Craig Calhoun, et Al., Classical Sociological Theory

The summer of 1948 was spent by the Shostakoviches in Komarovo, a recreational area in the suburbs of Leningrad. In the bookstore in the train station, where Shostakovich had dropped in to buy something to read on the trip, he saw a collection of poems entitled "Jewish Folk Songs". The composer's interest in Jewish art was long-standing. He was familiar with Jewish folklore through a friend of his youth, S.Gershov, a pupil of Marc Chagall. Some modal attributes of Jewish folk melodies appeared in the composer's various compositions to convey sorrow and suffering.