Peter J. Schmelz's Books

Sonic Overload

Alfred Schnittke, Valentin Silvestrov, and Polystylism in the Late USSR

By: Peter J. Schmelz

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Sonic Overload

Alfred Schnittke, Valentin Silvestrov, and Polystylism in the Late USSR

By: Peter J. Schmelz

Sonic Overload offers a new, music-centered cultural history of the late Soviet Union. It focuses on polystylism in music as a response to the information overload swamping listeners in the Soviet Union during its final decades. It traces the ways in which leading composers Alfred Schnittke and Valentin Silvestrov initially embraced popular sources before ultimately rejecting them. Polystylism first responded to the utopian impulses of Soviet ideology with utopian impulses to encompass all musical styles, from "high" to "low". But these initial all-embracing aspirations were soon followed by retreats to alternate utopias founded on carefully selecting satisfactory borrowings, as familiar hierarchies of culture, taste, and class reasserted themselves. Looking at polystylism in the late USSR tells us about past and present, near and far, as it probes the musical roots of the overloaded, distracted present.Â Based on archival research, oral historical interviews, and other overlooked primary materials, as well as close listening and thorough examination of scores and recordings, Sonic Overload presents a multilayered and comprehensive portrait of late-Soviet polystylism and cultural life, and of the music of Silvestrov and Schnittke. Sonic Overload is intended for musicologists and Soviet, Russian, and Ukrainian specialists in history, the arts, film, and literature, as well as readers interested in twentieth- and twenty-first century music; modernism and postmodernism; quotation and collage; the intersections of "high" and "low" cultures; and politics and the arts.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

431

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0197541275

ISBN 13

9780197541272

Alfred Schnittke's Concerto Grosso no. 1

By: Peter J. Schmelz

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Alfred Schnittke's Concerto Grosso no. 1

By: Peter J. Schmelz

Concerto Grosso no. 1 is one of Alfred Schnittke's best-known and most compelling works, sounding the surface of late Soviet life while resonating with contemporary compositional currents around the world such as postmodernism. It marked a decisive point in Schnittke's development of the approach he called polystylism, which aimed to contain in a single composition the wide range of contemporary musical styles, including "jazz, pop, rock, or serial music." Thanks to it and his other similar compositions, Schnittke became one of the most-performed and most-recorded living composers at the end of the twentieth century. Peter J. Schmelz's Alfred Schnittke's Concerto Grosso no. 1 represents the first accessible and comprehensive study of this composition. The novel structure of the book engages with the piece conceptually, historically, musically, and phenomenologically, with the six movements of the composition framing the six chapters. Augmenting and complicating the insights of existing English, Russian, and German publications on the Concerto Grosso no. 1, the book adds new information from underused primary sources, including Schnittke's unpublished correspondence and his many published interviews. It engages further with his sketches for the piece, and with contemporary Soviet musical criticism, resulting in a more objective, historical account of this rich, multifaceted composition, its influences, and its impact on music making in the USSR and worldwide.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

185

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190653744

ISBN 13

9780190653743

Such Freedom, If Only Musical

Unofficial Soviet Music During the Thaw

By: Peter J Schmelz

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Such Freedom, If Only Musical

Unofficial Soviet Music During the Thaw

By: Peter J Schmelz

Following Stalin's death in 1953, during the period now known as the Thaw, Nikita Khrushchev opened up greater freedoms in cultural and intellectual life. A broad group of intellectuals and artists in Soviet Russia were able to take advantage of this, and in no realm of the arts was this perhaps more true than in music. Students at Soviet conservatories were at last able to use various channels--many of questionable legality--to acquire and hear music that had previously been forbidden, and visiting performers and composers brought young Soviets new sounds and new compositions. In the 1960s, composers such as Andrey Volkonsky, Edison Denisov, Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Valentin Silvestrov experimented with a wide variety of then new and unfamiliar techniques ranging from serialism to aleatory devices, and audiences eager to escape the music of predictable sameness typical to socialist realism were attracted to performances of their new and unfamiliar creations. This "unofficial" music by young Soviet composers inhabited the gray space between legal and illegal. Such Freedom, If Only Musical traces the changing compositional styles and politically charged reception of this music, and brings to life the paradoxical freedoms and sense of resistance or opposition that it suggested to Soviet listeners. Author Peter J. Schmelz draws upon interviews conducted with many of the most important composers and performers of the musical Thaw, and supplements this first-hand testimony with careful archival research and detailed musical analyses. The first book to explore this period in detail, Such Freedom, If Only Musical will appeal to musicologists and theorists interested in post-war arts movements, the Cold War, and Soviet music, as well as historians of Russian culture and society.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

408

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190450991

ISBN 13

9780190450991

Alfred Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No. 1

By: Peter John Schmelz

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Alfred Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No. 1

By: Peter John Schmelz

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

185

Published Date

ISBN 10

019065371X

ISBN 13

9780190653712

Such Freedom, If Only Musical

Unofficial Soviet Music During the Thaw

By: Peter J Schmelz

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Such Freedom, If Only Musical

Unofficial Soviet Music During the Thaw

By: Peter J Schmelz

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

408

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190450991

ISBN 13

9780190450991

Sonic Overload

Alfred Schnittke, Valentin Silvestrov, and Polystylism in the Late USSR

By: Peter J. Schmelz

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Sonic Overload

Alfred Schnittke, Valentin Silvestrov, and Polystylism in the Late USSR

By: Peter J. Schmelz

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

431

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0197541275

ISBN 13

9780197541272

Such Freedom, If Only Musical

Unofficial Soviet Music During the Thaw

By: Peter John Schmelz

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Such Freedom, If Only Musical

Unofficial Soviet Music During the Thaw

By: Peter John Schmelz

Following Stalin's death in 1953, students at Soviet conservatories were able to use various channels to acquire and hear music that had previously been forbidden. This book traces the changing compositional styles and politically charged reception of the music.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

408

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199866856

ISBN 13

9780199866854

Book's by Peter J. Schmelz

Sonic Overload

Sonic Overload

Alfred Schnittke's Concerto Grosso no. 1

Alfred Schnittke's Concerto Grosso no. 1

Such Freedom, If Only Musical

Such Freedom, If Only Musical

Alfred Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No. 1

Alfred Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No. 1

Such Freedom, If Only Musical

Such Freedom, If Only Musical

Sonic Overload

Sonic Overload

Such Freedom, If Only Musical

Such Freedom, If Only Musical

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email