Ishmael Zghoul

Music Research Assignment 8

Program Notes
Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931)
Sofia Gubaidulina is one of the most unique musical voices of our time. Her music is
deeply personal, characterized by depth and intensity. Born in 1931 on the East bank of the
Volga, Gubaidulina had known the repression of Soviet Ideology from a young age. Her mother
was Slavic and her father was a Muslim Tatar. She graduated from the Conservatory of Kazan in
1954 before furthering her studies at the Moscow Conservatory. During a critique of her
compositions upon application to the Moscow Conservatory, Conservatory officials had stated
that she was talented but had chosen the false way. Despite this criticism, she was accepted to
the school. She experienced similar criticism during her graduation exam, however,
Shostakovich, at that time the Chair of the State Examination Committee, defended her work and
afterwards told her "Everybody thinks that you are moving in the wrong direction. But I wish
you to continue on your 'mistaken' path.
Early in her career, Sofia supported herself by writing film scores while reserving a
portion of the year to work on her own music. In 1975, Gubaidulina formed Astraea, with
Vyacheslav Artyomov and Victor Suslin. The group mainly focused on group improvisation
while experimenting with rare folk instruments from Russia, Caucasia, and Central Asia. This
would prove to be a source of creative inspiration, as her interest in mysticism in music would be
augmented by Astraeas explorations.
Sofia would gain recognition in the late 1970s when two of her major works premeired in
Cologne (First Quartet) and Paris (Hour of the Soul). In the early 1980s it would be Gidon
Kremers premier of her work Offertorium that would give her worldwide recognition.

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Music Research Assignment 8
Although her work as a composer has seen experimentations with unconventional
instrumentations, the Fibonacci Sequence, the Golden Ratio, as well as microtonality, Sofia hates
the word avant-garde. She feels that it is dangerous to art when composers think of themselves
as avant-gardists because accent on innovation leads to loss of depth, which she believes is
what composers should strive for.
Concordanza
This piece is one of Gubaidulinas earlier works, written for a premiere in Prague in
1970. It is written for a chamber ensemble comprised of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn,
percussion, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. The piece features a contrasting duality of
concordant and discordant colors. Flowing melodic lines and consonant musical dialogue are
opposed with pizzicato attacks in the strings, trills in the woodwinds, vocal whispers, and chaotic
percussion sections.

I think that an artist of my type does not answer, but poses questions. Composition by
itself is a question. Sofia Gubaidulina

Works Cited
Gubaidulina, Sofia . Interview with Bruce Duffie. Classical 97, WNIB, 2001.
Griffiths, Paul . "12-13_SofiaGubaidulina_ProgramNotes.pdf." Miller Theatre at Columbia.
http://www.millertheatre.com/Pdf/ProgramNotes/1213_SofiaGubaidulina_ProgramNotes.pdf (accessed February 6, 2014).
Lukomsky, Vera , and Sofia Gubaidulina. "Sofia Gubaidulina: "My Desire Is Always to Rebel,

Ishmael Zghoul
Music Research Assignment 8
to Swim against the Stream!"." Perspectives of New Music 36, no. 1 (1998): 5-41. Sofia
Gubaidulina: "My Desire Is Always to Rebel, to Swim against the Stream!" (accessed
February 6, 2014).
Wikimedia Foundation. "Sofia Gubaidulina." Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia_Gubaidulina (accessed February 6, 2014).
Stevenson, Joseph. "Concordanza, for chamber ensemble." AllMusic.
http://www.allmusic.com/composition/concordanza-for-chamber-ensemblemc0002424699 (accessed February 6, 2014).