The renowned Russian composer, Sofia Gubaidulina, passed away yesterday at her home near Hamburg, Germany. She was 93.
Born in the rural Tatar region of the Soviet Union, Gubaidulina graduated from the Kazan Conservatory in 1954. Soviet authorities conducted raids in the school’s dormitories, in search of Western contemporary music scores, which were banned at the time. Gubaidulina later recalled, “We knew Ives, Cage, we actually knew everything on the sly.” While studying at the Moscow Conservatory, Gubaidulina’s music was deemed “irresponsible” and “mistaken” by the authorities because of its adventurous exploration of alternate tunings. Shostakovich offered Gubaidulina support, urging her to continue in her “mistaken path.” She later wrote, “Being blacklisted and so unperformed gave me artistic freedom, even if I couldn’t earn much money, I could write what I wanted without compromise.” In 1992, she emigrated to Germany.
Sofia Gubaidulina was a devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church. She believed that “The art of music is consistent with the task of expanding the higher dimension of our lives.” Her music embraces the mystical, coloristic aspects of sound and atmosphere. She said,
The whole world is threatened by spiritual passivity, an entropy of the soul, a transition from more complex energy to a simpler form … amorphousness. What puts the brakes on that process is the human spirit, and in part, art, and that is a matter for serious music
Stimmen… Verstummen… (“Voices… Silence”)
Composed in 1986, and dedicated to conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Stimmen… is a Symphony in twelve brief movements. It begins with a pure D major triad which shimmers with Wagnerian color. This triad emerges in the first, third, and fifth movements, and transforms into a G major triad in the tenth and twelfth movements. It is accompanied by a flurry of col legno (the wood of the bows hitting the strings).
Structurally, the work exhibits the proportions of the Fibonacci sequence. Silence becomes as important as sound. For the final moments, the conductor continues to motion after the music has ended.
This performance features Gennady Rozhdestvensky leading the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra:
Offertorium
Offertorium is a concerto for violin and orchestra. Composed in 1980 for violinist Gidon Kremer, it has been described as a series of variations or “an extended meditation” on the “Royal Theme” from Bach’s Musical Offering. In the opening bars, the theme is presented in its entirety, with the exception of the final note. (It is cut off by the entrance of the solo violin). As the variations unfold, the theme breaks into increasingly short fragments and eventually disintegrates into a free rhapsody. Structurally, the Concerto is set in three sections which flow together without interruption. The final moments drift into something akin to a lamenting Russian Orthodox chorale. Against a shimmering backdrop, the theme re-emerges in retrograde.
St. John Passion
Gubaidulina’s oratorio, St. John Passion, was composed in 1999 for the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart. Here is the tenth movement, Entombment:
The art of music, like any other artform, is affected by an existential feeling. Why? Because this artform in particular has to do with a material that directly connects the finite with the infinite. In this sense, sonic art in particular has the means by which man could be stopped in his rapid fall.
–Sofia Gubaidulina
Recordings
- Gubaidulina: Stimmen…Verstummen…, Gennady Rozhdestvensky leading the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra Amazon
- Gubaidulina: Offertorium, Gidon Kremer, Charles Dutoit, Boston Symphony Orchestra Deutsche Grammophon
- Gubaidulina: St. John Passion, Valery Gergiev, Choir and Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater Amazon
Featured Image: photograph by Peter Hundert