Berliner Masse
Feb. 28th, 2009 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thoreauDavid and I met a new pair of friends tonight. We'd been chatting on Facebook with Jeff for a few weeks (I'm not sure how we ended up on FB profiles with one another) and then we took the leap to meet Jeff and his partner Shaun in person tonight for dinner. We had a grand grand time. We had so much in common from a love of Opera, video games, the years apart in age in our relationships - and many other things. I think we'll see them again soon.
I found this image on some old disks I was unpacking. I'm not sure where or what it's from but it's friggin cool - and
seemed to fit the mood of this post. How listening to the music lets you 'hear' all the colours in the prism of what Pärt is trying to
communicate.
David and I are relaxing and stopping for the evening - listening to Arvo Pärt's BERLINER MASSE - I am particular fond of the fourth movement 'Zweiter Alleluiavers' or Second Allelulia. The movement begins with tenors chanting a rich allelulia in melting arpeggios that change every few measure. Then the sopranos sing a countermelody that climbs from mid-range to sweeping notes. It's such a fine lush example of Pärt's trademark style. The sirens of the city play in the background as a ambulance screams down Polk street and it just seems to fit. Pärt is one of the main reasons I love classical music so much and consider myself lucky working at KDFC.
Pärt's music style is called Tintinnabuli. Musically, it is characterized by two types of voices, the first of which (dubbed the "tintinnabular voice") arpeggiates the tonic triad, and the second of which moves diatonically in stepwise motion. The works often have a slow and meditative tempo, and a minimalist approach to both notation and performance. Pärt creates this precisely layered pulsing style that turns it into a very haunting perfectly mathematical chant. His scores literally leave most of the dynamics at almost nothing - relying on the performers to bring it home in tone and support. His music is very difficult. When I sang in Seattle with the Seattle Choral Company we performed Pärt's TeDeum. It's beautiful work but lush and harmonically some of the hardest music I've ever had to wrap my head around.
I found this image on some old disks I was unpacking. I'm not sure where or what it's from but it's friggin cool - and
seemed to fit the mood of this post. How listening to the music lets you 'hear' all the colours in the prism of what Pärt is trying to
communicate.
David and I are relaxing and stopping for the evening - listening to Arvo Pärt's BERLINER MASSE - I am particular fond of the fourth movement 'Zweiter Alleluiavers' or Second Allelulia. The movement begins with tenors chanting a rich allelulia in melting arpeggios that change every few measure. Then the sopranos sing a countermelody that climbs from mid-range to sweeping notes. It's such a fine lush example of Pärt's trademark style. The sirens of the city play in the background as a ambulance screams down Polk street and it just seems to fit. Pärt is one of the main reasons I love classical music so much and consider myself lucky working at KDFC.
Pärt's music style is called Tintinnabuli. Musically, it is characterized by two types of voices, the first of which (dubbed the "tintinnabular voice") arpeggiates the tonic triad, and the second of which moves diatonically in stepwise motion. The works often have a slow and meditative tempo, and a minimalist approach to both notation and performance. Pärt creates this precisely layered pulsing style that turns it into a very haunting perfectly mathematical chant. His scores literally leave most of the dynamics at almost nothing - relying on the performers to bring it home in tone and support. His music is very difficult. When I sang in Seattle with the Seattle Choral Company we performed Pärt's TeDeum. It's beautiful work but lush and harmonically some of the hardest music I've ever had to wrap my head around.
