Gubaidulina’s String Quartet No.4: Recreation of Traditions in a New Musical Context

This study examines Sofia Gubaidulina's exploration of traditional musical idioms in her String Quartet No.4. Together with influences of Baroque and Renaissance musical styles, the composer experiments with the accommodation of minimalist repetitive musical texture and the European tradition of ground bass, providing a different kind of musical synthesis. Gubaidulina also explores new possibilities in several musical and technical aspects. Unexpected timbres are created in the music, providing a unique sonic experience.


Introduction
Traditional musical idioms and materials from past centuries have been used and reused in contemporary musical contexts. Many composers have undertaken to explore, experiment with and develop a range of musical styles using past musical language. One such composer is Sofia Gubaidulina;her String Quartet No.4 (1993) illustrates the use of common idioms from past eras. Despite it sounding contemporary, the Quartet is innovative in the way in which it incorporates such idioms. The quartet is not of a classical tradition in design, but rather a synthesis of color lighting and music that attempts to find a connection between visible and instrumental colors. This study will therefore examine Gubaidulina's recreation of traditional musical idioms in her String Quartet No. 4, with a focus only on the quartet's musical aspect.
Up to the present time, Gubaidulina has written four string quartets: String Quartet No. 1 (1971), No. 2 (1987), No. 3 (1987) and No. 4 (1993). All her quartets demonstrate Gubaidulina's interest in creating beautiful sound colors, subtle combinations of sounds and textural manipulation. In her String Quartet Nos.2 and 3 Gubaidulina employs an oppositional concept to create a structure in which opposing tendencies both clash with and balance one another. For instance, in her String Quartet No.2, distinct linear melodic identities, such as drone and melodic motive, in the first half of the composition show sharp contrast with the chord-like musical texture in the second half of the composition. In String Quartet No. 3 Gubaidulina continues showing her interest in experimenting with the oppositional concept. Apart from pizzicato/arco playing, Guabdiulina introduces a composite melodic line produced by different instruments in turn attacking, which creates a kind of pointillistic texture. String Quartet No.4 shows Gubaidulina's new explorations.
Although String Quartet No.4 may sound contemporary to many listeners, it nevertheless exemplifies well the composer's preoccupation with traditional musical vocabulary. Indeed, the piece has the characteristics that show Baroque and Renaissance influences. Gubaidulina frequently employs typical imitation techniques and musical texture that builds on parallel sixths and thirds in the music; but she also utilizes repetitive bass patterns such as ground bass in a somewhat similar way to the baroque style. Musical gestures employed recall the early vocal works of the Renaissance. Some of her musical ideas can also be referenced to the polychoral musical fashion. All these traditional techniques and ideas are introduced in a contemporary musical language, which is distinctive.
In the composition, Gubaidulina experiments with the accommodation of minimalist repetitive musical gesture and the European tradition of ground bass, providing a different kind of musical synthesis. This provides a new way of treating the ground bass. As she once said, "from time to time…it became absolutely necessary to renew the musical means, the musical language"(LUKOMSKY and GUBAIDULINA, 1998, p.8).This quartet is certainly one of her most ambitious instrumental works that demonstrates the composer's foray into conventional musical styles of previous historical periods. Thus, Gubaidulina's use of traditional musical idioms serves as a focal point for examination.
Like much of her music, Gubaidulina's penchant for sound palette is evident. In fact, she continues to explore new possibilities in all musical aspects and the music is full of technical flourish. From the beginning of her career, Gubaidulina displays an experimental spirit. Almost certainly, twentieth-century musical idioms of modernists and others are easily found in her compositions. Here, in this quartet, apart from her typical musical expression, Gubaidulina explores new territory, finding the relationship between sounds. Unexpected timbres are created in the composition, providing extreme sonic experience. In addition, she draws upon a variety of musical ideas from composers such as John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Gubaidulina has found a way of drawing all these musical ideas and styles together in a way that is at the same time new and highly individual. This quartet is not only a compositional challenge to the composer, but also a listening challenge to the audience.
Gubaidulina formulates a new attitude to the potentialities of the string quartet. There is also textural layering created by groups of instrumental sounds. Taken as a whole, Gubaidulina strikes off in old-new directions in composing this quartet. It is a piece that lies among postwar modernism, and Renaissance and Baroque traditions. Thus, it is intriguing to investigate how she employs these past traditions and develops such an individual and distinct sound world. Joseph N. Straus' once remarked that "twentieth-century composers incorporate traditional elements not out of compositional laziness and lack of imagination,… but precisely as a way to grapple with their musical heritage. They invoke the past in order to reinterpret it" (STRAUS, 1990, p. 1). This has, in turn, stimulated the creative process in composers and enriched their works. Indeed, the music of composers, regardless of the period in which they wrote, often reveals selected techniques, styles and ideas associated with the diverse musical characteristics of their predecessors and from earlier periods. Nevertheless, these techniques and styles are presented in a new form and context. Most often one finds their music projects familiar, yet unique in themselves. What is clearly demonstrated in Gubaidulina's String Quartet No.4 is not a collage technique, but rather how Gubaidulina embraces stylistic allusion.

Overview of Recent Studies
Other musical examples that allude to common practice musical styles of earlier periods can also be found in Daniel

Gubaidulina's String Quartet No.4
The Quartet was commissioned by and dedicated to the Kronos Quartet, and premiered on 20 th of January 1994 in New York. It is one movement in design and divided into three main different musical layers: taped sounds A and B, and live performance. Taped sound A is pitched a quarter-tone higher than taped sound B. A sharp contrast in dynamic occurs between the taped sounds (very soft throughout) and the live performance (different dynamic levels). Throughout the music, the taped sounds and the live performance are moving at their own different tempi and distinguished by their own musical characters.
Gubaidulina once commented that the exploration of quarter-tone temperament attracts her very much (LUKOMSKY and GUBAIDULINA, 1998, p. 11), and its use is relevant to the musical language of the 20th century. "I started my experiments with quarter-tone music not because I intended to be 'new.' Many composers of the twentieth century had explored this sphere, for example, Alois Haba and Ivan Vyshnegradsky. This search in the microtonal realm seems to be very relevant to our century," she said (LUKOMSKY and GUBAIDULINA, 1998, p. 12). On the String Quartet No.4 (KRONOS QUARTET: Night Prayers), Gubaidulina remarked that: Gubaidulina's use of the quarter-tone technique can be traced back as early as her String Quartet No. 1 (1971), in which she presents an alteration of timbre by tuning the instrument differently, for example a quarter-tone higher and three quarter-tones lower. Nevertheless, she did not begin to concentrate on experimenting with quarter-tone music until the 1990s, for example in her Music for Flute, Strings and Percussion (1994), and Quartenion (1995) for four cellos.
In this analysis of Gubaidulina's String Quartet No.4, references to specific rehearsal numbers will often take the form of a rehearsal number (#), followed by a period and then the measure number. For example, "rehearsal #1.1" refers to the first measure of rehearsal number 1.
The Quartet begins with an instrumental part in taped sound B and is imitated/echoed either a beat or a few measures later in the same instrumental part of taped sound A. As in her Quarternion and Music for Flute and Strings Gubaidulina aims to create a separation of two spaces. "My experiment was aimed at a separation of the two spaces, that I tried to make audible," she said (LUKOMSKY and GUBAIDULINA, 1998, p. 11).
Since the taped sounds B and A are a quarter-tone apart, they generate a sense of spatially separated effect. The imitation/echo continues as each individual part reveals itself. Each layer of sound is added slowly as the music progresses. The music is certainly linear and polyphonic in character, which in some respects could represent a move towards a more traditional language. Indeed, the idea of the interplay between taped sounds A and B, taped sounds and live performing here can also be referenced to polychoral singing, cori spezzati, in which two or more groups sing to one another. This musical handing in the quartet not only demonstrates a different way of Gubaidulina's experimenting with musical tradition, but also reveals a way she establishes a link to polychoral singing.
The term cori spezzati is Italian, dating from the 16 th century (ARNOLD and CARVER). According to Denis Arnold and Anthony F. Carver, one of the distinct ways of double-choir polyphony that emerged in the second half of the 15 th century was "through the splitting of multi-voice texture into distinct voice groups, often in a canonic or imitative relationship," and this musical handling can be seen in the music of Pierre de la Rue, Josquin and Mouton (ARNOLD and CARVER). Gubaidulina's penchant for Baroque and earlier music is evident. Not only does she write compositions that are named in terms of the Baroque genre, for instance Chaconne (1962), Toccata-Troncata (1971) and Invention (1974), but she also analyses the music of J. S. Bach.
Gubaidulina has also employed musical materials from Baroque composers; for example, a quotation from Heinrich Schu tz is used in her Seven Words (1982). In addition, Gubaidulina's creative processes reflect a number of diverse stimuli. In an interview, she once said, As a composer, Gubaidulina accepts musical traditions, in terms of style, forms and techniques; nevertheless, she has molded them to her own need. This is why her music never sounds completely traditional.
From the beginning of the quartet the taped music shows sound and manner quite distinctive from the live music. It is soft, of the same dynamic level, having unchanging musical gestures and uninterrupted flow with no goal direction throughout. There is also no "dialogue" and interaction between taped sound and live performance. This continuous static taped sound provides a musical flow in the composition. Each instrument takes turn to present a group of pitches that form different descending tetrachords in tremolos. The music begins with viola using the pitches of B flat-A-G-F, followed by violin II with E-D#-C#-B (rehearsal #6), violin I with B-A#-G#-F# (rehearsal #9.1) and cello with E-E flat-D flat-C flat (rehearsal #10.2). All these pitches can be treated as different transpositions of the tetrachord in viola.
Not all tetrachords are reiterated throughout the composition in the taped sound. As the music progresses, a slow changing of pitches begins to taken place in violin I and cello. What keeps all the parts coherent within the taped sound is that they share and repeat a similar rhythmic pattern and musical gesture throughout. Generally, although the repeating musical gesture can be easily grasped as a whole, it is difficult for the listener to detect its individual voice. Moreover, this musical character creates a meditating and hypnotic effect. Such musical manner is reminiscent of minimalist musical texture and style. This also suggests that the work shows some influence of minimalism. The prominent features of minimalist style include a steady pulse with gradual alteration in pitch or rhythm, often reiterating musical phrases or smaller units such as figures and motives. Taken as a whole, this taped sound is a musical layer that can be treated as background music to the live performance.
What is interesting here is that Gubaidulina has successfully combined the minimalist technique of repetitive and static texture with the European rootedness tradition of ground bass musical handling, providing an ultimate new synthesis. Throughout the taped sound, the repeated descending melodic gesture in viola (B flat-A-G-F) and violin II (E-D#-C#-B) reminds one of a common musical pattern of baroque basso ostinato or ground bass, that is, descending tetrachord, sometimes called lament bass. Figure 1 illustrates both the melodic gestures of viola and violin II. Moreover, lament bass often contains "a steady rhythmic gesture, stressed triple meter, and slow tempo" (BROVER-LUBOVSKY, 2008, p. 153). As in a lament bass, each descending tetrachord in the taped music is about four measures long, and slow in tempo. Gubaidulina uses the descending tetrachord gesture purely for the purpose of providing background music to the live performance. Indeed, unlike the traditional lament bass, in her music there is no harmonic progression built on the descending lines. As Brover-Lubovsky claims, "the lament bass has long been recognized as one of the most firmly molded harmonic progressions," and "in order to be considered a species of the lament bass genera each step of the descending tetrachord should be newly harmonized" (BROVER-LUBOVSKY, 2008, p. 152). It was in the eighteenth-century that "the tetrachord bass pattern, coupled with the harmonic vocabulary it supports, served as a standard formula for every European composer" (BROVER-LUBOVSKY, 2008, p. 153).
One other prominent musical feature of past traditions found in this quartet is the frequent use of "point of imitation" in the live performance to create a Renaissance textural sound world. The compositional technique refers to a series of imitative entrances in ordered arrangement. It was commonly found in the sacred music of composers such as Jocab Obrecht and Josquin des Prez during the Renaissance, and even earlier composers such as Lorenzo da Firenze (d. 1372 or 1373) and others. In Gubaidulina's Quartet point of imitation is easily recognizable throughout the music. It is first demonstrated at rehearsal #5 where four parts enter at half measure intervals; nevertheless, it breaks away as the music progresses ( Figure 2). Although the music is generally linear in design, there are moments when Gubaidulina introduces passages in the live performance in which intervals are built entirely from thirds and sixths that recall the musical traits of the 16 th century. A clear example is at rehearsal #18 where each part plays its melodic line in double stops, creating sixths and thirds in alternation and parallel motions (Figure 3), though the music never sounds tonal in a traditional sense.

Figure 3: Sixths and thirds in alternation and parallel motions
The fact is that the parallel thirds and sixths are one of the more popular musical traits of the development of counterpoint; they can be found in musical passages of Palestrina and Josquin des Prez. In the 20 th century, composers often employ harmonic parallelism and parallel thirds, and sixths along with parallel fourths and fifths in their compositions; suffice to mention Debussy. Here in the quartet, Gubaidulina is certainly aware of the rules of the 16 th century counterpoint and carefully avoids parallel 4ths and 5ths in the music. The passage demonstrates Gubaidulina's musical language in her own way.
The taped sounds subside and disappear at the end of rehearsal #29. At the end of the quartet, at rehearsal #44 ( Figure 4) in violin II, Gubaidulina does something quite intriguing: she turns what seems to be a static, unimportant, repeated descending tetrachord taped sound in viola, into an essential musical event in live performance. She draws final attention to the tetrachord which first appeared at the opening of the composition, giving a complete whole to the music. Apart from the use of quarter-tones in the composition, there are unexpected timbres created in the live music. For example beginning at rehearsal #26.6, wavy lines move quickly in sul pointicello and tremolo in high pitches in strings, creating an effect of electronic sound that brings to mind one of the best-known pieces by Krzysztof Penderecki, Threnody: to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960). This approach in the quartet also suggests that Gubaidulina has been influenced by electronic-acoustic music. Indeed, Gubaidulinas's interest in experimenting with string instruments to produce electronic sound can also be seen in her String Quartet No.3, as well as many of her other compositions.
Throughout her career, Gubadulina has also written music that uses electronics; an example is her Vivente-Non Vivente for ANS Synthesizer (1970)-an electronic musical instrument created by Russian engineer Eugeni Murzin, from 1937 to 1957 (FUMAROLA, 1997, p. 4). In Gubaidulina's later compositions, she turns away from electronic instruments. "We've got enough wealth even without electronics, the latter only adds more." she said (DESIATERYK, 2012).
Other new textures and timbres are also introduced through a wide variety of playing techniques. For example, a ricochet bowing technique is used to produce a bouncing staccato sound effect. Other performance techniques also include col legno, glissandi, sul ponticello and pizzicato. The enduring fascination with ricochet bowing, col legno, glissandos and tremolos has become part of Gubaidulina's love for color in many of her compositions. "In the 1970s I was interested in such things as interval and timbre concepts… I experimented with all kinds of non-traditional methods of sound production with different instruments and wrote music for uncommon combinations of instruments," she said (LUKOMSKY and GUBAIDULINA, 1998, p. 34). Suffice to mention her early composition Pantomime (1966) for double and piano and her other string quartets.
Typical of Gubaudulina's compositional techniques is rubato, polyrhythms such as 5:4, 7:6, 8:6, 8:9, 9:6, and constant changing meters employed in certain passages, as well in the music of live performance. Gubaidulina enjoys the freedom of incorporating styles and techniques, and which she felt encouraged to explore in her composition. All these sound effects are introduced in different musical events through distinct ideas. The music is written in such as way that each musical event tends to sound like an individual moment in the composition. In most cases, breaks, pauses and rests are used to indicate the end of each musical event. It is not surprising that the listener is never sure what is going to happen next. This musical effect certainly reminds one of Karlheinz Stockhausen's "moment form"-a series of self-contained sections found in a piece of music. Such form is first introduced in Stockhausen's Kontakte . In fact, the incorporation of moment form in the music can also be found in Gubaidulina's String Quartet No.3. In that quartet, each musical idea seems to occupy a unique moment separated from those surrounding it, and it does not give a sense of continuity at first hearing.
In addition, some of Gubaidulina's musical ideas in quartet No.4 are derived from modernist techniques. For example, she often employs groups of notes in a particular rhythmic pattern in non-metrical episodes (with time frames indicated) at the end of a musical event. The use of time frames is to indicate a period of time during which the music must begin and end. This musical handling is commonly found in the late works of John Cage, such as Music for More (1984)(1985)(1986)(1987). The influence of Cage on Gubaidulina can be seen in her other music such as Rejoice! (1983), which also offers varying degrees of freedom within the notation and instructions for the performers, drawing on aleatoricism.
How does Gubaidulina create cohesion and unity in the entire quartet? To some extent, one may refer her approach to conventional handling. She uses the descending tetrachord as opening material for the composition, and also recalls the musical gesture back at rehearsal #44 to bring a sense of closure at the end of the work. Gubaidulina integrates the initial tetrachord musical gesture that was introduced in the taped sound into the live performance, developing a link, and thereby bringing the music to a complete whole.
Another approach to connect the entire composition is the use of a semitone intervallic idea. The semitone idea is certainly derived from the tetrachord that appears in the viola from the taped sound. It is often used to expand and introduce a musical idea. A clear example is the point of imitation that begins at rehearsal #5. The five-note melodic line begins with the pitches F-F#-G-F#-A#. In addition, at rehearsal #30, a descending semitone musical gesture of the descending tetrachord is recalled. In some cases Gubaidulina uses performance techniques such as Bartók snaps, vibrato and trills to emphasize and to draw attention to the semitone.

Conclusion
Throughout musical history composers have continued to use ideas, techniques and styles from their predecessors, yet renewing and presenting them in their individual and unique ways. Their creative power is enormous. Indeed, to most composers it is not a simple return to a traditional view and use of these techniques and ideas, but is a further examination and exploration for their possibilities. By doing so, it can present quite a challenge to composers and provide sonic experiences to listeners.
Although String Quartet No.4 demonstrates a highly developed treatment of traditional techniques, in general, the music does not sound tonal. Inevitably, some listeners may have some difficulty in following and comprehending it. Nevertheless, Gubaidulina not only shows different approaches to musical presentation, but also successfully recreates traditional musical style in a contemporary context, giving it a fresh and individual manner. The music certainly demonstrates Gubaidulina's sensitivity to the musical tradition, yet she does not move away from her own musical vocabulary. Indeed, the quartet shows how Gubaidulina experiments with a broad range of techniques from early historical periods, along with those of post-war modernists. Thus the composition shows how Gubaidulina uses different means to achieve musical synthesis.
In the music there is no conflict created between the static in the taped sound and the lively, energetic musical gesture in the live performance. Instead, they complement each other; static texture functions as the background music that supports the live performance and provides cohesion to the music. Moreover, the live performance moves at a quicker pace than the surrounding texture and therefore brings to the music a sense of forward momentum. Gubaidulina has found her own way of balancing her music. Throughout the quartet she has provided great variety of musical texture and timbres that create layering effects.
Indeed, exploring with diverse sound colors has characterized Gubaidulina as a composer; she has never moved away from many of her typical musical styles that can be related to contemporary musical fashion. For example, in the quartet one finds the absence of themes and the use of a high level of dissonance and rhythmic complexity. Flexibility in the music also suggests her interest in modernist music. Experimenting with different sound colors and techniques in strings also has been a prominent feature in the quartet. Despite a sense of moment created in the music, continuity is achieved through the static musical texture in the taped sounds that keep the flow of the music, and through the descending tetrachords and semitone motive. The work's hybrid approach in styles and compositional techniques reveals Gubaidulina's brilliant consolidation of a broad variety of resources. The piece certainly provides fascinating insights into Gubaidulina's compositional writings that draw on conventional ideas and styles.