The books and articles which I have found useful in writing these pages are listed below. Three books and one article are of particular value for those wishing to explore the subject further. Elizabeth Wilson knew Shostakovich personally and her book Shostakovich: A Life Remembered is informative and enjoyable to read. Laurel E. Fay's Shostakovich: A Life is a lucid, scholarly work. It is irreplaceable as a biographical reference. Lighter, though well researched, is Wendy Lesser's recent publication Music For Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and his Fifteen Quartets. All three books are highly recommended for a better knowledge of the composer's life.

Those disappointed with the depth of musical analysis in these pages will find an instant anodyne in Judith Kuhn's perceptive and authoritative article, 'The string quartets: in dialogue with form and tradition'. Finally anyone studying the Eighth Quartet will conclude that David Fanning's book Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8 is not only indispensable but peerless.

A good starting point for online resources is the website of the Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There links are provided to original English and Russian material on Shostakovich and his string quartets.

• Abraham, Gerald, The Tradition of Western Music (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1974).
• Bartlett, Rosamund, 'Sonata Form in Chekhov's "The Black Monk"' in A. Wachtel (ed.) Intersections and transpositions: Russian music, literature, and society (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press , 1998).
• —, 'Shostakovich as opera composer' in P. Fairclough and D. Fanning (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Shostakovich (Cambridge University Press, 2008).
• Braun, Joachim, 'The Double Meaning of Jewish Elements in Dimitri Shostakovich's Music', The Musical Quarterly, 71:1 (1985) 68-80.
• Burke, Richard N., 'Film, narrative, and Shostakovich's last quartet', The Musical Quarterly, 83:3 (1999) 413-429.
• Clark, Kenneth, Civilisation: A personal view (Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books. 1987).
• Drury, Jonathan, 'Traditionalism in Shostakovich's Fifteenth String Quartet', South African Journal of Musicology, 10 (1990) 9-32.
• Emerson, Caryl, 'Shostakovich's Revision of Leskov's "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District" ', Cambridge Opera Journal, 1:1 (1989), 59-78.
• Fanning, David, Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8 (Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing, 2004).
• Fay, Laurel E., Shostakovich: A Life (Oxford University Press, 2000).
• Feder, Georg, Haydns Streichquartette: ein musikalischer Werkführer (Munich: Beck, 1988).
• Frolova-Walker, Marina, 'The Soviet opera project: Ivan Dzerzhinsky vs. Ivan Susanin', Cambridge Opera Journal, 18:2 (2006), 181-216.
• Gojowy, Detlef, Schostakowitsch (Reinbek, Germany: Rowohlt Taschenbuch, 1983).
• Hellmundt, Christoph and K. Meyer (eds.), Dmitri Schostakowitsch: Erfahrungen, Aufsätze, Erinnerungen, Reden, Diskussionsbeiträge, Interviews, Briefe (Leipzig: Verlag Philipp Reclaim jun., 1983).
• Heyden, Horst, Das Streichquartett in der Praxis (Wilhelmshaven: Heinrichshofen, 1980).
• Hopkins, G.W., 'Shostakovich's Ninth String Quartet', Tempo (New Series), 75 (Winter 1965-66) 23-25.
• Keldysyh, Yury, 'An Autobiographical Quartet', The Musical Times, 102 (1961) 226-228.
• Keller, Hans, 'Shostakovich's Twelfth Quartet', Tempo (New Series), 94 (1970) 6-15.
• Krebs, Stanley D., Soviet Composers and the Development of Soviet Music (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1970).
• Kuhn, Ernst (ed.), Volksfeind Dmitri Schostakowitsch: Eine Dokumentation der öffentlichen Angriffe gegen den Komponisten in der ehemaligen Sowjetunion (Berlin: Verlag Ernst Kuhn, 1997).
• Kuhn, Judith, 'The string quartets: in dialogue with form and tradition' in P. Fairclough and D. Fanning (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Shostakovich (Cambridge University Press, 2008).
• Lesser, Wendy, Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and his fifteen quartets (Yale University Press, 2011).
• MacDonald, Ian, The New Shostakovich (Oxford University Press, 1991).
• Maes, Francis, A History of Russian Music: from Kamrinskaya to Babi Yar (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2006).
• Mason, Colin, 'Form in Shostakovich's quartets', The Musical Times, 103:1434 (1962) 531-533.
• Roseberry, Eric, Shostakovich his life and times (Tunbridge Wells, England: Midas Books, 1982).
• Schwarz, Boris, Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia (London: Barrie and Jenkins, 1972).
• Shaw, George Bernard, The Perfect Wagnerite (Rockville, Maryland, USA: Arc Manor Publishers, 2008).
• Service, Robert, Comrades − Communism: A World History (London: Pan Books. 2008).
• Talbot, Michael, The Finale in Western Instrumental Music (Oxford University Press, 2001).
• Taruskin, Richard, 'Who is Shostakovich?', The Atlantic (Feb. 1995) 62+.
• Vaughan James, C., Soviet Socialist Realism (London: Macmillan, 1973).
• Volkov, Solomon, Testimony: The memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich (London: Faber and Faber, 1987).
• —, Shostakovich and Stalin (London: Little Brown, 2004).
• Wildberger, Jacques, 'Ausdruck lähmender Angst: über die Bedeutung von Zwölftonreihen in Spätwerken von Schostakowitsch.' Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, 151 (1990) 4-11.
• Wilson, Elizabeth, Shostakovich: A Life Remembered. (London: Faber and Faber, 1994).