Routledge Handbook to the Music of Alfred Schnittke

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

• CHAPTER 1: ERAS AND TECHNIQUESSTUDENT WORKS 1953–1963SERIAL PERIOD 1963–1971Serialism — Sonorism: Ligeti and the Polish School FUNEREAL AND RELIGIOUS WORKS 1972–1980Funereal Works: Schnittke’s Quiet Period — Religious Works — Liturgical Allusions in Instrumental Works — Representations of the Cross — Common-Mediant Chord Relations — Bells POLYSTYLISM 1968–1991Representations 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 1985–1994CHAPTER 2 – STAGE WORKSBALLETSIntroduction — Labyrinths — Der gelbe Klang — Gogol Suite and Sketches — Peer Gynt OPERASIntroduction — Life with an Idiot — Gesualdo — Historia von D. Johann FaustenTHEATRE MUSICCHAPTER 3: CHORAL WORKSIntroduction — 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 AeternaCHAPTER 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 OrchestraCHAPTER 5 – ORCHESTRAL WORKSSYMPHONIESIntroduction — 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 GROSSIIntroduction — 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 WORKSpianissimo... — Passacaglia — Ritual — (Kein) Sommernachtstraum — Four Aphorisms for Chamber Orchestra — Sutartinės — Hommage a Grieg — Symphonic Prologue and For Liverpool CHAPTER 6: CHAMBER WORKSIntroductionWORKS FOR STRING QUARTETString Quartet No. 1 — String Quartet No. 2 — String Quartet No. 3 — String Quartet No. 4 — Canon in Memoriam Igor Stravinsky — Variations for String QuartetWORKS FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO/VIOLIN DUET/VIOLIN SOLOViolin 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 PianoWORKS FOR CELLO AND PIANO/CELLO SOLO/CELLO AND ENSEMBLECello 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 PIANOPiano Quintet — Stille Musik — String Trio/Piano Trio — Canon An das Frankfurter Opernhaus — Piano QuartetOTHER CHAMBER WORKSSerenade — 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 WORKSIntroduction PIANO SONATASPiano Sonata No. 1 — Piano Sonata No. 2 — Piano Sonata No. 3OTHER PIANO WORKSChildren’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 WORKSTwo Short Pieces for Organ — Three Fragments for HarpsichordCHAPTER 8: FILM MUSICIntroduction — Igor Talankin — Andrei Khrzhanovsky — Aleksandr Mitta — Larisa Shepitko — Elem Klimov — Late Film Scores — Concert SuitesWORKS LISTA NOTE ON SOURCESBIBLIOGRAPHYINDEX