On the Edge of the Abyss (Am Rande des Abgrunds)

Sofia Gubaidulina is well known for her insatiable
curiosity about unusual sounds and colours. Neither does she leave it at
superficial knowledge and testing, when I heard this work at Kuhmo Chamber
Music Festival last year, she not only provided the waterphones but also played
one of them and was clearly delighted to be doing so.

The sound of the waterphone
has been compared to the haunting melodies of the humpback whale and voices
from inner/outer space. Waterphones could also be described as acoustic
synthesizers.

It is with a touch
of disappointment that we must confess that her vivid title for this piece, so
wonderfully redolent of the times we live in, is actually a technical reference
to the zone between the fingerboard and the bridge of the cello. In terms of
sound, this is the upper register of the instrument. As if circling this
sensitive area, the composer moves closer and closer to this tonal region using
a wide range of means. Gubaidulina explains: The effort to reach this tonal region also determines the work’s
musical development: first we approach the highest register by means of
pizzicati double harmonics. Then there is an arco transition to double
harmonics with tremolo. Finally the highest register is reached with arco
espressivo.

This sounds more
daunting than it is. The piece is in one movement and is totally gripping from
the first strange pizzicatos by the soloist. Gradually the other cellists join
in until the tension is doubled in the middle section, culminating in a deeply
felt passage for soloist and cellos together. Finally the waterphones introduce
themselves and we move into the final section that hurls itself at the abyss as
the music veers wildly from the enraptured to the mysterious – strange but
wonderful.