Ida Gotkovsky

Gotkovsky, a student of Olivier Messiaen and Nadia Boulanger at the Paris Conservatory, frequently utilizes a distinct artistic device called intertextual self-borrowing. Rather than simply reusing material across her catalog, she transforms, re-harmonizes, and evolves existing melodies to weave a macro-dialogue throughout her life’s work. For instance, motifs from the Désinvolte movement are heavily mirrored in her Quatuor pour saxophones, while thematic material from the blazing Final was later expanded into the second movement of her massive wind ensemble piece, Poème du Feu (1978).

Scott Patrick Augustine, “Ida Gotkovsky’s Saxophone Works: A Comparative Study of Brillance, Variations Pathétiques, and Incandescence” (DMA diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2023), 10–13, IDEALS. [Permalink]