Schnittke Studies

Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) was arguably the most important Russian composer since Shostakovich, and his music has generated a great deal of academic interest in the years since his death. Schnittke Studies provides a variety of perspectives on the composer and his music. The field is currently diverse and vibrant, and this book demonstrates the range of academic approaches being applied to Schnittke’s work and the insights they provide, covering: polystylism, for which Schnittke is best known, the significance of the composer’s Christian faith, and detailed formal analyses of key works, with connections drawn between the apparently divergent periods of the composer’s career. This book has been prepared as a memorial to Professor Alexander Ivashkin, a leading scholar in the field, who died in 2014, and will be of interest not only to those studying Schnittke's music, but also those with an interest in late Soviet-era music in general.

Chapter 5 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Gavin Dixon is an academic, writer, and editor based in Hertfordshire, UK. His studies with Professor Alexander Ivashkin at Goldsmiths, University of London, led to a PhD on the symphonies of Alfred Schnittke in 2007. Since then, he has continued to be active in Schnittke scholarship, as a Visiting Research Fellow at Goldsmiths and as a member of the editorial team for the Alfred Schnittke Collected Works edition, currently being published in St Petersburg. Gavin is also a Curator of Musical Instruments at the Horniman Museum in London. As a journalist, Gavin has contributed to a wide range of music publications including Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, Tempo, Classical Music, and Limelight (Australia). He is also Music Editor of Fanfare, America’s leading classical CD review magazine.