Passio (Pärt)
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''Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi secundum Joannem'' ( en, The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to John, also known as the ''St. John Passion'' or simply Passio, 1989) is a
passion setting In Christian music, a Passion is a setting of the Passion of Christ. Liturgically, most Passions were intended to be performed as part of church services in the Holy Week. Passion settings developed from Medieval intoned readings of the Gosp ...
by
Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in pa ...
for solo
baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...
(Jesus), solo
tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...
(Pilate), solo vocal quartet (Evangelist),
choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...
,
violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
,
oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. A ...
,
cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...
,
bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...
and
organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...
. The work lasts approximately 70 minutes and is a setting of the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
text from the
Gospel of John The Gospel of John ( grc, Εὐαγγέλιον κατὰ Ἰωάννην, translit=Euangélion katà Iōánnēn) is the fourth of the four canonical gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "sig ...
, chapters 18 and 19, plus a brief introduction and conclusion.


History

When Pärt left
Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
for
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
in 1980, he took with him the first sketches for the ''St. John Passion,'' which would become the culmination of the
tintinnabuli Tintinnabuli (singular. ''tintinnabulum''; from the Latin ''tintinnabulum'', "a bell") is a compositional style created by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, introduced in his ''Für Alina'' (1976), and used again in ''Spiegel im Spiegel'' (1978). ...
style. He eventually finished the work in 1982 and it was published in 1989. Since then, it has been recorded four times, and remains one of his most popular works. In much the same way that Pärt was inspired by medieval music in his creation of tintinnabuli, here too he is inspired by the earliest
monophonic Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction (often shortened to mono) is sound intended to be heard as if it were emanating from one position. This contrasts with stereophonic sound or ''stereo'', which uses two separate audio channels to reproduc ...
settings of the Passion. The St. John Passion is a
through-composed In music theory of musical form, through-composed music is a continuous, non- sectional, and non- repetitive piece of music. The term is typically used to describe songs, but can also apply to instrumental music. While most musical forms such as t ...
setting of the text of John 18–19, preceded by a short introduction (Exordio) and followed by a brief conclusion (Conclusio). He uses a baritone soloist for
Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
, a tenor for
Pilate Pontius Pilate (; grc-gre, Πόντιος Πιλᾶτος, ) was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of J ...
, and a Soprano-Alto-Tenor-Bass (SATB) quartet for the
evangelist Evangelist may refer to: Religion * Four Evangelists, the authors of the canonical Christian Gospels * Evangelism, publicly preaching the Gospel with the intention of spreading the teachings of Jesus Christ * Evangelist (Anglican Church), a c ...
. In addition, there are four solo instruments, oboe, violin, cello and bassoon, organ and SATB choir. The work lasts about 70 minutes and is not broken into movements.


Structure

In composing the work, text setting and
declamation Declamation (from the Latin: ''declamatio'') is an artistic form of public speaking. It is a dramatic oration designed to express through articulation, emphasis and gesture the full sense of the text being conveyed. History In Ancient Rome, decla ...
were foremost in Pärt's mind: all of the musical elements in the piece, from
rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...
to pitch, are in some way determined by the text. Tonally, the work centers on a series of overlapping fifths: D-A-E-B. The rhythmic values are established by the text. Each character has a basic note value, and this is lengthened depending on the punctuation and its position within the phrase. Since a period at the end of a sentence generates a note longer than does a comma in the middle of it, the hierarchy of the textual phrases is reflected in the music. Value assignment:Hillier 1997, p. 127 # In the last word of a phrase ending with a comma, the stressed syllable would be medium. # In the last word of a phrase ending with a colon or period, each syllable would be long. # In the first word of a new sentence (or phrase beginning after a colon), the stressed syllable would be medium. # In the last word in a phrase ending with a question mark, each syllable would be medium. # Otherwise all syllables are short. Pärt divides the Evangelist text into four sections (50 phrases each), plus a final concluding section of 10 phrases, for a total of 210. Each section begins with a different solo voice, an instrument then joins it, and this pattern continues until all 8 are sounding. The alto and bass voices and oboe and bassoon are always M-voices ( Hillier's coinage, referring to the melody voice in a tintinnabuli configuration); the soprano and tenor voices and violin and cello are always T-voices (again, Hillier's coinage referring to the harmonizing voice). In the case where a T-voice is presented alone, the M-voice is simply implied. Christ always has the longest and lowest notes, creating a stark contrast with the other characters. The pitch center for Christ is E, and it is accompanied by a drone and T-voice in the organ. For the turba, the pitch center is again E. The alto and bass voices, again always playing an M role, are mirrored, and the soprano and tenor T-voices alternate above and below the M-voices. While both are centered on E, the M-voices use E Phrygian against E
major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
in the T-voices; this makes for striking cross-relations between G-natural and G-sharp, though the two never sound at the same time. Pilate, like Christ, is accompanied only by the organ, but sings in faster rhythmic values and has a higher
tessitura In music, tessitura (, pl. ''tessiture'', "texture"; ) is the most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a given singer or less frequently, musical instrument, the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding (or character ...
. Pilate's part is the most unstable in the piece, created in part through the use of an M-voice centered on B and a T-voice centered on F (a
tritone In music theory, the tritone is defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three a ...
apart) and through the refusal of Pilate to be either a T-voice or M-voice, always alternating between these two roles.


Reception

American composer
Eric Whitacre Eric Edward Whitacre (born January2, 1970) is an American composer, conductor, and speaker best known for his choral music. In March2016, he was appointed as Los Angeles Master Chorale's first artist-in-residence at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. ...
used the two initial chords of the conclusion (''Qui passus es'') in his motet ''
Lux Aurumque ''Lux Aurumque'' ("Light and Gold", sometimes "Light of Gold") is a choral composition in one movement by Eric Whitacre. It is a Christmas piece based on a Latin poem of the same name, which translates as "Light, warm and heavy as pure gold, and ...
'', applying them to the words ''natum'' (''new-born'') and thus linking birth and death of Christ to
reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a ...
.


Recordings

*
Paul Hillier Paul Douglas Hillier OBE (born 9 February 1949) is an English conductor, music director and baritone. He specializes in both early and contemporary classical music, especially that by composers Steve Reich and Arvo Pärt. He was a co-foun ...
, dir., ''Passio,'' by Arvo Pärt,
Hilliard Ensemble The Hilliard Ensemble was a British male vocal quartet originally devoted to the performance of early music. The group was named after the Elizabethan miniaturist painter Nicholas Hilliard. Founded in 1974, the group disbanded in 2014. Although ...
, ECM New Series 837109 (1988). * Tauno Satomaa, dir., ''Johannes Passion,'' by Arvo Pärt, Candomino Choir, Finlandia Records (2001). *
Antony Pitts Antony Pitts (born 1969 in Farnborough, Kent) is an international composer, conductor, and producer. His compositions have been published by Faber Music, with CDs of choral music on Hyperion Records and other recordings on Harmonia Mundi, Naxos, ...
, dir., ''Passio,'' by Arvo Pärt,
Tonus Peregrinus , the wandering tone, or the ninth tone, is a reciting tone in Gregorian chant. The chant example here is not identified as the ''tonus peregrinus'' in the ''Liber usualis'' (see LU, pp. 760–761), although it is in Aeolian mode. For the ' ...
, Naxos 8555860 (2003). * Nils Schweckendiek, dir., ''Passio,'' by Arvo Pärt, Helsinki Chamber Choir, BIS BIS-2612 SACD (2021).


References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Passio (Part) Compositions by Arvo Pärt Passion settings 1982 compositions