top of page

Movement 

MovementYakov Gubanov
00:00 / 05:22

Movement for Piano, Percussion, and Strings was composed in 1987. After many years of immersion into polystylism, I suddenly felt a strong appeal for pure, strictly homogenous sonorities. 

Movement is designed in atonal manner, following in the tradition of Anton Webern, late Igor Stravinsky, and Iannis Xenakis. Its stereoscopic and multilayered musical tissue is formed by the free rotation of 12-tone sonic fields. Despite the dominance of atonality, there is still the concept of triad in this piece, although shifted from the pitch dimension to the timbral one. Piano, percussion, and strings constitute the foundation for such a timbral triad, where each component struggles for the dominating role in the integral sonority.

This piece is only 5 minutes long, yet quite challenging due to the complexity of its rhythmic structure and hyperpolyphony. All of the 40 string players are assigned an independent orchestral line.  Furthermore, the 15 different percussions are meant to be played by a single person, which makes it a breakneck feat!

Dmytro Ulyanov playing drums
Dmytro Ulyanov

Dmytro Ulyanov

Upon completion, I offered the score to several prominent conductors and all of them considered it unperformable. However, these challenges did not scare the young Volodymyr Sirenko, then still a student at the Kiev Music Academy. He boldly took the baton and stepped up to the challenge with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. A few years after this brilliant debut, he became the Principal Conductor of this orchestra.

Another conservatory student - Dmitro Ulyanov - virtuosically played on all 15 percussion instruments and then went on to become one of the orchestra's permanent soloists. 

I joined this remarkable ensemble as a pianist for the recording session.

Movement was recently released in the collection featuring the history of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. 

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

© 2025 Yakov Gubanov. All rights reserved.

bottom of page