Download Sofia Gubaidulina: Dualism in String Quartets

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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.
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(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
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Vera Lukomsky, “Sofia Gubaidulina: ‘My Desire is Always to Rebel, to Swim against the Stream!’” 11.
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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
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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.
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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,
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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:
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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.
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Sofia Gubaidulina, String Quartet No. 4, Perf. Kronos Quartet. Elektra Nonesuch (LC 0286). Compact
disc. 1994.
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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
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structure of striking originality, a structure in which opposing tendencies both clash with
and balance one another.