Harmonic Dualities in Sofia Gubaidulina's Offertorium

Abstract

This research aims to provide insight into binary harmonic structures found in Sofia Gubaidulina's Offertorium for violin and orchestra. While many structural aspects of the work have been discussed in detail elsewhere, the harmonic content of Offertorium is yet to be studied in depth. One of the defining features of Offertorium is harmonic duality. This concept will be explored by considering harmonic function, tonality, polytonality, atonality, symmetry, and pitch-center plurality.Since immigrating to Germany in 1992, Gubaidulina's music, creative philosophy, and aesthetic views have attracted the attention of many musicologists and theorists. The majority of this scholarship has focused on the connection between musical material and religious symbolism. There is limited research on Gubaidulina's harmonic language from a purely theoretical angle. To provide a conceptual framework, the theological symbolism of various harmonic structures is deliberately not considered in this study. This research presents evidence that harmony in Offertorium operates on binary structures developed through a distinctive approach to the combination of various compositional devices. By identifying principal dichotomic structures in Offertorium, this paper strives to contribute to theoretical scholarship on Sofia Gubaidulina's music.