Sofia Gubaidulina

Gubaidulina was born on 24 October 1931 in Chistopol, Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (now the Republic of Tatarstan), Russian SFSR, to a Volga Tatar father and a Russian mother of Jewish Polish descent. Her father, Asgat Masgudovich Gubaidulin, was a surveyor and engineer and her mother, Fedosiya Fyodorovna (née Yelkhova), was a teacher.{{Cite news |date=13 March 2025 |title=Sofia Gubaidulina, composer whose intensity was spurred by the tyranny of the Soviet regime |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/03/13/sofia-gubaidulina-composer-soviet-tyranny-died-obituary/ |access-date=13 March 2025 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}

After discovering music at the age of 5, Gubaidulina learned to play on a small grand piano and immersed herself in ideas of composition. While studying at the Children's Music School with Ruvim Poliakov, Gubaidulina discovered spiritual ideas in the works of composers such as Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. She quickly learned to keep her spiritual interests secret from her parents and other adults since the Soviet Union was hostile to religion. These early experiences with music and spiritual ideas led her to treat these two domains of thought as conceptually similar and explains her later striving to write music expressing and exploring spiritually based concepts.Kurtz, Michael, 2007. Sofia Gubaidulina: A Biography. 1st English, rev. and expand ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press (11–14).

Gubaidulina studied composition and piano at the Kazan Conservatory, graduating in 1954. During her early career, Western contemporary music was almost entirely banned from study, an exception being the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. Raids took place in the dormitory halls, where searches were conducted for banned scores, with those by Stravinsky being the most infamous and sought after. Gubaidulina and her peers procured and studied modern Western scores nonetheless, and she later said that "we knew Ives, Cage, we actually knew everything on the sly."{{harvnb|Lukomsky|1999}}

She later studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Nikolai Peiko until 1959, and then with Vissarion Shebalin until 1963, and was awarded a Stalin fellowship.V. Kholopova. [http://yanko.lib.ru/books/music/schnittke-holopova.htm#_Toc40655895 Kompozitor Al'fred Shnitke (Composer Alfred Schnittke)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100403062311/http://yanko.lib.ru/books/music/schnittke-holopova.htm#_Toc40655895 |date=3 April 2010 }}, Publishing House "Arkaim", 2003, p. 40 In 1961, she joined the Union of Soviet Composers.{{Cite news |last=Huizenga |first=Tom |date=13 March 2025 |title=Sofia Gubaidulina, the composer who fused sound and spirituality, has died at age 93 |url=https://www.npr.org/2025/03/13/nx-s1-5327261/sofia-gubaidulina-russian-composer-has-died |work=NPR}} Her music was deemed "irresponsible" during her studies in Soviet Russia, due to its exploration of alternative tunings. She was supported by Dmitri Shostakovich, who in evaluating one of her exams encouraged her to continue on her path despite others, such as composer Tikhon Khrennikov, calling it "mistaken".{{cite news |title=«Последний классик авангарда». Умерла композитор София Губайдулина |trans-title="The last classic of avant-garde". Composer Sofia Gubaidulina has died |url=https://www.bbc.com/russian/articles/cn5266d529no |access-date=14 March 2025 |work=BBC News Русская служба |date=13 March 2025 |language=ru}} She was allowed to express her modernism in various scores she composed for documentary films, including the 1963 production, On Submarine Scooters, a 70 mm film shot in the unique Kinopanorama widescreen format."[https://sofiaphilharmonic.com/en/authors/sofia-gubaidulina/ Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931)]". Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra. Retrieved 14 March 2025 She composed the score to the 1967 Soviet animated film Adventures of Mowgli, an adaptation of Kipling's The Jungle Book.

In the mid-1970s Gubaidulina founded Astreja, a folk-instrument improvisation group with the Russian composers Viktor Suslin and Vyacheslav Artyomov.{{Cite web |title=2018: Sofia Gubaidulina – Festival Composers |url=https://www.fib.no/en/About-the-festival/About-the-festival/Festival-composers/2018-Sofia-Gubaidulina/ |access-date=6 July 2018 |website=Festspillene i Bergen |archive-date=6 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180706191713/https://www.fib.no/en/About-the-festival/About-the-festival/Festival-composers/2018-Sofia-Gubaidulina/ |url-status=dead }} In 1979, she was blacklisted as one of the "Khrennikov's Seven" at the Sixth Congress of the Union of Soviet Composers for writing "noisy mud instead of musical innovation, unconnected with real life".{{Cite web |title=Sofia Gubaidulina: Perception |url=https://www.yellowbarn.org/page/sofia-gubaidulina-perception |access-date=13 June 2024 |website=YellowBarn |archive-date=13 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240613084356/https://www.yellowbarn.org/page/sofia-gubaidulina-perception |url-status=live }}

Gubaidulina became internationally known during the early 1980sMedić (2009), pp. 311–312 in part through Gidon Kremer's championing of her Offertorium violin concerto. In 2003, Jonathan Walker, in the Oxford Companion to Music, noted that "she sprang to international fame in the late 1980s".Jonathan Walker, in Oxford Companion to Music, Alison Latham, ed., Oxford University Press, 2003 She later composed an homage to T. S. Eliot, using the text from the poet's Four Quartets. In 2000, Gubaidulina, along with Tan Dun, Osvaldo Golijov, and Wolfgang Rihm, was commissioned by the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart to write a piece for the Passion 2000 project in commemoration of Johann Sebastian Bach. Her contribution was the Johannes-Passion ("Passion according to John"). In 2002, she followed this with the Johannes-Ostern ("Easter according to John"), commissioned by NDR. The two works together form a "diptych" on the death and resurrection of Christ, her largest work. It was performed at the Royal Albert Hall in the 2002 BBC Proms.

Invited by Walter Fink, she was the 13th composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 2003, the first female composer of the series.{{Cite journal |first=Rebeca |last=Tavares Furtado |date=Spring 2019 |title=An annotated catalog of works by women composers for the double bass |url=https://www.academia.edu/56309288 |journal=Iowa Research Online |via=academia.edu |archive-date=13 June 2024 |access-date=13 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240613084356/https://www.academia.edu/56309288 |url-status=live }} Her work The Light at the End preceded Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in the 2005 proms.Edwards, David Noel. "[https://theberkshireedge.com/andris-nelsons-conducts-gubaidulina-and-rachmaninoff-october-21-23/ Andris Nelsons conducts Gubaidulina and Rachmaninoff October 21–23]". The Berkshire Edge, 17 October 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2025 In 2007, her second violin concerto In Tempus Praesens was performed at the Lucerne Festival by Anne-Sophie Mutter.Smith, Steve. "[https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/arts/music/anne-sophie-mutter-and-philharmonic-at-avery-fisher-hall-review.html Orchestra and Violin, Matching Wits] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241217021935/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/arts/music/anne-sophie-mutter-and-philharmonic-at-avery-fisher-hall-review.html |date=17 December 2024 }}". New York Times, 1 April 2011. Retrieved 14 March 2025 Its creation was depicted in Jan Schmidt-Garre's film Sophia – Biography of a Violin Concerto.Statham, Sabra. "[https://muse.jhu.edu/article/517754/summary Sophia, Biography of a Violin Concerto directed by Jan Schmidt-Garre (review)]". Music Library Association, volume 70, number 1, September 2013. pp. 167–168. Retrieved 14 March 2025 In 2023, her Sonata for Violin and Cello was performed at the Contemporary Music Center of Sofia Gubaidulina by Grammy-nominated violinist Anastasia Vedyakova and Andrey Kaminsky, associate professor at the Kazan State Conservatory. She served as composer-in-residence at Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra during 2019. She was a member of the musical academies in Berlin, Hamburg and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.{{cite web | last=Maier | first=Jan-Hendrik | title=Zum Tod von Sofia Gubaidulina | website=concerti.de | date=13 March 2025 | url=https://www.concerti.de/vermischtes/zum-tod-von-sofia-gubaidulina/ | language=de | access-date=17 April 2025}}

Gubaidulina was a devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church.[http://viperson.ru/wind.php?ID=277118&soch=1 София Губайдулина: 'Комсомольская увертюра? Нет! Стоит только дать пальчик и... вместе с ним продашь душу'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925185011/http://viperson.ru/wind.php?ID=277118&soch=1 |date=25 September 2021 }} [Sofia Gubaidulina: 'Komsomol Overture? Not! One has only to give a finger and ... with it you will sell your soul']; [http://www.biografija.ru/show_bio.aspx?ID=30870 Губайдулина Софья (София) Азгатовна – считается одним из крупнейших композиторов второй половины ХХ столетия.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111141226/http://www.biografija.ru/show_bio.aspx?ID=30870 |date=11 January 2012 }} [Gubaidulina Sofia (Sofia) Azgatovna – is considered one of the greatest composers of the second half of the twentieth century.] In 1973, she was attacked and strangled in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow, but survived.{{Cite news |last=Jeffries |first=Stuart |date=31 October 2013 |title=Sofia Gubaidulina: unchained melodies |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/31/sofia-gubaidulina-unchained-melodies |access-date=13 March 2025 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=12 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112002819/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/31/sofia-gubaidulina-unchained-melodies |url-status=live }} Her friends later theorized the attacker was a KGB agent. Following the fall of the USSR, she lived in Appen, Germany, from 1992.Sax, Mule & Co, Jean-Pierre Thiollet, H & D, Paris 2004. 129 The Steinway grand piano in her home was a gift from Rostropovich. She married three times;BBC Radio 3, Donald Macleod and Gerard McBurney: "Composer of the Week: Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931)." 5/5 Broadcast 5 November 2021. Radio Times, 30 October – 5 November 2021, p. 132. her second husband was writer and dissident Nikolai Bokov. Gubaidulina paused composing in 2012, after the deaths of her third husband Pyotr Meshchaninov, her daughter, and her friend and fellow composer Viktor Suslin.

Gubaidulina died from cancer at her home in Appen on 13 March 2025, at the age of 93.{{cite news |last1=da Fonseca-Wollheim |first1=Corinna |date=13 March 2025 |title=Sofia Gubaidulina, Composer Who Provoked Soviet Censors, Dies at 93 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/arts/music/sofia-gubaidulina-dead.html |access-date=13 March 2025 |work=The New York Times |archive-date=13 March 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250313193115/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/arts/music/sofia-gubaidulina-dead.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |date=13 March 2025 |title=Скончалась София Губайдулина — выдающийся композитор и почетный гражданин Казани |url=https://realnoevremya.ru/news/330788-skonchalas-gubaydulina-vydayuschiysya-kompozitor-i-pochetnyy-grazhdanin-kazani |access-date=13 March 2025 |work=Реальное время}}

{{main|List of compositions by Sofia Gubaidulina}}

Gubaidulina saw music as an escape from the socio-political atmosphere of Soviet Russia.Quoted in Composer to Composer: Conversations About Music, ed. by Josiah Fisk (St. Leonards, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1993), 460 She associated music with human transcendence and mystical spiritualism which manifests itself as a longing inside the human soul to locate its true being, a longing she continually tried to capture in her works.{{sfn|Lukomsky|1998|p=33}} These abstract religious and mystical associations are realized in Gubaidulina's compositions in various ways, such as writing in bowing directions that cause the performer to draw a crucifix in the final movement of "Seven Words" for cello, bayan, and strings.{{Cite journal |last=Ewell |first=Philip A. |date=2014 |title=The Parameter Complex in the Music of Sofia Gubaidulina |url=http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.14.20.3/mto.14.20.3.ewell.html |journal=Music Theory Online |volume=20 |issue=3 |doi=10.30535/mto.20.3.8 |issn=1067-3040 |doi-access=free |authorlink=Philip Ewell |archive-date=14 April 2021 |access-date=16 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414192639/https://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.14.20.3/mto.14.20.3.ewell.html |url-status=live }}

The influence of electronic music and improvisational techniques is exemplified in her combination of contrasting elements, novel instrumentation and the use of traditional Russian folk instruments in her solo and chamber works, including De profundis for bayan, Et expecto, the sonata for bayan, and In croce for cello and organ or bayan. The koto, a traditional Japanese instrument is featured in her work In the Shadow of the Tree, in which one solo player performs on three different instruments—koto, bass koto, and zheng. The Canticle of the Sun is a cello concerto/choral hybrid, dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich. The use of the lowest possible registers on the cello opens new possibilities for the instrument.{{Cite web |title=Gubaidulina (The) Canticle of the Sun |url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/reviews/review?slug=gubaidulina-the-canticle-of-the-sun |access-date=13 June 2024 |website=Gramophone |language=en |archive-date=13 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240613084357/https://www.gramophone.co.uk/reviews/review?slug=gubaidulina-the-canticle-of-the-sun |url-status=live }}

Further influence of improvisation techniques can be found in her fascination with percussion. She associated the indeterminate nature of percussive timbres with the mystical longing and the potential freedom of human transcendence.{{harvnb|Lukomsky|1998|p=33}} In a 2021 interview with The New York Times, she said that percussion instruments "contain the essence of existence".{{Cite news |last=Marcus |first=J. S. |author-link=J. S. Marcus |date=20 October 2021 |title=At 90, a Composer Is Still Sending Out Blasts |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/arts/music/sofia-gubaidulina-at-90.html |access-date=13 March 2025 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=21 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021104353/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/arts/music/sofia-gubaidulina-at-90.html |url-status=live }} In a 2012 interview with the modern British composer Ivan Moody, Gubaidulina provided an explanation for how percussion is utilized in her works to show spiritualism. She said,

... percussion has an acoustic cloud around it, a cloud that cannot be analyzed. These instruments are at the boundary between palpable reality and the subconscious, because they have these acoustics. Their purely physical characteristics, of the timpani and membranophones and so on, when the skin vibrates, or the wood is touched, respond. They enter into that layer of our consciousness which is not logical, they are at the boundary between the conscious and the subconscious.Moody, Ivan. 2012. {{"'}}The space of the soul': An interview with Sofia Gubaidulina." Tempo 66 (259): 31.

Gubaidulina said that the composers she most admired were J. S. Bach, Wagner and Anton Webern, as well as the Second Viennese School and 16th century music, most notably Gesualdo da Venosa and Josquin des Prez."[https://www.pcmsconcerts.org/composer/sofia-gubaidulina/ Sofia Gubaidulina] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241211073649/https://www.pcmsconcerts.org/composer/sofia-gubaidulina/ |date=11 December 2024 }}". Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Retrieved 14 March 2025 Among some non-musical influences were Carl Jung and Nikolai Berdyaev, a Russian religious philosopher whose works were forbidden in the USSR.{{sfn|Lukomsky|1999|p=27}}

Gubaidulina drew from literary traditions including but not limited to: ancient Egyptian poetry (Night in Memphis, 1968), Persian poetry (Rubayat, 1969), German poetry (The Garden of Joys and Sorrows, 1980, and Perception, 1983), works by Eliot (Homage to Eliot, 1987), and contemporary Russian poetry (Hour of the Soul, 1974, and Homage (1984)).{{Cite book |last=Briscoe |first=James R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gOCsuR5yarsC&dq=%22Sofia+Gubaidulina%22&pg=PA25 |title=Contemporary Anthology of Music by Women |date=1997 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-21102-6 |pages=25–26 |language=en}}

Gubaidulina was a deeply spiritual person, and defined "re-ligio" as re-legato ("re-bound") or as restoration of the connection between oneself and the Absolute.{{harvnb|Lukomsky|1998|p=33}} She explained that she was "a religious Russian Orthodox person [who understood] 'religion' in the literal meaning of the word, as 're-ligio', that is to say the restoration of connections, the restoration of the 'legato' of life. There is no more serious task for music than this.{{Cite web |title=Composer Snapshot: Sofia Gubaidulina |url=https://www.boosey.com/composer/Sofia+Gubaidulina |access-date=5 June 2024 |website=www.boosey.com |language=en |archive-date=5 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605062317/https://www.boosey.com/composer/Sofia+Gubaidulina |url-status=live }} She found this re-connection through the artistic process and developed a number of musical symbols to express her ideals. She used narrower means of intervallic and rhythmic relationship within the primary material of her works, seeking to discover the depth and mysticism of the sound, and on a larger scale used the carefully thought architecture of musical form.{{sfn|Lukomsky|1999|pp=27–31}}

Her music is characterised by the use of unusual instrumental combinations. In Erwartung ("In Anticipation") combines percussion (bongos, güiros, temple blocks, cymbals and tam-tams among others) and saxophone quartet."[https://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Sofia-Gubaidulina-in-Anticipation/51997 in Anticipation (In Erwartung) (1994)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250121144337/https://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Sofia-Gubaidulina-in-Anticipation/51997 |date=21 January 2025 }}". Boosey & Hawkes. Retrieved 14 March 2025 Melodically, Gubaidulina uses frequent and intense chromatic motifs rather than long melodic phrases. She often treated musical space as a means of attaining unity with the divine—a direct line to God—concretely manifest by the lack of striation in pitch space. She achieved this through the use of micro-chromaticism (i.e., quarter tones) and frequent glissandi, exemplifying the lack of "steps" to the divine. This notion is furthered by her extreme dichotomy characterized by chromatic space vs. diatonic space viewed as symbols of darkness vs. light and human/mundane vs. divine/heavenly.{{Cite journal|first1=Sofia |last1=Gubaidulina |first2=Vera |last2=Lukomsky|title=My Desire is Always to Rebel, to Swim Against the Stream|journal=Perspectives of New Music|volume=36|issue=1|date=Winter 1998|page=11}} Additionally, the use of short motivic segments allowed her to create a musical narrative that is seemingly open-ended and disjunct rather than smooth. Finally, another important melodic technique can be seen with her use of harmonics. When talking about her piece Rejoice!, a sonata for violin and cello, Gubaidulina explained,

The possibility for string instruments to derive pitches of various heights at one and the same place on the string can be experienced in music as the transition to another plane of existence. And that is joy.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/shostakovich-string-quartet-15-gubaidulina-rejoice|title=Shostakovich String Quartet 15. Gubaidulina Rejoice!|website=Gramophone|access-date=14 April 2017|archive-date=15 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170415105115/https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/shostakovich-string-quartet-15-gubaidulina-rejoice|url-status=live}}

Rejoice! uses harmonics to represent joy as an elevated state of spiritual thought.

Harmonically, Gubaidulina's music resists traditional tonal centers and triadic structures in favor of pitch clusters and intervallic design arising from the contrapuntal interaction between melodic voices.{{Cite journal |last=Polin |first=Claire |author-link=Claire Polin |date=September 1994 |title=The Composer as Seer, but Not Prophet |journal=Tempo |volume=190 |pages=15–16}} For example, in the Cello Concerto Detto-2 (1972) she noted that a strict and progressive intervallic process occurs, in which the opening section utilizes successively wider intervals that become narrower toward the last section.{{sfn|Lukomsky|1998|p=34}}

Rhythmically, Gubaidulina placed significant stress on the fact that temporal ratios, i.e, rhythmic structures, should not be limited to local figuration; rather, the temporality of the musical form should be the defining feature of rhythmic character. As Gerard McBurney states:

In conversation she is most keen to stress that she cannot accept the idea (a frequent post-serial one) of rhythm or duration as the material of a piece. ... To her, rhythm is nowadays a generating principle as, for instance, the cadence was to tonal composers of the Classical period; it therefore cannot be the surface material of a work. ... [S]he expresses her impatience with Messiaen, whose use of rhythmic modes to generate local imagery, she feels, restricts the effectiveness of rhythm as an underlying formal level of the music.{{Cite journal |last=McBurney |first=Gerard |author-link=Gerard McBurney |date=March 1988 |title=Encountering Gubaidulina |journal=The Musical Times |volume=129 |issue=1741 |page=123|doi=10.2307/965272 |jstor=965272 }}

To this end, Gubaidulina often devised durational ratios in order to create the temporal forms for her compositions. Specifically, she often utilized elements of the Fibonacci sequence or the golden ratio, in which each succeeding element is equal to the sum of the two preceding elements (i.e., 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc.). This numerical layout represents the balanced nature in her music through a sense of cell multiplication between live and unliving substances. She believed that this abstract theory was the foundation of her personal musical expression. The golden ratio between the sections is always marked by some musical event, and the composer explored her fantasy fully in articulating this moment.{{Cite journal |last=Tsenova |first=Valeria |date=January 2002 |title=Magic numbers in the music of Sofia Gubaidulina |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/47368962|journal=Muzikologija|volume=2|issue=2 |pages=253–261 |doi=10.2298/MUZ0202253T |via=ResearchGate}} The first work in which Gubaidulina experimented with this concept of proportionality is Perceptions for soprano, baritone, and seven string instruments (1981, rev. 1983–86). The 12th movement, "Montys Tod" (Monty's Death), uses the Fibonacci series in its rhythmical structure with the number of quarter notes in individual episodes corresponding to numbers from the Fibonacci series.{{sfn|Lukomsky|1999|p=29}}

In the early 1980s, she began to use the Fibonacci sequence as a way of structuring the form of the work. Her use of the Fibonacci sequence to determine phrase and rhythm length replaces traditional form, creating a new form which to her was more spiritually in tune. Gubaidulina experimented with other like series, including the Lucas series which begins by adding 2 instead of 1 to the initial value; the only thing setting it apart from Fibonacci.{{harvnb|Lukomsky|1999}} These forms are still fluid, as every other movement in her symphony Stimmen... Verstummen... follows the Fibonacci form. "It is a game!", she would claim. Later the Lucas and Evangelist series assimilated sequences derived from those of Fibonacci.Tsenova, Valeria. "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/47368962_Magic_numbers_in_the_music_of_Sofia_Gubaidulina Magic numbers in the music of Sofia Gubaidulina]". Muzikologija (Institute of Musicology of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts), 2002. Retrieved 14 March 2025

Valentina Kholopova, Gubaidulina's close friend and colleague, outlined the composer's form techniques in detail. In addition to using number sequences, Kholopova describes Gubaidulina's use of "expression parameters"; these being articulation, melody, rhythm, texture, and composition. The name suggests the immediate effects of each parameter on the listener. Each of these exists on a scale of consonance to dissonance, together forming the "parameter complex". For example, she describes a consonant articulation as legato, and a dissonant one as staccato, but each of these can change from piece to piece.{{Cite journal |last=Ewell |first=Philip A. |date=2014 |title=The Parameter Complex in the Music of Sofia Gubaidulina |url=http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.14.20.3/mto.14.20.3.ewell.html |journal=Music Theory Online |volume=20 |issue=3 |doi=10.30535/mto.20.3.8 |issn=1067-3040 |doi-access=free |authorlink=Philip Ewell |archive-date=14 April 2021 |access-date=16 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414192639/https://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.14.20.3/mto.14.20.3.ewell.html |url-status=live }}

According to Kholopova, music from before the 20th century left the responsibility of articulation to the performer, while now it begs to be more heavily illustrated by the composer. She cites the writings of Viktor Bobrovski on his research on macrothemes, or central ideas that may occupy larger frames of time, such as entire sections of a piece. With this scale, pieces such as her Concordanza assume a mosaic form held together by Fibonacci-derived groupings of expression parameters, "modulating" between consonance and dissonance. This technique appears most clearly in her Ten Preludes for Solo Cello as six of its movements are names after modulation between parameters, and two being single parameters. Kholopova proposed that this scale could be used to analyze the music of any 20th century composer focused on texture, timbre and color, and that it is but one way to analyze music, signalling a continuing progression, catalyzed, according to Gubaidulina, by Webern.

Gubaidulina's entire piano output belongs to her earlier compositional period and consists of Chaconne (1962), Piano Sonata (1965), Musical Toys (1968), Toccata-Troncata (1971), Invention (1974) and Piano Concerto "Introitus" (1978). Some of the titles reveal her interest in Baroque genres, especially Johann Sebastian Bach."[https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/gubaidulina-complete-piano-works Gubaidulina Complete Piano Works]". gramophone.co.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2025

Later, she used the piano to incorporate the influence of John Cage's early experiments when he applied metal and rubber bolts to the piano strings to distort the instrument's sound.

File:Ilsur Metshin and Sofia Gubaidulina (2016-11-02) 08.jpg

Gubaidulina achieved over 40 awards and prizes, in addition to other recognitions. On 4 October 2013 she became the recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement for the Music section of the Venice Biennale.{{cite web |title=Sofia Gubaidulina Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement |url=http://www.labiennale.org/en/music/news/10-09.html?back=true |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015103959/http://www.labiennale.org/en/music/news/10-09.html?back=true |archive-date=15 October 2013 |access-date=15 October 2013}} She received the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2016) in the contemporary music category. The jury praised the "outstanding musical and personal qualities" of the Russian composer, and the "spiritual quality" of her work.{{cite web |date=14 February 2017 |title=The Frontiers of Knowledge awards pay homage to the spirituality and transformative dimension of Sofia Gubaidulina's music |url=https://www.bbva.com/en/frontiers-knowledge-awards-pay-homage-spirituality-transformative-dimension-sofia-gubaidulinas-music/ |access-date=16 September 2017 |website=BBVA News |publisher=Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A.}}

Her 90th birthday in October 2021 was celebrated by the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig's release of three of her pieces. She was also celebrated in a week of chamber and orchestral music. In November she was selected as Composer of the Week on the long running show of the same name on BBC Radio 3.{{Cite web |title=BBC Radio 3 – Composer of the Week – Sofia Gubaidulina in words and pictures |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5W6kgjZkqmgRBM6plPRJ9Hs/sofia-gubaidulina-in-words-and-pictures |access-date=13 March 2025 |website=BBC |language=en-GB |archive-date=10 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220810191401/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5W6kgjZkqmgRBM6plPRJ9Hs/sofia-gubaidulina-in-words-and-pictures |url-status=live }}

Gubaidulina received prizes including:

• Rome International Composer's Competition (1974)
• Prix de Monaco (1987){{Cite web|url=http://www.fondationprincepierre.mc/en/3-prize-of-musical-composition/14-the-prize/2-prize-list.html|title=The Prince Pierre Foundation|date=15 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015142604/http://www.fondationprincepierre.mc/en/3-prize-of-musical-composition/14-the-prize/2-prize-list.html|archive-date=15 October 2013}}
• Premio Franco Abbiati (1991){{Cite web|url=http://critici.prosaclick.com/index.php/premio-abbiati/cronologia2|title=Cronologia completa|date=24 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130924100333/http://critici.prosaclick.com/index.php/premio-abbiati/cronologia2|archive-date=24 September 2013}}
• Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis (1991){{cite web |url=http://www.heidelberger-philharmoniker.de/orchester/orchester-und-sparten/philharmonisches-orchester/konzerte-201112/konzerte/heidelberger-kuenstlerinnenpreis/1991-sofia-gubaidulina/ |title=Heidelberg Artist Prize 1991: Sofia Gubaidulina |access-date=7 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130807181706/http://www.heidelberger-philharmoniker.de/orchester/orchester-und-sparten/philharmonisches-orchester/konzerte-201112/konzerte/heidelberger-kuenstlerinnenpreis/1991-sofia-gubaidulina/ |archive-date=7 August 2013 }}

• Ludwig-Spohr-Preis der Stadt Braunschweig (1995){{Cite web | url=http://www.braunschweig.de/louis-spohr-musikpreis/bisherige-preistraeger.html | title=Bisherige Preisträger | website=www.braunschweig.de | access-date=27 October 2013 | archive-date=23 February 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150223231459/http://www.braunschweig.de/louis-spohr-musikpreis/bisherige-preistraeger.html | url-status=live }}
• Kulturpreis des Kreises Pinneberg (1997){{Cite web | url=http://www.kreis-pinneberg.de/Kultur+und+Sport/Kreiskulturpreis.html | title=Kreispräsident weist Kritik zurück | website=www.kreis-pinneberg.de | access-date=27 October 2013 | archive-date=29 October 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029184123/http://www.kreis-pinneberg.de/Kultur+und+Sport/Kreiskulturpreis.html | url-status=live }}
• Praemium Imperiale in Japan (1998){{Cite news|url = http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/1998/07/09/national/five-artists-win-praemium-imperiale/|title = Five artists win Praemium Imperiale|newspaper = The Japan Times|date = 9 July 1998|archive-date = 3 December 2013|access-date = 29 November 2013|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131203045033/http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/1998/07/09/national/five-artists-win-praemium-imperiale/|url-status = live}}
• Léonie Sonning Music Prize in Denmark (1999){{cite web |url=http://www.sonningmusik.dk/cms/view/index.asp?ipageid=54 |title=Prismodtager 1999 Sofia Gubaidulina, komponist |website=www.sonningmusik.dk |access-date=7 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107091457/http://www.sonningmusik.dk/cms/view/index.asp?ipageid=54 |archive-date=7 November 2012 }}
• Preis der Stiftung Bibel und Kultur (1999){{Cite web | url=http://www.bibelundkultur.de/bisherige-preistraeger.htm | title=Stiftung Bibel und Kultur – Aktuelles | website=www.bibelundkultur.de | access-date=15 October 2013 | archive-date=23 July 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140723102335/http://bibelundkultur.de/bisherige-preistraeger.htm | url-status=live }}
• Goethe-Medaille der Stadt Weimar (2001){{Cite web | url=http://www.goethe.de/prs/bld/gme/01/de15913.htm | title=Bilderservice – Goethe-Institut | website=www.goethe.de | access-date=27 October 2013 | archive-date=29 October 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029184754/http://www.goethe.de/prs/bld/gme/01/de15913.htm | url-status=live }}

• Polar Music Prize in Sweden (2002){{Cite web | url=http://www.polarmusicprize.org/home/sofia-gubaidulina/ | website=www.polarmusicprize.org | title=Sofia Gubaidulina | access-date=7 August 2013 | archive-date=4 April 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140404152007/http://www.polarmusicprize.org/home/sofia-gubaidulina/ | url-status=dead }}

• Bach Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (2007)
• Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2009){{cite web | title=Gubaidulina | website=Akademie der Künste, Berlin | url=https://www.adk.de/de/akademie/mitglieder/index.htm?we_objectID=52661 | language=de | access-date=18 March 2025}}

In 2001, Gubaidulina became honour professor of the Kazan Conservatory. In 2005 she was elected as a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.{{cite web |title=Current Members |url=http://www.artsandletters.org/academicians2_current.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624004136/http://www.artsandletters.org/academicians2_current.php |archive-date=24 June 2016 |access-date=15 August 2008 |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Letters}} In 2009, she became Dr. honoris causa of Yale University.{{Cite web |date=25 May 2009 |title=Honorary Degree Citations Commencement 2009 |url=http://news.yale.edu/2009/05/25/honorary-degree-citations-commencement-2009 |website=news.yale.edu |access-date=7 July 2013 |archive-date=21 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120421190724/http://news.yale.edu/2009/05/25/honorary-degree-citations-commencement-2009 |url-status=live }} In 2011 she was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree from the University of Chicago.{{Cite web |title=Goodspeed Notes {{pipe}} Newsletter of the Department of Music at the University of Chicago » Legendary Composer Sofia Gubaiduli a Awarded Honorary Doctorate |url=http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/goodspeednotes/2011/10/20/legendary-composer-sofia-gobaidulina-awarded-honorary-doctorate/ |website=Humanities Division, University of Chicago |access-date=31 July 2013 |archive-date=15 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515112900/http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/goodspeednotes/2011/10/20/legendary-composer-sofia-gobaidulina-awarded-honorary-doctorate/ |url-status=live }} On 27 February 2017, Gubaidulina was awarded an honorary doctor of music degree by the New England Conservatory, in Boston."[https://patriciaau.com/performances/2017/2/27/new-england-conservatory-tribute-to-sofia-gubaidulina New England Conservatory – Tribute to Sofia Gubaidulina]". New England Conservatory, 27 February 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2025

• Solo Piano Works (1994: Sony SK 53960). "Chaconne" (1962), "Sonata" (1965) and "Musical Toys" (1968), performed by Andreas Haefliger, and "Introitus": Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra (1978), Andreas Haefliger with the NDR Radiophilharmonie conducted by Bernhard Klee.
• The Canticle of the Sun (1997) and Music for Flute, Strings, and Percussion (1994). The first performed by cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and London Voices conducted by Ryusuke Numajiri, the second by flutist Emmanuel Pahud and the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rostropovich. Gubaidulina attended the recording of both pieces.
• Johannes-Passion (2000). Performed by Natalia Korneva, soprano; Viktor Lutsiuk, tenor; Fedor Mozhaev, baritone; Genady Bezzubenkov, bass; Saint Petersburg Chamber Choir (dir. Nikolai Kornev); Choir of the Mariinsky Theatre Saint Petersburg (dir. Andrei Petrenko); Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra Saint Petersburg conducted by Valery Gergiev. World premiere recorded live at the European Music Festival in Stuttgart, September 9, 2000.

{{notelist}}

• Kurtz, Michael; Lohmann, Christoph; Hamrick Brown, Malcolm. Sofia Gubaidulina: A Biography (Russian Music Studies). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007. {{isbn|978-0-2533-4907-1}}
• {{cite journal|last=Lukomsky|first=Vera|date=October 1998|title='The Eucharist in my fantasy': Interview with Sofia Gubaidulina|journal=Tempo|series=New Series|issue=206|pages=29–35|doi=10.1017/S0040298200006707|s2cid=143906868 }}
• {{Cite journal|last=Lukomsky|first=Vera|date=July 1999|title='Hearing the Subconscious': Interview with Sofia Gubaidulina|journal=Tempo|issue=209|pages=27–31|doi=10.1017/s0040298200014662|s2cid=143622551 }}
• Medi, Ivana. "Reviewed Work(s): Sofia Gubaidulina: A Biography by Michael Kurtz, Christoph K. Lohmann and Malcolm Hamrick Brown". Music & Letters, volume 90, number 2, May 2009. {{JSTOR|20532915}}

{{Commons category}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20041208144741/http://www.schirmer.com/composers/gubaidulina_bio.html Sofia Gubaidulina] Schirmer, 2002
• [https://brahms.ircam.fr/en/sofia-goubaidoulina Sofia Gubaidulina] IRCAM
• [http://www.krugosvet.ru/articles/73/1007369/1007369a1.htm Sofia Gubaidulina] (in Russian) Krugosvet
• Duffie, Bruce: [http://www.bruceduffie.com/gubaidulina.html Interview with Sofia Gubaidulina], 18 April 1997
• {{YouTube|NfeIaFEXW0Y|Fachwerk, 2009}}

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