It is not unusual to regard Shostakovich's "Preludes & Fugues" as an unprecedented work in the history of Russian music, a renovation for piano of polyphony. Much is made of the event of its inspiration--hearing Tatiana Nikolayeva perform Bach when a contest judge. Yet one of the most peculiar and enduring developments in Russian & Soviet piano composition is neo-polyphony. There is a series of Soviet repertoire anthologies (1970s-80s vintage?) that outline the tradition from Glinka through Tchaikowsky's Opus 21 fugue. But the tradition has its origins in S. Taneev's application of findings from his study of strict counterpoint to his compositional methods & their being taken up by his pupils Scriabin and A. Stanchinsky (whose preludes in the form of canons are an early masterwork). Myaskovsky's early sonatas are neo-fugues--one of the reasons Glenn Gould fixed upon them. Goldenweiser, the great Bach pianist, also commenced writing polyphonic works before Shostakovich. (Indeed Glazunov wrote "Preludes & Fugues"!). DDS's extraordinary success with the form kept the tradition vital, w/ his contemporaries Kabalevsky & Anatolii Aleksandrov writing several each. But the subsequent generation became particularly smitten w/ neopolyphony. Tatiana Nikolayeva herself contributed a "The Polyphonic Triad." Rodion Shcherdin did a "Polyphonic Notebook" and a set of Preludes & Fugues. Recent contibutions to the tradition include Karamanov's 12 Concert Fugues & a newly finished set of 24 Preludes & Fugues by Serge Slonimsky. Much of the musicological scholarship of the Soviet tradition of piano composition dramatizes the repression of post-Scriabin experiment & the folklorizing of composition in the 30s. Disruption is the story. Yet there seems to be a continuity to the culivation of thus one branch of composition. I would much like to see a thorough account of this strand of musical development. David Shields Charleston, SC