Why does a composer deviate from their familiar style and write differently? It is said that Shostakovich wrote in a jazz style to prove that he could do it, and that what some of his friends told him was not true: that he criticized jazz because he couldn’t write in that style.
I read or heard this story as a student in London. It has a certain charm, but it’s probably not true. I couldn’t find it anywhere when searching, and instead, I found articles that questioned any enthusiasm Shostakovich might have had, but mainly the result. The works, however, show this. The two Jazz Suites 1 and 2 are anything but jazz and have very little to do with the idiom. From Shostakovich’s extensive oeuvre, the only piece that leans in that direction is “Tahiti Trot,” an arrangement of the well-known song “Tea for Two.” When we listen to it, we notice a very “European” orchestration with elements that an American Jazz orchestrator would never use. Ultimately, it seems the motivation was that around 1930, Jazz had conquered America, Europe, and Latin America, forever changing the terms of entertainment and beyond. Other Soviet composers had also shown interest.
But let’s return to the question. Why does a composer become a “musical chameleon”? There are fields where this is almost a professional prerequisite: music for theater and cinema. There, many composers often “open the box” and write in the style of Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Baroque, or whatever else. The examples are numerous. Nino Rota is extremely well-known for the distinctive (almost repetitive) music in Fellini’s films, but he also composed the music for “The Godfather” and Zeffirelli’s “Romeo and Juliet.” John Williams is an equally good example. We all know him for the Hollywood-style scores of Star Wars and Indiana Jones, but he has written entirely differently for both Jaws and Spielberg’s Lincoln.
There are cases where eclecticism and borrowing from different genres are the primary mode of creation. Alfred Schnittke is one of the best examples. Here I mention an arrangement he made for violin and piano based on Silent Night. It’s worth listening to here!
He also wrote 12-tone Variations on The Beatles’ Strawberry Fields!
Our own Argyris Kounadis (1924-2011) is probably much closer to the “I’ll show you what I can do” mentality. From the beginning of his career, he maintained a connection with Greek song and Greek music, something that faded when he moved to Germany. However, in 1973, an LP was released with two song cycles: “No Patience Left” and “Life Goes On,” featuring Sotiria Bellou, Eleni Vitali, Rena Koumioti, and Dimitris Psarianos. Two years later, in 1975, “The Journey,” an LP with Lilanda Likiardopoulou and Antonis Kalogiannis, was released.
The albums must have done well. I heard him say in a discussion that he was asked to make a third. However, he stopped because he felt that all this was taking time away from his main “serious” compositional activity.
I’ll conclude with Yiannis Constantinidis-Kostas Giannidis and “Alexandra.” You decide if this is a case of “I’ll show you what I can do” or a professional doing his job. I think it’s probably the latter. Constantinidis did not like rebetiko and folk music at all. This is logical, as his songs belong to a different world and era. But apart from “Alexandra,” there is an entire album of 12 folk songs he wrote. Perhaps we wouldn’t be discussing all this at all if it weren’t for the success of “Alexandra”…
Creativity is protean. When there is talent, technical proficiency, and motivation, it will find ways to express itself.
