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Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8
String quartet · about 20–22 minutes

Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110

Short and powerful, with few fast notes but a lot of intensity. A good first Shostakovich quartet for an experienced amateur group.
Advanced
For 2 violins, viola and cello
Players
2 violins, viola and cello
Difficulty
Advanced, judged by the hardest part
Length
About 20–22 minutes
Written
1960, in East Germany
Also known as
Op. 110 · Quartet No. 8 in C minor · Op. 110a (string orchestra version)
Score and parts
IMSLP page. Still in copyright: IMSLP marks its files as not public domain in the US, Canada or the EU, so buy printed parts.

Part by part

The piece is rated by its hardest part. Here is how each part compares, so a group can see who will need to practise most.
Violin 1
High, exposed lines in the slow movements and fierce, fast playing in the Allegro molto. Needs control at very soft dynamics.
Advanced
Violin 2
Often long held notes and repeated rhythms under the others. Not hard to play, but must stay steady and soft for a long time.
Intermediate
Viola
An important voice in the fugal entries of the DSCH motif, and part of the loud, driving second movement. Mostly within reach of a good amateur.
Intermediate
Cello
Opens the quartet alone with the DSCH motif and is often exposed, sometimes high in its range.
Advanced

The movements

I. Largo. The cello plays DSCH alone, and the others enter one by one on the same four notes. Slow and very quiet; long bows needed.
II. Allegro molto. Loud and violent, with a Jewish theme from the Second Piano Trio. The one truly fast movement; agree on a tempo you can all hold.
III. Allegretto. A twisted, waltz-like movement that brings in the theme of the First Cello Concerto.
IV. Largo. Sharp three-note blows over a low held drone, with quotations from a revolutionary song and from Lady Macbeth. Hard to count; listen to each other.
V. Largo. A slow, quiet fugue on DSCH that ends on a C minor chord. Tuning matters more than technique.

Reading it together for the first time

Play it straight through once: it is only about 20 minutes, and the movements run into each other.
Mark the joins between movements in all four parts so nobody waits for a pause that never comes.
Spend time on the slow movements. Their soft dynamics and tuning are harder than the Allegro molto.
IMSLP marks its files of this work as not public domain in the US, Canada and the EU. If you are in one of those places, buy a published set of parts.

About the piece

Shostakovich wrote it in three days in July 1960 while in East Germany, where he was working on music for Five Days, Five Nights, a film about the wartime bombing of Dresden. Not long before, he had reluctantly joined the Communist Party. The score is dedicated “to the victims of fascism and war”. The Beethoven Quartet gave the first performance in Leningrad on October 2, 1960.
The five movements are played without a break. The whole work is built on his musical signature, D–E flat–C–B (DSCH in German note names), and quotes his own earlier music: the First and Fifth Symphonies, the Second Piano Trio, the First Cello Concerto and the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. Rudolf Barshai later arranged it for string orchestra as Op. 110a.

Hear it live

Upcoming performances in the cities we list.
Sun
8
Nov
Colburn School
Colburn Chamber Players: Shades of Sound, From Mozart to Shostakovich
Mozart · Nielsen · Akiho · Shostakovich
4:00 PM · Thayer Hall, Colburn School, Downtown LA
Up close · Some of each

What to play next

Shostakovich · Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67
The source of the Jewish theme in the second movement. A step up for violin, cello and piano.
Very demanding
Shostakovich · Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57
Same level, same composer: bring in a pianist.
Advanced
Barber · String Quartet, Op. 11 (with the Adagio)
Same level, another 20th-century quartet with a famous slow movement.
Advanced
Bartók · String Quartet No. 4
The step up in 20th-century quartets, much harder for everyone.
Very demanding
More in the full list by difficulty, or browse:
String quartetsViolinViolaCello

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Levels are Rhapsodate’s own rough guide, not an exam grade. Facts checked 2026-10-03 against:
IMSLP: movements, dedication, first performance, copyright status of the files
Wikipedia: composition, film, Party membership, quotations, Barshai arrangement
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: first performers, played without a break, the waltz, length
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