Watch This Space | Schnittke x BRSO
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Alfred Schnittke was a pioneer of polystylism, a compositional technique within contemporary music whereby different styles are combined in a single work. Schnittke further developed his musical language by layering, interweaving, distorting, and deconstructing traditional and modern elements. In his Third String Quartet, Schnittke weaves in passages by the three composers gathered around him in this Watch This Space concert: a cadential formula by Orlando di Lasso; the theme from Beethoven’s Große Fuge; and the motif frequently used by Shostakovich to represent himself, consisting of the notes D, E flat, C, B natural, or, in German musical notation, D, Es, C, H, thus forming the composer's initials in the German spelling of his name: D. SCH (Dmitri Schostakowitsch). In other words: a quotation within a quotation within a quotation.
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