Description
Between January 12 and 14, 2001, the festival “Seeking the Soul: The Music of Alfred Schnittke” took place at Barbican Hall in London, dedicated to the Russian composer who had passed away in 1998 (Whitehouse, n.d.). One of the highlights was Saturday’s concert, which featured Concerto Grosso No. 1, the world premiere of Fragments, and Symphony No. 4, performed by the London Sinfonietta under the baton of Martyn Brabbins. Among the audience was Tom Phillips (1937–2022), an unavoidable figure in 20th-century British art, renowned for his interdisciplinary approach and his ability to traverse the boundaries between artistic forms. Inspired by his experience of Concerto Grosso No. 1, Phillips created a pastel card that reimagined Schnittke’s Baroque-inspired themes in a visual format. This card later evolved into a tapestry, produced in collaboration with the Manufactura de Tapeçarias de Portalegre (Portugal). This paper aims to analyze the intersection between these two works of art—Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 and Phillips’ tapestry—through the lens of intertextuality, focusing on the concepts of borrowing, paratextuality, hypertextuality, and architextuality. Particular attention is given to Phillips’ creative process, which consistently engaged with other artistic languages, including literature, music, and the visual arts.
