Sofia Gubaidulina

• Born: October 24, 1931
• Place of Birth: Chistopol, Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union (now in Tatarstan, Russia)

• RUSSIAN CLASSICAL COMPOSER

Gubaidulina’s vocal, orchestral, and chamber-music compositions are characterized by emotional strength, an expansive line of development, and a fine sense of sound expressiveness in timbre and performance method. Her works synthesize Eastern and Western traditions into a spiritual whole.

The Life

Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina was born on October 24, 1931, in Chistopol, Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. She received her initial musical training at the Kazan Music Academy, and in 1949 she entered the Kazan Conservatory, studying piano with Grigory Kagan and composition with Al’bert Leman. In 1954, she began graduate studies in composition with Nikolai Peiko at the Moscow Conservatory and postgraduate work with Vissarion Shebalin.

Upon completion of her studies, she rejected the prosperity of a pedagogical career to become a freelance composer, encouraged by a first prize for Sound of the Forest, a work for flute and piano, awarded to her at the All-Union composition competition, as well as by publication of her works Quintet, Chaconne, and Piano Sonata.

The year 1965 was a turning point for Gubaidulina’s works. In the early stages of her mature style (1965-1977), chamber music held precedence (around twenty-five works), while orchestral and vocal works took a backseat. Her developing individual style is reflected in Five Études for harp, bass, and percussion, as she began to open up to the world of unusual, rarely used timbres and methods of sound production. Such instruments as the dombra (long-necked string instrument), bayan (Russian button accordion), bassoon, and bass were increasingly used in her works. A purely electronic composition for synthesizer and tape recorder, Vivente-Non Vivente, was created in 1970 at an experimental studio in Moscow.

Always interested in ethnic music and instruments of various cultures, Gubaidulina in 1975 formed an improvisational group with Vyacheslav Artyomov and Viktor Suslin called Astrea that researched sounds created by folk instruments from Asia and the Caucasus region. From 1978 to 1991, Gubaidulina began to give more attention to the expressiveness of the vocal line and spiritual subjects. Her musical language was enriched by rhythmic searches and methods of expressing time. She also unexpectedly resorted to light and color, which she organized rhythmically. In one of her largest compositions, Alleluia, for mixed chorus, boy soprano, organ, and large orchestra, the composer used color projectors with an arrangement of colors—from yellow to purple—specific to the work.

In instrumental works of this time period—Offertorium and Seven Words—the methods of playing instruments were invested with symbolism; for example, playing above the bridge of a stringed instrument suggests heaven and, below the bridge, earth.

In 1990, a festival of Gubaidulina’s works was presented at the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic in Russia. In 1991, an anniversary year for the composer, she was widely celebrated both in Russia and abroad. Also that year, Gubaidulina moved to Germany, near Hamburg, where she would be at the center of musical events, accepting worldwide accolades for her works. She undertook many commissions for famous artists and groups. The cycle Now Always Snow, based on a poem of Gennadi Aigi, was composed for Amsterdam’s Schönberg Ensemble and chorus. After meeting with Kazue Sawai, a Japanese instrumentalist who performs on the folk instrument koto, Gubaidulina composed Early in the Morning, Right Before Waking for seven kotos. Others include the String Quartet No. 4 for the Kronos Quartet; Impromptu for flute, violin, and strings for Gidon Kremer (in honor of the two hundredth anniversary of Franz Schubert’s birth); Concerto for Viola and Orchestra for Yuri Bashmet; The Canticle of the Sun for cello, chamber choir, and percussion, commissioned by Radio France and first performed in Frankfurt with Mstislav Rostropovich as soloist; and St. John Passion for the European Music Festival in Stuttgart. She composed the Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Bayan for bayan player Elsbeth Moser, a longtime friend; it premiered in 2017.

Gubaidulina has also composed film scores; while much of her work has been for Russian animated films, she also composed the soundtrack for the 2013 Swiss live-action film Mary Queen of Scots, a historical piece about the eponymous ruler.

Gubaidulina has been a recipient of many awards, among them the Koussevitzky Prize, the Russian State Prize, Prize of the International Festival of Women Composers in Heidelberg, and the Léonie Sonning Music Prize in Copenhagen. In 2004, she was elected a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement for the Music section of the Biennale de Venezia in 2013 and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Contemporary Music, given by the Spanish bank BBVA in partnership with the Spanish National Research Council, in 2016. Gubaidulina was granted an honory doctorate degree by the New England Conservatory in 2017. In 2021, in recognition of her ninetieth birthday, Gubaidulina was named Composer of the Week on BBC Radio 3. In 2024, Gubaidulina's composition "Wrath of God" was performed by the Boston Symphony for its American premiere.

The Music

In Gubaidulina’s compositions, musical numeric progressions of sound and color cross. The progressions are measures of information, chosen arbitrarily, without an organic dependence on sound or other material.

Early Works. Quintet, Chaconne, and Piano Sonata, composed during her graduate and postgraduate studies, are tonal compositions. They possess characteristics that presage her later works: polyphony and acute rhythms.

Hour of the Soul. This work on the poem of Marina Tsvetayeva (originally subtitled “Poem for a Large Band with Insertion of Female Voice in the Finale”) has undergone a few transformations. The most radical one was in 1976 when it was turned into a concerto for symphony orchestra, multiple percussion, and a female soloist and titled Percussio di Pekarski (for Mark Pekarsky, the composer’s friend, a percussionist who collects percussion instruments from all over the world). In the new rendition, the orchestra was surrounded by six groups of percussion instruments, and the soloist-percussionist went from one to another. The Chinese sheng, a mouth instrument, was used as a ritornello (recurring refrain), accompanying the vocalist singing Tsvetayeva’s poem.

Offertorium. In 1980, after meeting violinist Kremer, Gubaidulina composed this violin concerto. A friend suggested that she include in it the royal theme from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Musical Offering. Here Gubaidulina builds the music on consecutive omission of the end notes on both sides of the theme. At first the theme seems on the brink of destruction, but its gradual restoration brings the work to a beautiful conclusion. Kremer premiered Offertorium on May 30, 1981, although Gubaidulina was not able to be present because her visa was denied. It was with Kremer’s help that Gubaidulina became known in international circles. This piece, now performed all over the world, merges the contrasting characteristics of the composer: strict calculation and intuition, formal mastery and spiritual awakening.

Seven Words. In this composition for cello, bayan, and fifteen strings, Gubaidulina turns to a religious theme, although it is interpreted subjectively. Compositions of Heinrich Schütz and Joseph Haydn (bearing the same title) served as prototypes, and Haydn’s chromatic motif appears in all seven of the sections in her work. Gubaidulina personifies the instruments: bayan is the Father; cello is the Son; strings are the Holy Spirit. There is also harmonic symbolism: chromaticism and microtones are spheres of earthly suffering (depicted in the timbres of bayan and cello), while the diatonic language, reflecting the heavenly sphere, is given to the strings. The intersection of these two systems in unison and octaves make up the shape of a cross.

Stimmen…Verstummen. In this symphony, the mystery of the spirit unfolds. The twelve sections are characterized by opposing lines: The odd sections portray the eternal heavenly world; the even represent the chaotic earthly one. In the eighth, and most expanded, section, the theme re-creates the universal catastrophe of Judgment Day as revealed in the biblical Apocalypse. The ninth section is the culmination of the piece, in which the orchestra becomes silent and the conductor beats out a rhythm noted in the score (according to the Fibonacci series of 1-2-3, 2-3-5, 3-5-8). This unique solo symbolizes the aftermath of the catastrophe.

String Quartet No. 4. This work, commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, juxtaposes three aspects: a live performance of music; prerecorded music that runs on two separate tracks tuned a quarter-tone apart; and visual effects using light and darkness. String Quartet No. 4 begins in complete darkness with the prerecorded material—rubber balls bouncing on strings. This is followed by color and light effects, and finally the performers begin to play in dialogue with the tracks. The instruments eventually take on the language of the tracks by playing with the same rubber balls. This quiet, calm piece presents a conflict-free conversation between the real and unreal entities.

St. John Passion. In 2000 Gubaidulina was one of four composers commissioned by Helmuth Rilling, artistic director of the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, to compose a Passion in commemoration of the 250 years since Bach’s death. Sung in Russian, St. John Passion, for soloists, two choruses, and orchestra, demonstrates the composer’s deep Russian Orthodox faith.

The oratorio comprises eleven episodes in two sections (1-7 and 8-11). Gubaidulina uses two texts—the Gospel account of Christ’s Passion and the narrative of St. John on the Last Judgment—to show an intersection between events on earth (Passion, Nos. 1, 6, 9, and 11) and those in heaven (Apocalypse, Nos. 2-5, 7, and 10). This intersection is supported by the orchestra—glissandi of some instruments cut through the sustained notes of others. In this work, the composer discloses God’s Word, showing that his flesh in the Passion and his spirit in the Last Judgment at last come together in perfect balance. The work was recorded on September 1, 2000, by the Orchestra of Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, conducted by Valery Gergiev at Konzert- und Kongresszentrum Liederhalle, Stuttgart.

Musical Legacy

Her enormous talent coupled with her artistic independence have made Gubaidulina one of the most interesting composers of the twentieth century. Despite the complexity of Gubaidulina’s musical language, her aesthetic and spiritual views are becoming more and more accessible to the general public, who are drawn to her intellectual mastery, inventive use of sound, and deep spiritual motivation.

Bibliography

Eichler, Jeremy. "In Residence at Marlboro, Sofia Gubaidulina Pursues Music of the Soul." Boston Globe, 29 July 2016, www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2016/07/28/residence-marlboro-sofia-gubaidulina-pursues-music-soul/TDbbsIBZfkQZ1bb7WZxLHN/story.html. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024.

Griffiths, Paul. Modern Music and After: Directions Since 1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Kurtz, Michael. Sofia Gubaidulina: A Biography. Edited by Christoph K. Lohmann and Malcom Hamrich Brown. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.

MacMillan, Kyle. "Gubaidulina Triple Concerto Set For World Premiere." Classical Voice North America, 23 Feb. 2017, classicalvoiceamerica.org/2017/02/23/gubaidulina-triple-concerto-set-for-premiere/. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024.

Pendle, Karin, and Robert Zieroff. “Composers of Modern Europe, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand.” In Women and Music: A History, edited by Karin Pendle. 2d ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.

Polin, Clair. “Conversations in Leningrad.” Tempo 168 (March, 1989): 19-20.

Redepenning, Dorothea. “Sofia Gubaidulina: An Interview with Dorothea Redepenning.” In Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, edited by Elliott Schwartz and Barney Childs. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998.

"Review: Boston Symphony in American Premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina's 'Wrath of God,' Plus Glanerts Trumpet Concerto and Prokofiev." Symphony, 30 Apr. 2024, symphony.org/review-boston-symphony-in-american-premiere-of-sofia-gubaidulinas-wrath-of-god-plus-glanerts-trumpet-concerto-and-prokofiev/. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024.