View source for Alfred Schnittke

{{Short description|Soviet-born Russian composer (1934–1998)}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Alfred Schnittke
| image              = Alfred Schnittke April 6 1989 Moscow.jpg
| caption            = Schnittke in 1989
| birth_name         = Alfred Garrievich Schnittke
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1934|11|24|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Engels (city)|Engels]], [[Volga German ASSR]], [[Russian SFSR]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1998|08|03|1934|11|24|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Hamburg]], Germany
| citizenship        = {{USSR}} → {{GER}}
| works              = [[List of compositions by Alfred Schnittke|List of compositions]]
}}

'''Alfred Garrievich Schnittke'''{{refn|{{langx|ru|Альфре́д Га́рриевич Шни́тке|link=no}}, Alfred Garriyevich Shnitke|group=n}} (24 November 1934 – 3 August 1998) was a Soviet Russian [[composer]].{{sfn|Schmelz|2013|loc="Introduction"}}{{refn|Schnittke is referred variously as a "Russian composer",{{sfn|Ivashkin|Moody|2001|loc="Introduction"}}{{sfn|Ivashkin|1996|p=10}}{{sfn|''Britannica''|2021|loc=Introduction}} a "composer of Jewish-German ancestry born in Russia",{{sfn|Schmelz|2013|loc="Introduction"}} and "of part German descent, the Russian composer".{{sfn|Bradshaw|1998|p=2}} On the complications of his nationality and ancestry, the musicologist [[Alexander Ivashkin]] reflected that he was "a Russian composer with a typically German name, born in Russia without a drop of Russian blood, in the town of [[Engels, Saratov Oblast|Engels]] – once the capital of a German republic in the Soviet Union – of a Jewish (but German-speaking) father and German mother; a composer who has no home country, who is a foreigner everywhere".{{sfn|Ivashkin|1996|p=10}}|group=n}} Among the most performed and recorded composers of late [[20th-century classical music]],{{sfn|Schmelz|2013|loc="Introduction"}}{{sfn|Khanina|2009|p=2}} he is described by musicologist [[Ivan Moody (composer)|Ivan Moody]] as a "composer who was concerned in his music to depict the moral and spiritual struggles of contemporary man in [...] depth and detail."{{sfn|Ivashkin|Moody|2001|loc="Works"}}

Schnittke's early music shows the strong influence of [[Dmitri Shostakovich]].{{sfn|Moody|1989|p=4}} He developed a [[polystylism|polystylistic]] technique in works such as the epic [[Symphony No. 1 (Schnittke)|Symphony No. 1]] (1969–1972) and his [[Concerto Grosso No. 1 (Schnittke)|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 [[Symphony No. 3 (Schnittke)|third]] (1981), [[Symphony No. 4 (Schnittke)|fourth]] (1984), and [[Symphony No. 5 (Schnittke)|fifth]] (1988) symphonies; and the [[Viola Concerto (Schnittke)|viola concerto]] (1985) and first cello concerto (1985–1986). 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Boosey and Hawkes |date=2022 |title=Alfred Schnittke |url=https://www.boosey.com/composer/Alfred+Schnittke |access-date=2022-10-24 |website=www.boosey.com}}</ref>
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==Biography==

=== Early life ===
Schnittke's father, {{Interlanguage link|Harry Maximilian Schnittke|ru|3=Шнитке, Гарри Викторович}} (1914–1975), was [[Jewish]] and born in [[Frankfurt]].<ref>[http://yanko.lib.ru/books/music/shnitke_ivashkin_besedu.html Interviews with Alfred Schnittke.]; [https://web.archive.org/web/20110615165439/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/classical/article6895901.ece Alfred Schnittke: a crazy mixed-up kid]</ref> He moved to the Soviet Union 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, [[Thea Schnittke|Tea Abramovna Katz]] (1889–1970), was a [[philologist]], translator, and editor of German-language literature.

Alfred Schnittke was born in [[Engels (city)|Engels]] in the [[Volga German ASSR]] of the [[Russian SFSR]]. 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."<ref name="ivashkin32">{{harvnb|Ivashkin|1996|loc=32}}</ref> "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."<ref>As quoted in {{harvnb|Ivashkin|1996|loc=32}}</ref> Schnittke's experience in Vienna "gave him a certain spiritual experience and discipline for his future professional activities. It was [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] and [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]], not [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]] and [[Sergei Rachmaninoff|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."<ref name="ivashkin32" /> In 1948, the family moved to Moscow.[[File:Schnittke-Grab 2.jpg|thumb|Schnittke's gravestone, showing a [[fermata]] over a [[Whole note|whole]] [[Rest (music)|rest]] marked [[fortississimo|{{serif|'''''fff'''''}}]]|left]]

=== Career ===
In 1961 Schnittke completed his graduate work in composition at the [[Moscow Conservatory]] 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main.asp?composerid=2731&ttype=BIOGRAPHY&ttitle=Biography/ |title=Alfred Schnittke Biography|publisher=Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.|access-date=2008-08-11}}</ref> 

After his mother's death in 1972, he began to compose his [[Piano Quintet (Schnittke)|Piano Quintet]] in her memory. During its composition, he began to seek solace in [[Catholicism]];{{sfn|Kholopova|2020|pp=136–137}} he converted on 18 June 1983.{{sfn|Kholopova|2020|p=183}} He possessed deeply held beliefs in [[predestination]]{{sfn|Kholopova|2020|p=137}} and [[mysticism]] which influenced his music.<ref>[http://festival.1september.ru/articles/653208/ В. Ю. Гаврилова «Пространство Альфреда Шнитке (к 80-летию со дня рождения)»] [V. Yu. Gavrilova "The reach of Alfred Schnittke (on the occasion of his 80th birthday)]"</ref>

Schnittke and his music were often viewed suspiciously by the Soviet bureaucracy. His [[Symphony No. 1 (Schnittke)|First Symphony]] was effectively banned by the [[Composers' Union]].{{sfn|Ivashkin|2002|p=252}} After he abstained from a Composers' Union vote in 1980, he was banned from travelling outside the USSR. 

=== Ill health and death ===
On 21 July 1985, Schnittke suffered a [[Cerebrovascular accident|stroke]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://americansymphony.org/concert-notes/viola-concerto-1985/|title=Viola Concerto (1985)|date=March 2003|publisher=[[American Symphony Orchestra]]|last=McBurney|first=Gerard|author-link=Gerard McBurney|access-date=18 November 2020}}</ref> that left him in a [[coma]]. He was declared clinically dead on several occasions, but recovered and continued to compose. 
In 1990, Schnittke left the Soviet Union and settled in [[Hamburg]], Germany. His health remained poor, however. He suffered several more strokes before his death on 3 August 1998, in Hamburg, at the age of 63. He was buried, with state honors, at [[Novodevichy Cemetery]] in Moscow.
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== Music ==
{{Main|List of compositions by Alfred Schnittke}}[[File:Alfred schnittke.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait of Alfred Schnittke by [[Reginald Gray (artist)|Reginald Gray]] (1972)]]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 [[serialism|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 1968 animation short ''[[The Glass Harmonica (film)|The Glass Harmonica]]''. He wrote the music for [[Aleksandr Askoldov]]'s ''[[Commissar_(film)|Commissar]]'', combining and juxtaposing European, ethnic Russian and Jewish musical patterns. He continued to develop the polystylistic technique in works such as the epic [[Symphony No. 1 (Schnittke)|First Symphony]] (1969–1972) and [[Concerto Grosso No. 1 (Schnittke)|First Concerto Grosso]] (1977). Other works were more stylistically unified, such as his [[Piano Quintet (Schnittke)|Piano Quintet]] (1972–1976, later orchestrated and retitled as ''In Memoriam…''), written in memory of his mother, who had died in 1972.
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]], the cellist and conductor [[Mstislav Rostropovich]], but also by the conductor [[Gennady Rozhdestvensky]].{{sfn|Schmelz|2013|loc="Introduction"}}{{sfn|''Britannica''|2021}} 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 (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), the [[Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra]] (1979) and the Viola (1985) and First Cello (1985–1986) Concertos. This period was also marked by a turn in Schnittke and his music to Christian themes, exemplified in his deeply spiritual unaccompanied choral works, the Concerto for Mixed Chorus (1984–1985) and the Penitential Psalms (1988), and alluded to in various others works, including the Fourth Symphony and the Faust Cantata.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jennings |first1=Mark D. |title=Alfred Schnittke's Concerto for Choir: Musical analysis and historical perspectives |date=2002 |publisher=PhD diss., The Florida State University |pages=36–43}}</ref>

As his health deteriorated from the late 1980s, Schnittke started to abandon much of the extroversion of his earlier polystylism and retreated into a more withdrawn, bleak style, quite accessible to the lay listener.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CD Spotlight. Outcast Composers. Giuseppe Pennisi listens to the Matangi Quartet |url=https://www.classicalmusicdaily.com/2022/09/outcast.htm |access-date=2024-06-22 |website=www.classicalmusicdaily.com}}</ref> The Fourth Quartet (1989) and [[Symphony No. 6 (Schnittke)|Sixth]] (1992), [[Symphony No. 7 (Schnittke)|Seventh]] (1993) and [[Symphony No. 8 (Schnittke)|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 [[Cerebrovascular accident|stroke]] in 1994 left him almost completely paralysed, Schnittke largely ceased to compose.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Holland |first=Bernard |date=1998-08-04 |title=Alfred Schnittke, Eclectic Composer, Dies at 63 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/04/arts/alfred-schnittke-eclectic-composer-dies-at-63.html |access-date=2024-06-22 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He did complete some short works in 1997 and also a [[Symphony No. 9 (Schnittke)|Ninth Symphony]]; its score was almost unreadable because he had written it with great difficulty with his left hand due to his strokes.<ref>{{cite news|last=Service |first=Tom|date=29 April 2013|title=A guide to the music of Alfred Schnittke|url= https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2013/apr/29/alfred-schnittke-contemporary-music-tom-service|work=The Guardian|access-date=July 18, 2021}}</ref>

The Ninth Symphony was first performed on 19 June 1998 in Moscow in a version deciphered – but also 'arranged' – by [[Gennady Rozhdestvensky]], who conducted the premiere. After hearing a tape of the performance, Schnittke indicated he wanted it withdrawn. After he died, though, others worked to decipher the 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.<ref>[[Alexander Ivashkin]], booklet notes to BIS-CD-1727 (2009).</ref>

==References==
===Notes===
{{Reflist|group=n}}

===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
* {{cite journal |last=Bradshaw |first=Susan |author-link=Susan Bradshaw |date=Autumn 1998 |title=Alfred Schnittke 1934-1998 |journal=[[The Musical Times]] |volume=139 |issue=1864 |pages=2–3 |jstor=1003457 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Ivashkin |first=Alexander |author-link=Alexander Ivashkin |year=1996 |title=Alfred Schnittke |publisher=[[Phaidon Press]] |location=New York |isbn=0-7148-3169-7 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Ivashkin |first1=Alexander |author-link1=Alexander Ivashkin |last2=Moody |first2=Ivan |author-link2=Ivan Moody (composer) |year=2001 |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |title=Schnittke [Shnitke], Alfred |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.51128 |isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000051128 }} {{Grove Music subscription}}
* {{Cite book |editor-last=Ivashkin |editor-first=Alexander |editor-link=Alexander Ivashkin |year=2002 |title=A Schnittke Reader |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |location=Bloomington |isbn=0-253-33818-2 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=whaC9q-5xGsC&q}} }}
* {{cite journal |last=Khanina |first=Lilia |date=April 2009 |title=The Faust Legend and Its Role in Alfred Schnittke's Work |journal=[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]] |volume=63 |issue=248 |pages=2–11 |doi=10.1017/S0040298209000114 |jstor=40496054 |s2cid=145741263 }}
* {{cite book |last=Kholopova |first=Valentina |title=Композитор Альфред Шнитке: монография |date=2020 |publisher=Планета музыки |location=Saint Petersburg/Moscow/Krasnodar |isbn=978-5-4495-0303-9 |language=Russian}}
* {{cite journal |last=Moody |first=Ivan |author-link=Ivan Moody (composer) |date=March 1989 |title=The Music of Alfred Schnittke |journal=[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]] |volume=New Series |issue=168 |pages=4–11 |doi=10.1017/S0040298200024876 |jstor=944851 |s2cid=144216756 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Schmelz |first=Peter |year=2013 |encyclopedia=[[Oxford Bibliographies Online|Oxford Bibliographies]]: Music |title=Alfred Schnittke |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |doi=10.1093/OBO/9780199757824-0127 |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199757824/obo-9780199757824-0127.xml |url-access=subscription }}{{subscription required}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |date=20 November 2021 |title=Alfred Schnittke &#124; Russian composer |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]] |location=Chicago |access-date=1 January 2022 |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Schnittke |ref={{sfnRef|''Britannica''|2021}} }}

==Further reading==
See {{harvnb|Schmelz|2013}} for an extensive bibliography
* {{cite journal |last=Davis |first=Peter G. |author-link=Peter G. Davis |date=28 February 1994 |title=Uneasy-listening Music |journal=[[New York (magazine)|New York]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S-QCAAAAMBAJ&q=Alfred+Schnittke&pg=PA125 |volume=27 |issue=9 |page=125 |access-date=25 December 2012 |ref=none }}
* {{Cite book |editor1=Amrei Flechsig |editor2=Christian Storch |title=Alfred Schnittke. Analyse, Interpretation, Rezeption |year=2010 |publisher=Olms|isbn=978-3-487-14464-1 |ref=none }}
* Enzo Restagno (ed.) (1993). ''Schnittke'', EDT, {{ISBN|978-88-7063-177-7}}
* {{Cite book |last=Schmelz |first=Peter J. |title=Such freedom, if only musical: The beginning of unofficial Soviet music during the Thaw|year=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-534193-5|ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |author=Альфред Шнитке [Alfred Schnittke]|editor=Александр Ивашкин [Alexander Ivashkin]|title=Беседы с Альфредом Шнитке|trans-title=Conversations with Alfred Schnittke|year=2003|publisher=Классика XXI|isbn=5-89817-051-0|ref=none}}
* {{cite journal |last=Segall |first=Christopher |date=Spring 2013 |title=Klingende Buchstaben: Principles of Alfred Schnittke's Monogram Technique |journal=[[The Journal of Musicology]] |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=252–286 |jstor=10.1525/jm.2013.30.2.252 |doi=10.1525/jm.2013.30.2.252 |ref=no }}
* {{Cite book |last=Storch |first=Christian |title=Der Komponist als Autor. Alfred Schnittkes Klavierkonzert|year=2011|publisher=Böhlau|isbn=978-3-412-20762-5|ref=none}}
* {{cite journal |last=Sullivan |first=Tim |date=Summer 2010 |title=Structural Layers in Alfred Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No. 3 |journal=[[Perspectives of New Music]] |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=21–46 |doi=10.1353/pnm.2010.0003 |jstor=23076965 |s2cid=258129416 |ref=no }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Volkov |first1=Solomon |author-link1=Solomon Volkov |last2=Susanina |first2=Valeria |date=September 1998 |title=The ABCs of Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) |journal=[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]] |volume=New Series |issue=206 |pages=36–38 |doi=10.1017/S0040298200006719 |jstor=945506 |s2cid=144838920 |ref=no }}
* {{cite journal |last=Webb |first=John |date=September 1992 |title=Schnittke in Context |journal=[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]] |volume=New Series |issue=182 |pages=19–22 |doi=10.1017/S0040298200016685 |jstor=946100 |s2cid=144825514 |ref=no }}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Alfred Schnittke}}
* [http://www.schnittke-akademie.de/ Alfred Schnittke Akademie International]
* [https://www.schnittke.org/en/index.html Alfred Schnittke memorial website]
* [http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main.asp?composerid=2731&ttype=SNAPSHOT&ttitle=Snapshot Alfred Schnittke profile] on [[Boosey & Hawkes]]
* {{IMDb name|0006289|Alfred Schnittke}}
* "The unreal world of Alfred Schnittke", BBC video documentary directed by Donald Sturrock, 1983. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sHnQKs8LUM Part 1], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4YruMJjHlo Part 2], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgcJIg_SzCk Part 3]

{{Alfred Schnittke}}
{{Bach Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schnittke, Alfred}}
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