On Viktor Ekimovsky’s Minimalism*

Yulia N. Panteleeva

Abstract


The article explores the creative work of the prominent Russian composer Viktor Alekseyevich Ekimovsky (1947–2024). His compositions are diverse not only in their artistic and aesthetic concepts but also in their writing techniques. Categorizing his works based on the prevailing compositional method, Ekimovsky classified several of his pieces as minimalist. This study focuses on three works characterized by features inherent to minimalism as a method of musical composition: the percussion ensemble pieces The Assumption and 27 Destructions, as well as Ninth Symphony “Epitaph to the Avant-Garde”—the hundredth and final composition in the author’s catalogue. Chronologically spanning the period from 1989 to 2017, these works demonstrate unique manifestations of minimalist technique in each specific case. The analysis primarily addresses the use of patterns within repetitive processes and the nature of the models repeated through various means. To interpret the structural patterns of these compositions, the study incorporates the composer’s own reflections from his interviews and his book Automonography. The vocabulary employed by the composer serves as a distinctive indicator of his creative practice, which is inextricably linked to the process of self-reflection. The author’s solutions in the analyzed compositions are characterized by: the synthesis of stable and mobile principles (The Assumption); structural combinatorics and the logic of textural transformations (27 Destructions); and the artistic embodiment of the concepts of “minimalism” and “macrominimalism” (Ninth Symphony ), implying a progression “from simple to complex” (Movement 5) and vice versa (Movement 6).

Keywords: Viktor Ekimovsky, compositional technique, composer’s reflections, minimalism, macrominimalism, The Assumption, 27 Destructions, Ninth Symphony “Epitaph to the Avant-Garde”

For citation: Panteleeva, Yu. N. (2026). On Viktor Ekimovsky’s Minimalism. Contemporary Musicology, 10(1), 131–154. https://doi.org/10.56620/2587-9731-2026-1-131-154


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.56620/2587-9731-2026-1-131-154

Copyright (c) 2026 Yulia N. Panteleeva

License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/