The Routledge Handbook to the Music of Alfred Schnittke is a comprehensive study of the work of one of the most important Russian composers of the late 20th century. Each piece is discussed in detail, with particular attention to the composer’s groundbreaking polystylism, as well as his unique approach to musical symbolism and his deep engagement with Christian themes.
This is the first publication to look at Schnittke’s output in its entirety, and for most works it represents either the first ever published analysis or the first in a language other than Russian. The volume presents new research from the Ivashkin-Schnittke Archive at Goldsmiths, University of London and the collection of Schnittke’s compositional sketches at the Julliard Library in New York. It also draws on the substantial research on Schnittke’s music published in the Russian language. Including a work list and bibliography of primary and secondary sources, this is an essential reference for all those interested in Russian music, 20th-century music and performance studies.
CHAPTER 1: ERAS AND TECHNIQUES
STUDENT WORKS 1953–1963
SERIAL PERIOD 1963–1971
Serialism — Sonorism: Ligeti and the Polish School
FUNEREAL AND RELIGIOUS WORKS 1972–1980
Funereal Works: Schnittke’s Quiet Period — Religious Works — Liturgical Allusions in Instrumental Works — Representations of the Cross — Common-Mediant Chord Relations — Bells
POLYSTYLISM 1968–1991
Representations of Evil: Popular Music and the Banal — Bach and the Baroque — Monograms — Harmonic and Contrapuntal Techniques — Non-tonal Triadic Relations — The [0,1,6,7] Pitch Set — Schnittke Stretto — Structural Innovations — Sonoristic Cadences — Coda as Exposition
LATE STYLE 1985–1994
CHAPTER 2 – STAGE WORKS
BALLETS
Introduction — Labyrinths — Der gelbe Klang — Gogol Suite and Sketches — Peer Gynt
OPERAS
Introduction — Life with an Idiot — Gesualdo — Historia von D. Johann Fausten
THEATRE MUSIC
CHAPTER 3: CHORAL WORKS
Introduction — Nagasaki — Songs of War and Peace — Voices of Nature — Requiem — Der Sonnengesang des Franz von Assisi — Minnesang — Seid nüchtern und wachet... (Faust Cantata) — Three Choruses — Choir Concerto — Penitential Psalms — Opening Verse for the First Festival Sunday — Festive Chant — Agnus Dei — Lux Aeterna
CHAPTER 4: SOLO VOCAL WORKS
Introduction — Three Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva — 10 Songs from Turandot — Eight Songs from Don Carlos — Magdalina’s Song — Three Madrigals — Three Scenes — Drei Gedichte von Viktor Schnittke — Mutter — 5 Fragments to Paintings by Hieronymus Bosch/Fragment for Orchestra
CHAPTER 5 – ORCHESTRAL WORKS
SYMPHONIES
Introduction — Symphony No. 1 — Symphony No. 2 ‘St Florian’ — Symphony No. 3 — Symphony No. 4 — Concerto Grosso No. 4/Symphony No. 5 — Symphony No. 6 — Symphony No. 7 — Symphony No. 8 — Symphony No. 9 —
CONCERTOS AND CONCERTI GROSSI
Introduction — Violin Concerto No. 1 — Concerto for Piano and Orchestra — Music for Piano and Chamber Orchestra — Violin Concerto No. 2 — Concerto for Oboe and Harp — Cadenzas to Concertos by Beethoven and Mozart — Concerto Grosso No. 1 — Violin Concerto No. 3 — Concerto for Piano and Strings — Concerto Grosso No. 2 — Violin Concerto No. 4 — Concerto Grosso No. 3 — Viola Concerto — Cello Concerto No. 1 — Concerto for Piano Four Hands — Monologue for Viola and Strings — Cello Concerto No. 2 — Concerto Grosso No. 5 — Concerto Grosso No. 6 — Concerto for Three — Viola Concerto No. 2
OTHER ORCHESTRAL WORKS
pianissimo... — Passacaglia — Ritual — (Kein) Sommernachtstraum — Four Aphorisms for Chamber Orchestra — Sutartinės — Hommage a Grieg — Symphonic Prologue and For Liverpool
CHAPTER 6: CHAMBER WORKS
Introduction
WORKS FOR STRING QUARTET
String Quartet No. 1 — String Quartet No. 2 — String Quartet No. 3 — String Quartet No. 4 — Canon in Memoriam Igor Stravinsky — Variations for String Quartet
WORKS FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO/VIOLIN DUET/VIOLIN SOLO
Violin Sonata No. 1 — Violin Sonata No. 2 (Quasi una Sonata) — Violin Sonata No. 3 — Suite in the Old Style and Musica Nostalgica — Greeting Rondo — Prelude in Memoriam Dmitry Shostakovich — Stille Nacht — A Paganini — Madrigal in Memoriam Oleg Kagan — Polka for Violin and Piano
WORKS FOR CELLO AND PIANO/CELLO SOLO/CELLO AND ENSEMBLE
Cello Sonata No. 1 — Cello Sonata No. 2 — Dialogue for Cello and 7 Instrumentalists — 4 Hymns for Cello and Ensemble — Klingende Buchstaben — Epilogue from Peer Gynt — Improvisation for Unaccompanied Cello
WORKS FOR STRING ENSEMBLE/STRINGS AND PIANO
Piano Quintet — Stille Musik — String Trio/Piano Trio — Canon An das Frankfurter Opernhaus — Piano Quartet
OTHER CHAMBER WORKS
Serenade — Cantus Perpetuus for Keyboard and Percussion — Polyphonic Tango — Moz-Art/Moz-Art à la Haydn/Moz-Art à la Mozart — Septet — Lebenslauf — Schall und Hall — 3x7 — For the Ninetieth Birthday of Alfred Schlee — Percussion Quartet
CHAPTER 7: KEYBOARD WORKS
Introduction
PIANO SONATAS
Piano Sonata No. 1 — Piano Sonata No. 2 — Piano Sonata No. 3
OTHER PIANO WORKS
Children’s Pieces, 1960 and 1971 — Prelude and Fugue — Improvisation and Fugue — Variations on a Chord — Dedication to Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich for Piano Six Hands — Five Aphorisms for Piano and Reciter — Sonatina for Piano Four Hands
ORGAN AND HARPSICHORD WORKS
Two Short Pieces for Organ — Three Fragments for Harpsichord
CHAPTER 8: FILM MUSIC
Introduction — Igor Talankin — Andrei Khrzhanovsky — Aleksandr Mitta — Larisa Shepitko —
Elem Klimov — Late Film Scores — Concert Suites
WORKS LIST
A NOTE ON SOURCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
Biography
Gavin Dixon is a writer and editor specialising in classical music. He is Editor of Schnittke Studies (Routledge 2017) and Music Editor of Fanfare, America’s leading classical review magazine.
‘Dixon has established himself as an authoritative guide to Schnittke’s output…The handbook synthesizes available sources, compiling and collating material from the dominant interpretative studies in Russian, German, and English…When combined with the evidence from Schnittke’s sketches—illuminated in the handbook with selected facsimiles and transcriptions—Dixon affords informed insight into Schnittke’s compositional workshop…there is so much that is indispensable in this volume; I am going to refer to the handbook frequently in my own research, and I will point my students toward it as well.’
Peter J. Schmelz, in Notes, Volume 79, Number 3, March 2023
‘In this Routledge Handbook, [Dixon] has written the first comprehensive guide to all of Schnittke’s compositions in English. Dixon compiles much of the extant information on Schnittke’s music, including the significant untranslated Russian-language scholarship. Dixon’s own contributions are vital, contextualising and synthesising the work of others as well as presenting original analyses…This book is a significant contribution to the newly burgeoning English-language Schnittke literature. It is an invaluable reference source for both its consolidation of existing research and for Dixon’s original work.’
Nathan Friedman, in Tempo 77 (303) 2023
