Musical Toys No. 14 — Forest Musicians

Instrumentation

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Musical Terms (6)

• chaconne French
  A set of variations over a repeating harmonic progression or bass line, originating in the Baroque era. Gubaidulinas Chaconne (1962) uses a 23-note serial tone row as its ground, subjecting it to inversion, retrograde, and retrograde inversion while maintaining tonal gravity around B minor. The result blurs the boundary between chaconne (varying harmony) and passacaglia (varying bass line).
  The ostinato underpinning should be felt as a gravitational presence even when it is distributed across registers and disguised by figuration. Gubaidulinas sister, the pianist Ida Gubaidullina, warns that alongside its virtuosity the piece is deeply tragic — resist the temptation to treat it as a technical showpiece.
• extended piano technique English
  Performance approaches that go beyond standard key-striking to produce unconventional sounds from the piano. Includes playing directly on the strings (prepared piano, plucking, strumming), striking the interior frame or soundboard, and using objects inside the instrument. Gubaidulinas Piano Sonata (1965) specifies playing inside the piano, particularly in the bass register, to produce percussive and resonant effects not available from the keys alone.
  When exploring inside-piano passages, familiarise yourself with the specific actions notated (whether plucking, muting, or striking) before the lesson or performance. The sounds from inside the instrument should integrate seamlessly with keyboard playing — never sound like a circus trick. Pedal management is critical to control resonance.
• legato Italian
  Smooth, connected playing in which notes are joined without perceptible gaps. From the Latin ligare, to bind. Gubaidulina used the concept of legato philosophically: she described her entire artistic project as bringing legato — connected flow — into the fragmented staccato of life. In her piano works, passages of sustained legato singing line carry heightened symbolic weight.
  In Gubaidulinas aesthetic, legato is not merely a touch direction but a spiritual commitment. A truly connected melodic line requires careful voicing, weight transfer from the shoulder rather than finger pressure, and a listening ear that follows the sound after each attack. Passages that interrupt legato with staccato or silence are therefore moments of rupture, not just contrast.
• pictorial miniature English
  A short character piece that evokes a specific image, scene, or object through musical means. Gubaidulina described each of the 14 pieces in Musical Toys as a pictorial miniature. The pieces use rhythm (the pecking of The Woodpecker), register (the low drone of A Bear Playing the Double Bass), texture (the repeating roundabout figure of Magic Roundabout), and dynamics (the fade of The Echo) to create instantly recognisable sonic images.
  Let the image guide your practising before you focus on technique: ask what the music is depicting and then find the physical gestures that produce those sounds naturally. Gubaidulina said she wrote these as pieces she would have liked to play as a child — bring playfulness to the performance even in technically demanding passages.
• Soviet underground Russian
  The informal network of Soviet composers who wrote in styles officially discouraged or banned under Soviet cultural policy. Gubaidulina, alongside Schnittke and Denisov, was part of this milieu: her music was labelled irresponsible during her conservatory studies and she was blacklisted in 1979 by Khrennikov at the Sixth Congress of Soviet Composers. She survived by writing film music and participating in the improvisation collective Astreja.
  Understanding this context helps explain certain qualities in Gubaidulinas piano writing: the sense of compressed intensity, the refusal of easy resolution, and the spiritual seriousness that was in part a form of resistance. Her works were not composed for an imaginary public — they were composed against official indifference. Perform them with that conviction.
• spiritual programme English
  In Gubaidulinas music, the underlying theological or mystical narrative that shapes the formal and expressive choices of a work. Her Piano Sonata (1965) maps its three movements onto a cross-shaped architecture: the first movement represents the horizontal line of human experience, the second the vertical line of spiritual aspiration, and their intersection at the end of the Adagio symbolises transformation. Each of the four recurring motives is named: spring, struggle, consolation, and faith.
  Understanding the spiritual programme does not require religious belief, but it does clarify interpretive priorities. The Adagio should build toward its climax as if the music is reaching for something; the resolution at the end of the second movement is not merely harmonic — it is the emotional centre of the entire work. The Allegretto aftermath should feel earned, not merely lighter.