The volume is rounded out with reflections by some of Schnittke's contemporaries.

Preliminary Table of Contents:Preface by Mstislav RostropovichTranslator's NoteSchnittke talks about himselfFrom an interview with Alexander IvashkinLetter to the Lenin Prize Committee (1990)Schnittke on his own compositionsOn Concerto Grosso No. 1On the premiere of his Fourth SymphonyOn film and film musicOn staging Tchaikovsky's The Queen of SpadesSchnittke on creative artistsComposersOn Shostakovich: circles of influenceOn ProkofievOn GubaidulinaOn KancheliIn Memory of Filipp Moiseevich Gershkovich (Philip Hershkovish)PeformersOn Svyatoslav RichterOn Gennady RozhdestvenskySubjective Notes on an Objective Performance (on Aleksey Lyubimov)A WriterOn Viktor YerofeevA PainterOn the Paintings of Vladimir YankilevskyV. Schnittke on twentieth-century music1. Polystylistic tendencies in modern music2. The orchestra and "the new music"3. The problem of giving outward expression to a new idea4. From Schnittke's archive5. On jazz6. Timbral relationships and their functional use: the timbral scale7. "Klangfarbenmelodie"-"Melody of timbres"8. Functional instability of voice-leading in musical texture9. A new approach to composition: the statistical method10. Stereophonic tendencies in modern orchestral thinking11. Using rhythm to overcome metre12. Static form: a new conception of time13. Paradox as a feature of Stravinsky's musical logic14. Timbre modulations in Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta15. The closed system of timbre connections in the Bach-Webern Ricercata fugue16. The third movement of Luciano Berio's Symphony17. Orchestral micropolyphony in the music of LigetiVI. Schnittke as seen by othersGidon KremerGennady RozhdestvenskyVladimir YankilevskyMstislav RostropovichMark LubotskySourcesIndex of names and works