“The Noise of Time” is one of the best books I read in 2021.
Barnes tells the story of Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich in his way. The music compositions, though important, are not the focus of the novel. It is more about how Shostakovich struggled to keep composing in Stalin’s Russia, how he struggled to remain a Russian as he was being molded by the Power into a new citizen of the Soviet Union, and how he struggled to be a man.
Unlike other composers such as Prokofiev and Stravinsky who were heavily criticised or banned, Shostakovich was relatively safe. He was allowed to continue composing music for Russia and Stalin as long as his works fell in line with the party’s political views. By agreeing to all demands from the party including making denunciations against other composers and becoming a party member in 1960, the composer hoped he would be left alone to create music.
It was perhaps too naïve to assume that he could uphold his integrity as long as he managed to ‘slip in’ some irony into his music. After returning from a Congress in the U.S., he felt so depressed that he tried to find some solace in composing a series of 24 preludes and fugues, emulating Bach’s example. Now that I have a better understanding of his intentions, I find a new interpretation of his fifteenth prelude in D Flat Major. When he wrote this piece of music on 20th December, I think he was making an attempt to remind others of Christmas in the beginning bars. The slight adaptation of I wish you a Merry Christmas still makes the tune recognisable. These little gestures of mocking at the regime were, however, seen by many as weak and cowardly acts of a great composer. It is, indeed, difficult to be just a composer at a time when those in power are destroying people’s freedoms, culture and way of life.
It is almost as if life hasn’t changed at all. Look at Hong Kong now. If I had remained there, could I have been just a writer and write simply anything I like? Would everything I write be used or misused (assuming that I have made a name) by the CCP? If one chooses to stay put, she will need to learn to live with the monster by lying low, and pretending that life goes on as normal.
The Noise of Time is written in three sections: On the landing, On the plane, and In the car. Each section begins with the line “All he knew was that this was the worst time.” with only a slight difference. In the second section, Barnes emphasises the word “this”, and the third section sums up everything with two more words “of all’. Being a pessimist, Shostakovich always considered the present time the worst without knowing that the worst had yet to come.
In 1936, when his music was banned, he lived in constant fear. Every night, he would get ready to be taken away to the Big House for questioning. For two weeks, he would pack his suitcase, say goodbye to his wife and child and spend the night sleeping on the landing beside the lift. Twelve years later, he was ordered to attend a congress in the U.S. He was caught off-guard and forced to publicly criticise Stravinsky in front of the American audience. The last section describes the composer’s comfortable life in his old age. Being chauffeured around in a private car, he found it was the worst period of his life. The fact that he was allowed to live and grow old was no comfort. In 1960, he was forced to join the party. So even after the death of Stalin, he could not escape his fate. As someone who had fun toying with the concept of irony, Shostakovich finally created his own by living a long life in a time of great suffering and political turbulence.