Das alte Jahr vergangen ist:2022 (Старый год ушел: 2022).
Вариации на хорал Баха для ансамбля


В хоральных обработках меня привлекает заложенная в самом этом жанре возможность создания нового музыкального комментария к старинному, освященному традицией оригиналу. В моих Вариациях баховский хорал, поначалу складывающийся из пуантилистически рассредоточенных фраз, постепенно обрастает звуковыми реалиями сегодняшнего дня – военными фанфарами, дробью барабана, гулом самолетов. В свою очередь характерный восходящий хроматический ход мелодии хорала все более разрастается при каждом новом проведении и в конце сочинения образует развернутую коду, медленно восходящую от самого низкого регистра к самому верхнему. Старый год ушел, ушла целая эпоха и с ней ушла прежняя жизнь.

Импульсом для написания этой пьесы мне послужил не монументальный органный оригинал Баха, а видеозапись Марты и Дьердя Куртага, исполняющих в четыре руки на стареньком пианино утонченно-лирическое переложение этого хорала.

Das alte Jahr vergangen ist продолжает серию моих хоральных обработок, выполненных для разных составов – от сольных (Es ist genug для фагота соло) до ансамблевых (Jesu, deine tiefen Wunden).

Das alte Jahr vergangen ist:2022 (The Old Year Has Passed:2022)
Variation on the choral by Bach (2023)


The idea of my variations is that the subtle pointillistic orchestration of the chorale is gradually invaded and periodically interrupted by the sounds of war — the rumble of bombers, military fanfares of brass, the rolls of the war drums. In the chorale itself, the sad chromatically ascending phrase becomes more and more expanded until it becomes the central element of the entire coda.

While working on it, I was inspired not by the "objective" organ sound of this chorale, but by the unusually soulful performance of this piece by Marta and Gyorgy Kurtag on an old piano four hands.

Danse macabre
для оркестра (2023)


Эта пьеса об опустошающей силе войны и ее фатальных последствиях. Композитор обращается к аллегорическому сюжету позднего Средневековья — Пляске смерти. Ее музыкальными символами становятся мрачный средневековый хорал Dies irae (День гнева) и диссонантно перегармонизованная фатально-величественная тема Пассакалии из Четвёртой Симфонии Брамса.

Две эти темы проходят круг вариаций, которые приводят к кульминационному танцу — сардоническому апофеозу Смерти, оставляющей за собой пустыню. Одинокое бренчание скрипки a la балалайкa, безучастно наигрывающей тему Dies irae, завершает произведение. 

Пьеса написана по заказу San Diego Symphony для исполнения в рамках California festival.

Danse macabre
for orchestra (2023)


This work addresses the destructive forces of war and their devastating consequences. Tarnopolski takes as his allegoric theme the Dance of Death from the late Middle Ages. Its musical symbols are found in the medieval Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) and that dissonant re- harmonized majestic theme of fate, the Passacaglia from Brahms’ Fourth Symphony.

These two themes are treated in a cycle of variations, which range in character from the parodying to the brutal, and culminate in a sardonic dance as an apotheosis of Death and the decimation left in its wake. The solitary strumming on a Russian balalaika nonchalantly repeating the Dies Irae brings the work to a close. Danse macabre came into being as a protest against the War in the Ukraine. 

The piece was commissioned by the San Diego Symphony for performance at the California festival.

Out of Step. Out of Time. March to Stay Still
для клавиш и струн фортепиано (2023)


В этой брутальной пьесе пародируется милитаристский марш, от которого остается лишь обнаженный ритмический скелет. Пьеса строится на абсурдном сочетании агрессивного напора с бессмысленным топтанием на месте. Рассинхронизация жестких повторяющихся аккордов приводит к их распаду на отдельные звуковые фрагменты.

Альтернативным пластом в пьесе выступают аллюзия на церковное песнопение «Сподоби, Господи» и имитация тембра бандуры на струнах фортепиано. 

Сочинение написано по заказу пианистки Эллен Югелвик для проекта Performing Precarity («преодолевая исполнительские конвенции»), проводимого норвежским Центром творческих исследований NordART. Премьера состоялась 3 сентября 2023 на концерте, посвященном 50-летию Норвежской Академии музыки.

Out of Step. Out of Time. March to Stay Still
for piano keys and strings (2023)


This brutal piece parodies a militaristic march, of which only a naked rhythmic skeleton remains. The composition is built on an absurd combination of aggressive pressure and senseless marking time. The desynchronization of brutal, repeating chords leads to their disintegration into separate sound fragments.

An alternative layer in the piece is an allusion to the church chant "Lord have mercy on us" and an imitation of the timbre of a bandura on the piano strings.

The work was commissioned by pianist Ellen Ugelvik for the project “Performing Precarity”, conducted by the Norwegian Center for Creative Research NordART. The premiere took place on September 3, 2023 at a concert dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Norwegian Academy of Music.

Последний закат
для сопрано-саксофона, записи NASA звуков Земли и электроники (2021)


Идея пьесы «Последний закат» — сплавление в единой амальгаме записи звучания Земли, произведенной NASA, и «космических» мультифоников саксофона. При этом звучание саксофона приближается к звучанию электроники, в то время как звучание Земли неожиданно оказывается близким стилю New Age Music.

Владимир Тарнопольский

Last Sunset
for saxophone soprano, NASAs recording of the sound of Earth and electronics (2021)


The idea of the piece LAST SUNSET is to merge together into a single amalgam the recordings of the sound of the Earth carried out by NASA and the "cosmic" multiphonics of the saxophone. At the same time the sound of the saxophone approaches the sound of electronics, while the sound of the Earth unexpectedly becomes close to the style of New Age Music.

Vladimir Tarnopolski

Study of Breath
для виолончели соло (2018)

Виолончель является, наверное, самым «человекоподобным» музыкальным инструментом. Ее тембр и диапазон, широчайшая амплитуда экспрессивных возможностей максимально приближает этот инструмент к человеческому голосу и вообще, к человеческой природе. Меня всегда интересовал вопрос, как соотносится дыхание исполнителя со сменами направления движения смычка, как пульс интерпретатора соотносится с музыкальным синтаксисом. «Исследование» слитности и дифференциации этих параметров, их единения и расслоения стало импульсом для работы над этим сочинением. Дыхание, как первый жест жизни и ее же последний знак.

Владимир Тарнопольский

Study of Breath
for cello solo (2018)

The cello is probably the most "human-like" musical instrument. Its timbre and range, the widest amplitude of expressive possibilities bring this instrument as close as possible to the human voice and, in general, to human nature. I have always been interested in the question of how the performer's breath correlates with changing direction of the bow, how the pulse of the interpreter correlates with the musical syntax. "Research" into the fusion and differentiation of these parameters, their unity and stratification, became the impetus for working on this piece. Breathing as the first gesture of life and its last sign.

Vladimir Tarnopolski

Be@thoven – Invocation
для оркестра (2017)


Начиная работу над сочинением, я пытался представить себе звуковой мир позднего Бетховена. Известно, что он испытывал мучительный звон в ушах, а с помощью слуховых аппаратов мог слышать в основном лишь звуки низкого регистра. Из-за развивавшейся глухоты Бетховен вынужден был оставить исполнительство. Парадоксальным образом последнее его выступление как пианиста было связано именно с исполнением Четвертого концерта — одного из самых светлых бетховенских сочинений. Единственная его «тень» — это короткая вторая часть, которую часто трактуют как спуск Орфея в ад. Эта «звуковая картина» послужила своеобразным импульсом моей пьесы, которая начинается с самых низких звуков фортепиано. В своей пьесе я отталкиваюсь от музыкальных образов второй части Четвертого концерта и апеллирую к нашему «внутреннему слуху», к его избирательной памяти и тому ограниченному диапазону частот, который определял звуковой мир позднего Бетховена.

Я мыслил эту пьесу как своего рода послание Бетховену, этим обусловлено ee название.

Владимир Тарнопольский

Be@thoven – Invocation
fur Orchester (2017)


Als ich mit der Arbeit an dem Stück begann, versuchte ich, mir die Klangwelt des späten Beethoven vorzustellen. Es ist bekannt, dass er ein quälendes Dröhnen in den Ohren empfand, und dass er mit Hilfe eines Hörgeräts eigentlich nur Klänge des tiefen Registers vernehmen konnte. Wegen der fortschreitenden Ertaubung musste Beethoven seine Tätigkeit als Interpret aufgeben. Paradoxerweise war sein letzter Auftritt als Pianist mit dem Vortrag des vierten Klavierkonzerts verbunden, eines der heitersten beethovenschen Werke. Der einzige "Schatten" darin ist der kurze zweite Satz, er wird oft als Orpheus' Abstieg in die Hölle gedeutet. Dieses "Klangbild" wurde zu einer Art Impuls für mein Stück, das mit den tiefsten Tönen des Klaviers beginnt. In der Komposition stoße ich mich ab von den Klangbildern des zweiten Satzes des vierten Klavierkonzerts und appelliere an unser "Inneres Gehör" mit seinem selektiven Gedächtnis und dem begrenzten Frequenzspektrum, das die Klangwelt des späten Beethoven bestimmte. Ich stellte mir das Stück vor als eine Art Sendschreiben an Beethoven, so kam es zu seinem Titel.

Vladimir Tarnopolski

Perpetuum Moebius
for Flute/Alto flute, Bass clarinet, Violin, Violoncello and Piano (2017)


The idea for this piece originated immediately after I learned about Frank Gehry's wonderful architectural project for the Pierre Boulez Saal. The two weightless ovals that envelop the space like a band instantly made me think of a Moebius strip, that paradoxical geometrical figure that unites the inner and outer surfaces of a particular space in one continuous transition. When we move along this band, we are transported, as it were, into the opposite dimension without crossing a spatial border. This became the idea for my piece: to present the process of the musical material "flowing" from one quality into the opposite as a specific type of perpetuum mobile — a kind of Perpetuum Moebius. The piece is dedicated to the musicians of the Boulez Ensemble.

Vladimir Tarnopolski

Perpetuum Moebius (2017)


Die Idee zu dem Stück entstand unmittelbar nachdem ich das großartige Architekturprojekt von Frank Gehry für den Pierre Boulez-Saal kennengelernt hatte. Die zwei schwerelosen Ovale, die wie ein Band den Raum einfassen, brachten mich sofort auf den Gedanken vom Möbiusband, jener paradoxen geometrischen Figur, die in ununterbrochenem Übergang die innere mit der äußeren Seite des Raumes vereint. Wenn wir uns auf diesem Band bewegt, geraten wir gleichsam in die entgegengesetzte Dimension, ohne eine Raumgrenze zu durchschreiten. Das wurde zur Idee meines Stückes: den Prozess des "Hinüberfließens" des Klangmaterials aus einer Qualität in die entgegengesetzte als eigentümliches Perpetuum mobile darzustellen. Eine Art von "Perpetuum Möbius". Das Stück ist den Musikern des Pierre Boulez Ensembles gewidmet.

Vladimir Tarnopolski

Борис Пастернак

Давай ронять слова

Мой друг, ты спросишь, кто велит,
Чтоб жглась юродивого речь?

Давай ронять слова, Как сад — янтарь и цедру, Рассеянно и щедро, Едва, едва, едва. Не надо толковать, Зачем так церемонно Мареной и лимоном Обрызнута листва. Кто иглы заслезил И хлынул через жерди На ноты, к этажерке Сквозь шлюзы жалюзи. Кто коврик за дверьми Рябиной иссурьмил, Рядном сквозных, красивых Трепещущих курсивов. Ты спросишь, кто велит, Чтоб август был велик, Кому ничто не мелко, Кто погружен в отделку

Кленового листа И с дней Экклезиаста Не покидал поста За теской алебастра? Ты спросишь, кто велит, Чтоб губы астр и далий Сентябрьские страдали? Чтоб мелкий лист ракит С седых кариатид Слетал на сырость плит Осенних госпиталей? Ты спросишь, кто велит? — Всесильный бог деталей, Всесильный бог любви, Ягайлов и Ядвиг. Не знаю, решена ль Загадка зги загробной, Но жизнь, как тишина Осенняя, — подробна. translations: English, Deutsch

Boris Pasternak

Let's scatter our words…

My friend, you will ask, who ordains
that the speech of a blessed fool should burn?

Let's scatter our words As the garden scatters amber zest, Absentmindedly and generously Bit by bit by bit. Let's not discuss Why the leaves are patterned So formally With ruby and lemon. Who welled up with needles And gushed through the slats, The floodgate blinds, Onto the music books in the shelf. Who dyed the outdoor mat With rowan berries Like a canvas of diaphanous, Trembling italics. You will ask, who ordains That August should be great, For whom is nothing too small, Who is absorbed with etching

A maple leaf And who, from the time of Ecclesiastes, Hasn't quit his post Hewing alabaster? You will ask, who ordains That the September lips Of asters and dahlias should suffer? That the fine leaves of broom Should waft from greying caryatids Onto the damp flagstones Of autumn hospitals? You will ask, who ordains? — The all-powerful God of details, The all-powerful God of love, Of Jagailos and Jadwigas. I don't know if the dark riddle Of the tomb has been solved; But life, like autumn Silence, is in the details.

Boris Pasternak

Lasst Worte uns verschwenden
Übertragung: Ulrich Henkys, Aug. 2000

Du fragst, Freund, wer befiehlt,
dass man des Toren Wort verbrenne?

Lasst Worte uns verschwenden So wie im Garten Bernsteinblätter fallen; Im Überfluss verstreut, So schaukeln sie hinab, hinab. Wir wollen nicht erklären, Warum sie so geschmückt sind, Zitronengelb und rot, Zur stillen Herbsteszeit. Wer benetzte Nadelzweige Und liess sie durch den Holzzaun fluten Wie Noten auf der Etagere Und wie geschleust durch eine Jalousie. Wer legte draussen vor die Tür Den Ebereschen-Blätterteppich, Durchscheinend, schön gewebt Aus zitternden Kursiven. Du fragst, Freund, wer befiehlt, Dass der August so groß sei,

Und nichts sei bei ihm klein, — Wer schuf das Blatt des Spitzahorns Mit Kunst und Akribie. Wie Alabaster schimmert es In jedem Herbste wieder neu Seit Salomonis Tagen. Du fragst, Freund, wer befiehlt? — Der allmächtige Gott der Liebe ist es, Der Gott des Hedwigs und Jagiellos, Allmächtig im Detail. Ich weiß nicht, was im Dunkel Jenseits der Gräber ist; Doch wie ein stiller Herbsttag ist das Leben: Erfüllt von Wundern im Detail.

Mattino (1940)
Cesare Pavese (1908–1950)

La finestra socchiusa contiene un volto 
sopra il campo del mare. I capelli vaghi 
accompagnano il tenero ritmo del mare.
Non ci sono ricordi su questo viso. 
Solo un'ombra fuggevole, come di nube. 
L'ombra è umida e dolce come la sabbia 
di una cavità intatta, sotto il crepuscolo. 
Non ci sono ricordi. Solo un sussurro 
che è la voce del mare fatta ricordo.
Nel crepuscolo l'acqua molle dell'alba 
che s'imbeve di luce, rischiara il viso. 
Ogni giorno è un miracolo senza tempo, 
sotto il sole: una luce salsa l'impregna e un sapore di frutto marino vivo.
Non esiste ricordo su questo viso. 
Non esiste parola che lo contenga 
o accomuni alle cose passate. Ieri, 
dalla breve finestra è svanito come 
svanirà tra un istnente, senza tristezza 
né parole umane, sul campo del mare.

Tabula Russia (2015)


The title Tabula Russia presents a phonetic and semantic allusion to the well-known Latin expression tabula rasa ("blank slate" in English). This is how the wax tablets used for notating texts were used in antiquity. Before a new text was inscribed, the old text was erased (by smoothing out the wax), so the expression tabula rasa contains in itself a certain "double code" – the mystery of the previous text and the riddle of the future not yet written.

The composition "Tabula Russia" was written especially for a festival devoted to Sergei Rachaninoff, one of the remarkable Russian composers. I tried to bring in here allusions to the bell-like sound quality permeating his music, elements of strict liturgical prosodies and exulted Eastern chants dissolving in yet another "obliterating current" of time.

The main sonar idea in my composition, which became its initial impulse, was the sound of the Russian low bell, which has been the sonic symbol of Russia from the earliest times. In Russian bells, unlike most of the European ones, there is an oscillation not of the cupola, but of the bell, which makes it possible to make/mould very large bells that emit very low tones, extremely abundant in overtones. This "primeval" bell rumble forms a remarkable combination of the harmonious cosmos of overtones and the chaos of the multitude of "arbitrary" side-tones, a peculiar kind of sound "chaosmos."

Chaos fraught with cosmos or, on the other hand, orderliness fraught with chaos – this metaphor, as it seems to me, contains an important archetype of the "Russian consciousness." Russia, being in search for its identity, continuously rewrites its own history, each time starting from a "tabula rasa", indulging in or plunging into extremities and each time "erasing" its previous meanings in its attempts at searching for an ideal utopia.

The composition is dedicated to Valery Gergiev.

Vladimir Tarnopolski

Redschift (2013)


The main idea for this composition was inspired by a set of snapshots obtained by means of the "Hubble" telescope. Following hitherto unfathomable laws of nature, orderly stellar systems are formed from clouds of gas and nebulae, emanating powerful currents of light and energy.

These galaxies and stellar nebulae demonstrate color spectra of fantastic beauty and an astonishing variety of forms: ellipses, spirals and innumerable irregular structures. Appearing to be immobile to the lay observer, in reality, following the law of the red shift, discovered by astronomer Edwin Hubble, these hyper-gigantic formations move away from each other with an incredible, continuously increasing speed. This results in the calm grandeur of the universe which in reality presents a monstrous energy of constant motion, one that simultaneously is creative and destructive.

My composition expresses a peculiar sound metaphor of Hubble's idea. Out of an amorphous mass of the "sound nebula" the fractal pitch structures gradually crystallize. In a similarly gradual way the "syntactic gravitation" forms large-scale phased periods. The dramatic play of matter and energy, the changeover of one to the other, leads to a constantly accelerating expansion of the sound space.

The principle of the red shift — the visual indicator of the grandiose expansion of the universe — is imprinted in the musical texture, not only metaphorically, but also structurally. In the formation of the composition's parameters of sound, the idea of phased shifts is reflected in shifts of pitches — the intervallic displacement of adjacent sound fractal chords — and shifts in the frequency domain — mutations of the timbre.

Vladimir Tarnopolski

Redschift (2013)

L'idée principale de cette composition a été inspirée par une série de clichés obtenus au moyen du télescope "Hubble". Suivant des lois jusqu’ici insondables de la nature, les systèmes stellaires ordonnés sont formés à partir de nuages de gaz et de nébuleuses, émanant de puissants courants de lumière et d'énergie.

Ces galaxies et nébuleuses stellaires montrent des spectres de couleur d’une beauté fantastique et d’une étonnante variété de formes : ellipses, spirales ainsi que d’innombrables structures irrégulières.

Apparemment immobiles pour l'observateur profane, en réalité, suivant la loi du décalage vers le rouge (red shift) découverte par l'astronome Edwin Hubble, ces formations gigantesques s'éloignent les unes des autres à une incroyable vitesse en constante augmentation.

De ceci résulte l'apparente calme grandeur de l'univers, qui en réalité recèle une énergie monstrueuse en mouvement constant, énergie à la fois créatrice et destructrice.

Ma composition est l'expression d'une métaphore sonore spécifique à l'idée de Hubble. Émergeant d'une masse amorphe de la "nébuleuse sonore", les structures fractales de hauteurs se cristallisent progressivement.

D'une manière similaire et progressive, la "gravitation syntaxique" crée de larges périodes reposant sur des décalages de phase. Le jeu dramatique entre matière et énergie, le passage de l'un à l'autre, conduit à une expansion constante et croissante de l'espace sonore.

Le principe du décalage vers le rouge — l'indicateur visuel de l'expansion grandiose de l'univers — est imprimé dans la texture musicale, non seulement métaphoriquement, mais aussi structurellement. Dans la formation des paramètres de la composition sonore, l'idée de décalages de phase se traduit par des décalages de hauteurs— c'est-à-dire par la transposition d'accords fractals adjacents — et par des décalages dans le domaine des fréquences — c'est-à-dire des transformation du timbre.

Vladimir Tarnopolski

Last and Lost (2010)


This small piece presents a sort of compositional study based on the idea of Roland Barthes about "writing degree zero." It is an attempt to work with the most neutral type of musical material, bereft of any mythology, the most crucial aim of which is to create a "speaking" form with a sculpture-like relief. The piece was written upon commission from the Klangforum Wien ensemble for the bicentennial anniversary if Liszt in Weimar.

Vladimir Tarnopolski

Jenseits der Schatten
(Beyond the Shadow)
Multimedia opera
Scenary: Vladimir Tarnopolski after Plato and Pliny
Texts: Dante, Leonardo, Nietzsche. The compilation and additional fragments by Ralph Günther Mohnnau

The impulses for the creating of this scenario came from two ancient sources — the «Cave Allegory» by Plato and the story about the Origin of Painting from Shadow by Plinius the Elder. Both these stories are based on different interpretations of the phenomenon of Shadow. For Plato the shadow is a sign of the Eidos (the idée) and for Plinius the shadow is a prototype of the Painting. In my scenario I unite these two ideas and develop them in theirs interconnection in another form. Contrary to Plato in the scenario just the Art unbind the prisoner from the cave. And contrary to Plinius the shadow is something much more significant than only an optic phenomenon. The Shadow in the opera comes out of collision between Light and Dark.

The composition of the opera is based on parallel development of two blocks. The first block represents the Allegories of Arts. It is visualized by 3 sopranos and the female-dancer. The second block represents the Prisoners in the cave. It is vizualized by male trio and the male dancer. Only one of the Prisoners — the Dancer — finds the way to the Light at the end of the opera.

The fragments from the texts by Dante («Divine Comedy», male trio), Leonardo («The Disput of the Arts», female trio), Nietzsche («Jenseits von Gut und Bose») are used in the opera. The compilation of the texts as well as several additional fragments were set up by Ralph Günther Mohnnau.

FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM
for orchestra (2004)


FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM was written in 2004 on a commission from the Dutch Schoenberg Ensemble. Its world premiere took place the same year at the Concertgebouw under the direction of Reinbert de Leuw.

In this piece, the standard ensemble of contemporary music is supplemented by two pairs of related instruments that are rarely found in scores — accordion and bayan (button accordion), guitar and cimbalom, which also appear as soloists in some fragments. I tried to construct my piece on the basis of juxtaposition of two contrasting types of music matter: the music as free ametric breathing and the music as a polychronic mechanical movement, as well as, correspondingly, two types of time — the continuous and the mechanically discreet. It was especially intriguing for me to examine the processes of the emergence and formation of each type of music, and also to trace the stages of the transition of one into the other. I was also greatly interested in the idea of the gradual modulation of the timbral beats of sound into rhythmic structures and thus transforming timbre into rhythm.

The pendulum-like development of the musical material of the piece, involving repetitions with gradual changes of the “trajectory” of the movement, brought to my mind the famous pendulum built by Jacques Foucault in 1851 for a visual demonstration of the fact of the Earth’s rotation. The pendulum is represented in the piece by a metronome standing next to the conductor. In the course of the piece, the metronome twice — in the middle and at the end of the piece — displaces the conductor and leads the ensemble.

The title of the work also contains the allusion to the famous mystification novel by Umberto Eco, “Foucault’s Pendulum”, in which the author explores the emergence and spread of conspiracy theories in an era when "the sleep of reason produces monsters."

Vladimir Tarnopolski

Feux follets for orchestra (2003)

Feux follets is a virtuoso concert etude for orchestra. Its name and its genre are inspired by Liszt's famous work, and has been conceived as one of four parts of a Concerto for Orchestra dedicated to the four elements: fire, air, water and earth. The idea of this piece arose while I was reading Gaston Bachelard's celebrated series of books which explore the deep links between the artist's creative imagination and the natural elements.

Fire is the most mysterious and incomprehensible phenomen, devoid of any substance of its own, yet fashioning all other material into new forms. The playful way in which it is transfigured, the unpredictable and impetuous movement with which it spreads, and the spontaneity with which it flares up is precisely what I have tried to find in the material of sound.

Vladimir Tarnopolski

ЗОЛУШКА
Сценическая кантата для чтецов, детского хора, детского оркестра (любого состава) и камерного ансамбля на тексты Роальда Даля (2003)

Роальд Даль (1916-1990) — классик современной английской литературы, один из самых популярных детских писателей в англоязычных странах. Его Золушка — веселый и ироничный ремейк известной сказки, где все персонажи и основные сюжетные мотивы модернизированы и переосмыслены в гротесковом ключе с элементами эксцентрики и черного юмора. Это:
    – весьма меркантильная Золушка, которая предлагает Фее развернутый шопинг-лист на аксессуары, необходимые для того, чтобы охмурить на балу Принца;
    – несколько разочарованная в людях и своем профессиональном ремесле Фея;
    – необычный диско-бал во дворце, где звучат танго и рок-данс;
    – подмена коварными мужеподобными сестрами Золушкиной туфельки на грубый дурнопахнущий башмак;
    – странноватый и несколько психопатичный Принц-байкер, который гоняет на мотоциклах и кадилаках, увлекается рэпом и хип-хопом и казнит надоедливых злых сестер;
    – нетривиальный выбор Золушки, которая предпочитает агрессивному Принцу веселого Кондитера, варящего вкусный джем.

Одна из главных задач сочинения — через активное музицирование вовлечение детей в процесс создания веселого и динамичного представления. «Золушка» предполагает разные версии реализации — от концертного исполнения до полноценного театрального спектакля и допускает различные варианты исполнительского состава — от минимального (в норвежской постановке участвовало около 50 человек включая хор) до максимального (в Барбикан-холле в Лондоне принимало участие 250 человек). В основе детского оркестра — струнные и по желанию любые духовые инструменты (flexiband). Профессиональный ансамбль ограничивается 16 инструменталистами.

CHEVENGUR for soprano and ensemble (2001)

By breaking grammatical rules and conventions with his idiosyncratic use of language, Andrey Platonov breaks the illusory reason and order of the world. His novel Chevengur is an anti-utopia in which the very real and cataclysmic collapse of Russia in the 1920s appears as an eternally existential state of being — naked man is shown on a naked earth, lost in the great emptiness of the scorched south-eastern steppe. In this endless space, consonants vibrate and explode as concrete sounds surrounding the world (as in the words "vzbugrenya" — "hillocking", "moshchnie" — powerful, "pochva" — soil). From these tones arises typical sounds of Russian accordion, as well as the miracle of industry — the steam engine (which for Platonov is like a living creature) and also the echoes of a doleful army song, like those sung on all of Russia's battlefronts, from the Civil War to Chechnya, whose very name was mystically "foretold" by Chevengur: "My comrade-in-arms,/march ahead and sing a song,/it's long been time for us to meet death — /after all, it's shameful to live and sad to die."


TEXT:

Day after day a man walked on into the depth of the south-eastern steppe of the Soviet Union. Space was a space of depth, not of thickness, and there were such powerful hillockings of soil everywhere that the world seemed dreary and stifling.
With peace it had become quiet again in the provinces and there were fewer people: some had died in the fighting, many were being treated for their wounds, forgetting the heavy work of the war in long sleep, while some were still making their way home, walking over thick unfamiliar grass which there had not been time to see before, or maybe it had just been trampled down and had not been growing then. They walked with faint, astonished hearts, recognising again the fields and villages along their path. Their souls had changed in the torment of war and they were on their way to live as if for the first time, dimly remembering themselves.
(tr. R. &E. Chandler and A. Livingstone, from "The River Potudan", published in Andrey Platonov, THE RETURN, Harvill, 1999)

Ride on, comrade, and sing a song;
Sing, comrade, and ride ahead. Our turn to die came long ago —
It's shame to live, it's sad being dead.

Comrade, comrade, don't lose heart!
Our mothers said life lay ahead —
But my mother told me: "First
Make sure your enemy's nice and dead
And then lie down on top…"

(tr. R. & E. Chandler, unpublished)

Wenn die Zeit uber die Ufer tritt
(When Time Overflows its Margins)
Opera in three scenes
Text: Ralf Günther Mohnnau after Anton Chekhov (2003)

My opera "When Time Overflows…" was written in 1999 as a commission for the the festival of contemporary music theater – Münchener Biennale. The opera is based on separate situations and motives of the well-known Chekhov pieces – "Three Sisters", "Seagull", "Uncle Vanya" and others. However, the libretto does not simply follow these pieces but creates a certain new METATEXT, like a commentary on Chekov. At the same time, the impulse for the development is not the plot, which would be typical for a so-called literary opera, but a principle of confrontation of the same party situation in the three scenes of the opera. In the first scene the action happens in a Russian province during the time of Chekhov (at the turn of the XX century); the second scene takes place in our times, in a certain cultural center at the turn of the millennium; and in the third one we find ourselves in an indefinite future, in a certain virtual space.

According to the three different times (past– present – future) and three different mentalities (a Russian province – a world capital – an "above-the-planetness"), the topics of the talks change: from love (1st scene) — to art (2^nd scene), and, finally— to death (3^rd scene). For all the external contrasts of the entourage it turns out that the existential problems of man appear to be the same in all times, namely — the impossibility of communication and of mutual understanding, the persistence of loneliness and the absence of a sense of meaning in life. These problems can never be solved, but are redoubled during the course of the development of our civilization.

This immutability is reflected in a particular aspect of the construction of the opera in which the three scenes represent three free variations with a recurring structure. At the beginning of each scene there is the same text.

"Today is Sunday" – an episode of the three sisters, who nostalgically dream about something. Then two male characters appear and introduce the major theme of the scene: love, art or death. Finally, after the ostinato culminations, two more characters – a bass and a counter-tenor – switch the "lofty" talks in a slightly parodic-grotesque context. Each scene finishes with an episode of the "clock", inexorably counting time, and the title cue of the opera "When Time Overflows its Margins". With this construction, I wanted to communicate one of the central existential ideas of Chekhov – that people do not change; only objects change. Such a construction, which is based on a principle of three, connects with a special understanding of a temporal phenomenon. Time is not a vector here (there is practically no action in the opera), but a kind of annual ring, each of which is a variant of a previous one.

Along with immutability, there also functions an opposite principle of progressive deconstruction in the opera, applying to the quality of sound texture.

Thus, as the opera progresses, the instruments more and more often use different "non-classical," "estranging" devices of sound producing: multiphony with the winds, half-sounds with the strings and many others. In the most obvious way this deconstruction is shown in the evolution of the only leitmotiv of the opera - the motive of time. Emerging from sudden rustles, it gains a bell-like character in the first scene, and then it loses its determinacy more and more, dissolving in glissandos and turning to gnashings and clusters. No less radically, the principle of deconstruction is shown in the evolution of the vocal line: if a complicated cantilena prevails in the first scene, then in the second one Sprechstimme, singing of consonants, and the fragmentation of the text play more important role.

Finally, in the third scene, the words themselves deconstruct into their separate sounds, which are distributed between the characters. A type of vocal line in some episodes is written graphically: a vibrato turns to a choking tone and other non-classical kinds of singing.

All the three scenes contain many quaint details from Chekhov's epoch, all of which are present and "active", though often also by detached and unexpected means, transgressing their classical functions: the usual shot-gun, well-known from Checkhov's stories, actually shoots here and even twice, the piano turns out to be a mechanical one, the clock with chimes, the striking of which marks the division between the scenes, suddenly indicates in a loud volume the real time in the real performance.

The individual descriptions of the characters, which still can be guessed in the first scene, are also under deconstruction later on: the characters gradually lose even their names (in the second scene they are marked only with the first letters of their names, and in the third one— with neutral numbers). The absence of true characters leads to the impossibility of including any solo arias in the structure of the opera; that's why the composition is the opera-ensemble. The principle of ensemble became a clue for me in my work: three sisters sing all together, they represent a certain triple-unity. In addition, number 3 is another important organizing moment of the opera. The three sisters are accompanied by the solo string trio. Three themes (love-art-death) determine the content of three scenes, which embody three times and three places. In the three culminations, Latin words sound three times when the characters scan the key words in each of the scenes.

That is, the idea of Latin I drew from fleeting details form Chekov's Masha (Three Sisters) who in anger at her husband conjugated the Latin verb 'to love' — amo. From this seed I tried to grow a tree determining the sense and construction of the entire opera. This example illustrates well my approach to Chekov's text. I am absolutely not attempting to approach the so-called "genuine", but in any case I don't think that this is possible in opera. On the contrary, I completely refuse the naive idea of setting to music the text of Chekov. I am convinced that the modalities and languages of art are non-translatable from one to another, and even the simplest dramatization of any play on the theatrical stage forces the director to qualitatively rethink and restructure all of the material. When we speak about an opera, howerer the composer is simply obliged to find a completely new code, a new construction and a new style to the material. In this way, the most important problem for me appeared to be the fusion of various types of stylistic elements, but not in the banal polystylisticism a la Schnittke which brings together in only essence the sum of stylisation and citation, but in depth, at the level of 'sound-genetics'. I have tried to find some kind of metastyle in the sonoric magma which one way or another would wash away any potential certainty by means of sonoric waves of harmony-timbre-noise. For myself. I characterise this as a new euphony (a new harmony) in which is counterposed consonance and dissonance, sound and noise, harmony and timbre, acoustic and electronic instruments. In the opera, I often returned to the scarcely perceptible stylistic allusions which change their contours like a chameleon. I "recalled" in music frozen moments of Glinka, cards of Tchaikovsky, chimes of Mussorgsky, endless cantilenas of Rachmaninov, and the shrill anguish of Lady Macbeth, although of course, the listener of these allusions will not be aware of this. In the first scene, I even cited a phrase of Liebestraum of Liszt, and at the culmination of the opera used elements of rap and minimalism. By way of development these idioms aquired a palpable critical accent and in the end destroyed themselves under the weight of their own characteristics. However I tried to articulate this whole stylistic spectrum not on the level of a superficial comparison but through a root system sprouting through the sound fabric.

Today, at the threshold of the 21st Century, there are no "good" and "bad" media. All depends on how the employed means address the given individual conceptions of a given concrete composition; on how interesting is the given individual idea. So with this opera, I tried, not breaking from the principle precepts of the opera genre to find more freedom in the creation of new ideas.

In the last scene, the librettist includes the death address to humankind communicated by the members of the suicidal religious sect "Temple of the Sun", who poisoned themselves en masse. This unexpected, and perhaps shocking idea in the context of Chekov, seems to be in my view a very organic one for the opera: the text of the address has deep and unexpected, almost literal deep parallels with some of the maxims of Chekhov's characters. It encloses the ring of the opera's plot and marks the "timeless" archetypical nature of the age-old problem of our short existence, as discovered by the genius of Chekhov.

Le vent des mots qu'il n'a pas dits

(Ветер слов, которые он не успел сказать)
для виолончели с оркестром (1996)

Сочинение написано по заказу фестиваля «Варшавская осень». Его название и поэтическую программу определила строка из стихотворения Стефана Малларме «Прощальный тост»:

Vaste gouffre apporte dans l'amas de la brune
Par l'irascible vent des mots qu'il n'a pas dits

         (Stephane Mallarme, Toast funebre)

Пьеса посвящена памяти безвременно ушедшего замечательного скрипача Олега Кагана. Это посвящение обусловило особый состав оркестра — в нем отсутствуют скрипки, а сольная партия написана специально для Наталии Гутман, жены Олега Кагана.

В своем сочинении, я пытался создать саморасширяющуюся фактуру и саморазвивающуюся форму, где нет цезур между разделами и ни один инструмент не играет доминирующей роли. Звучания возникают и затухают, создавая одну большую музыкальную волну, своего рода метафору вздоха.

Премьера сочинения состоялась в 1996 году в Варшаве, солист — Юлиус Бергер.

Владимир Тарнопольский

Le vent des mots qu'il n'a pas dits
(The Wind of Unspoken Words)
for cello and orchestra (1996)

The title of the piece refers to the fragment from Stephane Mallarme's Funeral Toast:

Vaste gouffre apporte l'amas de la brume
Par I'irascible vent des mots qu'il n'a pas dits

The piece is dedicated to the memory of the untimely deceased eminent violinist Oleg Kagan. This dedication is indicated in the piece by the specific selection of instruments, among which there are no violins. The solo instrument is cello — as a sign of common mourning with the widow, cellist Natalia Gutman. I tried to create here self-expanding textures and the self-developing form in which there are no caesuras between sections and in which no instrument plays a dominant role; in which only sounds are created and die away, forming one wave of the music.

Commissioned by the "Warsaw Autumn"

Vladimir Tarnopolski

Landschalt nach der Schlacht
für ensemble und bass
nach Lekture der Duineser Elegien von R.M.Rilke (1995)

Das poetische Bild des Titels greift ein Motiv in der Kunst der letzten Zeit auf: die Idee des Nachworts, des Postscriptums. Indem das Werk Tarnopolskis die Reihe von Werken ahnlichen Charakters (ort-setzt, bildet es zugleich einen Ruckblick auf diese Idee: die Landschaft einer verwusteten, verlassenen Welt wird durch Rilkes poetische Bilder in ein erhabenes Panorama des Weltgeschehens verwandelt. Rilkes Duineser Elegien stellen eine Reaktion des Dichters auf die Ereignisse des Ersten Weltkriegs dar. Ihre schreckliche, monumentale und zugleich zitternd verschwommene, aus winzigen Details gewobene Welt gibt bizarre Kriegserfahrungen wieder. Ein uberwaltigendes Bild der Kosmogonie mit tragischen Kollissionen und Kataklismen des Seins entsteht. Der grosse Weltrhythmus erscheint im standigen Werden und Untergehen. Diese widerspruchlich-zerrissene Einheitlichkeit der Welt birgt den Begriff des Schonen in sich.

Die Idee des Ubergangs der Schonheit in ihren Gegensatz bildet den Hauptinhalt des Werkes von Tarnopolski, was in erster Linie durch klangfarblich-instrumentale Mittel wiedergegeben wird. Aufgrund einer detailliert durchgearbeiteten Skala der Tonschwebungen werden naturliche Klangfarben verfremdet, originale Tone mutiert und klangfarbliche Ubergange erreicht. Das Werk ist dem Ensemble Modern gewidmet.



Rainer Maria Rilke
«Duineser Elegien»
(1912-1922)

aus: «Die erste Elegie»

Wer, wenn ich schriee, horte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen? /…/
ich verginge von seinem
starkeren Dasein. Denn das Schone ist nichts
als des Schrecklichen Anfang, den wir noch grade ertragen,
und wir bewundem es so, weil es gelassen verschmaht uns zu zerstoren. /…/

aus: «Die dritte Elegie»

Eines ist, die Geliebte zu singen. Ein anderes, wehe,
jenen verborgenen schuldigen Fluß-Gott des Bluts.
/…/
O des Blutes Neptun, o sein furchtbarer Dreizack.
O der dunkele Wind seiner Brust aus gewundener Muschel.
/…/

Vladimir Tarnopolski. Scenes from Real Life for soprano, flute, French horn and piano, was written in 1995 with a commission from the Berliner Festwochen for Ensemble Modern. The composition is based on the texts of Austrian poet Ernst Jandl (1925-2000). This four-part composition unfolds in a similar way to a sonata-symphonic cycle: a dramatic and contrasting first movement (Allegro), a meditative second movement, a scherzo, followed by a final.

However, these classical genres are presented in a sharply estranged way, modified by the character of the poetic text. In the first part, the hero's self-affirmation is materialized "stupidly, endlessy" within the grammatical formulae. In the second part the verses blur in the aura of the timbral-textural haziness (which is strictly organized serially). In the third part the performers exchange a few accidental words in three languages, reducing them to smaller units and transforming them in different ways. Finally, in the last part, which carries the subtitle "a la minimal rock", there is a series of intricate ostinato variations in rap mode — a perpetual motion, which turn out to be like running in place.

Svetlana Savenko

The Breath of the Exhausted Time
for large orchestra (1994/99)

For me breath is one of the most important primary images of music. Breath is the first sign of life as well as its final gesture.
In "The Breath of the Exhausted Time", relying on an endless wave-like rhythm of ascentions and declines, I tried to cross the boundary of the possibilities of a purely syntactical understanding of form and the idea of the breath became for me an alternative to Riemann's "tectonically-building" principles. At the basis of this composition lie not only structurally built musical material, but also the unceasingly forming sound matter itself. The appearance and evaporation of sounds, their merging into one another and condensation determine the flow of the form. In this piece I perceived musical time as "slow time". I perceived it to be a sounding metaphor of a gigantic Solaris (according to Stanislav Lemm and Andrei Tarkovsky).

Vladimir Tarnopolski

CASSANDRA
for large ensemble (1991)

The piece was written in 1991 on the commission of Ensemble Modern. The idea of the obstinate prophecy of Cassandra is realized in the piece by means of constant returning to the same brightly expressive chord complex. On this basis is built a set of episodic-variations, imperceptibly "flowed" from one to another. With that, different forms of sound materials — from vague, indistinct "rustles", from quasi-electronic, quasi-muzzy multiphonics — to hard polychordal constructions of homophonic type, — are built as the stages of one unbroken process. The main principle of material development is a kind of "incantation": its repetitions with gradual accumulation of little changes, which lead to formation of new textural-harmonic variants. This pulsation of the phases of merging and stratification of the sound-materials determine the rhythm and plastics of the whole form.

Vladimir Tarnopolski



In "Cassandra," the titular tone of dire prophecy is conveyed
by a mounting sonic wave
that comes up against cacophonous obstacles
in the form of stridently repeated chords and clusters.
The work would have had a powerful effect under any circumstances,
but knowing that it was written in the spring and summer of 1991,
during the time of foreboding that led up to the aborted August putsch,
lent it the kind of special poignancy
that Shostakovich's works often possess when they are apprehended
in their historical context.

Richard Taruskin, The New York Times

КАССАНДРА
для большого ансамбля (1991)

Кассандра для большого ансамбля написана по заказу Frankfurt-Fest специально для Ensemble Modern. Сочинение было закончено за несколько дней до известного августовского путча 1991 года. Идея неистового пророчества Кассандры воплощается в пьесе путем постоянного возвращения к одному и тому же экспрессивному аккордовому комплексу. На его основе выстраивается ряд эпизодов-вариаций, незаметно «перетекающих» одна в другую. При этом различные формы звуковой материи — от зыбких, неотчетливых «шорохов», от квазиэлектронной, как бы «размытой» мультифонии — до жестких полиаккордовых конструкций гомофонного типа, — выстраиваются как стадии единого, непрерывного процесса. Главный принцип развития материала — своего рода «заклинание»: повторения с постепенным накоплением небольших изменений, приводящих к образованию новых и новых фактурно-гармонических вариантов. Эта пульсация фаз слияния и расслоения звуковой материи определяет ритм и пластику всей формы.

Владимир Тарнопольский



In "Cassandra," the titular tone of dire prophecy is conveyed
by a mounting sonic wave
that comes up against cacophonous obstacles
in the form of stridently repeated chords and clusters.
The work would have had a powerful effect under any circumstances,
but knowing that it was written in the spring and summer of 1991,
during the time of foreboding that led up to the aborted August putsch,
lent it the kind of special poignancy
that Shostakovich's works often possess when they are apprehended
in their historical context.

Richard Taruskin, The New York Times

ECHOES OF THE PASSING DAYS
for clarinet, cello and piano (1990)

The trio Echoes Of the Passing Day takes the form of a kind of musical equivalent of the Proustian-Joycean 'stream of consciousness'. A free stream of sound associations, themselves set in motion by the actual title of the work, is called upon to bring out not the directly linear logical connections between elements but rather their remote subconsciously associative connections. The style of the composition seems like the product of an 'after-culture', when such radically different phenomena as quotations from Beethoven and instrumental theatre are naturally able to exist side by side in a single context.

The work is dedicated to Elizabeth Wilson and interwoven within it are two emblems of her name: Beethoven Fur Elise and the American popular song Elizabeth. The process of musical development also takes in archetypal symbols of national differences (for the Germans the march-like 'rechts-links'; for the Russians the exasperated question 'Shto delat'?' — "What is to be done?' — …Chemyshesky …Lenin… Perestroika…).

The closing quotation of a line from Ulysses draws everything that has gone before as it were into the context of a Joycean novel.

ОТЗВУКИ УШЕДШЕГО ДНЯ
трио для кларнета, виолончели и фортепиано (1990)

Написано по заказу лондонского ансамбля Chameleon и впервые исполнено в том же году на фестивале современной музыки в Хаддерсфилде.

В тот период я чувствовал абсолютную обреченность прежних форм высказывания — интонационных, синтаксических, жанровых. Я просто перестал в них верить. Уже сам музыкальный звук казался мне слишком предзаданным. И музыкальные логики, — как мне думалось, — держат нас в тесной клетке, из которой мы никак не можем вырваться. Мне хотелось освободиться от предсказуемости т.н. «естественной» логики, но построить, тем не менее, некое мотивированное сочинение, не связанное ни с западным структурализмом, ни с русской программностью. Я много размышлял тогда о сюрреализме, с его немыслимыми диффузиями и трансформациями. Как ни странно, это важнейшее направление авангарда практически не коснулось музыки! Мне казалось, что метод бретоновского автоматического письма, прустовско-джойсовский «поток сознания» должны освободить музыку от пут логической выводимости и помочь композитору прорваться к самому себе, к собственной «звуковой биологии». В пьесе причудливо переплетаются элементы инструментального театра, цитаты из Бетховена, речевые акции исполнителей (реплики «rechts-links», как символ немецкого порядка, извечный русский вопрос «что делать?», который я ввел в тот момент, когда мне действительно было не ясно, что делать с формой). Трио посвящено английской виолончелистке Элизабет Вильсон, и как знак ее имени в кульминацию вклинивается мотив известной американской песенки «Elizabeth». И, наконец, заключительная цитата из последних строк «Улисса» переводит все происходящее в контекст джойсовского романа.

Владимир Тарнопольский

EINDRUCK-AUSDRUCK
(1989/96)

12 heterogeneous elements serve the material for the piece and represent the sound projections of the abstract elements of Vassily Kandinsky's art — dots, lines, zigzags, colour patches, etc. — a kind of a "musical zodiac". In the process of development the elements begin to interact, making, as in a kaleidoscope, different patterns, sometimes dispersing in musical space, sometimes concentrating into dense sound clots. The appearance of each of them, which at first is regulated only by probabilistic laws, is gradually included into a strict syntactic structure. Some elements remain unchanged during the entire composition, while others receive intensive development, painting the piece in dramatic tones.

In the work process, the most important things for me were: to listen carefully to the spontaneous explosions of the unconscious, to address a pure, but not yet reflexing expression, to record a kind of "musical psychogramme".

IMPRESSION-EXPRESSION III
(1989/96)

12 éléments hétérogènes servent de matériaux de base pour la pièce et représentent les projections sonores des éléments abstraits de l'art de Vassily Kandinsky — points, lignes, zigzags, taches de couleur, etc — une sorte de "zodiaque musical". Dans le processus de développement, les éléments commencent à interagir, réalisant, comme dans un kaleïdoscope, différents modèles, parfois dispersés dans l'espace musical, parfois concentrés tels des caillots sonores denses. Ils apparaissent, régis au début par les lois probabilistes, progressivement intégrés dans une structure syntaxique stricte. Certains éléments restent inchangés pendant toute la composition, tandis que d'autres reçoivent un développement intensif, peignant l'oeuvre dans des tons dramatiques.

Dans le processus de travail, le plus important à mes yeux était l'écoute attentive des explosions spontanées de l'inconscient, pour répondre à une pure expression, non encore "réfléchie" et d'enregistrer une sorte de "psychodrame musical".

Vladimir Tarnopolski

BROOKLYN BRIDGE
Cantata for soprano, tenor and orchestra (or large ensemble) on the text by Vladimir Mayakovsky (1988)

The song cycle Brooklynsky Bridge for soprano, tenor and chamber ensemble, sets the texts by the great Russian poet and playwright Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893–1930). The premiere took place in London on June 4, 1989, at an Almeida Festival concert, with the Bolshoi Theater Soloists Ensemble.

The idea of a bridge connecting two distant countries and cultures finds an original expression in this work, in the meshing of various aspects of Russian, Soviet and American life into a musically and poetically bilingual composition. At its root is the brilliant text by Mayakovsky, who wrote several poems about his visit to the United States in 1925 as well as the study, My Discovery of America.

1. Brooklynsky Bridge, the distinctive, festive opening movement, links and interweaves musical motives from both Russian and American national anthems.
2. Prohibition is a scene in an American bar in the 1920's and ironically evokes the Russian prohibition movement during Gorbachev's time.
3. The Hooting of Horns instead of the Ringing of Bells is an instrumental movement in which the contrasting everyday sounds of American and Russian landscapes of the 1920's are heard.
4. American Russians presents a dialogue characteristic of America's busy streets. The mixture of two languages into a distinctive Russian-Jewish-American slang is heard in the heterogeneous musical quotations and styles.

Full size image…

Choral Prelude Jesu, deine tiefen Wunden (Jesus, your deep wounds), Instrumental theatre for 2 percussionists, string trio and ensemble (1987) was inspired by Dürer's engravings "Passions" and is based on the melody of the 16th century Protestant chorale. The idea of commenting the chorale’s text by musical means, traditional for the genre of the chorale prelude, receives here a theatrical manifestation, as well — during the course of the entire composition, two solo percussionists slowly move towards the direction of the conductor along a long array of percussion instruments, depicting flogging by their bodily motions during the performance. The objects of sound production here are not only the traditional orchestral percussion instruments, but also rods, strikes on drawn-out palms of hands (“slaps in the face”), the clinking of 30 coins and strikes of hammers. The object of the flogging turns out to be the conductor himself, who freezes at the end of the piece in the pose of a crucifixion. This naturalistic picture in the vein of Dürer comprises the composition’s first stratum.

The second stratum, presenting the antagonistic element, is formed by the string trio, which symbolizes the idea of the unity of the Trinity. The music of the trio presents a mirror canon around the key pitch of the composition — F# (the musical term “sharp” is translated into German by the same word as “cross” — Kreuz). The third stratum is formed by the dissipated phrases of the chorale of wind instruments.

The entire musical-theatrical action is developed against the background of various sound-depictive noises “suggested” by Durer’s tapestries transforming into one another — the sound of the sand of the Judean desert, the stampede of the Roman cavalry, etc. This fourth figurative, noise-induced strata is performed by the wind musicians playing in pauses during the phrases of chorales on percussion instruments.

Choral prelude was composed for Ensemble of Soloists of the Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater and devoted to Alexander Ivashkin, founder and artistic director of the ensemble.

Хоральная прелюдия «Иисус, твои глубокие раны» (1987)

Сочинение вдохновлено образами Пассионов Дюрера и базируется на мелодии одноименного протестантского хорала XVI века. Традиционная для жанра хоральной прелюдии идея комментирования музыкальными средствами текста хорала получает здесь также и театральное воплощение — два солиста-ударника, медленно передвигаются на протяжении всей пьесы по направлению к дирижеру вдоль длинного ряда ударных инструментов, изображая своей игрой бичевание. Объектами звукоизвлечения здесь становятся не только традиционные оркестровые ударные инструменты, но и прутья, удары по вытянутым ладоням («пощечины»), звон 30 монет, удары молотками. Объектом бичевания становится сам дирижер, застывающий в конце пьесы в позе распятия. Эта натуралистическая «дюреровская» картина образует первый пласт композиции.

Второй пласт — антагонистический — струнное трио, символизирующее идею единства Троицы. Музыка трио представляет собой зеркальный канон вокруг ключевого звука сочинения — fis («диез» переводится на немецкий тем же словом, что и «крест» — Kreuz). Третий пласт сочинения — рассредоточенные фразы хорала духовых.

Все музыкально-театральное действо развивается на фоне переходящих друг в друга различных звукоизобразительных шумов, «подсказанных» гравюрами Дюрера — звук песка Иудейской пустыни, топот римской конницы и т.д. Этот четвертый изобразительно-шумовой пласт исполняется музыкантами духовой группы, играющими в паузах между фразами хорала на ударных.

Сочинение написано для Ансамбля солистов оркестра Большого театра и посвящено его основателю и художественному руководителю Александру Ивашкину.

PSALMUS POENITENTIALIS (Ps.31). (Psalm of Repentance)
Responsory for choir solo violin and organ (1986)

The composition is based on a reinterpretation of various idioms of Gregorian chant and psalmody. The work is an extended responsory for violin and chorus, which is evident at all levels of the work — from the texture of polyphonic elements to the form as a whole, where each episode of the first section finds its polyphonically developed reflection in the second one. The piece is based on four genre types of musical material — Psalmodia, Antifono, Cross, and Aria. As if imitating the peculiarities of temple acoustics, the composer leaves the preceding musical material sounding as an echo counterpoint in each new section, and in the coda he brings all the themes together in a single counterpoint sound. The entire composition is based on the E-flat tone and the parallel major, the three flats of which symbolize the Trinity in the Baroque tradition.

PSALMUS POENITENTIALIS (Ps.31). (Покаянный псалом)
Респонсорий для хора, солирующей скрипки и органа (1986)

Сочинение строится на переосмыслении различных идиом грегорианского пения и псалмодии. Оно представляет собой развернутый респонсорий скрипки и хора, что проявляется на всех уровнях сочинения — от элементов полифонической фактуры до формы в целом, где каждый эпизод первого раздела находит свое полифонически развитое отражение во втором. В основе пьесы — четыре типа музыкального материала — Псалмодия, Антифон, Крест и Ария. Словно имитируя особенности храмовой акустики, композитор в каждом новом разделе оставляет звучать в качестве эха-контрапункта предшествующий музыкальный материал, а в коде сводит весь тематизм в едином контрапунктическом звучании. Всё сочинение базируется на тоне Es и одноименном мажоре, три бемоля которого в барочной традиции символизируют Троицу.