Silenzio, five pieces for bayan, violin & cello (1991)
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Maria Kliegel, cello
Elsbeth Moser, bayan
Kathrin Rabus, violin
Sofia Gubaidulina, born in the Soviet Union's Tatar Republic in 1931, became one of the leaders of the group of younger composers who persisted in writing music with Western avant-garde influences. In this piece, the very title shows a relationship with an important idea of the American John Cage: Silence as an important compositional element. Gubaidulina has said that she regards silence as \"... the ground upon which something grows.\" In this piece, the silence is represented actively, by extended passages of pianissimo (i.e., very quiet) playing.
The five pieces are brief, totaling only eighteen minutes, and are headed only with metronome markings. The music is generated by rhythmic relationships, mainly in the ratio of 7:2:5. In the final movement, this becomes the rhythm on which the accordion makes variations. The composition was dedicated to Elisabeth Moser, a leading classical accordion player who premiered it in Hanover, Germany in November, 1991 with violinist Katherine Rabus and cellist Christoph Marks. [allmusic.com]
