Chapter 1: (Anti-)Symphony No
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POLYSTYLISM AND NARRATIVE POTENTIAL IN THE MUSIC OF ALFRED SCHNITTKE by JEAN-BENOÎT TREMBLAY B.Arts (éducation musicale), Université Laval, 1999 B.Mus (mention en histoire), Université Laval, 1999 M.Mus (musicologie), Université Laval, 2001 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Music, emphasis in musicology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA February 2007 © Jean-Benoît Tremblay, 2007 ii ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the narrative potential created by polystylism in select works of Alfred Schnittke. “Polystylism,” the combination of many styles in a single work, is Schnittke’s answer to a compositional crisis that he experienced as a young Soviet composer. Polystylistic works often present blunt juxtapositions of styles that cannot be explained by purely musical considerations. I argue that listeners, confronted with those stylistic gaps, naturally attempt to resolve them by the construction of a narrative. Three works, each showing different approaches to polystylism, are examined. The Symphony No. 1, which constitutes a kind a polystylistic manifesto, presents a number of exact quotations of Beethoven, Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Chopin among others. It also makes uses of the Dies Irae and of various stylistic allusions. The result is a work in which Schnittke, asking how to write a Symphony, eventually kills the genre before resurrecting it. Elaborated from a fragment of a pantomime by Mozart, Moz-Art is a reflection on the opposition between the old and the new, between the past and the present. The work builds upon the plurality of styles already present in Mozart’s music. For the Concerto Grosso No. 1, Schnittke devised a program, albeit a secret one. The piece is at the center of a complex network of references, some unveiled in the work’s sketches, others originating from the film music of the composer. A story involving the Jungian concepts of animus, anima and collective unconscious is developed around musical elements as diverse as the BACH musical motive, a folktune, a dodecaphonic waltz and a tango. The tango, which periodically reoccurs in Schnittke’s work, is the topic of the last chapter. Over the iii course of several works, the tango accumulates diverse meanings in Schnittke’s music. In the Symphony No. 1, it is an easy solution to a composer’s problem; in Agony, it is a lure appealing to Rasputin’s inner demons; in the Concerto Grosso No. 1, the tango takes part in a stylistic Utopia; in Die Historia von D. Johann Fausten, it is the feminine; in Life with an Idiot, it is the violence present in everyone. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ............................................................................................................................................. iii Table of contents .............................................................................................................................. v Table of Figures ............................................................................................................................... ix Note on Transliteration .................................................................................................................. xi Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... xii Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Literature ....................................................................................................................................... 8 Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 12 Outline ......................................................................................................................................... 22 Chapter 1: (Anti-)Symphony No. 1 and the Genesis of Polystylism ..................................... 24 Polystylism .................................................................................................................................. 30 Symphony or… Anti-Symphony? ........................................................................................... 34 Program or Anti-Program? .................................................................................................. 35 Interpretations of the Symphony ............................................................................................. 37 Borrowings and References ...................................................................................................... 39 (1) Beginning – Consonances and Dissonances ............................................................... 42 (2) The Popular and the Banal ............................................................................................. 44 (3) Beethoven ......................................................................................................................... 47 (4) Concerto Grosso à la Handel ........................................................................................ 49 (5) Battle of the Cadenza ...................................................................................................... 50 v (6) Triumph of the Banal ..................................................................................................... 52 (7) Series, Series, Series, and Primes ................................................................................... 53 Interlude: Prime Numbers ................................................................................................... 63 (8) Death ................................................................................................................................. 65 (9) Resurrection ..................................................................................................................... 71 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 73 Chapter 2: Moz-art à la Haydn the open space of Fragmentation ........................................... 76 The Fragment and the Fragmentary ....................................................................................... 80 Formal Design ............................................................................................................................ 86 The Old in the Present .............................................................................................................. 87 Commedia dell’arte ............................................................................................................... 89 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ................................................................................................. 90 KV 446 (416d) ....................................................................................................................... 92 Combinatory Techniques.......................................................................................................... 95 (1) Shift ................................................................................................................................... 96 (2) Stratification ..................................................................................................................... 96 (3) Stretto ................................................................................................................................ 97 (4) Morphing .......................................................................................................................... 98 Combination Possibilities ..................................................................................................... 99 The New in the Past ................................................................................................................ 101 Meaning and Narrative ............................................................................................................ 111 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 115 Chapter 3: Concerto Grosso No. 1 or the “Utopia of a Unified Style’ ............................... 117 vi Concerto Grosso No. 1 ................................................................................................................. 127 Synopsis ..................................................................................................................................... 128 First Movement: Preludio .................................................................................................. 128 Second Movement: Toccata .............................................................................................. 129 Third Movement: Recitativo .............................................................................................. 130 Fourth Movement: Cadenza .............................................................................................. 132 Fifth Movement: Rondo .................................................................................................... 133 Sixth Movement: Postludio ................................................................................................ 135 References ................................................................................................................................