Search engine for discovering works of Art, research articles, and books related to Art and Culture
ShareThis
Javascript must be enabled to continue!

Further Thoughts on Schnittke

View through CrossRef
If Schnittke's plundering of past styles brings to mind Stravinsky, important distinctions must be made. Schnittke does not quarry the past with Stravinskian detachment; his stylistic amalgams can be a deal more riotous (as for example in the First Symphony) than anything Stravinsky would have countenanced. It is in fact Shostakovich rather than Stravinsky who comes to mind as the more apparent influence, with his striking juxtapositions of the sublime and the banal, the diatonic and the chromatic. Schnittke's music can occasionally sound like listening to Shostakovich through an accumulated wealth of musical debris from the Western tradition. Another obstacle to any assessment of Schnittke's work lies in the apparent naivety of so much of his technique. 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 (or whole movements, as in the opening movement of the Requiem of 1974–5), and serial devices amount to the simplest chromatic formulations. The Quasi una Sonata (1968) for violin and piano, for example, demonstrates that ten years before the Concerto Grosso No. 1 Schnittke was exploring the use of chromatic tetrachords in quasi-serial formulations.
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Title: Further Thoughts on Schnittke
Description:
If Schnittke's plundering of past styles brings to mind Stravinsky, important distinctions must be made.
Schnittke does not quarry the past with Stravinskian detachment; his stylistic amalgams can be a deal more riotous (as for example in the First Symphony) than anything Stravinsky would have countenanced.
It is in fact Shostakovich rather than Stravinsky who comes to mind as the more apparent influence, with his striking juxtapositions of the sublime and the banal, the diatonic and the chromatic.
Schnittke's music can occasionally sound like listening to Shostakovich through an accumulated wealth of musical debris from the Western tradition.
Another obstacle to any assessment of Schnittke's work lies in the apparent naivety of so much of his technique.
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 (or whole movements, as in the opening movement of the Requiem of 1974–5), and serial devices amount to the simplest chromatic formulations.
The Quasi una Sonata (1968) for violin and piano, for example, demonstrates that ten years before the Concerto Grosso No.
1 Schnittke was exploring the use of chromatic tetrachords in quasi-serial formulations.

Related Results

The Last “Hero” and Jia Pingwa's Ecological Concerns in Remembering Wolves
The Last “Hero” and Jia Pingwa's Ecological Concerns in Remembering Wolves
Abstract As a writer rooted in China's historical, social, and cultural transformation, Jia Pingwa has expressed in his works his anxieties over environmental deteri...
Art. IX.—On the Muhammedan Science of Tâbír, or Interpretation of Dreams
Art. IX.—On the Muhammedan Science of Tâbír, or Interpretation of Dreams
The subject of Dreams has invited the inquiry of science in many ages and countries. A phenomenon of such frequent occurrence in connection with one of the ordinary functions of th...
Roman Macroeconomics
Roman Macroeconomics
This final section brings together my thoughts and speculations on the implications of the preceding chapters on individual markets. When I began working on Roman economics, I did ...
The singer, not the song: women singers as composer-poets
The singer, not the song: women singers as composer-poets
In his comprehensive celebration of women singers in the twentieth century, Wilfrid Mellers proposed a three-stage socio-musical evolution from the jazz, blues and gospel songs sun...
Communicating archaeology
Communicating archaeology
As archaeologists, we are often called upon to discuss our work with various groups that share our interest in human culture and human adaptation, to communicate with those whose h...
Further thoughts, and a maniFESTo, on jazz (festivals) and the decolonization of music
Further thoughts, and a maniFESTo, on jazz (festivals) and the decolonization of music
This short critical-creative piece originates in an EU-funded project on heritage in improvised music festivals (CHIME). It is a supplement to other recently published research by ...
The Paradox of the Prometheus Vinctus
The Paradox of the Prometheus Vinctus
The student of Greek religion has no more difficult problem to face than that of the Prometheus Vinctus. In previous writings I had always evaded it, because I had not found any so...

Back to Top