mirror in the mirror
Spiegel im Spiegel is a piece of music that was written by Arvo Pärt in 1978 . It is in F major in 6/4 time. The piece was originally written for piano and violin (both solo). The violin is sometimes replaced by a cello or a viola .
composition
According to the Tintinnabuli style (from the Latin Tintinnabulum for bell), the compositional principle of Spiegel im Spiegel contains two elements: scale movements in the violin and triad structures in the piano. Both elements work exclusively with the notes of F major and are arranged around the central note a '.
The regular and strict construction of the tones, as it is essentially presented here, can explain the principle of the composition, but not the strong effect that this music develops.
Violin part
The violin's melody part consists only of long notes that move in four directions away from the central note a 'or lead towards it. The principle of the violin part looks like the letter X. In the middle, where the lines cross, is the central tone. The four legs of the letter show the various scale movements that lead towards and away from it.
4. abwärts zum a’ 2. aufwärts vom a’ weg
X
3.aufwärts zum a’ 1. abwärts vom a’ weg
The scale movements, which run four times in the same order, are regularly one note longer. While there is only one tone at the beginning - the g 'leads downwards from the a' - in the last round there are eight tones that lead downwards from the b '' to the central tone. Each of the scale movements ends with the central tone.
Just as the letter X has two axes of symmetry and can be mirrored vertically and horizontally, the four scale movements are also mirrored twice around the central tone. One is between upwards and downwards, the other between towards a 'and away from a'. This strict construction with double reflection explains the title: Spiegel im Spiegel .
Piano part
The piano part on the one hand adapts to the violin part, but on the other hand provides the principle of triad as a contrast and background to the scale.
The piano begins in the right hand with a sequence of three ascending tones that is faster than the violin part, forming the F major triad. This three-tone structure, which is reminiscent of accompanying patterns from the classical period, is retained throughout the piece. However, the tones change according to a fixed system according to the melody of the violin. The lowest of the three tones is a third above the melody tone, the middle one is a tone from the F major triad, the upper tone is the melody tone one octave higher. This continuous piano part hovers as an accompaniment over the melody part of the violin.
In addition, individual tones appear in the piano after a melody tone, which are always arranged alternately above and below the violin part. These notes all come from the F major triad and have a fixed distance from the melody note. They are distributed over a large area of the piano keyboard. The two most extreme additional tones are assigned to the central tone, which, when it sounds after each of the scale movements, has the lowest tones (F and F ') or the highest tones (c' '' 'and c' '' '').
reception
The piece is widely used in cinema and television films, plays, and ballets. Examples:
- Cinema and television films, theater
- The East , film (2013)
- Gravity , movie (2013)
- Cheyenne - This Must Be the Place (2011) film by Paolo Sorrentino
- Elegy (2008) directed by Isabel Coixet
- BBC documentary Auschwitz: The Nazis and 'The Final Solution (2005)
- Dear Frankie Film, (2004)
- Dans le noir du temps (2003), short film by Jean-Luc Godard
- Touching the Void (2003), documentary
- Guy Ritchie's movie Swept Away (2002)
- Gus Van Sants film Gerry (2002)
- Tom Tykwer's film Heaven (2002)
- Century of the Self (2002), BBC documentary directed by Adam Curtis
- HBO television film Wit (2001)
- Mother Night , movie, (1996)
- In an episode of the British television series Casualty in the scene of the protagonist's suicide.
- In the New York production of Eurydice , a piece by Sarah Ruhl (2007)
- It's all a question of time , film (2013, original "About Time")
- The Good Place , Series, (2020)
- Crime Scene: The Night Is Yours (2020)
- Ballet music
- The piece was used by the Hamburg choreographer John Neumeier for a pas de deux in his ballet Othello (1985) and by the New York choreographer Christopher Wheeldon for part 2 of his ballet After The Rain (2005)
- It was used for a scene in Rushes by the Pilobolus Dance Company
- The choreographer Jochen Ulich uses it in his ballet Michelangelo at the Landestheater Linz (2011/12)
Recordings
- Tasmin Little, violin, Martin Roscoe, piano. EMI 1994
- With Benjamin Hudson, violin and viola, Sebastian Klinger, cello, Jürgen Kruse, piano. Brilliant Classics 2013
- Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Neeme Järvi (conductor), Tonu Kaljuste (conductor); Hans-Ola Ericsson, Aleksei Lubimov, Angela Yoffe, Vadim Gluzman, BIS Records
- Vladimir Spivakov, violin, Sergej Bezrodny and Alexander Malter, piano. "Alina" ECM Records
- Spiegel im Spiegel - Piano: Filipe Melo, Cello: Ana Cláudia Serrão. YouTube
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ Auschwitz: The Nazis and 'The Final Solution' - What is the music used in Auschwitz: The Nazis and 'The Final Solution'? ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Auschwitz - Music in the Series
literature
- Steincke, Dietrich: Analysis of the composition "Spiegel im Spiegel" by Arvo Pärt . In: Steincke: Image-creating understanding of music . Pp. 202-208. ISBN 978-3-8260-3610-1 ( full text on GoogleBooks)