Abstract: The purpose of this article is to identify the role of polyphony in choral a cappella music of Russian compositional writing of the twentieth century. The subject of the study is the a cappella choral work of Dmitry Shostakovich. The object of the research is to consider the polyphonic techniques in the works "Ten poems of revolutionary poets", "Two treatments of Russian folk songs for unaccompanied choir", "Fidelity". The author examines in detail the polyphonic means in the choral heritage of the great Russian composer. Special attention is paid to polyphonic methods in a cappella choral works. The author states that D. Shostakovich's polyphony is distinguished by its depth and semantic concentration. The appeal to imitation, sub-vocal and contrasting polyphony in D. Shostakovich's a cappella choral compositions is characterized by an individual approach to solving a creative idea.  The methodology consists in the synthesis of research methods, including musicology, poetics and choral studies. On the basis of this synthesis, the parameters of the musical composition are revealed: the analyzed genre specifics and polyphonic means, the features of choral writing. The main conclusion of the research is the paradigm of a deep stylistic synthesis of secular and spiritual principles in the works of D. Shostakovich. This position has become a determining factor for polyphony as the dominant principle of the composer's musical thinking. Attention is focused on the need to study the polyphony associated with the genre and style features of choral compositions for unaccompanied choir due not only to the general artistic and historical potential of choral culture in general, but also especially to its great importance in modern musical art. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time polyphony in the works of D. Shostakovich is analyzed from the standpoint of musicology and choral studies. The author's special contribution to the disclosure of the topic is the study of the works "Ten poems by revolutionary poets", "Two arrangements of Russian folk songs for unaccompanied choir", "Fidelity", which had not previously been the object of special research.

Keywords: imitative polyphony, subvocal polyphony, choral polyphony, Fidelity, Russian folk songs, verses of revolutionary poets, choral art, Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich, contrasting polyphony, creative method