A Multimodal Analysis of Hommage à Marina Tsvetayeva by Sofia Gubaidulina

Natalya V. Koshkareva

Abstract


The article reveals the stylistic features of the contrapuntal technique Sofia Gubaidulina applied
in her choral composition Hommage à Marina Tsvetaeva. This study analyzes Sofia Gubaidulina’s
contrapuntal technique of synthesizing the poetic and musical texts. It examines the genre
archetypes of each movement of the suite, analyzes the types of contrapuntal approaches in terms
of the parameters of tradition and innovation, and carries out a contextual analysis of the suite
as an exemplary contemporary choral composition. The five movements of the composition are
categorized into three genre archetypes (canon, motet, and psalmody), five types of contrapuntal
techniques (canonical imitation, hoquet, antiphon, continuous imitation and responsory) and four
types of 20th century compositional techniques (sonorism, pointillism, quotations and sonoric
aleatory technique). Nine vocal techniques and five types of vocal sound are utilized in this
composition. These vocal techniques and types of sounds are especially distinctive in the third,
fourth, and fifth movements of the work. This is, in all likelihood, the first article to examine the
technique of contrapuntal writing as a separate phenomenon in contemporary Russian music on the
example of Sofia Gubaidulina’s composition of Hommage à Marina Tsvetaeva, written in the genre
of a cycle of pieces for a cappella chorus.

Keywords: Sofia Gubaidulina, Marina Tsvetaeva, contemporary polyphonic writing, choral
polyphony, choral suite, canon, psalmody, motet.


Full Text:

PDF

References


Moskvina O. A. “Dve tropy” S. Gubaydulinoy: lyubov' zemnaya i lyubov' nebesnaya (prochtenie “syuzheta” o Marii i Marfe v kontserte dlya dvukh solistov i orkestra) [The "Two Paths" of Sofia Gubaidulina: Earthly Love and Heavenly Love (Reading The ‘Plot’ About Maria and Marpha In The Concerto For Two Soloists and Orchestra)]. Istoricheskie, filosofskie, politicheskie i yuridicheskie nauki, kul'turologiya i iskusstvovedenie. Voprosy teorii i praktiki [Historical, Philosophical, Political and Legal Sciences, Cultural Studies and Art History. Questions of Theory and Practice]. 2015. Vol. 9, No. 59, pp. 118–124.

Plotnikova N. Yu. O tekhnike kanona v muzyke russkogo barokko: Na primere polikhoral'nykh proizvedeniy Vasiliya Titova [On the Technique of the Canon in the Music of the Russian Baroque: On the Example of the Polychoral Works of Vasily Titov]. Moscow: Nauka, 2016. 347 p.

Kholopova V. N. Ob odnom printsipe khromatiki v muzyke XX veka [On one Principle of Chromaticism in the Music of the 20th Century]. Problemy muzykal'noy nauki [Issues of Musical Scholarship]. Vol. 2. Moscow, 1973. 331 p.

Artamonova E. Multifaceted Creativity: Legacy of Alexander Ivashkin Based on Archival Materials and Publications. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Art Studies: Science, Experience, Education. Ed. E. Artamonova. Paris: Atlantis Press, 2019, p. 162. DOI: 10.2991/icassee-19.2019.165.

Atwood G. E. Time, Death, Eternity: Imagining the Soul of Johann Sebastian Bach. New Trends in Psychobiography. Eds. C. H. Mayer, Z. Kovary. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019, pp. 299–323. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-16953-4_17.

Bennett D. D. The Winchester Troper. Speculum. 2009. Vol. 84, No. 2, pp. 487–488. DOI: 10.1017/S0038713400018662.

Chambers D., Krivosheyev M. Mikhail Butkevich: The Bridge to the Contemporary Russian Avant-Garde. Stanislavski Studies. 2016. Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 125–135. DOI: 10.1080/20567790.2016.1234017.

Collins D. Approaching Renaissance Music Using Taneyev’s Theories of Movable Counterpoint. Acta Musicologica. 2018. Vol. 90, No. 2, pp. 178–201.

Covach J. The Americanization of Arnold Schoenberg? Theory, Analysis, and Reception. Journal of the German-Speaking Society of Music Theory. 2018. Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 155–175. DOI: 10.31751/991.

Dyganova E. Sofia Gubaidulina's “Dedication to Marina Tsvetaeva” as the Example of Staginess in Choral Performance. 4th International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conferences on Social Sciences and Arts SGEM 2017: Conference Proceedings. Book 6. Science and Arts. Volume II, pp. 207–214.

Fanning D., Assay M. Shostakovich’s ‘Leningrad’ Symphony. The Routledge Handbook to Music under German Occupation, 1938–1945. Eds. D. Fanning, M. Assay. Routledge: Arts, 2019, pp. 418–447. DOI: 10.4324/9781315230610-22.

Helsen K. Neumes for Novices. Early Music. 2015. Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 319–320. DOI: 10.1093/em/cav028.

Leo K. M. Early Blues and Jazz Authorship in the Case of the ‘Livery Stable Blues. Jazz Perspectives. 2020. Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 311–338. DOI: 10.1080/17494060.2020.1833071.

Lepri G., McPherson A. Fictional Instruments, Real Values: Discovering Musical Backgrounds with Non-Functional Prototypes. Proceedings of the 2019 Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. 2019, pp. 122–127. URL: https://zenodo.org/record/3672890#.YS9mZ7AzbIU (25.07.2021).

Levy B. R. Rules as Strict as Palestrina’s’: The Regulation of Pitch and Rhythm in Ligeti’s Requiem and Lux Aeterna. Twentieth-Century Music. 2013. Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 203–230. DOI: 10.1017/S1478572213000029.

Lukomsky V. ‘Hearing the Subconscious’: Interview with Sofia Gubaidulina. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 31 p. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/946672?seq=1.

Phipps G. H. The Twelve-Tone Music of Luigi Dallapiccola. Notes. 2011. Vol. 68, No. 1, pp. 102–105. DOI: 10.1353/not.2011.0104.

Schneider L., Ansgar Z. Polyphony in Corporate and Organizational Communications: Exploring the Roots and Characteristics of a New Paradigm. Communication Management Review. 2019. Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 6–29. DOI: 10.22522/cmr20180232.

Sternberg R. J., Kaufman J. C., Pretz J. E. The Propulsion Model of Creative Contributions Applied to the Arts and Letters. The Journal of Creative Behavior. 2001. Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 75–101. DOI: 10.1002/j.2162-6057.2001.tb01223.x.

Warwick E. Word Setting in a Perfect Musical World: The Case of Obrecht’s Motets. Journal of the Alamire Foundation. 2017. Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 52–75. DOI: 10.1484/J.JAF.1.102193.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33779/2587-6341.2021.3.123-136

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.