Vladislav Shoot

Vladislav Shoot (also spelled Chout, Schut, Sciut, Shut or Szut) is a Russian-British composer of contemporary classical music. Born on March 3, 1941 in Voznesensk, Soviet Union, he became a resident of the UK in 1992, and was naturalised as a British citizen in 1999.

Biography

He studied composition with Nikolai Peiko at the Gnessin Music Institute (the present-day Russian Academy of Music) in Moscow, graduating in 1967. From 1967 to 1982 he worked as the music editor at the Sovetsky Kompozitor publishers in Moscow. In 1982, he turned to freelance composing, earning his living by writing film scores. In 1990, Shoot - together with a small group of Moscow composers headed by Edison Denisov - founded the Association for Contemporary Music, a revival of a post-Revolutionary avant-garde composers' association of the same name. In 1992 he was invited to come to Dartington Hall, England as a composer-in-residence, in which capacity he served until 1995, remaining a resident of the estate to this day. Shoot's music is published by M.P. Belaieff - Edition Peters (Frankfurt-am-Main)/Schott (Mainz). Individual works have also been published by Boosey & Hawkes and Hans Sikorski.

The next generation of Shoot's family continues its musical traditions: his son Eli, is also a composer, and his daughter Nika, is a pianist.

Music

The works of Vladislav Shoot have met with much admiration in the West since the 1980s. Shoot prefers smaller ensembles up to the quantity level of a chamber orchestra which he ties into sound compositions or groups of overlapping sound layers. He retains serial processes, uses post-Romantic elements, and quotes composers of the past. Shoot allows the performers of his works a certain freedom of interpretation within the bounds of a controlled aleatoric technique.

His music has been performed at numerous venues and festivals throughout Europe, as well as in South Korea and the United States. The music written in the UK has been performed by leading British ensembles and orchestras, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and Sinfonia 21.

Selected works

Orchestral

* "Sinfonia da Camera No. 3", flute, oboe, 2 ensembles (percussion, strings), 1978
* "Romantic Messages", flute, bassoon, prepared piano, string orchestra, 1979
* "Largo Sinfonia", organ, small orchestra (15 players), 1981
* "Warum? ", small orchestra (15 players), 1986
* "Ex Animo", large orchestra, 1988
* "Sinfonia da Camera No. 4", tam-tam, strings, 1992
* "Sinfonia da Camera No. 5", small orchestra (16 players), 1992
* "Serenade", string orchestra, 1995
* "Divertimento", recorder, vibraphone, string orchestra, 1997
* "High-Cross Symphony", large orchestra, 1998
* "Sinfonia da Camera No. 6", string orchestra, percussion, 2005

Chamber music

* "Sonata-fantasia", violin, piano, 1969, revised 2001
* "Cuckoo's Rhymes" (20 Miniatures for Children), violin, piano, 1969, revised 1999
* Sonata, cello, 1970, revised 1999
* "Youth Album", violin, piano, 1971, revised 1999
* "Sinfonia da Camera No. 1", 4 celli, double bass, timpani, 1973
* "Sinfonia da Camera No. 2", flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, viola, cello, double bass, 1975
* "Five Easy Pieces", French horn, piano, 1976, revised 2001
* "Sonata Breve", flute, 1977
* Trio, bassoon, cello, percussion, 1978
* "Solo per Fagotto", bassoon, 1978
* "Metamorphosis", saxophone, harp, double bass, percussion, 1979
* Trio, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 1982
* "Parable", 6 percussion, 1983
* "Espressivo", flute, oboe, violin, cello, piano, 1984
* "Epitaph", French horn, 2 trumpets, trombone, tuba, 1984
* "Mini-partita", viola, piano, 1987
* "Four Versions", bassoon, string quartet, 1990 (also arranged for bassoon, violin, viola, cello, 1996)
* "Offering", violin, cello, piano, 1991
* "Serenade", string quartet, 1994
* "Pantomime", flute, harpsichord, 1995
* "Con Passione", string quartet, piano, 1995
* "Amoroso", clarinet, string quartet, 1996
* "Chaconne", accordion, 1999
* "Pastorale", flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, piano, 2002
* "Eternal Rest", 3 percussion, 2002
* Suite, string quartet, 2003
* "Three Encounters with Shostakovich", clarinet, horn, string quartet, piano, percussion, 2006

Choral

* "She came and went" (text by James Russell Lowell), mixed chorus, 2001 (also version for mixed chorus, soprano recorder, 2001);
* "Two Holy Sonnets" (text by John Donne), mixed chorus, 2003

Vocal

* "Two songs of Robert Burns" (translated by Samuil Marshak), mezzo-soprano, piano, 1964, revised 2002;
* "Six Poems by Sergei Gorodetsky ", high voice, piano, 1970
* "Gleam of Light" (text by Boris Pasternak), middle voice, piano, 1988
* "Vorgefühl" (text by Rainer Maria Rilke), high voice, 2 clarinets, viola, cello, double bass, 1993
* "Four Songs on Words by P.B. Shelley ", soprano, string quartet, 1994
* "Three Songs on Words by Osip Mandelstam ", high voice, flute, clarinet, string quartet, 1994
* "Day and Night" (text by Fyodor Tyutchev), high voice, recorder, string quartet, 2000
* "The Miller's Daughter" (text from an English folk ballad), soprano, clarinet, percussion, 2001

Piano

* "Silhouettes", 1973
* "Sonatina", 1974, revised 2002

* "Children's Album", 1975, revised 1995

Organ

* "Confession", 1993, revised 2000

Filmography (composer)

*"Privet s fronta" (1983) (TV) "Привет с фронта" "Note from the Front"
*"Tayna zemli" (1985) "Тайна земли" "The Earth's Secret"
*"Karusel na bazarnoy ploshchadi" (1986) "Карусель на базарной площади" "Carousel at the Bazaar Square"
*"Pro lyubov, druzhbu i sud'bu" (1987) "Про любовь, дружбу и судьбу" "Of Love, Friendship and Fate"
*"Amulanga" (1987)
*"Korabl" (1988) "Корабль" "The Ship"
*"Mest" (1989) "Месть" "Revenge", ("The Red Flute": International/English title)
*"Karyer" (1990) "Карьер" "Sand-Pit"
*"Garem Stepana Guslyakova" (1990) "Гарем Степана Гуслякова" "Stepan Ghusliakov's Harem"
*"Tsareubiytsa" (1991) "Цареубийца" "The Assassin of the Tsar"
*"Lyuk" (1991) "Люк" "The Hatch"
*"Serebryannye Lozhki" (1991) "Серебряные Ложки" "Silver Spoons"
*"Sumashedshaya Liubov" (1992) "Сумасшедшая Любовь" "Crazy Love"

Discography

*"Romantic Messages". Valery Popov, bassoon; Valery Polyansky/Moscow Conservatory Orchestra (Melodiya, 1980) (LP)
*"Four Versions". Valery Popov, bassoon; Vladimir Ponkin/Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga: MK 417036, 1991)
*"Warum?" Alexey Vinogradov/Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (Olympia: OCD 283, 1991)
*Trio. Valery Popov, bassoon; Natalia Savinova, cello; Alexander Suvorov, percussion (Olympia: OCD 297, 1993)
*"Three Songs on Words by Osip Mandelstam". Katia Kichigina, soprano; Oxalys Ensemble (Explicit! Records: E! 99004, 2000)
*"Ex Animo"; "Sinfonia da Camera No. 5"; "High-Cross Symphony". Vladimir Ponkin/Rachmaninov Symphony Orchestra (Sojuz: CD0001, 2003)
*"Four Songs on Words by P.B. Shelley". Elena Vassilieva, soprano; Quatuor Sine Nomine (Claves: CD 50-2303, 2003)

Bibliography

* Holopova, Valentina. "Secrets of the Moscow Composition School in Vladislav Shoot’s "Pure Music" in: "«Ex oriente...III»: Eight Composers from the former USSR", ed. V. Tsenova (studia slavica musicologica, vol. 31) (Berlin: Ernst Kuhn, 1997), ISBN 3-928864-92-0

* Lobanova, Marina. "Musical Styla and Genre: History and Modernity" (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 2000), pp.167-9.

* McBurney, Gerard. "Vladislav Shoot", "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians" ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001), vol. 23, pp. 275-6.

External links

* [http://www.classical-composers.org/comp/shoot Classical composers]
* [http://composers21.com/compdocs/shootv.htm Composers 21]
* [http://www.vek.de/ssm31.htm Ernst Kuhn]
* [http://www.sikorski.de/en/frameloader.html?frame=http%3A//www.sikorski.de/composers/composer137.html Hans Sikorski]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0795995 The Internet Movie Database]