Alfred Schnittke Manuscripts

Alfred Garrievich Schnittke (1934 – 1998) was a Russian composer of Jewish-German descent. Born into a Jewish-German family in Russia, Schnittke began his musical education in 1946 in Vienna, where his father worked as a journalist and translator. In 1948, the family moved to Moscow, where Schnittke studied piano and received a diploma in choral conducting. From 1953 to 1958 he studied counterpoint and composition with Yevgeny Golubev and instrumentation with Nikolai Rakov at the Moscow Conservatory. Schnittke completed the postgraduate course in composition there in 1961 and subsequently taught at the conservatory from 1962 t0 1971. In 1961 he joined the Union of Composers, although his music was frequently viewed with great suspicion by the Soviet bureaucracy, which made it difficult to reach audiences. To support himself, Schnittke primarily composed film scores, contributing to nearly 70 films over three decades. Schnittke's music began to gain recognition and international acclaim during the 1980s, even though his health started to decline. In 1985, he suffered the first of several strokes. By 1990, Schnittke had taken up residence in Hamburg, holding dual German-Russian citizenship. He passed away on August 3, 1998, in Hamburg, following another stroke. Noted for his “polystylistic” style, Schnittke composed 3 operas, 9 symphonies, 6 concerti grossi, 4 violin concertos, 2 cello concertos, concertos for piano and a triple concerto for violin, viola and cello, as well as 4 string quartets and much other chamber music, ballet scores, choral and vocal works. He also wrote a large number of articles on contemporary music, and lectured extensively in Russia and Germany. Throughout his career, Schnittke received numerous awards and honors, including the Austrian State Prize in 1991, Japan's Imperial Prize in 1992, and the Slava-Gloria-Prize in Moscow in June 1998. His music has been celebrated through retrospectives and major festivals worldwide.