Reading Laurus

As I've been reading Eugene Vodolazkin's extraordinary novel Laurus, about the life of saint in 15th century Russia, I've become convinced that I can distantly hear Sofia Gubaidulina's music. Laurus reads like a sort of holy picaresque novel. There isn't necessarily a plot but rather a series of events, often strange and humorous, that make one extraordinarily fond of Arseny. He is always suffering, always experiencing setbacks, encountering the most peculiar of characters. And through his journey one gets a vivid impression of the Orthodox faith: magical and oddly dark, yet a constant vertical struggle towards what is good. And so, naturally, the glissandis and austerity and stark aural landscape -- so like I imagine the Russian landscape to be -- of Gubaidulina's music has never felt more powerful. Start reading Laurus, and then listen to this:

Gubaidulina must be one of the few great living composers. I think it's become clear that we're living either in a transitional period or an epoch of decline. Where are the great composers, novelist, poets, artists? Yes, there are some, and many good ones, but greatness seems to be an ever rarer quality. Some (I think mistaken) traditionalists believe it is because too few write tonal music. (The less intellectual critics complain about the lack of 'melodies' or more broadly 'tunes'.) I love Arvo Part and Morten Lauridsen too, but equally there are great composers like Gubaidulina and Messiaen and other (usually less known) composers who show that the modern idiom can produce great art.

Tonal/highly dissonant music is not, therefore, an important divide. But there are some divides worth noting. There do seem to be more great religious composers than great secular composers. I think there is a lot of promise in Central and Eastern Europe while Western Europe and the Anglosphere seems to be faltering. And I think the best composers now -- or at least the composers I most like -- are the ones looking back to the Renaissance more than the 19th century. As it happens, Vodolazkin believes that we are in new Middle Ages. And like him, I believe this could be a good thing.