Schnittke, Alfred. (1934-1998)
My Memories Take Me to You - Two Autograph Film Score Manuscripts
Two autograph musical manuscripts for the Andre Khrzhanovsky film "My Memories Take Me to You" ["Ya k vam lechu rospominan'em"], each notated in ink and pencil, each signed, titled, and inscribed ("A. Schnittke Music for cartoon..."), the first numbered "1" by Schnittke, containing two musical episodes, 6 pages, folio; the second numbered "2" by Schnittke, containing three musical episodes, 4 pages. With some erasures and deletions, each with stamp of USSR State Symphony Orchestra Film Music Library. No place [probably Moscow,] 1977.An interesting pair of manuscripts, scored variously for strings, celeste, cembalo, winds and brass, percussion from the 1977 All-Union Animated Cartoons Studio film "My Memories Take Me to You" based on Pushkin's drawings, which it animates. Neatly penned in Schnittke's small and precise hand. In fine condition. Alfred Schnittke Werkverzeichnis (Sikorski), p. 96. Rare. Film music is rarely published, and autograph sources for it are seldom offered on the market.
The iconoclastic composer won fame in the West as he struggled against the restraints of Soviet cultural ideology at home. During the 1960s and 1970s Schnittke was one of the most prolific composers of film music in the Soviet Union, with nearly 70 credits in this field to his name. His eclectic, polystylistic style, and great flair for unusual and apt orchestration, found a natural home in this medium. The score offered here provides many examples of finely wrought textures and exquisite orchestration. It is perhaps not insignificant that Schnittke's very first composition of 1946 was later re-used in the soundtrack to a cartoon, and that some of his film music found its way in to his non-film music, as in the case of much of the score of the animated film The Glass Harmonica (1968), which resurfaced in the Second Violin Sonata (1987). (11184)
Autograph Document Classical Music