Galina Ivanovna Ustvolskaya (Russian: Галина Ивановна Уствольская) was born on June 17, 1919, and passed away on December 22, 2006. She was a Russian composer who created classical music.

She was known as "the lady with the hammer" because her music required performers to use great skill and effort. Her style was unique, using unusual combinations of instruments to create specific sounds and textures. Her music also had wide changes in loudness, called dynamic ranges.

She was very private and rarely gave interviews. She did not enjoy discussing her own music. During her lifetime, she allowed only 21 of her works to be performed.

Early years

Galina Ustvolskaya was born in Petrograd, which is now called St. Petersburg. Her mother worked as a school teacher, and her father was a lawyer. Galina's early life happened during the Russian Civil War and the October Revolution. Although her family was poor and not involved in music, she became interested in music at a young age. She was considered very talented when she started studying music at the age of 7.

Middle years

Ustvolskaya was a student at the Leningrad Conservatory from 1937 to 1939. Her teachers included Dmitri Shostakovich, and she was the only woman in his composition class at that time. She studied with him from 1939 to 1941. After World War II, she returned to study from January 1947 to March 1948. From late 1944 to the end of 1946, she also studied with Maximilian Steinberg. From late 1947 until 1952, she continued her education under Viktor Voloshinov.

Shostakovich respected Ustvolskaya greatly. He asked her for advice while writing some of his compositions and treated her as a professional equal. He used parts of her Clarinet Trio in his String Quartet No. 5 and Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti. He once wrote, "I believe Ustvolskaya’s music will become famous worldwide and be valued by those who see truth as the most important part of music." He also told her, "You are not influencing me; I am influencing you." He said, "I am a talent, but you are a phenomenon."

After Shostakovich’s first wife died, he proposed marriage to Ustvolskaya, but she refused. In an interview for a TV program celebrating her 80th birthday, she said, "It is sad that Shostakovich and I were not 'soul mates'; I know he liked me and respected me, but I never returned his feelings."

Later in life, she criticized Shostakovich and his music. She told her publisher, "Shostakovich, who seemed important to others, was not important to me. In fact, he made my life harder and took away my best feelings."

Ustvolskaya’s early works from the 1940s and 1950s shared features with socialist realism and modernism. The Soviet Union banned many music styles, and composers like Ustvolskaya were accused of formalism, a type of abstract music. Because of these rules, Ustvolskaya had to write music that was easy to understand. One of her works, a tone poem called Stepan Razin’s Dream, was considered for a Stalin Prize.

During the 1950s, she wrote music that supported the Soviet government while secretly creating other works she believed would never be performed. None of these secret works were played until 1961. Later, she tried to destroy some of her non-spiritual works, which had been used in Soviet propaganda films.

Later years and death

In 1962, Ustvolskaya chose to focus on creating music without worrying about political issues. In the mid-1960s, the Soviet Union became more interested in modernist music, which led to greater recognition of Ustvolskaya's work. Eventually, the Leningrad branch of the Union of Composers arranged performances of her music, which were well-received by both audiences and critics. International attention began when her music was performed at the 1989 Holland Festival.

Ustvolskaya was private and never shared details about her personal life. In later years, she attended only a small number of concerts featuring her own music in Europe.

In 1998, she spoke about her life to an interviewer:

Ustvolskaya died on December 22, 2006, in Saint Petersburg. Her musical writings are kept in the archive of the Paul Sacher Stiftung since 1994.

Style

Galina Ustvolskaya once said, "There is no connection at all between my music and that of any other composer, living or dead." Her music is known for repeating similar musical blocks, unusual instrument combinations, very loud or very soft sounds, and the use of groups of instruments to create clusters of tones. She also used very simple harmonic structures and often used the piano or percussion to create steady, unchanging rhythms. Critics have described her music as showing "the sadness of someone who often looks into emptiness" and as causing "strong feelings of fear." Many people have guessed that other composers influenced her, but Ustvolskaya always denied this. However, in her early years, she mentioned that composers like Modest Mussorgsky, Gustav Mahler, and Igor Stravinsky inspired her.

Although she was very private, Ustvolskaya spoke publicly about the spiritual side of her music. She often included religious texts in her later works, but she said none of her music followed the teachings of any specific religion. Her friend Viktor Suslin, who helped publish her music, said her work is not religious but comes from her personal connection with God. Ustvolskaya explained that she only composed when she felt inspired by God and described the process as taking a long time before she wrote down the music. She once said, "If God gives me the chance to compose, I will do it without fail." Ustvolskaya was not part of any religious group, but her deep spiritual connection to God was important to her music.

In the USSR, Ustvolskaya's music was not openly criticized. However, some colleagues said she avoided communication and was described as stubborn. Some people in the West believed her music showed rebellion and grandeur, and one pianist called her methods a fight against Soviet rules, leading to "double totalitarianism." While some saw her as having a grandiose attitude, she never composed for money except for works she was asked to create between 1949 and 1962. She often felt her music was not understood by others.

It has been guessed that Ustvolskaya may have hidden or destroyed music that did not fit the government's rules for music. However, she told a biographer that her main inspiration was God. She said, "I begin to write when I enter a special state of grace. Music is born in me, and when the time comes, I record it. If the time doesn't come, I destroy it." When asked if her music was Russian, she said that artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Bach, and Beethoven are not mainly linked to their nationalities, and their art is "higher" than such labels. She added, "I only accept all types of art."

A pianist named Tatyana Voronina compared Ustvolskaya's style to a prisoner's chains. She said Ustvolskaya's repeated rhythms showed a "dark, somewhat strange view of the world." Soviet musicologist Ekaterina Ruchevskaya mentioned that Ustvolskaya may have had mental health issues, noting, "I cannot say for sure, but I knew of one suicide attempt."

In literature

The relationship between Ustvolskaya and Shostakovich, from when she was a student until the 1950s, is shown in a fictional way in William T. Vollmann's historical novel Europe Central.

Legacy and remembrance

From 1947 to 1977, she taught composition at Leningrad Conservatory. She taught her students to write music using multiple melodies and interweaving different musical lines. She showed them works by Mahler and Stravinsky when they were allowed in the 1960s. Her teaching style focused more on beauty and emotion rather than harmony or technical methods. She often encouraged students to experiment with musical scales other than the usual major or minor scales.

Ustvolskaya's music is described as very expressive. Her use of uncommon instruments, very loud or soft sounds, groups of notes played together, and blocks of musical textures helped create her unique style as a spiritual composer. "My music is my life," she said. Despite important events happening in her country during her childhood, Ustvolskaya had no interest in history, politics, or social issues. Her art was her only focus, taking up all of her time and thoughts until her death.

Works

Ustvolskaya created a small number of works, with only 21 pieces in her unique style (excluding works written in a public, Soviet-style format).

• Concerto for piano, full string orchestra, and timpani (1946)
• Sonata for cello and piano (1946) (destroyed)
• Piano Sonata No. 1 (1947)
• The Dream of Stepan Razin (Сон Степана Разина – Son Stepana Razina), Bylina for bass and symphony orchestra (Russian folk text, 1949)
• Trio for clarinet, violin, and piano (1949)
• Piano Sonata No. 2 (1949)
• Octet for two oboes, four violins, timpani, and piano (1950)
• Sinfonietta (1951) (destroyed)
• Piano Sonata No. 3 (1952)
• Violin Sonata (1952)
• Twelve Preludes for piano (1953)
• Symphony No. 1, for two boys' voices and orchestra (text by Gianni Rodari, 1955)
• Suite for orchestra (1955)
• Piano Sonata No. 4 (1957)
• Symphonic Poem No. 1 (1959)
• Symphonic Poem No. 2 (1957)
• Grand Duet for piano and cello (1959)
• Duet for piano and violin (1964)
• Composition No. 1 Dona Nobis Pacem, for piccolo, tuba, and piano (1971)
• Composition No. 2 Dies Irae, for eight double basses, piano, and wooden cube (1973)
• Composition No. 3 Benedictus, Qui Venit, for four flutes, four bassoons, and piano (1975)
• Symphony No. 2 – True and Eternal Bliss!, for male reciter and small orchestra (1979)
• Symphony No. 3 – Jesus Messiah, Save Us!, for male reciter and small orchestra (1983)
• Symphony No. 4 – Prayer, for contralto, piano, trumpet, and tam-tam (1985/7)
• Piano Sonata No. 5 (1986)
• Piano Sonata No. 6 (1988)
• Symphony No. 5 – Amen, for male reciter, oboe, trumpet, tuba, violin, and wooden cube (1989/90)

Discography

• Composition Number 1

• Composition Number 2

• Composition Number 3

• Concerto for Piano, String Orchestra, and Timpani

• Duet for Violin and Piano

• Grand Duet for Violoncello and Piano

• Octet for 2 Oboes, 4 Violins, Timpani, and Piano

• Piano Sonata

• Sonata for Piano Number 1

• Sonata for Piano Number 2

• Sonata for Piano Number 3

• Sonata for Piano Number 4

• Sonata for Piano Number 5

• Sonata for Piano Number 6

• Sonata for Violin and Piano

• Symphony Number 1

• Symphony Number 2 – True and Eternal Bliss

• Symphony Number 3 – Jesus Messiah, Save Us!

• Symphony Number 4 – Prayer

• Symphony Number 5 – Amen

• Twelve Preludes for Piano

• Trio for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano