Dr. Joan Titus

Associate Professor of Musicology, Music Studies

Shostakovich Studies
by David Fanning, editor

It is challenging to choose just one text when there are so many wonderful books and recordings that have shaped my thinking of our musical world. But there is one book that leaps to mind. One of my fondest memories of how I came to specialize in Russian music comes from my undergraduate years. While perusing the library one day I spotted a new book on the Russian composer Dmitry Shostakovich. I read the book immediately and the chapters in this edited volume instantly became etched in my memory, and sparked several musical questions and ideas that I still engage today. Over time, I got to know some of the authors of this text, and was invited to contribute to the next edition of Shostakovich Studies (that is, Shostakovich Studies 2, Pauline Fairclough, ed., 2010); in a sense, I became folded into the very discourse that I remember holding in my hands so long ago. Looking back, this book inevitably formed a part of the path that led me here today.