Dialectics of Contrasts in the Oratorio On Love and Hatred by Sofia Gubaidulina

Abstract

Sofia Gubaidulina is an acknowledged luminary of the contemporary classical music world, a composer who created her own sonic universe. The language of her music is grounded in the interplay of binary oppositions, which serve as the starting point for the conceptual frameworks of her compositions — often giving them their titles, shaping their dramatic arc and structuring their form. The article focuses on the oratorio On Love and Hatred, in which the method of contrasting thinking serves as the foundational principle for unveiling the composer’s artistic vision. The attempt undertaken in the present study to identify and systematise the musical-expressive means associated with the opposing emotional poles of “love” and “hatred” falls within the scope of existing analytical approaches to the study of Gubaidulina’s large-scale vocal-orchestral works. The functioning of the binary opposition “love – hatred” in the oratorio is demonstrated at the verbal and auditory levels. The assignment of texts selected by the composer to one or other pole is determined by their sources. In the musical fabric of the composition, the expressive means that characterise the oppositions are found in the intonation-rhythmic, phonic, articulation-stroke, dynamic and textural plans of organising the whole. The conclusion of the study reveals the dialectic relationship between the plot-dramatic and compositional structure of the oratorio, based on the dual interpretation of the category of “love,” which in one case turns into hatred, and in the other takes the form of true love, bringing man closer to the Divine essence.

Keywords: Sofia Gubaidulina, binary oppositions, oratorio, love, hatred