‘The Nose’. Op. 15. Opera. Score.

Form:
A satirical opera in three acts, for chamber orchestra (with 2 harps, piano, flexatone, domras, and balalaikas), S.A.T.B. chorus, and 82 singing/speaking parts.

Orchestra:
Flute (= Piccolo, Flute contralto in F), Oboe (= Cor anglais), B flat Clarinet (= E flat, A, Bass Сlarinet), Bassoon (= Contrabassoon)
Horn in F, Trumpet in B (= Cornet in B), Trombone (tenor and bass)
Triangle, Tambourine, Castanets, Side drum, Tom-tom, Rattle, Cymbals (2 players—colla bacchetta and ordinario), Bass drum, Gong
Whistle, Orchestral bells, Glockenspiel, Xylophone, Flexatone
Piccolo and alto Domras, 2 Balalaikas
2 Harps, Piano
Reduced string section with five-string Double basses specified.

Composed:
Between the summers of 1927 and 1928. Act 1 was written within a month and Act 2 within a fortnight in January 1928, mostly at Moscow; Act 3 completed in three weeks at Leningrad.

The fair manuscript of the score of the opera The Nose was the property of Universal Edition, a Viennese music publishing house, which had been regularly printing music from the Soviet Union since 1925. The score was evidently submitted to the publishing house at the beginning of the 1930s, but it was not published until 1970. At present, the score is kept in Dmitri Shostakovich’s Archive.

This publication is based on the edition of the score (D. Shostakovich, Collected Works, in 42 volumes, Vol. 18, Muzyka Publishers, Moscow, 1981), collated with the author’s manuscript kept in Dmitri Shostakovich’s Archive (rec. gr. 1, section 1, f. 321), as well as the piano score (D. Shostakovich, Collected Works, in 42 volumes, Vol. 19, muzyka Publishers, moscow, 1981).