"I have read all of Alfred's articles with enormous interest and enjoyment...[He] had such a profound insight into the music of other composers, and ...he found in it so many regular features that were hidden from others." - Mstislav Rostropovich, in the Preface The compositions of Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) are known for their exquisite construction, their unlikely embrace of material from disparate sources, their predisposition for melancholia, and their tremendous beauty. His German, Jewish, and Russian background seemed to make him something of an outsider wherever he went. This book is one of the composer's last works, created (characteristically) from his essays in various languages, materials published in various places or nowhere, supplemented with an interview with a friend (cellist and scholar Alexander Ivashkin), always keenly perceptive, illustrated with musical examples in his own hand, and coloured with the sadness of his death. In his Schnittke Reader, the composer speaks of his life, his works, other composers (especially his Russian associates), performers, a painter, a writer, and a broad range of topics in twentieth-century music, from the mixing of styles to jazz to tone colour to paradox in Stravinsky. The volume is rounded out with reflections of some of Schnittke's contemporaries. This English translation, prepared by John Goodliffe, working in association with Ivashkin and with series editor Malcolm Hamrick Brown to ensure the reliability of this edition.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Table of Contents: Preface by Mstislav Rostropovich Translator's Note Schnittke talks about himself From an interview with Alexander Ivashkin Letter to the Lenin Prize Committee (1990) Schnittke on his own compositions On Concerto Grosso No. 1 On the premiere of his Fourth Symphony On film and film music On staging Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades Schnittke on creative artists Composers On Shostakovich: circles of influence On Prokofiev On Gubaidulina On Kancheli In Memory of Filipp Moiseevich Gershkovich (Philip Hershkovish) Peformers On Svyatoslav Richter On Gennady Rozhdestvensky Subjective Notes on an Objective Performance (on Aleksey Lyubimov) A Writer On Viktor Yerofeev A Painter On the Paintings of Vladimir Yankilevsky V. Schnittke on twentieth-century music 1. Polystylistic tendencies in modern music 2. The orchestra and "the new music" 3. The problem of giving outward expression to a new idea 4. From Schnittke's archive 5. On jazz 6. Timbral relationships and their functional use: the timbral scale 7. "Klangfarbenmelodie"--"Melody of timbres" 8. Functional instability of voice-leading in musical texture 9. A new approach to composition: the statistical method 10. Stereophonic tendencies in modern orchestral thinking 11. Using rhythm to overcome metre 12. Static form: a new conception of time 13. Paradox as a feature of Stravinsky's musical logic 14. Timbre modulations in Bart-k's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta 15. The closed system of timbre connections in the Bach-Webern Ricercata fugue 16. The third movement of Luciano Berio's Symphony 17. Orchestral micropolyphony in the music of Ligeti VI. Schnittke as seen by others Gidon Kremer Gennady Rozhdestvensky Vladimir Yankilevsky Mstislav Rostropovich Mark Lubotsky Sources Index of names and works

About the Author

This English translation, prepared by John Goodliffe, working in association with Ivashkin and with series editor Malcolm Hamrick Brown to ensure the reliability of this edition.

Reviews

"I have read all of Alfred's articles with enormous interest and enjoyment... [He] had such a profound insight into the music of other composers, and ... he found in it so many regular features that were hidden from others." --from the foreword by Mstislav Rostropovich "This collection of writings by or about Alfred Schnittke, including many previously unpublished, is a major contribution to our understanding of the most important Russian composer of recent times."--Classical Music, 4 January 2003 "This collection of writings by or about Alfred Schnittke, including many previously unpublished, is a major contribution to our understanding of the most important Russian composer of recent times."--Classical Music, 4 January 2003