Arvo part tabula rasa4/5/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() By the end, the piece ends on the piano in its lowest register, and whether or not the task was accomplished is left up to the listener. There's a sense of persistent hopefulness here, as if the piece is trying again and again to accomplish an impossible task its own Sisyphus and the stone. However, after a slow, reflective section where the piano and violin seemingly work together, the violin is off again, this time backed up by the piano, only to be obstructed again. "Fratres", the first track, sets an effective tension via a rapid violin line, which, about a minute in, is seemingly slammed down by a frighteningly deep piano chord. Being a pioneer of the minimalist school, many of these pieces (especially the achingly beautiful "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten") are simple at their core, but upon further listening present the listener with sounds so intricate and deep that they come out with something new every time. Starting with "Fratres" and ending with the titular "Tabula Rasa", these four tracks keep an enduring, beautiful sense of loss and longing that few other modern composers can attempt to match. The answer is undoubtedly a resounding "yes". ![]() But what of an environment separate from the world of the visual aesthetics of commercials and film? Does Tabula Rasa hold up when not being used as austere background music? Even if it will forever be linked to the newest brand of Lexus vehicles or grave drama movies ( There Will Be Blood used the first track, "Fratres"), can it support itself free of these subjects? Whatever the purpose, the entirety of Tabula Rasa seems to document just about any moment of solemnity, despondency, and yes, hope, near-flawlessly. Rightfully so, however: each of the four pieces featured on this collection are eerily beautiful, bold, and move swiftly just the kind of backdrop necessary for the final touch in a climactic film scene, or to sell your product as sophisticated, elegant, and hard-working, or to illustrate a troubled life biographically. The collection's cinematic nature makes it perfect for movies, car commercials, slideshows, montages so in it goes. (Per F.In a way, Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa has become a little lost over the years. In the second movement, Senza moto (without movement), the prepared piano serves an even more important function - providing the only rhythmic and coloristic contrasts to the extended canon sections in which the celli expand a diatonic scale upwards and downwards, similar to the technique used in Cantus, followed in canon by the first violins. The motion in the active section increases gradually in register and rhythmic activity and culminates in an extensively arpeggiated, almost violent, section. The first movement develops through a juxtaposition of two different episodes: one rhythmically active and one calm section in which only one violin and piano take part. The prepared piano - in which different objects are put into the instrument, thus creating different starling sounds (in this piece screws between the strings) - makes a clear reference to bells. Inspired by the concerto grosso from the Baroque period - a small group of instruments, against the rest of the orchestra - the first movement, Con moto (with movement), features Vivaldi-like textures resulting from its use of static rhythms and homophonic structure. Tabula rasa is Part's most extensive instrumental work. ![]()
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