Symphony No. 2 (Shostakovich) October Revolution in his Twelfth Symphony, subtitled "The Year 1917". The symphony is a short (about 20 minutes) experimental work in one movement; within this movement are four sections, the last of which includes a chorus. In a marked departure from his First Symphony, Shostakovich composed his Second in a gestural, geometric "music without emotional structure" manner, with the intent of reflecting speech patterns and physical movements in a neo-realistic style. This choice may have been influenced at least partially by Vsevolod Meyerhold's theory of biomechanics. Shostakovich placed far more emphasis on texture in this work than he did on
Nagauta Symphony this work. For this work, Yamada composed music for the western orchestra which is used to counterpoint a classical "nagauta", the music which accompanies the "kabuki". The symphony is subtitled "Tsurukame" after the name of the "nagauta" which is used. Composed in 1857, the text celebrates the Emperor of Japan and the imperial court. The symphony is in one movement with a duration of approximately 17 minutes. The "Nagauta Symphony" uses a western orchestra and voices, as well as an ensemble of traditional Japanese musical instruments. The Japanese ensemble consists of several shamisen and percussion. Nagauta Symphony The Nagauta Symphony