fte:nonpublicdomaincomposer
|Born Year=1906|Born Month=9|Born Day=25
|Died Year=1975|Died Month=8|Died Day=9
|Alternate Names=Дмитрий Дмитриевич Шостакович, Dmitrij Dmitrievič Šostakovič, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich
|Biography Link=Wikipedia article
|External Work Lists=Wikipedia worklist
|Recordings=Piano Society
|Nationality=Soviet
|Nationality2=Russian
|Time Period=Modern
|Picture=Dmitrishostakovich.jpg
|Picture Caption=Dmitri Shostakovich in 1942
|List Pages=*Wishlist
|Extra Information=*Works by Shostakovich cannot be uploaded to IMSLP until 2026.}}
|File Name 1=Placeholder.pdf
|File Description 1=Score of all movements
|Editor=
|Image Type=Normal Scan
|Scanner=Pml
|Uploader=Pml
|Date Submitted=2007/9/3
|Page Count 1=11
|Publisher Information=J.&W. Chester, 1917
|Copyright=Public Domain
|Misc. Notes=
An optional narration is indicated above piano part. If this is not recited, Brian gave optional programmes summarising the action:
The Boys and the Pastille
- Two boys, having nothing to do one Sunday night, they couldn't play around the gas lamps, which were not lighted – because of Zepps – went into a church. During the service one of the boys, having a cold, coughed very badly and an old lady sitting behind him passed him a pastille. He bit it in two parts and gave one to the other boy. All the boys in the village got to hear of the story of the pastille, and having made sure of the church and which old lady had the "sucks", they flocked in a crowd on the following Sunday night. They crowded the seat before the old lady and, soon after arriving, all commenced to cough – but the old lady on this occasion had forgotten her pastilles.
The Butterfly's Waltz
- A butterfly on wing is chased by a wasp. The butterfly flitters round a rose garden always followed by the wasp. The butterfly discovers two lovers hidden behind a rose tree in an arbour. She is about to scream to them like a parrot, "I'll tell your mother", when the wasp comes and drives her away. So she doesn't scream, but passes (disgusted) into a vegetable garden and perches upon a nice fat broccoli – thinks she, "Here I will lay my eggs". Just as she is about to put the thought into execution, a naughty boy passes and knocks her off with his cap.
Venus and a Bobby
- In the black darkness of the city suburban streets, there gleams a mysterious red light. It is not still, but moves. As we approach the light we find underneath it the face of the representative and embodiment of the ponderous British law. It is a bobby! How queer is the law which needs a red light. Whilst we are in bed, he stands there, unseen, and often ignored, securing our safety. As the light leans at an angle, we may imagine that he is soliloquising upon his shoe laces or his socks.
- On this night, so full of terrors, he has been warned that a "Zepp" is somewhere. He looks above him occasionally – as though looking for a moth.
- Suddenly a light flashes from a bedroom window opposite. Thinks he – "Bedad a German spy". Says he – "But it cannot be, in the presence of the law". He gazes at the light, or where it comes from, and begins to lick his lips, for, instead of a spy he sees in the lighted room, the beautiful figure of a lady – placing her hat upon her head. He recognizes her as the Venus he had seen at the Opera. His truncheon falls to the ground. He is entranced. Like Tannhäuser, he loses himself. In a fit of enraged passion he exclaims – "How I would woo thee" and lies back propped up by the gas lamp. Suddenly the light from the window is switched off and as suddenly his senses return, in realising that the "Venus" may be descending to leave the house. Gathering himself together he rushes to the door – which suddenly opens and the sergeant calmly walks out. Bobby, disconsolate, looks at him and says – "Kiss me sergeant". The sergeant, laughing, replies – "As you like it".
