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Schnittke in Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

John Webb
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Extract

Generally, I find Alfred Schnittke's music rewarding and refreshing; however, I cannot help treating certain aspects of it with some suspicion. The elements which form the basis of my doubts are cogently summed up by Hugh Collins Rice:

Structures are often the most basic of designs, thematic techniques appear unsophisticated (transformations, canons, simple heterophonic devices). Climaxes are achieved by extravagant instrumental gestures, long pedal points are used to unify paragraphs…and serial devices amount to the simplest chromatic formations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 182 , September 1992 , pp. 19 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

1 ‘Further thoughts on Schnittke’, Tempo 168, March 1989.

2 Morgan, Robert P., ‘Ives and Mahler: Mutual responses to the end of an era’ Nineteenth Century Music, 07 1978 Google Scholar.

3 Steven Pruslin, ‘Peter Maxwell Davies's Second Tavener Fantasia’ Tempo Booklet No.2 – Peter Maxwell Davies: Studies from two decades.

4 Schnittke interviewed by Robert Steinitz at the 1990 Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music. Author's transcript.

5 Henze, Hans Werner, Music and Politics: Collected writings 1953–81 (London: Faber and Faber, 1982) p. 153 Google Scholar.

6 Sleeve note for recording of Berio's Sinfonia, CBS 61079.

7 Pruslin, ibid.

8 Mitchell, Donald, Gustav Mahler – The Wunderhorn Years (London: Faber and Faber, 1975) p.170 Google Scholar.

9 Morgan, ibid.

10 Boulez, Pierre, ‘Schoenberg is Dead’. The Rise of Modernism in Europe (Open University A308 Documents booklet), p. 60 Google Scholar.

11 The Protective Mask of Buffoonery, an interval talk broadcast on Radio 3. Date of transmission unknown.

12 McQuere, G.D. (ed), Russian Theoretical Thought in Music (UMI Research Press, 1983) p. 382 Google Scholar.

13 ibid.

14 Brown, Malcolm H., ‘The Soviet Russian Concept of ‘Intonanzia’ and Musical Imagery’ Music Quarterly, 1974 p. 557 Google Scholar.

15 Mitchell, ibid.

16 Gerard McBurney, ‘Schnittke and Stylistic Borrowing’. Programme booklet of the 1990 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

17 Norris, Christopher ‘Shostakovich: politics and musical language’, in Norris, (ed) Shostakovich: the man and his music (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1982)Google Scholar.

18 Roseberry, ibid.

19 McBurney, ibid.

20 Quoted in McBurney, ibid.

21 Quoted in Cooke, Deryck Gustav Mahler – an Introduction to his Music (London: Faber Music, 1980)Google Scholar.