Arvo Pärt

b. 1935

Miserere, 1989

How can one fill the time

with notes worthy of

the preceding silence?

Fratres. 1977

PartMyEdits/Kronos Quartet/Winter Was Hard/03 - Pärt Fratres.wav

Credo (1968)

Structure

• Outer sections rooted by Bach

Prelude in C, Ex. 1

• Central section uses

– 12-tone row based on perfect fifths,

ex. 2

– Plus aleatoric sections (See score,

next page), Ex. 3

• Complete

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Early Music

• Gregorian chant—

– Foundation of music for centuries

– Religious basis of music

• Notre Dame--Perotin

• Machaut

• Ars nova

• Netherlands Renaissance

– Ockeghem, Obrecht, Josquin

• Palestrina, Victoria

• Machaut, Kyrie I

• Part, Psalom

• Machaut, Kyrie II

• Perotin, Viderunt Omnes

• Machaut, Kyrie III

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Modus: Sarah Was Ninety Years Old

1976

– Rhythmic patterns with no

designated pitch

– Melodic patterns with little

rhythmic differentiation

• Melodic phrase repeated but started at

different points

Ex.

1

2

3

Complete

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Tintinnabuli

• Two essentials

– Triadic arpeggios

– Diatonic scales

Best known works

– Fratres, 1977—earliest example of relatively dissonant tintinnabuli formation

[pp104-6]

• Underlying triad present throughout

• Dissonance from scale with augmented second

• Two parallel M voices repeating same six-bar pattern

• Nine statements of six-bar pattern, with two parallel M voices a tenth apart and a single T

voice between the

• Each statement a third lower than predecessor

• M voices descend first moving further away from A minor triad then back towards it

• Central three statements most dissonant

Arrangements

• Kronos Quartet, Ex. 1, 2

• Strings and percussion

• Violin, strings and percussion

• Wind octet

• Eight cellos

• Cello and piano, Ex. 1, 2

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• Cantus in memoriam Benjamin

Britten, 1976-77

– Five layers of tempos, each enters

lower and twice as slow

– Top two layers (Violins 1 and 2) and

bottom two layers (cellos and double

basses) each T voice and M voice in 1st

position below

– Middle layer has M layer

• Moves to Vienna and then Berlin

• St. John Passion, 1982

Miserere (1989)

• A rare dramatic work

– Expressive vocal lines

• Structure

– Miserere, 1st 3 verses, soloists, Ex. 1, 2, 3

– Dies irae, 1st 7 verses, choir, Ex. 1

– Miserere, reamaining 16 verses, soloists, Ex 1, 2 3

– Dies irae, verse 8, choir (plus SA soli), Ex. 1

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• Section I– Recitation pitches on main stressed

syllables

– T voice a separate response to M

• Section II– Mensuration canon, descending scales

in 5 tempi

– Each new verse heralded by timpani

• Section III– Pitch changes on stressed syllable

• Interludes– Instruments repeat vocal music

• Section IV– Rising scale

Berlin Mass, 1990

• Kyrie

• Alleluia

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