Vladimir Martynov

[1] In his early works, such as the String Quartet (1966), the Concerto for Oboe and Flute (1968), Hexagramme for Piano (1971), and Violin Sonata (1973), Vladimir Martynov used serial music (or twelve-tone) technique.

[2] The timeless quality of chants and the lack of a sense of bar lines in Renaissance polyphony entered into his version of minimalism.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, he has written works that take on large Christian themes, such as Apocalypse (1991), Lamentations of Jeremiah (1992), Magnificat (1993), Stabat Mater (1994), and Requiem (1998).

Martynov's composition "The Beatitudes", as performed by the Kronos Quartet, was featured in La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), the winner of the 2014 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

[7][8] Martynov's grandfather was Yakov Samuilovich (Semyonovich) Gembitsky (born 1876), doctor, graduate of the Imperial Moscow University (1900).

"Russian Post-Minimalist Music: A Semiological Investigation into the Narrative Approaches employed by Alexander Knaifel between 1978 and 1994" (PhD thesis: Goldsmiths, University of London, 2015).