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 par ...
set the Latin text of the
Magnificat
The Magnificat (Latin for " y soulmagnifies he Lord) is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary, the Canticle of Mary and, in the Byzantine tradition, the Ode of the Theotokos (). It is traditionally incorporated into the liturgical service ...
canticle in 1989. It is a composition for five-part choir (
SSATB)
a cappella, with several
divided parts. Its performance time is approximately seven minutes. The composition is in
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, a style which Pärt had invented in the mid-1970s.
Composition
Stylistic aspects
Tintinnabulation is the most important aspect of Pärt's Magnificat. According to Pärt's biographer and friend
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-founder of ...
, the Magnificat "displays the tintinnabuli technique at its most supple and refined." Pärt also uses
drones
Drone most commonly refers to:
* Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg
* Unmanned aerial vehicle
* Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft
* Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone
Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to:
...
; a second-line G in the alto near the end of the piece, as well as the third-space C (on which the soprano solo line always stays) which provides a
tonal center for the piece. Hillier says that "many pieces
y Pärttend through length and repetition to establish a sense of timelessness or a continual present; the use of drones (which are in a sense a continuous repetition) reinforces this effect."
Arvo Pärt's wife Nora has said of his music,
The concept of tintinnabuli was born from a deeply rooted desire for an extremely reduced sound world which could not be measured, as it were, in kilometres, or even metres, but only in millimetres....By the end the listening attention is utterly focused. At the point after the music has faded away it is particularly remarkable to hear your breath, your heartbeat, the lighting or the air conditioning system, for example.
Structure
Structurally, the work can be divided into what Hillier refers to as "
verse
Verse may refer to:
Poetry
* Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry
* Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza
* Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme
* Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict m ...
" and "
tutti
''Tutti'' is an Italian word literally meaning ''all'' or ''together'' and is used as a musical term, for the whole orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from dif ...
" sections. The verse sections include one voice (often a soprano solo) which remains constantly on third-space C, as well as a lower, melodic line. The tutti sections make use of either three, four, or six voice parts. The soprano soloist joins in the tutti sections at times. The progression of sections is:
Text setting
Setting text to music can be accomplished in many different ways. Hillier says that Pärt "works outwards from the structure of the text." In the tutti sections, "the number of syllables determines the notes to be used...the stressed syllable is alternately the pitch centre and, in the next word, the note furthest away from it." In verse sections, Pärt "seems to have allowed himself an unusual degree of freedom...the stressed syllables do frequently coincide with a change of melodic direction."
While the texture is mainly
homophonic
In music, homophony (;, Greek: ὁμόφωνος, ''homóphōnos'', from ὁμός, ''homós'', "same" and φωνή, ''phōnē'', "sound, tone") is a texture in which a primary part is supported by one or more additional strands that flesh ...
, a new rhythmic device is introduced when the choir sings "dispersit superbos". As if taking instruction from the text, the choir does, in fact, divide; while all voices begin the word together, only the melodic voice continues immediately onward. The other voices rest a beat before continuing with the second syllable.
Performance guidelines
In his book ''Arvo Pärt'', Paul Hillier provides helpful hints for performance of Pärt's works. He notes the difficulty of singing tintinnabular music smoothly, because the tintinnabular part is by its very nature never stepwise. He continues,
Another possible source of lumpiness arises from the frequent occurrence of longer notes in the middle of a phrase. (The Magnificat is full of such moments.) These longer notes can easily go 'dead' (so that you almost hear the singers counting), and then as the end of the note approaches there is a slight push as the voices lurch toward the next pitch
Hillier advises careful attention to tuning of pure intervals, as well as rehearsing the music extra slowly to understand the gravitas that must be expressed. He says, "It is perhaps no coincidence that I have borrowed these techniques from my experience with early music."
Publication and recording
The score for Pärt's Magnificat is published by
Universal Edition
Universal Edition (UE) is a classical music publishing firm. Founded in 1901 in Vienna, they originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market (which had until then been dominated by Leipzig-ba ...
, Vienna, Austria. It is dedicated to
Christian Grube
Christian J Grube (born 20 September 1934) is a German choral conductor.
Education
Christian Grube was born in Hanover, Germany. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik and at the Kirchenmusikschule in Hanover, majoring in conducting, voice, f ...
and the , who performed it for the first time in
Stuttgart on 24 May 1990.
It has been recorded by many groups, including the
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (EPCC) is a professional choir based in Estonia. It was founded in 1981 by Tõnu Kaljuste, who was its conductor for twenty years. In 2001, Paul Hillier followed Kaljuste's tenure, becoming the EPCC's princip ...
under
Tõnu Kaljuste
Tõnu Kaljuste (born August 28, 1953) is an Estonian conductor.
Born in Tallinn, Kaljuste is the son of Heino Kaljuste (1925–1989), an Estonian choral conductor, and Lia Kaljuste, a radio journalist. Tõnu sang in his father's choirs as a child ...
; the Taverner Choir under
Andrew Parrott
Andrew Parrott (born 10 March 1947) is a British conductor, perhaps best known for his pioneering " historically informed performances" of pre-classical music. He conducts a wide range of repertoire, including contemporary music. He conducted t ...
; the
Choir of King's College, Cambridge
The Choir of King's College, Cambridge is an English Anglican choir. It is considered one of today's most accomplished and renowned representatives of the great English choral tradition. It was created by King Henry VI, who founded King's Col ...
under
under Paul Hillier.
References
Notes
Cited sources
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magnificat (Part)
Compositions by Arvo Pärt
1989 compositions
Part
Part, parts or PART may refer to:
People
*Armi Pärt (born 1991), Estonian handballer
*Arvo Pärt (born 1935), Estonian classical composer
*Brian Part (born 1962), American child actor
*Dealtry Charles Part (1882–1961), sheriff (1926–1927) an ...
Compositions in F minor