by Caiti Beth McKinney
Hello everyone! This month I wanted to share with you the music of composer Sofia Gubaidulina (1931-2025) to honor her recent passing on March 13. Gubaidulina was an incredibly brave woman who dedicated her life to her music, and, against all odds and obstacles, continued to create in ways that felt honest to herself. She was born in the Soviet Union in 1931 in a time where musical tastes were strictly controlled; in fact, during her early career, the study of modern music from the United States and parts of Europe were completely banned. She and her fellow students smuggled scores from composers like Ives and Cage, all so they could learn as much as possible.
During and after her post-graduate studies, Gubaidulina’s music was frequently scrutinized by governmental figures who argued that she was on a “mistaken path,” but other composers like Dmitri Shostakovich supported her work and encouraged her to continue. Throughout her life, her music was accused of being too religious, too Western, and at times, even “irresponsible.” In the face of such blatant opposition, Gubaidulina remained undeterred; she used the less-regulated realm of film music to experiment with her ideas and develop her compositional voice. She became internationally recognized in the 1980s thanks to her violin concerto Offertorium, and this work launched her into the world of orchestral music. Her many pieces for orchestra include the deeply powerful The Wrath of God (a tour de force of low brass writing) and Fairy-tale Poem, a distinctly avant-garde work of plucked strings and flighty woodwinds.
Gubaidulina also composed an immense amount of chamber music, including her 1979 work Zwei Stücke für Horn und Klavier (Two Pieces for Horn and Piano). The piece shows the dynamic range of Gubaidulina’s musical palette; the composer plays with the full range of the piano and the dynamic capabilities of the horn, and the work is an approachable starting point for engaging with Gubaidulina’s compositions. (Enjoy Der Jagd from this work.) I find her compositional philosophy particularly inspiring and wish to leave it here for you to consider. In her own words, “The art of music is capable of touching and approaching mysteries and laws existing in the cosmos and in the world,” and it is “is consistent with the task of expanding the higher dimension of our lives.”
