Fairytale Poem

‘The fairy tale appealed to me so much and seemed so symbolic of the fate of an artist that I developed a very personal relationship with this work,’ Sofia Gubaidulina recalls of its creation. The music, which was written with great pleasure, can also be performed as a purely orchestral work without spoken text. The composer explains: ‘The main character of this fairy tale is a small piece of chalk that is used to write on blackboards. The chalk dreams that it will draw marvellous castles, beautiful gardens with pavilions and the sea. But day in, day out, she is forced to draw boring words, numbers and geometric shapes on the blackboard. In contrast to the children, who are growing every day, she is getting smaller and smaller. Gradually, the chalk becomes desperate and loses all hope of ever being allowed to draw the sun or the sea. It soon becomes so small that it can no longer be used in the classroom and is thrown away. The chalk then finds itself in total darkness and thinks it has died. However, the supposed eclipse of death turns out to be a boy's trouser pocket. The child's hand brings the chalk to light and begins to draw castles, gardens with pavilions and the sea with the sun on the tarmac. The chalk is so happy that it doesn't even realise how it is dissolving as it draws this beautiful world.’