Alexander Fleming vs Dmitri Shostakovich
Two music prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Alexander Fleming | Dmitri Shostakovich | |
| Field | Music | Music |
| Sub-field | Musician | Composer |
| Born | 1881 | 1906 |
| Died | 1955 | 1975 |
| Country of birth | SCT | Russia |
| Star sign | Leo | Libra |
Who they are
Alexander Fleming
In September 1928, a Scottish bacteriologist returned from his summer holiday to a cluttered laboratory at St Mary's Hospital in London, and noticed something unusual on a petri dish he had left behind. A mould had contaminated one of his cultures of Staphylococcus bacteria — and around the mould, the bacteria were dead. Alexander Fleming did not immediately grasp that he had just made the most important medical discovery of the twentieth century. But he was curious enough to look more carefully, and careful enough not to throw the dish away. That decision would eventually…
Full biography of Alexander Fleming →
Dmitri Shostakovich
In January 1936, Josef Stalin attended a performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at the Bolshoi Theatre and left before the final act. Two days later, Pravda published an unsigned editorial — almost certainly authorized at the highest level — titled "Muddle Instead of Music." The article attacked the opera as "formalist" and "bourgeois," its dissonances described as deliberate assaults on Soviet socialist culture. Shostakovich was twenty-nine years old, the most celebrated composer in the Soviet Union, and now suddenly in danger. He had a new symphony nearly finished —…
Full biography of Dmitri Shostakovich →
What they share
- Both are held here under Music.
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- Born in different countries: SCT and Russia.
- 25 years separate their births (1881 and 1906).
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Alexander Fleming or Dmitri Shostakovich?
- Alexander Fleming. Alexander Fleming was born in 1881, Dmitri Shostakovich in 1906.
- What field is each of them in?
- Alexander Fleming is filed under Music (Musician). Dmitri Shostakovich is filed under Music (Composer).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.