Galli-Shohat.
Performed his "Funeral March in Memory of the Victims of the Revolution" at the Unified Labor School No. 10 (former M. N. Stoyunina Gymnasium), where his sisters studied, at a memorial service for the ministers of the Provisional Government A. I. Shingarev and F. F. Kokoshkin, who were shot by monarchist sailors on the night of January 6-7.
March 1918.
“I am planning to write music to Lermontov’s poem ‘The Song of Tsar Ivan Vasilievich, the merchant Kalashnikov and the soldier Kiribeyevich’. At the moment I am writing music to Gogol’s ‘Terrible Vengeance’ <...> Today I had a Botany exam, on Friday there will be Arithmetic, on Sunday Music and on Tuesday Geography. For the Music exam I shall be playing Bach’s Preludes Nos. 6 and 21 and Fugues Nos. 6, 10 and 21, Beethoven’s Sonata No.5 and Chopin’s Waltz No.6. Holidays start on Wednesday, April 11th. I have composed ‘Spinning Wheel’ and ‘Funeral March’... a symphony and that’s all for the moment.”
October 1918.
Shostakovich attended a symphony concert for the first time. According to B. N. Lossky, I. A. Glyasser and his students listened to Beethoven's Eighth and Ninth Symphonies conducted by S. A. Koussevitzky in the Hall of the Nobility Assembly (now the Great Hall of the Philharmonic). Lossky recalls that “Mitya and his peer Lenya Diederichs sat on either side of the teacher and eagerly watched the score spread out on his lap. They, having approached the stage during the break, carefully examined the musical instruments, exchanging guesses about their names.”
“...I attended a symphony concert for the first time at the age of 12 (in 1918): Beethoven's cycle under the direction of Koussevitzky, did not leave much of an impression (I was not very fond of Beethoven at that time, and most of all <loved> Glinka...”