The Artistic Space of the Musical-Liturgical Synthesis in Alfred Schnittke’s Second and Fourth Symphonies

Main Article Content

Maria V. Dolmatova

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issue of the synthesis of vocal and symphonic genres in Russian music of the second half of the 20th century. Composers create dramatically rich concepts of their musical works by use of the principles of the vocal and choral genres. Actively applying the semantic resources of vocal, choral and liturgical genres which are firmly entrenched in the history of music, the Russian programmatic symphony has posed and solved multifaceted goals related to musical content and aesthetics. The musical oeuvres of Alfred Schnittke (in particular, his Second and Fourth Symphonies) demonstrate a fruitful synthesis of the symphonic and liturgical genres. In the composer's sacred symphonies, the sound of the choral parts (and, along with it, the signs
of the liturgical genre) provides the thematic center, the conceptual core, and a reliable indicator of a complex philosophical and cosmogonic program. The unique compositional design of the Second and Fourth Symphonies is formed precisely as a result of the multilateral synthesis of the symphonic and the vocal-liturgical genres.


Keywords: Alfred Schnittke, semiotics, semantics, 20th century music, genre, liturgy, symphony.

Article Details

How to Cite
Dolmatova М. В. . (2020). The Artistic Space of the Musical-Liturgical Synthesis in Alfred Schnittke’s Second and Fourth Symphonies. Music Scholarship / Problemy Muzykal’noj Nauki, 38(1), 43–49. Retrieved from https://musicscholar.ru/index.php/PMN/article/view/1146
Section
Artistic World of Musical Piece
Author Biography

Maria V. Dolmatova, Voronezh State Institute of Arts, Voronezh, Russia

Maria V. Dolmatova, Post-graduate Student at the Department of Music Theory, Voronezh State Institute of Arts