August 3: Alfred Schnittke, the "alchemist" of sound, dies
Alfred Schnittke, a composer, musicologist, and teacher known as the "alchemist" of sound, died in Hamburg on August 3, 1998, at the age of 63. He had suffered four strokes but continued composing until his death.
Music is the overheard cries of time
Childhood in a Jewish-German family
Alfred Schnittke was born in 1934 in Engels to a Jewish-German family. His parents worked as translators. From the age of 12, after the end of World War II, he studied music in Vienna—his father was sent there by the Soviet authorities. Two years later, the family returned to Moscow.
Conservatory and early influences
In 1953, at the age of 19, Schnittke graduated from the conducting and choral department of the October Revolution Music School (now the Schnittke Moscow State Institute of Music). He then graduated from the conservatory, where he remained to teach. He admitted that by the age of 32, he had been greatly influenced by Pasternak's work—his late poems and the novel "Doctor Zhivago."
Cinema and electronic music
Schnittke composed film scores, including "Belorussky Station" (an arrangement of Bulat Okudzhava's "We Need One Victory"), "Hot Snow," "The Crew," and "The Master and Margarita" (adapted by Yuri Kara). He also worked at the USSR's first experimental electronic music studio. He wrote four operas, three ballets, 10 symphonies, and 15 instrumental concertos.
I don't write music, I capture it.
The History of Doctor Johann Faust and the seizure of the circulation
In the early 1980s, Schnittke was working on the cantata "The History of Dr. Johann Faust." In the atheistic Soviet Union, the authorities were wary of the composer, considering him an "internal dissident." A detailed program was published for the concert, featuring the Russian text of the cantata, the composer's commentary, and a quotation from Scripture. Cultural officials and the KGB considered this impudent and seized the entire print run.
Schnittke conveyed the essence of Mephistopheles through the genre of tango, which became for him a symbol of vulgar debauchery, evil and temptation.
Evil must be attractive. It must be pleasant, seductive, take the form of something that easily creeps into the soul, something comfortable, enjoyable, or at least captivating. A hit is a good mask for all sorts of devilry, a way to penetrate the soul.
Alla Pugacheva originally prepared the role of Mephistopheles, but after the first rehearsal, the concert was banned. Later, Raisa Kotova played the role. Faust premiered in Vienna in the summer of 1983, and only four months later in Moscow.
A composer writes music because he cannot help but write, because it is his way of communicating with the world.
Illness and Faith
In 1985, at a festival in Pitsunda, the 50-year-old Schnittke suffered his first stroke: he was diagnosed with a massive cerebral hemorrhage and clinically dead three times, but he pulled through. In 1990, he declined the Lenin Prize, citing his belief in Christianity and Lenin's atheism. That same year, Schnittke and his wife received German citizenship. As an exception, he was also allowed to remain a citizen of the USSR—this allowed him to maintain contacts with Russia, which he considered his homeland.
I feel a little bit related to everyone, but not completely.
Last years in Hamburg
In the last years of his life, Schnittke lived in Hamburg, teaching at the Institute of Music and Theatre and the Hamburg University of Music.
— Where does music come from, anyway?
- Sorry, I don't know. But it inevitably arises.
In 1991, he suffered a second stroke but recovered quickly. In 1994, he suffered a third, which left him paralyzed in his right arm and leg and speechless. He was hospitalized with a fourth, massive stroke a month before his death.
Schnittke's greatness lies not in his avant-garde music or beautiful melodies alone, but in the clash of two worlds. In all his wild contrasts, the important thing is not the extremes, not good and evil, but the place where they meet, that very crack. By finding the middle ground and making a choice, a person becomes a person.
(musicologist Yaroslav Timofeev)
The Ninth Symphony and the "Curse"
Until the end of his life, Schnittke remained active, writing scores with his left hand. In 1997, almost completely paralyzed, he transcribed the notes for his Ninth Symphony. It was his last, confirming the ongoing "curse of the ninth symphony"—a superstition that, beginning with Beethoven, every composer who writes one dies shortly thereafter. At the request of Schnittke's widow, composer Nikolai Korndorf undertook the task of deciphering the illegible score—but he, too, died suddenly while working on it.
