Composed in 1985, this work harks back to the medieval technique of the “hocket” (which comes from the Breton word for “hiccups”). It is a technique in which a melody is broken up into fragments which then roam through all the parts in an open, “filigree” texture.

In Gubaidulina’s work, however, the hocket embraces not only the melodic parameter, but also and above all the harmony and timbres of her material. The filigree writing consolidates itself gradually into a linear continuum, whereby...