The Artistic Space of the Musical-Liturgical Synthesis in Alfred Schnittke’s Second and Fourth Symphonies

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issue of the synthesis of vocal and symphonic genres in Russian
music of the second half of the 20th century. Composers create dramatically rich concepts of
their musical works by use of the principles of the vocal and choral genres. Actively applying the
semantic resources of vocal, choral and liturgical genres which are firmly entrenched in the history
of music, the Russian programmatic symphony has posed and solved multifaceted goals related to
musical content and aesthetics. The musical oeuvres of Alfred Schnittke (in particular, his Second
and Fourth Symphonies) demonstrate a fruitful synthesis of the symphonic and liturgical genres.
In the composer's sacred symphonies, the sound of the choral parts (and, along with it, the signs
of the liturgical genre) provides the thematic center, the conceptual core, and a reliable indicator
of a complex philosophical and cosmogonic program. The unique compositional design of the
Second and Fourth Symphonies is formed precisely as a result of the multilateral synthesis of the
symphonic and the vocal-liturgical genres.

Keywords: Alfred Schnittke, semiotics, semantics, 20th century music, genre, liturgy, symphony.