Its beating appears warlike, as if maintaining order by its pattern.Īs the song progresses, the cellos return and depart again and again, gaining volume with each appearance. After a few phrases, the singing cellos hush and the drum returns, seeming now, in following the song of the cellos, to be insisting on silence. In this first iteration, their volume is level with the initial cello note, as if they share a source.
The other cellos emerge quietly singing their melancholic harmonies. This voice begins the piece, accompanied by the soft, patient beating of a low-pitched drum its rhythm straightforward and tame. However, this massive swell is incrementally interrupted by near silence – a single cello note, timid and distant, which seems to be held throughout the entire composition. The structure of Twelve Cellos is in part comparable to a single bell curve a steady rise and fall in volume spans the entire piece. In Twelve Cellos, the emotional and atmospheric schema of Fratres is approached in its purest form. The immensity of the piece lies in the powerful voices of the dozen cellos, the harmonic density, and, most significantly, the eternal nature of Fratres expressed by its overall structure. Of all the variations of Fratres, the arrangement for twelve cellos is the simplest, but also the largest of the works an overwhelming, dreadful universe. The most popular versions of Fratres are comprised of multiple parts, and are characterized by dramatic, emotional arpeggio sequences, sudden silences, and simple, sweeping, melancholic interludes. Versions include, among others, arrangements for piano and violin, cello and harp, solo violin, and string orchestra.
#ARVO PART FRATRES CELLO SERIES#
The original version, composed for string quintet and wind quintet, precedes a series of variations written over fifteen years.
Arvo Pärt’s Fratres exists in many musical forms.