Symphony No. 1 (Schnittke)

The Symphony No. 1 is the key work in Alfred Schnittke's musical oeuvre. It was built in the years 1969-1972 parallel to the film music to Romm " And yet, I believe," and premiered on February 9, 1974 in Gorky by the local Philharmonic Orchestra and the Jazz Ensemble Melodia headed by Rozhdestvensky, the Schnittke also dedicated the work. The performance lasts about an hour.

System and form

Schnittke expanded the orchestra to a saxophone section, various keyboard instruments, an organ, a D and a bass guitar and a large percussion apparatus. He also enlarged the woodwind and string section and increased the number of harps. The symphony also involves dramatic elements with; so come on and from a number of musicians, the emergence of the orchestra and the conductor is explicitly prescribed. The work as a whole is dominated by the Polystilistic and collage technique: Often musical ideas merge with each other, in many places appear shreds of music from many different genres of music.

Music

At the beginning there is a prologue, in which the musicians - after a few bells and led by a jazz trumpeter - occur in an improvising manner. It forms a sonic maze of now seated instrumentalists, which disappears when the conductor's appearance, but eventually starts again. After he has once again become " master of his orchestra ," begins a hint of the conductor through the first movement of the symphony: There merges order with chaos, contrasting musical styles are positioned against each other. As the start of the tutti -C is followed by a cluster of twelve tones. A serious point is parried with foxtrot, Baroque music stands next film, Artful overlaps with the banal musical small chunks collage to each other. Again and again arise peace poles, which are wiped out again. Towards the end of a theme from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is processed, the final form deep brass along with a solo trumpet.

The second sentence, the fair - Scherzo, as it has referred Schnittke himself, begins with a baroque -like theme which soon mingles with a colorful, dance medley of waltz, Landler, marching, but also salon music fragments, so that a polychord and polyrhythmic, but still manageable mishmash from which protrudes times one, sometimes the other party. This is followed by a jazzy improvisation of the piano along with a violin and a saxophone, which opens into a collective improvisation of the entire orchestra. The movement ends with the departure of the wind.

In the following, meditation -like third movement, which is, for strings, percussion and keyboard instruments, Schnittke dares to take a trip to the twelve-tone technique and the serial music. In addition, he leaves the dynamics of the string wave equal rise and fall; a gasp followed by the slump. While rearrange the instruments in the initial, new onset confusion, put the wind in the area, a behind the scenes. After the strings have agreed on a unisones E, the wind comes back and intone a funeral march.

Seamlessly the fourth set, which is similar to the description of an apocalypse and polystilischen means fully savored begins; Schnittke uses here quotes from all musical eras: In the mix among other patches of a Gregorian chant, the Tales from the Vienna Woods, the First Piano Concerto Tchaikovsky, the Dies irae, a tango, a Beatles songs and jazz go with a. This is followed by an organ showerheads and a 66 - part canon on the C- major triad, before numerous clusters and dissonance destroy the apparent order and harmony. After a conciliatory chord across the full width of the orchestra the last 14 bars of Haydn's Farewell Symphony are interspersed. The final form the chimes and the Orchestertohuwabohu the beginning. The conductor is already gone at this time.

Importance

Schnittke himself spoke of his first symphony a crucial key role in his work to:

" The first is the central work for me because everything is included in what I have ever had and done in my life, both the bad and trashy - the film music - including the most serious. It's all already in this piece before, and since all later works are continuations thereof and thereby caused. "

At another point Schnittke called the symphony as " sum of several creative searches and problem solving ", which started everything, " wanted time to the music form, the interaction of different styles and genres, the juxtaposition of classical and popular music say " he what. All future works are virtually been their continuation.

The premiere ended in a scandal that also raised discussions about the general concept of symphony and the intentions of the composer in 1974. In 1986, she was the first time in Moscow on the program. The piece still enjoys some popularity and is often performed again. There are already some CD recordings of the work.