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1 Sofia Gubaidulina: Binary Opposition and Unification in String Quartets It must be evident to anyone familiar with Sofia Gubaidulina’s music, that the concept of binary opposition is crucial for her. It is reflected in the title of her compositions, for example Vivente-Non Vivente (1970) for synthesizer, Stimmen…Verstummen (1986) for a large orchestra, and Even and Uneven (1991) for percussion instruments and harpsichord. In fact, not only does the concept appear to the title of her compositions, but Gubaidulina also applies it in her music. To an extent, she also bases her aesthetic and musical conceptions on an aesthetic that diverges from the oppositional concept. Before further examining the significance of the concept used in Gubaidulina’s String Quartets Nos. 2 and 4, it seems necessary to give a rather general observation of Gubaidluna’s music aesthetic in dualism. In much of Gubaidulina’s music to some extent demonstrates the use of timbre to create a sense of dualism. She said: I find contrasting ideas very interesting: for example, in string terminology, setting against each other arco vs. pizzicato, sordino vs. senza sordino, [and] ponticello vs. sul tasto, This concept of opposition influences my musical ideas.1 The concept of binary opposition in Gubaidulina’s music is also derived from her interest in religious subjects. She describes that “musical form is a spirit, since in it musical matter grows transfigured into a symbol, and can interpret any opposition structure as representing the cross.” 2 One of her discourses relates to the ‘horizontal’ Claire Polin, “Interview with Soviet Composers,” Tempo 50 (Winter 1984), 15. Quote taken from Levon Hakobian, Music of the Soviet Age, 1917-1987 (Stockholm, Sweden: Melos Music Literature, 1998), 287. 1 2 2 (ordinary, earthly) and ‘vertical’ (spiritual, symbolic, transcendental) spaces which are treated as a musical metaphor for the cross, namely in a religious sense. Many experimental compositional techniques that applied to Gubaidulina’s music can be associated with the idea of dualism as well. An example is her exploration of quarter-tone temperament. The experiment aims at a separation of two spaces, which Gubaidulina tries to make audible by one twelve semitonal space tuned conventionally and the other twelve semitonal space tuned either a quarter-tone higher or lower. Gubaidulina sees twelve-semitonal space and twelve-semitonal space a quarter-tone higher or lower as the metaphor of ‘an image and its shadow, or a day and a night.’3 Gubaidulina claims that within the twenty-four tone scale, we may have not only “a day,” but also “a night”. To a certain extent, from an ideal aesthetic point of view, Gubaidulina’s treatment of dualism in the music leads to a possible conclusion that opposition is equal and complementary to unity. In the following analysis I draw attention to the horizontal and vertical treatments and musical space in Gubaidulina’s String Quartets Nos. 2 and 4 that create binary opposition impression. Not only will I show Gubaidulina’s use of dualism to identify the structure of the composition, but also discuss how the music as a whole has been put together, in terms of unity. The Second Quartet is in one movement, the essence of the sound elements divides the movement into two clear sections, with each section displaying a distinct musical profile of its own. The first section is essentially linear (horizontal) in character and the second is generally notated harmonically (vertically). In order to avoid confusion over the meaning of horizontal and vertical treatments, I define horizontal elements in 3 Vera Lukomsky, “Sofia Gubaidulina: ‘My Desire is Always to Rebel, to Swim against the Stream!’” 11. 3 music as either consisting of successive non-pitch sounds or as successive pitched sounds forming melodic lines, and vertical elements as simultaneous sounds, or ‘any simultaneity’ sound events which may form vertical chord-structures rather than harmonies. In the first section, distinct linear (horizontal) melodic identities, such as a drone and melodic motive, are introduced in each part. In general, besides each musical activity is separated by different fermatas, the sounds move seemingly of their own free will, unhindered by measured time. It is as if Gubaidulina desires to free music altogether, not only from perceived meter but also from the sense of perceived beat. Each pitch register expansion is linear in design as well. In other words, there is no vocabulary established for the technical discussion of harmonic progression other than a succession of linear events. The pitch register expansion of the quartet in outer voices is an example of one type of linear structure activities in the music: the upward chromatic pitch register expansion gradually builds up from G4 (based on the octave range where middle C is C4) at rehearsal #5 to its highest note F#6 in the violin at rehearsal #20, where climax occurs. Meanwhile, there is another series of downward chromatic pitch register expansions gradually descending from G4 at rehearsal #5 to its lowest note G#2 in the cello at rehearsal #20. This process has special significance in the overall structure 4 of the composition. Not only does it mark the end of the first section, but also indicates the end of the linear activity. The second section is generally constructed in vertical structure where double stops and intervals are often sounded simultaneously as a ‘chord’. There are, however, times when Gubaidulina unifies the opposition – horizontal-vertical structure. To demonstrate a specific example of her horizontal musical events, I present the handling of perfect fifth pitch register expansions over the course of the second section. 5 Gubaidulina introduces the first fifth’s register expansion at rehearsals #21.6#21.7 in the cello, giving the pitches A4/D4-E5/A4-B5/E5-F#6/B5 (Ex. 2a). The next occurrence of the expansion is at rehearsals #22.5-#23.1. The development work here is now more dramatically presented in three different voices: violins 1 and 2 and cello. However, taken together, the pitches remain the same, but with added perfect 5th giving A4/D4-E5/A4-B5/E5-F#6/B5-C#7/F#6 (Ex. 2b). As the music progresses, the pitches expand an octave lower at rehearsals #24-#24.4 in the cello giving the descending fifths: G3/C3-D4/G3-A4/D4-E5/A4-B5/E5-F#6/B5 (Ex. 2c). The expansions continue until #29.2. Here I provide the overall view of the expansions. The basic process of developing pitch connections between the two sections begins with G4 (Fig. 1i) at the beginning of the music. However, the pitch register expansion does not begin until rehearsal #7, where G4 expands a semitone higher to Aflat4 in the viola (Fig. 1ii). The process is cumulative; thus the original starting points – here I am referring to G4-Aflat4 – are frequently returned in the first section. In addition, 6 it retains a certain consistency of rhythmic pattern, presented generally in two ascending notes. The overall expansion process continues until rehearsal #34.2. It must, nevertheless, be added that the pitch expansion in the second section is introduced in a new form – a descending two-note motive (for example at #25.4). Each appearance of a two-note motive is generally presented in a different transposition throughout the music, with recognizable musical material. For example, it is preceded by a harmonic in a different octave range. Moreover, each descending two-note motive holds a louder dynamic marking than its surrounding events. Clearly, it would not have been pronounced had its appearance not been emphasized by this setting. An overall view of the expansions is presented in this figure 1. To some extent, as in Berio’s electro-acoustic tape music, Gubaidulina’s String Quartet No. 4 (1993) shows a relationship between taped sounds and actual sound that can be perceived as concrete phenomena of binary oppositions, such as simple and complex, and darkness and light. Gubaidulina said: 7 I was working with the idea of three aspects, juxtaposed. The first is the real, the concrete, the live playing of music. The second is the non-real, two tracks of pre-recorded music played a quarter-tone apart, like a shadow of the real. The third is the use of darkness and light, a visual experience possible when the piece is performed live.4 Looking at this example, label A and B are the tape sounds, and label C is the live sound. Although in music there is no physical or visible shape to perceive, one experiences the oppositional impression through a temporal and sonic setting – here I am referring to registral, textural, rhythmic (both in notation and rest) and dynamic treatments. For example, the contrasts between dynamic levels and registers resemble shifts from the distant to the near, from the ‘top’ to the ‘bottom’ and vice versa. 4 Sofia Gubaidulina, String Quartet No. 4, Perf. Kronos Quartet. Elektra Nonesuch (LC 0286). Compact disc. 1994. 8 The creation of dualism in this quartet is also drawn from the fact that each particular sound space – tape and live – creates its individual character in the music. For example the musical mechanism in the tape sound is static and consistent throughout, whereas in the live sound, Gubaidulina introduces significant and challenging materials such as a wide variety of textures and timbre, complex rhythmic activity and frequent change of tempo that give the composition a strong sense of forward motion. In addition, the composition takes on spatial organization as a creative issue; not only its constructional procedures show an interest in the formal properties of spatial articulation, but the music also projects a sensitivity to the feel of space in terms of background and foreground effects. Indeed, Gubaidulina’s resorts to the contrasts of dynamic and texture also creates an impression of sound distance; a loud sound with dense texture is to be heard as being closer to the listener; whereas a soft, dull sound with thin texture is to be heard as being ‘far away’. Although Gubaidulina eschews conventional handling of melody and harmony, she achieves a formal unity through the exploration of unfamiliar relationships of horizontal and vertical treatment, and musical space in her music. On the technical level, the binary oppositional impression is conveyed mostly by texture and timbre. In her quartets, unity develops: 1) as much from the contrasting compositional techniques (such as background/foreground, static flow/more rhythmic activity) applied to sound colors and texture as from any overall contrast in the structure (for example horizontal/vertical treatments) created by sound color and texture themselves; and 2) through underlying musical relationships created by pitch organization. With these, Gubaidulina creates a 9 structure of striking originality, a structure in which opposing tendencies both clash with and balance one another.