Bogoroditse Djevo No.1 in "Three sacred Hyms"
Composer: Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), 1984
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Alfred G. |
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Schnittke |
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1984 |
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Bogoroditse Djevo |
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Alfred
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Schnittke |
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1934 |
1988 |
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1984 |
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Symphony No.4 |
Countertenor, Tenor, chor |
chamber orchestra |
| Recording: not available |
| MIDI / Lyrics: not available |
| Score: not available |
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| Internet
references, biography information. |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Schnittke |
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Alfred Schnittke (Russian: Альфре́д
Га́рриевич Шни́тке (Al'fred Garrievič Šnitke); November 24, 1934 – August 3,
1998) was a Soviet composer. Schnittke's early music shows the strong
influence of Dmitri Shostakovich. He developed a polystylistic technique in
works such as the epic First Symphony (1969–1972) and First Concerto Grosso
(1977). In the 1980s, Schnittke's music began to become more widely known
abroad with the publication of his Second (1980) and Third (1983) String
Quartets and the String Trio (1985); the ballet Peer Gynt (1985–1987); the
Third (1981), Fourth (1984), and Fifth (1988) Symphonies; and the Viola
(1985) and 1st Cello (1985–1986) Concertos. As his health deteriorated,
Schnittke's music started to abandon much of the extroversion of his
polystylism and retreated into a more withdrawn, bleak style.
Life and career
Schnittke's father, Harry Viktorovich Schnittke (1914–1975, rus.), was
Jewish and born in Frankfurt.[1] He moved to the USSR in 1927 and worked as
a journalist and translator from the Russian language into German. His
mother, Maria Iosifovna Schnittke (née Vogel, 1910–1972), was a Volga German
born in Russia. Schnittke's paternal grandmother, Tea Abramovna Katz
(1889–1970), was a philologist, translator, and editor of German-language
literature.
Alfred Schnittke was born in Engels in the Volga-German Republic of the
RSFSR, Soviet Union. He began his musical education in 1946 in Vienna where
his father had been posted. It was in Vienna, Schnittke's biographer
Alexander Ivashkin writes, where "he fell in love with music which is part
of life, part of history and culture, part of the past which is still
alive."[2] "I felt every moment there," the composer wrote, "to be a link of
the historical chain: all was multi-dimensional; the past represented a
world of ever-present ghosts, and I was not a barbarian without any
connections, but the conscious bearer of the task in my life."[3]
Schnittke's experience in Vienna "gave him a certain spiritual experience
and discipline for his future professional activities. It was Mozart and
Schubert, not Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, whom he kept in mind as a
reference point in terms of taste, manner and style. This reference point
was essentially Classical ... but never too blatant."[2]
In 1948, the family moved to Moscow. Schnittke completed his graduate work
in composition at the Moscow Conservatory in 1961 and taught there from 1962
to 1972. Evgeny Golubev was one of his composition teachers. Thereafter, he
earned his living chiefly by composing film scores, producing nearly 70
scores in 30 years.[4] Schnittke converted to Christianity and possessed
deeply held mystic beliefs, which influenced his music.
Schnittke and his music were often viewed suspiciously by the Soviet
bureaucracy. His First Symphony was effectively banned by the Composers'
Union. After he abstained from a Composers' Union vote in 1980, he was
banned from travelling outside of the USSR. In 1985, Schnittke suffered a
stroke that left him in a coma. He was declared clinically dead on several
occasions, but recovered and continued to compose.
In 1990, Schnittke left Russia and settled in Hamburg. His health remained
poor, however. He suffered several more strokes before his death on August
3, 1998, in Hamburg, at the age of 63. He was buried, with state honors, at
the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, where many other prominent Russian
composers, including Dmitri Shostakovich, are interred.
Music
Schnittke's early music shows the strong influence of Dmitri Shostakovich,
but after the visit of the Italian composer Luigi Nono to the USSR, he took
up the serial technique in works such as Music for Piano and Chamber
Orchestra (1964). However, Schnittke soon became dissatisfied with what he
termed the "puberty rites of serial self-denial." He created a new style
which has been called "polystylism", where he juxtaposed and combined music
of various styles past and present. He once wrote, "The goal of my life is
to unify serious music and light music, even if I break my neck in doing
so." His first concert work to use the polystylistic technique was the
Second Violin Sonata, Quasi una sonata (1967–1968). He experimented with
techniques in his film work, as shown by much of the sonata appearing first
in his score for the animation short "The Glass Harmonica". He continued to
develop the polystylistic technique in works such as the epic First Symphony
(1969–1972) and First Concerto Grosso (1977). Other works were more
stylistically unified, such as his Piano Quintet (1972–1976), written in
memory of his recently deceased mother.
In the 1980s, Schnittke's music began to become more widely known abroad,
thanks in part to the work of émigré Soviet artists such as the violinists
Gidon Kremer and Mark Lubotsky. Despite constant illness, he produced a
large amount of music, including important works such as the Second (1980)
and Third (1983) String Quartets and the String Trio (1985); the Faust
Cantata (1983), which he later incorporated in his opera Historia von D.
Johann Fausten; the ballet Peer Gynt (1985–1987); the Third (1981), Fourth
(1984) and Fifth (1988) Symphonies (the last of which is also known as the
Fourth Concerto Grosso) and the Viola (1985) and First Cello (1985–1986)
concertos.
As his health deteriorated, Schnittke started to abandon much of the
extroversion of his polystylism and retreated into a more withdrawn, bleak
style, quite accessible to the lay listener. The Fourth Quartet (1989) and
Sixth (1992), Seventh (1993) and Eighth (1994) symphonies are good examples
of this. Some Schnittke scholars, such as Gerard McBurney, have argued that
it is the late works that will ultimately be the most influential parts of
Schnittke's output. After a stroke in 1994 left him almost completely
paralysed, Schnittke largely ceased to compose. He did complete some short
works in 1997 and also a Ninth Symphony; its score was almost unreadable
because he had written it with great difficulty with his left hand. The
Ninth Symphony was first performed on 19 June 1998 in Moscow in a version
deciphered – but also 'arranged' – by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, who conducted
the premiere. After hearing a tape of the performance, Schnittke indicated
he wanted it withdrawn.
Alfred Schnittke died in Hamburg in 1998. After his death, others worked to
decipher his score. Nikolai Korndorf died before he could complete the task,
which was continued and completed by Alexander Raskatov. In Raskatov's
version, the three orchestral movements of Schnittke's symphony may be
followed by a choral fourth, which is Raskatov's own Nunc Dimittis (in
memoriam Alfred Schnittke). This version was premiered in Dresden, Germany,
on June 16, 2007. Andrei Boreyko also has a version of the symphony.[5]
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