| Sofia Gubaidulina
was born in 1931 in Chistopol, on the river Volga, in what is now Tatarstan,
one of the autonomous republics within the Russian Federation. Although
her education and background are Russian, her Tatar extraction and her
birth in Tatarstan have had a profound effect on her work, and she considers
herself as "a daughter of two worlds, whose soul lives in the music of
the East and the West".
(The Tatars - often Tartars
in English- are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group found in various regions
from Eastern Europe to Siberia. Over 6 million Tatars live in the Russian
Federation, with the largest concentration in Tatarstan, which is situated
in an area between the Volga and Western Siberia).
Gubaidulina's vocal, orchestral
and chamber music is strikingly individual. She uses both traditional European
instruments and Eastern folk instruments, and many of her works are influenced
by philosophical, religious and literary interests. "There is no more important
reason for composing music" - she has said - "than spiritual renewal".
"Silenzio":
five pieces for bayan (accordion in Russian), violin and cello was written
in 1991. "My aim" - she has written - "is not to represent silence or to
create such an impression: for me silence is the ground upon which something
grows".
Luciano Iorio
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