Imagery and semantic dramaturgy in the cantata "Now always snow" ("Jetzt immer Schnee") by S. Gubaidulina

Modern music research methods used for the analysis of the cantata "Now Always Snow" requires specific approaches to studying its external (formal) and internal (textural) structures. This paper proposes another approach to the analysis of "Now Always Snow" based on Helmut Lachenmann's classification of sound types for a holistic view on both imagery and content aspects of the composition. Lachenmann's system has been used to analyse the cantata's movements in terms of form making and dramaturgical development closely associated with the visual semantics of its means of musical expression. This paper presents a method to analyse sound structures used by S. Gubaidulina to describe a range of images in the poetry of G. Aigi, including Barthes's perception of modern literature, in which a new concept fraught with multi-dimensional meanings. Barthes's concept is used to analyse basic poetic universals of G. Aigi congruent with philosophic universals of S. Gubaidulina reflected in the cantata. Its analysis reveals the logic behind the interaction of sonorities, which can be classified into the fluctuation, texture, structure and colour sound types, according to H. Lachenmann. Apart from sound characteristics, each sonority is associated with certain images and meanings ranging from a landscape with calm snowing to an almost apocalyptic blizzard and escaping into a symbolic space in which textural means are used to depict the cross and a way for man to overcome his sinful nature. This analysis of the Cantata "Now Always Snow" has detailed the dramaturgical development and form making of the cantata's movements and musical means that S. Gubaidulina applied to the poetry of G. Aigi. The main conclusion is that the composer's vision of the cantata combines the power of imagination with strict form-making principles.

music, poetry, sound types, Sofia Gubaidulina, Gennadij Aigi, Helmut Lachenmann, fluctuating sound, textured sound, structural sound, timbre sound