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The Touch of Arvo Pärt The University of Akron IdeaExchange@UAkron The Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams Honors Honors Research Projects College Spring 2018 The ouchT of Arvo Pärt Gabriel Lane [email protected] Please take a moment to share how this work helps you through this survey. Your feedback will be important as we plan further development of our repository. Follow this and additional works at: http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects Part of the Music Theory Commons Recommended Citation Lane, Gabriel, "The ouchT of Arvo Pärt" (2018). Honors Research Projects. 685. http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/685 This Honors Research Project is brought to you for free and open access by The Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams Honors College at IdeaExchange@UAkron, the institutional repository of The nivU ersity of Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Research Projects by an authorized administrator of IdeaExchange@UAkron. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Gabriel Lane Honors Project The Touch of Arvo Pärt Most time periods of Western classical music have their own school of thought, with each composer adding their personal touch. But the Modern Era is different - each composer is going in wildly different directions. Arvo Pärt's music is also unique. In 1960, he composed the first piece of serialism Estonia saw, Nekrolog.1 Aggressive and filled with dissonance, the sounds he created in his early days were far different from what he strives for today. In 1968, he crafted Credo, a self-portrait of his frustrations with creativity.2 He felt he had become locked in "dry, desiccated, 'children's games' of avant garde." But he also saw a "world of purity represented by tonality."3 Using a quotation from Johann Sebastian Bach and religious text, he fused these worlds of thought together for this single composition, but then went into exile for eight years in attempt to solve his creative struggles. 4 During this transition era, a single composition was constructed, his Third Symphony (1971). In 1976, the search for his voice was finally resolved with Für Alina - it was here where he invented a new style of composition, Tintinnabuli.5 Inspired by the Medieval Era with its Gregorian chant-like sounds, the style is meditative and characterized by sounds reminiscent of ringing bells. With the touch of his pen, Arvo Pärt is one of the most popularly performed living Western classical composers. Perhaps one of the reasons why Arvo Pärt is so revered is because Western classical music recently went through a period containing avant garde techniques. The music of today is shifting back to tonality and modality, thus a plausible reason for his popularity. YouTube is the most popular website for video uploads, and is commonly used by the public. Thus, one way of researching how Pärt's music effects the public is by reading through the YouTube comment sections of his compositions and simply 1 Service, A Guide to Arvo Pärt's Music 2 Ibid 3 Ibid 4 Ibid 5 Photographs, Arvo Pärt explaining the story of the birth of "Für Alina" observing how people react. One of Pärt's most popular and powerful compositions is Spiegel im Spiegel (1978) written for cello and piano. This piece has been transcribed for a variety of solo instruments, including violin, viola, bass, clarinet, oboe, horn, trombone, and many others. Of all the recordings on YouTube of this piece, the one with the most views is performed by Benjamin Hudson on viola and Jürgen Kruse on piano and was uploaded by the YouTube username "playingmusiconmars" on June 2nd 2010. As of April 25th 2018, the video has 2,931,782 views, over 19,000 likes, 346 dislikes, and 1,165 comments.6 To give a perspective on how significant this number of views is, the most viewed modern Western classical composition is Philip Glass's Glassworks, uploaded by username "Socrate Satrapoulos" on April 3rd 2013, which has 4,399,217 views, over 29,000 likes, 744 dislikes, and 1,726 comments.7 The number of views on Spiegel im Spiegel is quite close to the amount here. Nearly everyone on this video is deeply effected on an emotional level. Here is one example from a listener with the YouTube username Mariano Rodriguez: "Heart wrenching sorrow at its purist.." [sic]8 Username Bruno Matos writes, "Every time I hear this song I can not hold back the tears." [sic]9 Many people appear to cry when listening to this piece. A listener with the username Natalie brake says, "Am I wrong to assume that listening to this music will melt even the meanest of hearts? I think it would, it is so tender and pure." [sic]10 Username Joel Lopes asks, "Can anyone tell me if anyone feels this sensation of sad peace, that I'm feeling right now listening to this song?" [sic] 11 Overall, many listeners tend enjoy the simplistic beauty of Spiegel im Spiegel. While people here are emotionally taken away, I analyzed his compositions and I have a theory as to why his music causes intense feelings of relaxation or sadness. The style of the composition is Tintinnabuli. This is a technique best described as two types of voices functioning together. The first is the tintinnabular voice, which arpeggiates the tonic triad. In Spiegel im Spiegel, the piano acts as the 6 playingmusiconmars, Spiegel im Spiegel 7 Socrate Satrapoulos, Philip Glass - Glassworks (complete) 8 playingmusiconmars, Spiegel im Spiegel 9 Ibid 10 Ibid 11 Ibid tintinnabular voice. As previously mentioned, the effect is a bell-like sound, reminiscent of Gregorian chant. The second is the melodic voice, moving in a stepwise, diatonic way. Here, the solo cello (or violin for the purpose of the sheet music) acts as the melodic voice. The violin acts like a pendulum around the note A4. The melody sometimes steps up towards or away from the A. In other cases, it steps down towards or away from the A. But, it always resolves on the A and never begins on the A, with the exception of the last note of the entire piece, which is designed to form closure rather than continuation. As show in the image below, the piece begins with the piano arpeggiating an F Major chord in second inversion, with F1 and F2 whole notes below several octaves emulating a bell sound. Each phrase is separated by the violin sustaining an A4 underneath an F Major chord, which is the tonal center for the melody. When the violin enters on a G4, the harmony turns into a G minor seventh chord with an added 4th and no 5th. Non-tertian chords like this provide any composition with a simultaneous feeling of relaxation and tension. The Perfect 4ths are sensory consonances, but stylistically considered to be dissonant in common practice harmony, which makes moments like this special. Additionally, Major 2nds and minor 7ths are present, which act as "soft dissonances." An example of a harsh dissonance would be a tritone, or a minor 2nd. But the most interesting aspect of Spiegel im Spiegel is looking at the music from a linear point of view, rather than vertically as depicted above. In the same phrase below, Part employs a clear use of step-progression. This is a technique used throughout the piece. In the left hand of the piano, there is a sustained F1-F2 in the bass. This note F is the tonal center for the piece - it always returns throughout the composition. As the work develops, there are increasingly longer time periods without the F, but it always manages to come back. In this image, I can see lower neighbors and common tones across the piano line. Interestingly, the entrance in the violin line is an incomplete neighbor. The common tones add to the feeling of continuity with the sustained F in the bass. From a vertical perspective, the second phrase progresses from a B-flat Major 7th chord in first inversion to the F Major chord. But linearly, I can see something bigger. This is the first introduction of upper neighbors in the piano line. Interestingly, upper neighbors are classified as non-chord tones, and while these notes are all part of a B-flat Major 7 th chord in first inversion vertically, they simultaneously act as non-chord tones linearly. The third phrase begins on an F Major chord and then progresses to a G Minor seventh, but this is where an interesting pattern occurs. The chord has no 5th, this missing note gives the chord a non- tertian feel. As stated before, the G Minor seventh with the added 4th in the first phrase also does not contain a 5th. The lack of completion gives this moment a darker, pensive character. Across the phrase, an extended appoggiatura appears in the piano and violin lines. The notes skip down, and then step back up. They are non-chord tones juxtaposed in tonal chords - this helps make the music heavier with emotion. In the 4th phrase, another beautiful technique and recurring pattern takes place. Pärt uses tension and release in a subtle manner, such as a chord in its inversion resolving to its root position. As seen above, the A Minor first inversion chord resolves into its root position. Linearly, another instance of extended appoggiaturas can be seen in the piano and violin, as well as a common tone in the piano. At this point, it is important to note that the deep sounds of the F1-F2 in the bass return at the resolution of this idea, emphasizing the continuity and tonal center of this piece.
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