Dobrinka Tabakova in Composer Quest 2017

I feel like I should have a format for these entries but I don’t. But they are turning out to be a bit time consuming if I write about every piece I have listened to and my thoughts on it.

Anyway, Dobrinka is one of those composers that comes up a lot if you search for contemporary composers. She seems to be doing well for herself and has received lots of well deserved attention, won many awards, ect. I think it says more about me and the state of contemporary composition than anything else that I was not aware of her. But that is what this project is about!

My over all general impression of her work is “wow”. Her work is very much what I had in mind of the types of things I wanted to discover when I started this project. The compositions I was able to find to listen to were either orchestral/ chamber music or choral music. She is definitely more the traditional picture of contemporary art music composer than other people on my list. And I personally love that she has a variety of types of pieces in her body of work. I get the feeling that many composers these days generally stick to one type of music, like they just write for band or orchestra or vocal.

I also just discovered she will be coming in May to Antwerp to do a portrait concert. So I know what I am doing that Sunday.

On to the music! I was really drawn to most of her pieces for strings. Concerto for string and cello: Mvt. 3 - Radiant and Such different paths are two of my favorites. I like the rich textures and I like that it is just pretty. Sometimes I feel a lot of contemporary music is just too cerebral and well… ugly sounding. Tabakova’s music is really just lovely to listen to and more complex and interesting to be relegated to “background music” status.

At first I wasn’t a huge fan of Spinning a Yarn, but the more I listened to it the more I liked it. I like how the drone tones conjure up this image of a never ending spinning wheel and the harmonies surrounding it bring to mind the paddles that work wool into yarn. I think she did a good job of representing the yarn making process through sound.

Praise which was written for Queen Elizabeth’s jubilee is another one I enjoy. I love how the voices grow out of this soft organ sound. You can definitely hear the influence of Pärt/Adams/Minimalism in her music, especially in the choral pieces I find: liturgical, simple harmonies, echoes of Tintinnabuli like passages. The beginning of Alma Redemptoris Mater’ really reminded me of this one Pärt piece I sang in University that I cannot for the life of me remember its name.

Her piece Origami was not my favorite. I am not entirely sure what it is about the piece, maybe because it felt a little more disjointed than the other pieces. The way each motif seems to push out the other or as if they’re all trying to fight for attention. They all fit the same style, but they don’t seem to fit together or maybe don’t want to fit together? I don’t know. Just wasn’t constructed in a way I enjoyed.

Over all, I really enjoyed spending two weeks with her and discovering her music. I think she could easily make one of my top favorites from this project. I found myself wanting to come back to listen to her instead of forcing myself to do it, which I had a bit with Donia Jarrar, though I think sometimes you need to force yourself to listen a piece a few times before you really start to like it.

Dobrinka Tabakova’s Website
My Soundcloud playlist of Dobrinka Tabakova

Last updated February 08, 2017