Adopting a "two-books-in-one" format, "The Shostakovich Companion" combines a full-length, single-author examination of the life and compositional evolution of the Soviet Union's most famous composer; and a symposium in which a variety of analytical techniques is applied to selected Shostakovich works and genres. This is the first comprehensive English-language book in twenty-five years in which the primary emphasis is on musical issues, and the secondary emphasis is on the biographical and much-debated political issues.This title is divided into four parts: Part I considers the hermeneutic techniques that have been applied to Shostakovich's music, along with the various controversies surrounding his life and his relationship to Soviet politics; Part II comprises the book's central life-and-works discussion, uniting a comprehensive examination of Shostakovich's compositional evolution with a full account of his life; Coming from a variety of authors, the chapters in Part III demonstrate a cross-section of analytical techniques that may usefully be applied to Shostakovich's music. These range from literary and cinematically-based methods to the more traditional types of musical analysis; and, Part IV considers three independent but crucial aspects of Shostakovich's life - his contributions to the Soviet film industry, his career as a pianist, and his legacy and influence as a teacher.