The 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 by Dmitri Shostakovich are a set of 24 musical pieces for solo piano, one in each of the major and minor keys of the chromatic scale. The cycle was composed in 1950 and 1951 while Shostakovich was in Moscow, and premiered by pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva in Leningrad in December 1952; it was published the same year. A complete performance takes approximately 2 hours and 32 minutes. It is one of several examples of music written in all major or minor keys.

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110, was written in three days (12–14 July 1960).

The 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 by Dmitri Shostakovich are a set of 24 musical pieces for solo piano, one in each of the major and minor keys of the chromatic scale. The cycle was composed in 1950 and 1951 while Shostakovich was in Moscow, and premiered by pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva in Leningrad in December 1952; it was published the same year. A complete performance takes approximately 2 hours and 32 minutes. It is one of several examples of music written in all major or minor keys.

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 10 in A♭ major, Op. 118, was composed from 9 to 20 July 1964. It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet in Moscow and is dedicated to composer Mieczysław (Moisei) Weinberg, a close friend of Shostakovich. It has been described as cultivating the uncertain mood of his earlier Stalin-era quartets, as well as foreshadowing the austerity and emotional distance of his later works. The quartet typified the preference for chamber music over large scale works, such as symphonies, that characterised his late period. According to musicologist Richard Taruskin, this made him the first Russian composer to devote so much time to the string quartet medium.

The Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40, was composed in 1934 by Dmitri Shostakovich. It was also a period of emotional turmoil in his life, as he had fallen in love with a young student at a Leningrad festival featuring his Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District. Their affair resulted in a brief separation from his wife Nina; he composed the Cello Sonata during this period. He completed it within a few weeks and gave its premiere in Moscow on 25 December with his close friend, the cellist Viktor Kubatsky, who was also the piece's dedicatee. By late 1934 Shostakovich and Nina reunited and she eventually became pregnant with their first-born daughter, who was born in 1936.

In classical music, a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments, most commonly (since 1842) a string quartet (i.e., two violins, viola, and cello). The term also refers to the group of musicians that plays a piano quintet. The genre flourished during the nineteenth century. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, most piano quintets were scored for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. Following the success of Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet in E♭ major, Op. 44 in 1842, which paired the piano with a string quartet, composers increasingly adopted Schumann's instrumentation, and it was this form of the piano quintet that dominated during the second half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. Among the best known and most frequently performed piano quintets, aside from Schumann's, are Schubert's Trout quintet and the piano quintets of Johannes Brahms, César Franck, Antonín Dvořák and Dmitri Shostakovich.

Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 8, in C minor for violin, violoncello and piano is a very early chamber composition by Dmitri Shostakovich. It was performed privately in early 1924, but was not published until the 1980s. Twenty years later, the composer wrote the more well-known Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67.

The Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67, is a piece for violin, cello and piano by the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, started in late 1943 and completed in August the following year. It was premiered on 14 November 1944. The piece was dedicated to his close friend Ivan Sollertinsky, whose death in February 1944 affected Shostakovich profoundly. The piece consists of four movements, with a complete performance running 25 to 27 minutes. The final movement, the "Dance of Death", is notable for its Jewish themes. Erik Levi wrote: Shostakovich's Trio ... confront[s] the horrors perpetrated by the retreating German army during the last years of the war. In particular, Shostakovich was deeply affected by the stories featured in the Soviet press that SS guards at the death camps of Treblinka and Majdanek had forced Jewish prisoners to dig their own graves and dance upon them. This discovery gave rise to the macabre musical imagery that haunts the Trio’s Finale....

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 1 in C major, Op. 49, was composed in six weeks during the summer of 1938. He began to work on the quartet on the morning of May 10, 1938 (on the second birthday of his daughter, Galina). It carries no dedication. Shostakovich said that in this quartet he had "visualized childhood scenes, somewhat naïve and bright moods associated with spring."

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 10 in A♭ major, Op. 118, was composed from 9 to 20 July 1964. It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet in Moscow and is dedicated to composer Mieczysław (Moisei) Weinberg, a close friend of Shostakovich. It has been described as cultivating the uncertain mood of his earlier Stalin-era quartets, as well as foreshadowing the austerity and emotional distance of his later works. The quartet typified the preference for chamber music over large scale works, such as symphonies, that characterised his late period. According to musicologist Richard Taruskin, this made him the first Russian composer to devote so much time to the string quartet medium.

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 122 was finished on January 30, 1966, in Moscow. It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet and is the first in a series of four quartets to be dedicated to members of the Quartet. Vasily Shirinsky was the dedicatee of the Eleventh, the quartet's second violinist, who died on August 16 of the previous year.

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 12 in D♭ major, Op. 133, was composed in 1968. It is dedicated to Dmitri Tsyganov, the first violinist of the Beethoven Quartet, which premiered the work in Moscow on June 14.

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 13 in B♭ minor, Op. 138, was first conceived in 1969, and completed in 1970 as Shostakovich was undergoing treatment at the Russian Ilizarov Scientific Center for Restorative Traumatology and Orthopaedics in Kurgan. The work consists of one movement: Playing time is approximately 19 minutes. The piece was dedicated to Vadim Borisovsky, violist of the Beethoven Quartet, and the viola is accordingly given a prominent role in the piece. The quartet opens with a twelve-tone theme played on the viola, and concludes with a high B♭ held first by the viola, then with the violins in unison until reaching a sforzando. The work also requires the players to tap on the bodies of their instruments with their bows at several points.

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 14 in F♯ major, Op. 142, was composed in 1972–73. It is dedicated to Sergei Shirinsky, the cellist of the Beethoven Quartet, the ensemble that premiered most of Shostakovich's quartets. The first performance was held in Leningrad on November 12, 1973. It has three movements: Playing time is approximately 25 minutes. Shostakovich began working on the piece while he was visiting the home of Benjamin Britten and finished it in Copenhagen.

The String Quartet No. 15 in E♭ minor, Op. 144 by Dmitri Shostakovich is the composer's last. It was his first quartet since the Sixth (and only one of three) which did not bear a dedication.

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 68, was completed in September 1944 in just nineteen days in Ivanovo, 300 kilometres north-east of Moscow. It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet and is dedicated to the composer Vissarion Shebalin. When Shostakovich began writing his Second String Quartet he had already completed eight of his fifteen symphonies. He was also half-way through his life. Another thirteen quartets remained to be composed, however, and they would come in rapid succession.

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 3 in F major, Op. 73, was composed in 1946. He wrote most of it between May and August of 1946 at his summer home in Kellomäki (presently known as Komarovo). The quartet was premiered in Moscow by the Beethoven Quartet, to which it is dedicated, in December 1946.

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 4 in D major, Op. 83, was composed in 1949 and premiered in Moscow on 3 December 1953. It is dedicated to the memory of Pyotr Williams (1902–1947), a painter and set designer who was a close friend of Shostakovich. It has four movements: Playing time is approximately 25 minutes. The quartet contains a Jewish dance theme.

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 5 in B♭ major, Op. 92, was composed in autumn 1952. It was premiered in Moscow on 13 November 1953 by the Beethoven Quartet, to whom it is dedicated.

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 6 in G major, Op. 101, was composed in the summer of 1956. It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet in October 1956. It carries no dedication. The Beethoven Quartet recorded it on the Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga label.

Dmitri Shostakovich began work on his String Quartet No. 7 in F♯ minor, Op. 108, in May 1959 and completed it in March 1960. He dedicated it to the memory of his first wife Nina Vassilyevna Varzar, who died in December 1954. This piece was composed in the year that would have marked her 50th birthday. This quartet was premiered in Leningrad Glinka Concert Hall by the Beethoven Quartet on May 15, 1960. Shostakovich wrote many chamber music works; as a result, he founded his characteristic approach to chamber music quite early in his career. Of his many chamber works, the String Quartet No. 7 is Shostakovich's shortest string quartet, with a duration of 13 minutes. The work has a four-movement structure. However the "fourth" movement is not considered as a separate movement, therefore the piece counts as a three-movement work. This quartet also has no break in between movements with the attacca in between all movements that Shostakovich notated.

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110, was written in three days (12–14 July 1960).

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 9 in E♭ major, Op. 117, was composed in 1964 and premiered by the Beethoven Quartet. The Ninth Quartet was dedicated to his third wife, Irina Antonovna Shostakovich, a young editor he married in 1962.

Dmitri Shostakovich typically catalogued his compositions and occasionally his arrangements of other composers' music with opus numbers. He began this practice with the early Scherzo in F-sharp minor and continued until the end of his life. Nevertheless, most of his juvenilia, unfinished works from his artistic maturity (such as the operas Orango and The Gamblers), and numerous completed works were left unnumbered. There were also instances when Shostakovich took an opus number assigned to one work, then gave it to another, or was undecided about the numbering of a finished composition. Further complicating the matter was an error he committed in compiling his own music in the 1930s. This led to his soundtracks for The Youth of Maxim and Girl Friends sharing the same opus number.

The Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 147, is the last composition by Dmitri Shostakovich. It was completed on July 5, 1975, weeks before his death. It is dedicated to Fyodor Druzhinin, violist of the Beethoven Quartet.

Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Sonata for Violin and Piano in G major, Op. 134 in the autumn of 1968 in Moscow, completing it on October 23. It is set in three movements and lasts approximately 31 minutes. It is dedicated to the violinist David Oistrakh, who premiered the work on May 3, 1969 in the Large Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.