Abstract
Abstract Galina Ustvolskaya’s Sonata for Violin and Piano (1952) was her first work to garner international attention, and while it is a relatively early work in her oeuvre, the Sonata for Violin and Piano is a superb example of Ustvolskaya’s mature aesthetic. This essay begins with a reading of the sonata from a listening perspective, followed by an analytical exploration of the work’s structure based on those initial observations. The foreground structure of the sonata is constructed with blocks of motivic material that interact unpredictably across long stretches of time; yet as the title of the work suggests, there is a background structure that engages with traditional formal archetypes. This essay is concerned primarily with Ustvolskaya’s compositional craft, and in particular avoids the gendered nicknames and aesthetic descriptors that commonly accompany any discussion of Ustvolskaya’s music.
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