Canonic Machines: Repetition and Progressive Variation in Gubaidulina’s Fourth String Quartet

Sofia Gubaidulina’s Fourth String Quartet is noted for its combination of live quartet with two recorded quartet parts, its microtonal tuning, its ricochet techniques, and its color light projections, all contributing to the Quartet’s unique audio-visual effects. Less often noted are the work’s relentless repetitions and progressive variations, which play a significant role in generating not only the work’s overall sonic character but also its symbolic formal design, a design expressive of Gubaidulina’s religious commitments. This chapter demonstrates how the repetition and progressive variation structuring—Gubaidulina’s “canonic machines”—generates the Quartet’s sonic and symbolic formal design.