Jovana Damnjanovi

Introduction to Graduate Studies

11/07/2016
Research Paper: Polystylism of Alfred Schnittke: Concerto Grosso No. 3

Alfred Schnittke is considered by many as Shostakovichs natural successor, since he was

the first one to fill the gap in Russian music that occurred after Shostakovichs death. 1 Schnittke
(1934 1998) was born in Engels, at the time Soviet Union. He began his musical education in
Vienna and spent most of his lifetime traveling between Russia and Germany. As a Jew living in
conflictive political times, he found it hard to find his affiliation. Alexander Ivashkin, Schnittkes
most dedicated advocate and friend, described him as a composer who has no home country,
who is a foreigner everywhere.2 This feeling of rootlessness is deeply connected to Schinttkes
music. His music, which he later labeled as polystylistic, sounded as a fusion of confused
tendencies in styles, but in the same time as something planned carefully. Regarding this, Tim
Sullivan wrote:
Polystylism,a term Schnittke coined, is loaded with connotations that imply
lack of organization: musical collage, patchwork mixing of styles, chaotic jumbles
of quotations, etc.and some of his works embody these very qualities.
Nonetheless, as a longtime fan of Schnittke's music, I have always felt that
structural order lurked below the chaotic surface.3
1 Ivan Moody, Schnittke, Alfred, Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline (accessed September 16, 2016).
2 Alexander Ivashkin, Alfred Schnittke (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1996), 10.
3 Tim Sullivan, Structural Layers in Alfred Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No. 3, Perspectives of New
Music 48/2 (Summer 2010): 21.
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Even though Schnittke considered himself to be cosmopolitan 4, rather than homeless, I

found his works mostly represent only Russian and German former musical styles. His method
inspired by this cosmopolitan feeling involved contrasting variety of styles and genres
occurred in Russian and German music history, thereby developing the concept known as
polystylism. Based on the facts that Schnittke gained his music education in Vienna and
Moscow, with his German descent naturally outshining, for Schnittke, J.S. Bach was the alpha
and omega of music and that he loved the music of Mahler and Berg.5
Polystilistisch (polystylistic), a term created by Schnittke himself, first appeared publicly
in his essay Polystylistic Tendencies in Modern Music. Schnittke claims polystylism is
executed through two basic principles: the principle of quotation and the principle of allusion.
The principle of quotation refers to both direct quotation of musical fragments and indirect
quotation of an alien styles stereotypical musical elements and compositional devices (e.g.,
melodic intonations, harmonic sequences, cadential formulae, form, rhythm, and texture). The
principle of allusion is realized through the use of subtle hints and unfulfilled promises that
hover on the brink of quotation but do not actually cross it and likewise can be applied to both
musical fragments and styles.6
The concept of polystylism is closely related to the idea of borrowing. The term
borrowing has been used in music to describe the amalgamation of musical elements from pre4 Constantin Floros, Alfred Schnittke and Polystylism, New Ears for New Music, trans. by Kenneth
Chalmers (New York: Peter Lang GmbH, 2013), 147-151.
5 Ibid.
6 Alfred Schnittke, Polystylistic Tendencies in Modern Music, A Schnittke Reader, ed. by Alexander
Ivashkin, trans. by John Goodlife (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2002), 87-90.
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existent music with elements from new compositions. Some of the procedures employed by
musical borrowing include quotation, allusion, paraphrase, imitation, adaptation, and
arrangement. The range of musical elements borrowed includes melody, texture, rhythm, timbre,
contour (of melody, texture, and rhythm), gesture, chord progression, pitch collection, form,
structural devices and technical device.7
Term polystylism is often mistaken for eclecticism. Therefore I cite Constantin Floros:
I should insist on the fact that Schnittkes polystylism, his stylistic plurality and
composing in layers, has nothing to do with eclecticism. Nor should it be
confused with the sort of stylistic masquerading so beloved of Stravinsky. Even
the catchy phrase music about music does not do it justice. The crucial aspect
for Schnittke was that the music of the past that many of his works quote or evoke
is always confronted by the musical idiom of today.8

Concerto Grosso No. 3

Concerto Grosso No. 3 can be considered as a beginners guide for understanding
polystylism, even though it is not Schnittkes first written polystylistic work. In my opinion, this
composition represents polystylism in an easy perceptive, suggestive manner (even used in
compositions title).
Concerto Grosso No.3 was written in 1985 for Oleh and Tatyana Gridenko and it is
scored for two solo violins, chimes, keyboard (harpsichord, celeste and piano), and strings (two
violins, viola, violoncello and double bass). Schnittke stated:
The year 1985 was a jubilee five times over: five musical masters from different
times were born in either 1585 (Heinrich Schtz) or 1685 (J.S. Bach, George
7 J. Peter Burkholder, Borrowing, in Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline (accessed October 26, 2016).
8 Constantin Floros, New ears for new music, 149.
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Frederick Handel, Domenico Scarlatti) or 1885 (Alban Berg). Many events took
place in their honor, and my composition was a small part of it. It begins pretty
neo-classically but after a few minutes the museum explodes and we stand with
the fragments of the past (quotations) before the dangerous and uncertain present.
In this work, Schnittke uses several polystylistic techniques to create a piece that has an
extremely dense web of quotations and allusions, the majority of which are unnoticeable without
detailed analysis and his statement cited above make an excellent guiding.
The opening Allegro begins so harmlessly, sounding like a perfect Baroque pastiche it
is extraordinary. Schnittke tricks a listener for a moment, to think he is listening to one of Bachs
Brandenburg Concertos, as it has the same elements: harpsichord, strings, and dance. That is the
first obvious idea of polystylism in this piece, brought to us as an allusion, along with the works
title. In general, concerto grosso is a type of concerto in which a large group of performers
alternates with a smaller group. The term concerto grosso is often loosely applied to any
concertos of the Baroque period except solo ones. 9 In the first few measures of the first
movement we can see (Exs. 1 and 1.1) that the soloists and strings have established the key of G
minor which, along with the specific rhythm and melody, create a clear allusion to Bach
Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 (G major).10

9 Concerto grosso, Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline

(accessed October 26, 2016).
10 Timothy R. Sullivan, The Use of Polystylistics in Alfred Schnittkes Concerto Grosso No. 3, (M.M.
thesis, University of Northern Colorado, 2004), 40.
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Ex. 1. Schnittke, Concerto Grosso No.3, 1st mvt., mm. 1-7.

Ex1.1 Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, 1st mvt., mm. 1-7.

Schnittke honors Bach in one more way by interweaving Bach monogram (B-A-C-H)
through the entire pieces texture (Ex. 2). This technique would not be considered polystylistic if
Bach himself did not use the same monogram in his Art of the Fugue. I claim that all of the
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quotation webs Schnittke developed in this piece are related only to Bach. At the beginning of
the fourth movement, after a clear manifestation of Bach monogram, he includes quotations from
Bachs Well-Tempered Clavier from C# minor and F minor fugues (Ex. 2). The use of keyboard
instruments in this work can be understood as a tribute to Bach who first brought keyboard
instruments from the continuo bass section to the solo part.11

Ex. 2. Schnittke, Concerto Grosso No.3, 4th mvt., mm 1-7.

Beside Bach, Schnittke mentioned four more composers he is paying homage to in this
work: Schtz, Handel, Scarlatti, and Berg (excluding Bach and Berg, the rest of them are
honored only with monograms, technique that is not connected to polystylism). Example for
Bach is one that is easily noticeable, unlike the others, and it simply overtakes the piece. For
instance, he pays his homage to Berg, but in a subtle way. Schnittke uses the beginning of Bergs
Violin Concerto tone row, by outlining G minor triad followed by D major triad, only he is using
11 Christoph Wolff, Bach, Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline
(accessed October 26, 2016).
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his triads in a tonal way as an actual key of the piece, G minor and its dominant D major. 12
There is also a Berg monogram: A-B-E-G. Although these are not stylistic features exclusive to
Bergs music, they do characterize the Bergian style. It is interesting that Schnittke decided to
use the tone row from the very same Violin Concerto that made him state that Berg used
polystylism by directly quoting no less than Bachs corale.13
Structural and stylistic features of Bach, Berg, the Baroque, tonality, atonality, twelvetone music, and polyphony pervade the entire Concerto Grosso. Yet, instead of conveying an
impression of a motley collection of historical, stylistic gestures, this polystylistic work exhibits
powerful structural coherence and consistency on both the micro and macro levels.14 As the
analysis of the concerto illustrates, Schnittke converges the Baroque and the twentieth century
into one musical space that enables the expression of transcendental narratological themes.
Schnittke writes:
[The polystylistic method] creates new possibilities for the musical dramatization
of eternal questionsof war and peace, life and death...[It] emphasizes the
relevance to all times of the basic theme of the work...it is precisely the
multiplicity of styles used in the music that make the situations
depicted...characteristic of times other than when they actually took place.15

12 Sullivan, The Use of Polystylistics in Alfred Schnittkes Concerto Grosso No. 3, 41.
13 Alfred Schnittke, Polystylistic Tendencies in Modern Music, 90.
14 Sullivan, The Use of Polystylistics in Alfred Schnittkes Concerto Grosso No. 3, 67-70.
15 Schnittke, Polystylistic Tendencies in Modern Music, 89.
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