please use the links below for convenience. you are
free to download and perform.
as of 2020, it's been almost 10 years that i'm
composing a giant meta-cycle on letters of the
pan-slavic alphabet; almost all of the following
pieces belong to it.
instrumentation: piano, metal
cylinder, tin bucket
duration: ~6-7'
first performance: the author,
06.iv.13, college of moscow conservatory
note: almost all material for the
first four pieces was written in one hard day's night of
march 2011. most of it was heavily inspired by early
soviet music, national-bolshevism and teenage rebellious
emotions; in a nutshell, these are kind of
improvisations which i attempted to give some form to
(in the years from 2010 up to 2012 most of my musical
output was connected with improvisation, see shchrtttshch
and saveshnik).
this piece is probably the most free of the four. the
working title, before i settled on the meta-cycle idea,
was «split personality disorder: outer voices». in both
of my live performances in 2013 i just switched my head
off and it was pretty much okay for the pieces. no brain
no pain. the first version had a different order of
movements.
instrumentation: ~10 air balloons,
balalaika, freely chosen basic wind instruments
(ocarinas, whistles, recorders...), duct tape, a piece
of loud-sounding glass, piano, a pair of speakers for
playing the tape
duration: ~10'
first performance: the author and
andrey zemtsov, 29.iv.13, college of moscow conservatory
(moscow, russia)
note: the third piece was
originally written as a solo piano one;
but, as it is said in the preface of the score, «the
thirst of madness» made me to scrap almost the whole
piece sans the first system and rewrite it to be as
eccentric, bizarre and «avant-garde» as possible (of
course one should consider the context of it planned to
be performed on «Easter evenings», organized by nerdy
Soviet-style composer in a highly conservative Russian
music college). the score is much cagesque/wolffesque in
organization; musically, it is an attempt of making
Russian freak folk or something like that. there
is also an earlier version of the piece which
called for piano insides to be played, which was
suddenly forbidden to perform for obvious reasons two
days before the concert; so, the final version was made
from it on the very final day before.
instrumentation: two pianos,
balalaika (scordatura des-f-b flat), flui drum (a big
lid with a hole in its center, supposedly from a giant
cooking cauldron?), electric shaver with trimmer
function, bicycle horn, harmonica, 3-track oscillator,
speakers
duration: ~8'30''
first performance: the author and
andrey zemtsov, 13.iv.14, college of moscow conservatory
(moscow, russia)
note: the final piece based on
march 2011 material was originally written as
a piece for solo bass singer and piano, but again
obviously no bass singer was eager to learn it (and
rightfully so), so it was reworked in what could be the
first piece of the cycle that has a clear structure.
musically and poetically, it's much inspired by
late-soviet quasi-political works with recitation of
denissov and wustin.
instrumentation: piano (+muting),
metallophone, 2-track oscillator, speakers
duration: ~6'
first performance: the author,
13.xii.14, central music school's hall on malaya
kislovka str. (moscow, russia)
note: the piece was written in an
attempt to clear the musical language of mine of
harmonic and chordal verbosity as much as possible,
which actually led to an extremely linear
quasi-minimalist piece.
instrumentation: upright piano with
strings detuned on one particular key and front lid
completely removed, grand piano, macintosh computer
duration: ~11'
first performance: never performed
in public, a recording exists
note: a piece based on two ideas,
the first being an ordinary c minor scale, the second
being the only augmented note of the harmonic c minor
scale, which is augmented even more by detuning it.
instrumentation:
grill grate, violin bow, violin with DAE strings muted
& G string tuned up to D (you wouldn't like to use
your main violin for that for sure), handwatch, sinus
tone generator, some way to play the tape, piano
duration: ~11'
first performance: never performed
in public, two recordings exist
note: an attempt to write a piece
with as less piano as possible (symbolically, it is
needed here just one time and just for one key); a piece
with a bowed grill grate as a main instrument (well,
almost). the reductionist tendension of the previous
three works has its peak.
first performance: molot ensemble,
28.iii.17, alexandrinsky new stage (st. petersburg,
russia)
note: an attempt to write a legit
ensemble piece, moreover with a clear deadline and a
clear theme (the work was written for a pop-art themed
concert). almost all material is borrowed from various
sources: 1) my own works, including withdrawn ones
(namely A, Б, В2, Ж the
sextet); 2) schubert's «rosamunde» string quartet;
3) 4-voice examples from a musical theory book by
Myasoyedov.
instrumentation:
synthesizer or a piano for notated part, [modular]
synthesizer for noise effects, electric guitar with
tremolo & reverb & distortion pedals,
drumset, an additional snare drum, some kind of
bell, some way of playing tapes, alto or baritone
saxophone, optional strings
duration: ~5'30''
first performance: kymatic
ensemble, 1.ix.18, stanislavsky electrotheatre (moscow,
russia)
note: an attempt to write a «party
piece» heavily inspired by pop music. written during the
hard times of mostly playing shitty post-minimalist
works and non-art stuff and trying to find some path
that a trained musician wouldn't be ashamed of. the
piece opens the trilogy of «relationship studies», the
base idea of which was inspired by three different
letters in old slavic writing all meaning the same pair
of sounds (s/z).
instrumentation: two TRENSUM
mirrors, some metal balls, midi keyboard,
triangle, cello, flute, clarinet
duration: ~10'30"
first performance: molot ensemble,
14.v.18, glinka museum (moscow, russia)
note: the only «serious» piece of
the trilogy, an attempt to write an ensemble piece with
a certain mirror from ikea playing the main role. the
piece was supposed to be called «zemlja» («earth»), as
in old church slavonic tradition, but at some point of
composing i suddenly thought to give it an own name,
pan-slavic word for «star», feeling that it would suit
it; and it really does.
instrumentation: scordatura
violin (G string tuned down to F), scordatura
cello (C tuned down to B), flute, clarinet,
piano muted with duct tape, household cooling
fan, a wrench, a way to play the two-channel
tape
duration: ~7'30''
first performance: molot ensemble,
29.iii.19, nynorskens hus (oslo, norway)
note: a piece written for a knut
hamsun-themed concert; an attempt to write a «symbolic»
piece based on hamsun's complimentary obituary to
hitler, supposedly the only one written by a famous and
respected person.
instrumentation: solo piano
(with a sostenuto pedal)
duration: ~4'30
first performance: the author's
final piano exam at the moscow conservatory, 20.v.19
note: an attempt to write a solo
piano cadenza for a classical concerto using
contemporary time feeling and techniques, but staying in
beethoven's style and paradigm. ...also, one can
certainly hear some vladimir martynov & soviet pop
music influence.
first performance: john cage award,
halberstadt, 1 IX 2022
note: an attempt to write a
«performance» piece with voice (which happened
unbelievably naturally). dedicated to the art of bas jan
ader, the text is taken from gabriele d'annunzio's «le
martyre de saint sébastien». at the premiere performance
a piano lid has been broken in an epic way (alas no
recording survives...)
first performance: got cancelled
because of covid; alas not planned in foreseeable future
note: some programme music, a cute
plumpy dodo's being chased by hungry dutch sailors. the
end we all know. this is, again, AN ATTEMPT to write for
an ensemble that includes a theremin, which, in my
humble opinion, is one of the most unflexible and
unusable instruments around, so i tried to find some use
for it that wouldn't annoy the listener or get h/er to
laugh as this always unmistakably happens. this is the
first legit music score ever all markings of which are
written in volapük, the greatest international language
in existence. please make me a cifal!!!!!!!
instrumentation:
upright piano prepared by various means (a compact
disc, a plastic lid, a lid of a can of danish
cookies)
duration: ~2-3'
first performance: never performed,
a recording exists
note: one of the first «completely
original» works that survived. most were lost when i
luckily forgot my composition notebook on the first
contemporary music event i was to & couldn't find a
trace of it.
instrumentation:
balalaika tuned various ways throughout the piece,
piano
duration: ?
first performance: never performed
note: some sketches that were
supposed to become «Д» but in the
end the piece was scrapped completely inspite of being
almost complete (at least thought to be at that moment
long, long ago).
instrumentation:
two pianos, two violins, bassoon, alto
saxophone, electric drill, small motor, hammer,
rainstick
duration: ~11'
first performance: never performed
note: an attempt to write a big
ensemble piece knowing nothing of ensemble writing and
consulting the instrumentation studybook for every small
thing. in general, a pretty much unperformable piece,
though it has its moments (most of which ultimately
ended up in «—»).