Ritual

‘I often don't react when people try to ask me to do this or that urgent composition task for certain occasions. But in this case I could not and would not resist.
Because, like many other people, I had the highest reverence for the victims of the Second World War. So I was prepared to fulfil a request from the Yugoslav embassy in Moscow to write something about the liberation of Belgrade 40 years ago. But at the same time, I felt that this work was a memorial to all the victims of this most terrible of wars, including those who died in other countries. And so I wrote this piece, hinting (for example by quoting the ‘Internationale’ in the bells) at both the local and the general function of this act of mourning.
‘Ritual’ was premiered in Novosibirsk on 15 March 1985 by the symphony orchestra of the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Valery Polyansky.’ (Alfred Schnittke)