Alfred Schnittke Research Articles

Brezgin, Oleg Sergei Diagilev (review)

SEER, 95, 3, JULY 2017 546 Even from the minimal descriptions above, it will be clear that Schnittke was a highly intellectual and widely cultured composer. In the last article, however, by Alexander Ivashkin, we are in the world of belief rather than intellect: both musicians seem to have perceived personal significance in music, not just for references, as found in Beethoven and Shostakovich, to name but two wellknown examples, but in a deeply spiritual, almost mystical, form of symbolism in which music directly linked the composer and the dedicatee. A welcome addition to this thought-provoking and very well illustrated volume is the Appendix, which consists of a revised catalogue of Alfred Schnittke’s sketches held in the Juilliard Manuscript Collection with, in addition to formal detail, clarifying comments for future researchers by Ivana Medić (the compiler). The Bibliography is very full and carefully prepared like the rest of the volume. It is, perhaps, ironical that the only slip noted by the present reviewer in this meticulously prepared collection is the amalgamation of two of Ivashkin’s works about other cellists (Sviatoslav Knushevitsky and Daniel Shapran) in a footnote in the Preface (p. xxi). Dr Dixon is to be congratulated on assembling a strong and varied team for this handsomely produced memorial volume. The complexity of Shnittke’s music and thought are very evident, so that it is principally a book for musicologists rather than the casual general reader, despite the lucidity of much of the writing. The collection makes a major contribution to understanding the fascinating composer to whom Ivashkin devoted so much of his career both as a scholar and as an outstanding performer. London Arnold McMillin Brezgin, Oleg. Sergei Diagilev. Zhizn´ zamechatel´nykh liudei, 1597. Molodaia gvardiia, Moscow, 2016. 640 pp. Illustrations. Short dictionary of names. Chronology. Selected bibliography. R682.00. This extensively researched volume is a welcome contribution to the already considerable literature on Sergei Diagilev, duly listed in the bibliography and used, comparatively and critically throughout. The author’s technique is to allow contemporary voices to speak for themselves, through letters, diaries, memoirs, reviews and gossip columns, voices which clash and contradict one another but, occasionally, movingly harmonize. They recount terrifying money troubles and spiteful gossip, namedrop, scold and enthuse and, occasionally, combine to record moments of achievement and quiet exhilaration. At the centre of it all is the larger-than-life figure of Diagilev, sleeves rolled up to the elbows bespattered with mortar and builder’s dust, as he depicts himself REVIEWS 547 in an early letter to Aleksandr Benois. All his life, Diagilev continued to have a finger in every pie, commissioning ballets then ruthlessly interfering in his composers’ music and artists’ plans for decorations and costume designs, in choreography and performance; he would personally tackle the lighting effects in different theatres during dress rehearsal, then turn up — immaculate, dandified and charming — in the boxes or the par terre on the first night, to face down scandal and, on more than one occasion, riot among the audience, or to murmur sweet nothings in the ears of his fabulously wealthy patrons: the Prince of Monaco, the King of Spain… Perhaps the most precious pages of the book, as so often in biography, are the early chapters about the subject’s childhood (the biographer lives and works in Perm´). Family photographs and archive material, especially the memoirs, correspondence and a hitherto unpublished watercolour by Sergei’s muchloved step-mother, vividly evoke the life of his extended family: the fouryear -old Sergei’s first cultural pilgrimage to Western Europe accompanied by his parents, his infant step-brother in a Moses basket (and the inevitable Russian nanny); the sternly Orthodox grandfather who made a fortune from strong drink and contributed munificently to the building of churches; the ‘Diva’ aunt who took singing lessons in Paris from Turgenev’s beloved Pauline Viardot. Sergei’s father, Pavel, was a military man who loved to sing, for whom performance and music were synonymous with support to local charities and inspired play. His first wife survived Sergei’s birth by only a few weeks. Devastated by his loss, Pavel, nevertheless, soon married again. His second wife provided him and his...

The Influence of Brain Lesion on Musical Masterpieces of Famous Composers

The changing of musical capabilities, after cerebrovascular or neurodegenerative lesions in neuropsychological literature, are referred, over all, to musicians affected by aphasia. Generally, authors examine the relationship between amusia and aphasia and the potential decays of musical general skills. Particularly uncommon is the investigation of pre-lesional versus post-lesional productions of music composers. The rare descriptions that we find in literature, tend to conclude that the postlesional productions maintain a good creativity level. In the following paper a group of researchers - neurologists, musicians and specialists in music composition- are comparing pre-lesional masterpieces of one composer manifesting cerebro-degenerative disease (Maurice Ravel) and four composers suffering cerebrovascular lesion (Benjamin Britten, Alfred Schnittke, Vissarion Shebalin, Franco Donatoni) with their postlesional compositional productions, applying an objective methodology. Their conclusions are that the examined composers employ, in their post-lesional masterpieces, simplified structures, or simple classic models, or reminiscences, influences and citations referred to their previous experience or related to harmonic traditional forms, in a less elaborate structure, frequently fragmented, static and repetitive. The compositional contextual character doesn’t change and maintains, in some way, a “poetry", but the application modality becomes more "technical". The Authors suggest that, in order to be objective in her analysis and conclusions, neuro-aesthetic requires the application of well-defined methodologies and scientific procedures.

Stroke, music, and creative output: Alfred Schnittke and other composers.

Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), a celebrated Russian composer of the twentieth century, suffered from several strokes which affected his left cerebral hemisphere. The disease, however, did not diminish his musical talent. Moreover, he stated that his illness in a way facilitated his work. The composer showed amazingly high productivity after his first and second injuries of the central nervous system. The main topic of this chapter is the effect of strokes on Schnittke's output, creativity, and style of music. A brief biography of the composer with the chronology of his brain hemorrhages is included. In addition, the influence of cerebrovascular lesions on creative potential of other prominent composers such as Benjamin Britten, Jean Langlais, Vissarion Shebalin, Igor Stravinsky, and Ira Randall Thompson is discussed.

Postmoderne hinter dem Eisernen Vorhang: Werk und Rezeption Alfred Schnittkes im Kontext ost- und mitteleuropäischer Musikdiskurse Edited by Amrei Flechsig and Stefan Weiss (review)

Postmoderne hinter dem Eisernen Vorhang: Werk und Rezeption Alfred Schnittkes im Kontext ost- und mitteleuropaischer Musikdiskurse. Edited by Amrei Flechsig and Stefan Weiss. (Ligaturen: Musikwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch der Hochschule fur Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, bd. 6.) Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2013. [280 p. ISBN 9783487150154. 48 [euro].] Music examples, illustrations. scholarship is booming, especially in Germany and Russia. Schnittke's star has undeniably waned from its early-1990s peak, when he was the most-recorded contemporary composer, surpassing even Philip Glass. Yet several of his solo instrumental compositions-Cello Sonata no. 1, Stille Naclit, A Paganini, and Suite in the Old Style--have become standard repertoire for violinists, cellists, and pianists. Chamber and orchestral works have also fared well: the Concerto Grosso no. 1 is a staple of the orchestral literature, and the Piano Quintet and String Quartets nos. 2 and 3 are often heard on chamber concerts. Schnittke's historical significance still arouses debate, but it seems fair to say that his concept of polystylism both foreshadowed and still aptly describes our current information-saturated age of sampling and remixing. Since the early 2000s, publications about have been appearing at a rapid clip. A scholarly yearbook called Dedicated to Alfred Schnittke (Alfredu Shnitke posvyashchaetsya), begun in 1999, has recently seen its eighth volume (published by Kompozitor in Moscow). This publication includes reminiscences from former colleagues, articles from established and younger scholars on works by and his contemporaries, and valuable primary source documents, among them selections from Schnittke's correspondence. A complete critical edition of his compositions is also well underway, published by Kompozitor in Saint Petersburg, and set in motion by the late Alexander Ivashkin. But arguably the biggest news in scholarship recently has been the unveiling of sketches and other documents by the composer, now at the Juilliard School in New York. This treasure trove includes materials related to several pivotal works, among them the Symphonies nos. 2 and 3, Passacaglia, Piano Quintet, Dialogue for cello and seven instruments, Lebenslauf, and Faust Cantata (Seid niichtern und wachet). (Ivana Medic gives a useful preliminary digest of these materials in Alfredn Shnitke posvyashchaetsya, no. 8 [Moscow: Kompozitor, 2011], 109-57.) Unfortunately, a number of other scores, among them the manuscript of Peer Gynt, are either in the process of being, or have recently been, sold at auction, destined for whereabouts unknown. This, as always, represents a very real loss to scholarship. The collection of essays called Postmodernism behind the bon Curtain and edited by Amrei Flechsig and Stefan Weiss, both prime movers and shakers in the active Russian musicological scene in Germany, must be evaluated against this backdrop. studies sits on the cusp of a new period. Scholars fluent in both Russian and German (as well as English)--all crucial for researching the composer--have begun approaching the music and digging into historical sources. That Russian music scholarship is going strong in Germany has been demonstrated by a number of important conferences held there over the past several years; the present volume arose from a conference held in Hannover in 2009 on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Schnittke's birth. In May 2013, I attended a conference in Hannover organized by Weiss on the theme Soviet Music Abroad (Sowjetische Musik im Ausland), and can attest to its crucial value in bringing together scholars from Russia, Europe, the U.K., and North America. Unfortunately, the present collection includes no representatives from the former U.S.S.R.; their contributions might have greatly balanced its perspective. The collection includes 16 essays, three in English, the remaining in German. …

Performing Pain: Music and Trauma in Eastern Europe by Maria Cizmic (review)

Reviewed by: Performing Pain: Music and Trauma in Eastern Europe by Maria Cizmic Alice Miller Cotter Performing Pain: Music and Trauma in Eastern Europe. By Maria Cizmic. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. [xii, 233 p. ISBN 9780199734603. $65.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index, companion Web site. Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, the field of trauma studies has become vast. Primarily as a result of the feminist movement, the return of Vietnam War veterans, and the rise of Holocaust survivor testimonies, researchers began to show widespread interest in understanding the psychological effects of trauma. Although terms such as “shellshock,” “wound to the mind,” and “lasting effect” have been used since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was not until 1980 that the first formal category of trauma, specifically “post-traumatic stress disorder” (PTSD), appeared in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders I (DSM-I) and became recognized as an acute public health concern in the United States. By the 1990s, scholars had begun to find that trauma studies aligned well with the values of interdisciplinary study, and now, with more than thirty years of research from neuroscience and clinical psychology as well as the humanities, this relatively new area of study has given rise to a substantial body of scholarship. Yet despite increased interest in trauma, musicologists have scarcely explored the topic—and likely with reason, since the articulation of connections between music and lived experience is no easy task. Maria Cizmic’s Performing Pain: Music and Trauma in Eastern Europe is more than a pioneering study; it represents a real breakthrough. Stemming from her 2004 dissertation, it is the first book-length investigation to focus on music in relation to trauma. In a sweeping discussion that weaves together issues surrounding memory, truth, ethics, and spirituality as they existed in Eastern Europe and Russia prior to and during glasnost, Cizmic examines how four musical compositions by Alfred Schnittke, Galina Ustvolskaya, Arvo Pärt, and Henryk Górecki bear witness to trauma. She is not afraid to ask big questions of these works: how they metaphorically perform the psychological effects of trauma, how they participate in public conversations regarding suffering, how they shape the meaning of a testimonial act, and how listeners respond (p. 3). In return, her discussion (addressed to both non-specialists and scholars in a variety of disciplines) is as wide-ranging as it is ambitious and requires a reader willing to traverse complicated interdisciplinary terrain. The effort is well worthwhile. To be sure, Cizmic’s work is an important addition to a growing subfield in studies of twentieth-century composers who have used music to engage in a range of reflections in the midst of and aftermath of violence, censorship, and the terror of “not knowing the rules” in totalitarian Eastern European societies. Yet her chief contribution lies in the use of trauma theory as a conceptual tool for understanding how these composers found ways to respond to the brutality, instability, and psychological damage suffered by survivors of the gulag era. The author’s methodological underpinning is fundamentally hermeneutic in scope and draws on a dichotomy in trauma theory, namely that “trauma forces representation to fall apart at the same time that representation offers an important path for recovery” (p. 169). This tension between unspeakability and the need for expression influences how individuals respond to traumatic events, and, as Cizmic shows, aesthetic [End Page 527] corollaries often surface. The matter is further complicated by the fact that the Soviet government managed the meanings of historical traumas by “ignoring them, falsifying records, or transforming them into narratives of heroic triumph” (p. 4), yet people inevitably participated in creative acts to make sense of the realities of suffering and to reckon with what the State did not. Without using overly technical language, the author emphasizes the flexibility of musical expression for engaging the effects of trauma just as composers might use music to reflect on other aspects of human experience. Cizmic strikes a remarkable balance between relying on trauma theory to guide her discussion and stepping back to assess its explanatory work. The most nuanced passages involve Cizmic’s revision of Cathy Caruth and...

From Peace to Freedom: How Classical Music Became Political in the Soviet Union, 1964−1982

The article analyzes the term "freedom" as an important concept in the history of Cold War music. This contested notion existed along two major axes of the prewar era: socialism versus liberalism and social freedom versus autonomy. These neat divisions between East and West began to unravel after 1953 when the different sides started to interact and reference each other. In presenting a case study of the "Moscow Troika" (a group of composers consisting of Alfred Schnittke, Edison Denisov, and Sofia Gubaidulina), this essay highlights the importance of communication and contact among individuals and groups in establishing notions of "freedom." Концепция "свободы" в настоящей статье рассматривается в контексте процессов в советской музыкальной среде времен холодной войны. Понятие "свободы" в политическом пространстве наделялось смыслом в рамках двух важнейших дихотомий: социализм и либерализм, социальная свобода и личная автономия. Географически эти полюса распределялись между "Востоком" и "Западом". Но с 1953 г., когда между противостоящими сторонами началось сотрудничество и вырос взаимный интерес, бинарное восприятие "свободы" усложнилось. Обращаясь к феномену "московской тройки" (группа композиторов вокруг Альфреда Шнитке, Эдисона Денисова и Софии Губайдуллиной), автор настоящей статьи вскрывает важность общения и контактов между индивидуумами и группами в определении понимания "свободы".

The sketches for Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony no. 3, and what they (don’t) tell us?

The analysis of Alfred Schnittke?s Symphony No. 3 that I present in this paper is based on my study of Schnittke?s sketches from the Juilliard Manuscripts Collection. The importance of these manuscripts, which (to my knowledge) are discussed in a peer reviewed publication for the first time, is twofold. On the one hand, the sketches make it possible to correct errors found in earlier analyses of this symphony; in particular, they provide plenty of information on Schnittke?s manipulation of thematic material and the overall constructive principles. On the other hand, although the sketches fail to broach a coherent narrative, they do hint at Schnittke?s hidden intentions and provide clues for an informed reading of this idiosyncratic work and its possible meanings.

Uma Trama para Schnittke: Considerações Narrativas para o Concerto Grosso nº1

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Musikalisches Zitat als kulturelle Assoziation. Die ästhetische Bedeutung des musikalischen Zitats in der koreanischen Musik des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts

Musical quotation, as a technique of using the pre-existing materials in the music composition, has an important significance in both quantitative and qualitative aspects since the late 20th century, as can be seen from works of Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Luciano Berio, Mauricio Kagel, Alfred Schnittke, George Rochberg, George Crumb. In terms of aesthetics, the musical quotation is closely related with postmodernism as the technique deviates from the aesthetics of originality and reveals musical diversity. In this respect, it can be said that ›musical quotation‹ is an important keyword which describes the late 20th century. In this paper, by extending this perspective into the East Asia with a particular focus on South Korea, the musical quotation was investigated. Since the Western music was first introduced into South Korea in the late 19th century, various types of it have been combined in the country to produce works with a wide variety of musical forms and styles. Among these, works of Na, Un Young (1922–1993), Kang, Unsu (*1960), and Chung, Tae Bong (*1952) who employed the technique of musical quotation in their compositions were examined in detail here. Through this study, quotations in Korean music were found to play a semantic role in revealing the cultural context, similar to the West. However, several differences were found as well. First of all, there are only a few works with the quotation technique employed by Korean composers, probably due to the prevailing influence of the modernist aesthetics yet in Korea. Moreover, it is noteworthy that in Korean works, quoted targets were often selected from musical elements which were very familiar to Korean cultural ones. In this respect, the quotation technique which has been shown to embody not only culture and human, but also history and society, plays a significant role in reflecting the identity as a Korean composer.

Alfred Schnittke and the End of Russian Classic Music

The article surveys the ideological and cultural situation in Russian music in the 1970s. It was the period when the most important traits of Alfred Schnittke’s work became apparent, which marked his transition from the images and themes of the Russian “Grand Style” to more complicated sound structures of modern music. Having inherited the intellectual and ethical traditions from Shostakovich, Schnittke brought to music a new perception of reality including a different understanding of a person’s state of mind. Thus, Schnittke’s film scores did not only reflect the shift of modern artistic paradigms, but became a form of philosophic self-consciousness in the context of post-modernist global changes. Schnittke’s music opened the stage of “indirect statement” in film music, which enriched and transformed the meaning of the screen image

I Believe… in What? Arvo Pärt's and Alfred Schnittke's Polystylistic Credos

From the late 1960s until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, numerous composers, especially those belonging to the generation born in the 1930s and commonly referred to as non-conformist, 'avant-garde' or 'unofficial', produced over 100 religious musical works. Some of these composers, such as Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) and Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998) employed the controversially flamboyant polystylistic compositional idiom to express their faith in God. Because the merits of the employment of mimetic polystylism in the realm of sacred music have rarely been analysed, my aim is to demonstrate that, in the Soviet context, it was a very appropriate vehicle for conveying religious sentiments by musical means, as it enabled the composers to express their beliefs, but also to narrate related stories. I shall address this issue by analysing three pieces: Arvo Pärt's Credo for piano solo, chorus and orchestra (1968), and the Credo movements from Alfred Schnittke's Requie m (1975) for three sopranos, contralto, tenor, mixed choir and instrumental ensemble, and Second Symphony 'St Florian' (1979) for mixed chamber choir and large orchestra. The reason for choosing the Credo 'genre' is that by definition it is a manifesto of the composer's faith in God, and hence it bears exceptional moral and spiritual weight.

Alfred Schnittke's Nagasaki: Soviet Nuclear Culture, Radio Moscow, and the Global Cold War

This article examines Alfred Schnittke's final conservatory composition, the oratorio Nagasaki (1957–58, revised 1958–59). Both controversial and yet doctrinaire, Nagasaki proves an unexpectedly rich object of study owing to the unusual circumstances surrounding its dissemination. Its radio broadcasts during the 1960s both within the Soviet Union and abroad provide unique insights into Soviet perceptions of the bomb. The domestic broadcast suggests hitherto unexplored aspects of Cold War culture within the USSR, especially the changing attitudes, both official and unofficial, toward atomic weapons (what can be referred to as nuclear culture). The broadcast to Japan on Radio Moscow (Moskovskoye radio, a Soviet equivalent of the U.S. Voice of America, or VOA) indicates the view of nuclear weapons it promulgated abroad. Thanks to records of its 1960 Radio Moscow broadcast in Japan, Nagasaki provides an extraordinary opportunity to chart the use of music in Soviet international propaganda efforts via the airwaves. This article relies upon an unpublished copyist's score and the original, unreleased 1959 recording of Nagasaki, in addition to previously unknown archival documents. It also synthesizes, corrects, and supplements the existing accounts of the work, all of them in various ways incomplete or inaccurate.

THE FAUST LEGEND AND ITS ROLE IN ALFRED SCHNITTKE'S WORK

Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998) is among the most notable composers in the second half of the 20th century. Over the past 20 years his work has won wide acceptance and greater international attention. His music, performed by world-class musicians in countless countries and in the most prestigious concert halls, has become an integral part of Russian cultural heritage. Schnittke's vast popularity is evident in the existence of so many publications, reviews, and dissertations not only in Russia but all over the world. However, some aspects of the composer's life and music remain unexplored, and a study of Schnittke's work would not be complete without examining one particular subject which influenced Schnittke throughout his creative life: the Faust Legend. The Faustian Legend ‘was among the forces that supported Schnittke's dialogue with the past and shaped his identity’. Before delving into this topic it would be logical to give a brief excursus in the history of the Faustian legend itself.

A Soviet Credo: Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony by Pauline Fairclough (review)

reviews 539 awareness of the problems of the modern condition. These are the grounds on which Suvchinskii criticized Prokof'ev's work and approved Stravinskii's creation. Even though the title of Glebov's essay, 'Le fremissement du temps: Petr Suvchinsky, l'eurasisme et l'esthetique de lamodernite' might allude to Suvchinskii's renowned discussion of the concept of time,which Stravinskii embraced, this aesthetic notion is not the focus of this chapter. Instead, Glebov contextualizes the emergence of Eurasianism and the movement's main doctrines, with an emphasis on those that Suvchinskii endorsed, highlighting his predilection formodernism. Thus, just likeWalterskirchen, Glebov reconstructs the intellectual, political and cultural milieu of Suvchin skii's times, putting in perspective some of his Eurasianist writings from a purely historical outlook. There is some overlap in a few issues tackled by Glebov and Walterskirchen, such as the importance of Blok's ideas for the Eurasianists, yet the coexistence of the two texts in the same volume confirms not only that Suvchinskii's views and Eurasianism may be approached from various angles, but also that they are still open to multiple interpretations. Regarding Suvchinskii's article 'Epocha Very', for instance, their analyses differ to such an extent that the reader might get the impression that the two authors are not in fact examining the same work. Humbertclaude's conclud ing note underscores, appropriately, the interdependence of all aspects of Suvchinskii's thought.Anyone with an interest in Suvchinskii and Eurasianism will find thisbook particularly useful. ChristChurch,Oxford Katerina Levidou Fairclough, Pauline. A Soviet Credo: Shostakovich'sFourth Symphony. Ashgate, Aldershot and Burlington, VT, 2006. xxxiv + 261 pp. Musical extracts. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. ?55.00. A book dedicated to one particular symphony is a great idea, especially when one discusses such an extraordinary work as the Symphony No. 4 ofDmitrii Shostakovich. Pauline Fairclough's new book, A SovietCredo:Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony, echoes David Fanning's excellent RMA monograph on theTenth Symphony (TheBreath of theSymphonist: Shostakovich's Tenth,London 1988). Just likeFanning, Fairclough goes much into the detail of themusic of the symphony, analysing itmovement by movement, section by section. This ex tended second (pp. 74-229) part of the book, written with meticulous accuracy, should be recommended to any Shostakovich scholar, any student in the field of Russian music and everybody interested in the development of the twentieth-century symphony in general. I have no knowledge of any other analytical study dedicated to the Fourth Symphony except Alfred Schnittke's detailed account of its orchestration ('Zametki ob orkhestrovoi polifonii v Chetvyortoi simfoniiD. D. Shostakovicha', in Muzyka i sovremennost, 4,Moscow, 1966, pp. 127-60, recently reprinted inA. Schnittke, Stat'i 0muzyke, Moscow, 2004 ? surprisingly not mentioned in Fairclough's book). 540 seer, 86, 3, july 2008 The shorter introductory chapters are well written and dedicated to the pattern of a symphony and to the 'social' and 'political' profile of this impor tant genre of 'monumental propaganda' in Soviet Russia of the early 1930s, as well as to Shostakovich's attitude toward this 'Soviet' idea of a symphony. Fairclough shows 'the sophistication of Shostakovich's innovative attempt to rejuvenate the Soviet symphonic tradition along Mahlerian lines' (p. xxviii). She is also quite convincing in describing how 'Shostakovich's "new way" as symphonistwas implicitly connected with his search for a new, contemporary symphonic language both modern and accessible' (p. xxv). Impressive, if relatively short, sections on 'The Soviet Symphony in the 1930s: Political and Aesthetic Background' are: Cultural revolution; Proletarian symphonism; Sollertinskii and Mahler: 1932; Perestroika: The Resolution of 1932;The writ ers' congress of 1934; 'Discussion about Soviet Symphonism': 1935; and A typology of Soviet symphonism. These sections give a valuable panorama of cultural and social events in the Soviet Union at the time of Shostakovich's work on the symphony. Fairclough provides some very helpful quotes from Sollertinskii's short book on Gustav Mahler's symphonies. The major (and quite interesting) idea of the book is that the Fourth Symphony was written in line with the official demands for a Soviet sym phony as seen in the early 1930s.One part of this idea is correct, namely that Shostakovich wrote his symphony at the timewhen...

What Was “Shostakovich,” and What Came Next?

The title of this article is borrowed from anthropologist Katherine Verdery's 1996 study What Was Socialism, and What Comes Next? In her book Verdery surveyed the recent changes in Eastern Europe, and specifically Romania, from her vantage point in the uncertain period following the momentous events from 1989 to 1991 in the former Soviet bloc. Similarly, this article explores how Shostakovich, widely perceived in 1975 as the musical representative of socialism, influenced what came after him. It details how Soviet composers from the younger generations, including Edison Denisov, Mieczysław Weinberg, Boris Tishchenko, Alfred Schnittke, and Valentin Sil'vestrov, dealt with Shostakovich's legacy in their compositions written in his memory, including Denisov's DSCH, Weinberg's Symphony no.12, Tishchenko's Symphony no. 5, Schnittke's Prelude In Memoriam Dmitri Shostakovich and Third String Quartet, and Sil'vestrov's Postludium DSCH. In their memorial works, as they wrestled with the legacy of Shostakovich and his overwhelming influence, these composers also grappled with the shifting nature of the Soviet state, changing musical styles both foreign and domestic, and fundamental issues of aesthetic representation and identity associated with the move from modernism to postmodernism then affecting all composers in the Western art music tradition. The 1970s came at the heels of a decade of remarkable change in Soviet music and society, but at the time of Shostakovich's death, change in Soviet life began to seem increasingly unlikely. Despite recent interpretations by scholars such as anthropologist Alexei Yurchak that emphasize the fundamental immutability of the 1970s, however, these memorial compositions show that audible and significant developments were indeed occurring in the musical styles of the 1970s and early 1980s. Examining Shostakovich's legacy therefore also reveals the larger changes of the Soviet 1970s and early 1980s, both musical and otherwise.

Framing Faust: twentieth-century cultural struggles

Revealing the myth's contributions to structures of power and hegemony. In this interdisciplinary cultural history that encompasses film, literature, music, and drama, Inez Hedges follows the thread of the Faustian rebel in the major intellectual currents of the last hundred years. She presents and his counterpart Mephistopheles as antagonistic - yet complementary - figures whose productive conflict was integral to such phenomena as the birth of narrative cinema, the rise of modernist avant-gardes before World War II, and feminist critiques of Western cultural traditions. Framing Faust: Twentieth-Century Cultural Struggles pursues a dialectical approach to cultural history. Using the probing lens of cultural studies, Hedges shows how claims to the Faustian legacy permeated the struggle against Nazism in the 1930s while infusing not only the search for socialist utopias in Russia, France, and Germany, but also the quest for legitimacy on both sides of the Cold War divide after 1945. Hedges balances new perspectives on such well-known works as Thomas Mann's Dr Faustus and Jack Kerouac's Dr Sax with discussions of previously over-looked twentieth-century expressions of the myth, including American film noir and the films of Stan Brakhage. She evaluates musical compositions - Hanns Eisler's libretto, the opera Votre by Henri Pousseur and Michel Butor, and Alfred Schnittke's Cantata - as well as works of fiction and drama in French and German, many of which have heretofore never been discussed outside narrow disciplinary confines. Enhanced by twenty-four illustrations, Framing Faust provides a fascinating and focused narrative of some of the major cultural struggles of the past century as seen through the Faustian prism and establishes as an important present-day frame of reference.

The birth of contemporary Russia out of the spirit of Russian music

In this article, the author observes and discusses the effects of Russian history on Russian music in the second half of the XXth century. Forming part of author?s long-range persistent polemics against Russian exceptionalism and against the kind of romantic overvaluation of art, the article expresses sharp and provocative views of the main stylistic tendencies in Soviet and Russian music during and after the epoch of the Cold War, as well as after the Second Russian Revolution in 1991. Special attention is paid to the activity and works of the most prominent Russian composers of their time Andrey Volkonsky, Edison Denisov, Nikolai Keretnikov, Arvo P?rt, Elena Frisova, Sofia Gubaidulina and Alfred Schnittke.

Goethes Musiktheater: Singspiele, Opern, Festspiele, 'Faust' by Tina Hartmann Faust: Mythos und Musik by Hans Joachim Kreutzer (review)

MLR, ioi.i, 2006 279 Goethes Musiktheater: Singspiele, Opern, Festspiele, 'Faust'. By Tina Hartmann. (Hermaea, 105) Tubingen: Niemeyer. 2004. viii + 568 pp. ?86. ISBN 3-48415105 -6. Faust: Mythos und Musik. By Hans Joachim Kreutzer. Munich: Beck. 2003. 187 pp. ?29.90. ISBN 3-406-50464-7. ImAuftrieb: GrenzuberschreitungenmitGoethes 'Faust'inInszenierungender neunziger Jahre. Ed. by Hans-Peter Bayerdorfer. (Theatron, 36) Tubingen: Niemeyer. 2002. 239 pp. ?56. ISBN 3-484-66036-8. Scholars brought up to think of drama and opera as distinct arts may be unaware of the extent to which eighteenth- and nineteenth-century theatre was reliant on music. Plays which students read as pure text were regularly dependent on incidental accompaniments that could determine their success. Resident orchestras needed to be engaged, and audiences expected to hear background music in much the same way as cinema-goers do today. There was also the widespread practice of interspersing seri? ous drama with interludes and entr'actes?an intrusive device by today's standards, but one which Goethe employs when he inserts 'Walpurgisnachtstraum' into Faust, thus pre-empting any lingering hopes of linearity in the plot-line. Tina Hartmann's main concern is the seventeen libretti which Goethe wrote or planned. They are examined with several key issues in mind: the influence of the North German Singspiel and French opera comique, divergences from the customary norms, and the effectthat his engagement with musical theatre was to have on Faust. The author's sensitive approach disproves Calvin Brown's dictum that libretti tend to interest the dilettante, the faddist, and the crackpot. Goethe is shown to have been well attuned to the requirements of the medium and is credited with attempting to establish a poetology of the genre. Old favourites are placed in a new light: 'Erlkonig', for example, reads differentlywhen it is recognized that it was sung by the suicidally distraught bride of a loutish fisherman. Hartmann devotes much space to background and contextualization, stressing that audience awareness of the 'classics' was preserved less by Sophocles and Homer than by countless popular operas on mythical themes. Sections of Greek drama were chanted or sung, and Herder even claimed: 'Bei den Griechen war die ganze Sprache Gesang' (quoted p. 496). These are some of the reasons that persuaded the poet to focus on Singspiele, Musikfeste, and ltalian favourites such as carnival parades, intermezzi, and opere buffe.Far from insisting on the primacy of the text, he actu? ally facilitated a transition from 'Erzahlung mit Gesang' to 'Gesang mit Erzahlung' (p. 131) and, as Schiller observed, achieved a 'Salto mortale in die Opernwelt' long before the recognizably operatic portions of Faust II were committed to paper. Not all his effortswere successful. The radically progressive Scherz, List undRache ended up as an unstageable monstrosity. Several later projects, from the sequel to Mozart's Zauberflote to Der Lowenstuhl and Feradeddin und Kolaila, were doomed by the ab? sence of a suitable composer; neither Carl Friedrich Zelter nor Bernhard Anselm Weber could convince the poet that they would do his texts justice. Schiller's influence on the final form of Faust I has long been acknowledged; what is less well known is that both he and Goethe were strongly influenced by the 'epic' potential of recent operas such as Salieri's Tarare and Mozart's Don Giovanni. Hart? mann reproduces relevant portions of their correspondence before undertaking an examination of the musical and operatic components of Goethe's unique conflation of domestic tragedy with world theatre. Here, too, her approach is no less rigorous for being on familiar territory. Hans Joachim Kreutzer's Faust: Mythos und Musik is, by contrast, a relatively slender compilation of eight distinct chapters that proceed from the Faust Book of 1587 to musical compositions by Louis Spohr, Robert Schumann, and Hector Berlioz, 280 Reviews via Charles Gounod and Arrigo Boito, right down to Alfred Schnittke. The book is packed with interesting asides and thoughtful comments that make itideal reading for the relative novice. The study begins, rightly,with Spohr, whose reputation exceeded that of Beethoven in his day and whose Faust opera enjoyed huge popularity until it was replaced by Gounod. A tendency to see everything through Goethe's eyes...

Andrey Volkonsky and the Beginnings of Unofficial Music in the Soviet Union

AbstractThis article examines the compositional history and early reception of Soviet composer Andrey Volkonsky's two earliest and most important serial compositions, Musica Stricta and Suite of Mirrors (Syuita zerkal). These two works spurred on the formation of an unofficial music culture in the Soviet Union during the Thaw of the late 1950s and 1960s. Volkonsky (b. 1933) was the first and initially the most visible of a group of young Soviets known by officialdom as the “young composers” (“molodïïye kompozitorïï”). These “young composers”—among them Sofia Gubaidulina, Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, and Edison Denisov—came of age in the years following Stalin's death in 1953. Their compositions reflected their attempts to “catch up” with the Western avant-garde following decades of musical development that had been denied them under Stalin. The first “new” technique these composers adopted was serialism, and Volkonsky's early compositions illustrate the specifically Soviet approach to the method and demonstrate the meanings it held for Soviet officials and Soviet audiences. Volkonsky's early works also force a broadening of current interpretations of postwar European and American serialism. Much of the information in the article stems from personal interviews with Volkonsky and the other leading composers and performers of the Thaw, as well as archival research conducted in Russia.

Besedy s Al'fredom Shnitke by A. G. Shnitke A. V. Ivashkin (review)

REVIEWS 739 authoritativestatements'(p. 62). ForHerschkowitz,musicwas a successionof great masterworks written by Austro-German composers, though those admittedto his listof the greateventuallynumberedjust seven (Bach,Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Mahler, Schoenberg and Webern) and even then Beethoven was consideredto have 'only six symphonies'(p. 8). The book is neither a biography nor a study of Herschkowitz'swork;after an introductionthere follows a seriesof recollections of lessons and conversations between Herschkowitz and Smirnov over a period of nearly twenty years, with examples from Herschkowitz's writings used to provide more detailed comment on his ideas. (The introductory chapter was originally written as an article in thejournal Tempo L'990, PP. 34-38] and would have benefited from thorough rewriting since it frequently duplicates material found laterin thebook.)The book also includesa discussionof Herschkowitz's compositions, which he regarded 'in second place' (p. 227) to his writingson music. Although this part of the book is necessarily sketchy (only a few of Herschkowitz'sscores are available), Smirnov does manage with the help of musical examples to give a strong sense of what this music is like (distinctive connections with Webern and Beethoven) and to draw parallels between Herschkowitz'scompositions and his teachings. At the heart of the book is Herschkowitz's approach (following Webern's practice), to analysisof Beethoven, in particularhis piano sonatas. (The book has plentiful musical examples but is best read with a copy of the Beethoven sonatasto hand.)Analysisproceeds in the main fromconsiderationof opening thematic statements,definedas 'sentence', 'period'or 'threepartsong'. There is here perhaps an overemphasison labels at the expense of consideration of process, but Herschkowitz'spurpose is clear; 'Why is it so important [... .] to decide whether this is a sentence or period? [. . .] only by this way can we understandthe beauty of this music' (p. 148). Structuralimplicationsof these thematic definitionsare explored, but it is only in the finalpartof the book which could fruitfullyhave been expanded that Smirnovattemptsto apply Herschkowitz's methods in a more thorough examination of whole movements. But this is not a straightforwardtheory book; although Smirnov's preface expressesthe hope that it 'could help to filla gap in musicaleducation' (p. vii) it is hard to see the book having its greatestvalue as a theory textbook it simply isn'twrittenlike that. It will, however, be of immense value to anyone interestedin post-warSoviet music, or thepedagogical methods of the Second Viennese School or indeed anyone simply fascinated by the unending conundrumsof writingabout and tryingto explain music. HerfordCollege, Oxford H. R. COLLINs RICE Shnitke,A. G. and Ivashkin,A.V. Besedy sAlfredom Shnitke. Compiled with an introduction by A.V. Ivashkin. Klassika-XXI, Moscow, 2003. 3I8 pp. Index. Priceunknown. AL'FRED SHNITKE (perhaps better known as Alfred Schnittke, I934-98) was not only one of the outstanding Russian composers of the twentieth century, 740 SEER, 82, 3, 2004 but also a fascinatingpersonalityin his own right, and a perhaps emblematic figure in the music of his time, being a postmodernist through and through. Unlike such Westerncomposers as Berio, for instance, Shnitkedid not quote as such but, rather, recycled workswhich were either thoroughly cliched or drawn from his own earliercompositions. In the dozen or so years before his death he won considerablepopularityin Great Britainfor his often startling, always fresh compositions. Most of his works are now recorded on compact discs, and Professor Ivashkin, the organizer of these 'conversations', has himself recorded all Shnitke'smusic for cello, as well as writing an accessible yet learned English-language guide to his works (see SEER, 76, 3, 1998, pp. 549-5 i). He has also been successful in attracting the valuable Shnitke archiveto London where it providesa valuablesourcefor research. Besedy s AlfredomShnitke first appeared in I994 (Moscow: RIK 'Kul'tura') and was translated into various languages. The second edition here under review contains three new items:the text of Shnitke'stalkat the Molodezhnyi Klub; a shortarticleby him on the pianistMarinaludina; and a reminiscence of him by the violinist Mark Lubotskii. It also contains a corrected and expanded catalogue of Shnitke'sworks.The discography,however,whichwas alreadywell out of date and inadequate in view of the explosion of recordings of his music, has been dropped. The book is in three parts:'Conversationswith Al'fredShnitke';'Introductions , articlesand...