Polystylism

Polystylism is the use of multiple styles or techniques in literature, art, film, or, especially, music.

Some prominent contemporary polystylist composers include Peter Maxwell Davies,John Webb, "Schnittke in Context" Tempo New Series/182, September 1992. 19–22. Citation on 19. Alfred Schnittke,Ivan Moody, "The Music of Alfred Schnittke", Tempo New Series, no. 168, 50th Anniversary 1939–1989 (March 1989): 4–11. Citation on 4. and John Zorn.Ted Gordon, "John Zorn: Autonomy and the Avant-Garde" Avant vol. 3/T, 2012. 329–343. citation on 331. Polystylist composers from earlier in the twentieth century include Charles IvesNachum Schoffman, "Charles Ives's Song 'Vote for Names{{'"}}, Current Musicology 23 (1977): 56–68. and Erik Satie.Daniel Albright, "Postmodern Interpretations of Satie's Parade", Canadian University Music Review/Revue de Musique des Universités Canadiennes 22, no. 1 (2002): 22–39. Among literary figures, James Joyce has been referred to as a polystylist.Rudolph von Abele, "Film as Interpretation: A Case Study of Ulysses", The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 31 (1973): 487–500, citation on 495. On the other hand, composers including Sofia Gubaidulina have rejected the term as not applicable to their work.Vera Lukomsky, "Sofia Gubaidulina: 'My Desire Is Always to Rebel, to Swim against the Stream!'”. Perspectives of New Music 36. no. 1 (Winter 1998): 5–41, citation on 24–26.

Though perhaps not the original source of the term, the first important discussion of the subject is Alfred Schnittke's essay "Polystylistic Tendencies in Modern Music (1971)".Alfred Schnittke, "Polystylistic Tendencies in Modern Music (1971)", in A Schnittke Reader, edited by Aleksandr Ivashkin, English translation by John Derek Goodliffe, 87–90 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002) {{ISBN|978-0-253-33818-1}}. The composers cited by Schnittke as those who make use of polystylism are Alban Berg, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Edison Denisov, Hans Werner Henze, Mauricio Kagel, Jan Klusák, György Ligeti, Carl Orff, Arvo Pärt, Krzysztof Penderecki, Henri Pousseur, Rodion Shchedrin, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Slonimsky, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Igor Stravinsky, Boris Tishchenko, Anton Webern, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann.