Minimal Mysticism: analyzing Arvo Pärt’s “Fratres”

Arvo Pärt’s “Fratres” is a beautiful piece that emulates many aspects of the minimalist musical idiom while also emphasizing Pärt’s mystical beliefs. Pärt (1835-) is an Estonian composer whose work has become an important facet of the 20th century musical landscape. While he traversed through many different genres when he started composing, writing in a neo-classical style at first and experimenting with twelve-tone music before turning to minimalism, the minimalist style he developed which he came to call “tintinnabuli” is what he is most known for. Inspired by his mystical experiences with chant music, Pärt developed the genre and referred to it as “tintinnabuli”, from the Latin word tintinnabulum, which means bell. Based on a conceptual process similar to the minimalist approach, Pärt’s tintinnabular music is characterized by an arpeggiated voice that outlines the tonic triad and a second voice, which moves diatonically in a stepwise motion. The minimalist tendency to use limited harmonies and repeated rhythmic figures is also present in his work. As Pärt himself described,

“The complex and many-faceted only confuses me, and I must search for unity. What is it, this one thing, and how do I find my way to it? Traces of this perfect thing appear in many guises- and everything that is unimportant falls away. Tintinnabulation is like this… The three notes of a triad are like bells. An that is why I call it tintinnabulation.” (Pärt, Arvo, Pinkerton)



“Fratres” begins in 7/4 with 64th notes that arpeggiate an A Major chord in first inversion in the violin part. It continues to arpeggiate a sequence of chords and, depending on the meter of the measure, some of the chords are left out. The use of addative rhythm is a central component to the structure of the piece. Switching between 6/4, 7/4, moving in to 9/4 and then 11/4 the piece expands upon the same motivic cells building intensity with each polymetric change. The different rhythmic figures and subtle variations in harmonies allow for the piece to maintain the forward momentum and engage the listener without having the material seem redundant and overstated.

The first two pages of the piece consist of arppegios that start in 7/4 move to 9/4 and then 11/4. In the 11/4 bar the arppegios move from the A major chord in first inversion to a pitch collection (Bb, E, D) back to an A major chord to a C7/G to an F major 7, to a C to (D, C, F) back to an A major chord in first inversion. In the 9/4 bar the fourth and fifth chords are left out and in the 7/4 bar proceeding it leaves out the third, fourth, fifth and sixth chords.

The piece is tonally centered around the pitch A. The four horizontal melodic lines emphasized by the arched shapes of the arpeggios seem to be moving on different modal scales. The bottom voice later becomes the high voice in the piano part of the following variation at measure 9 although it is not aurally percievable. While the top voice during the arppegiated first pages creates a drone on the pitches A and E, the bottom voice moves in mostly a step-wise motion on a d harmonic minor scale. The melodic contour of the piece is tonally focused on the pitch A but plays between the D harmonic minor and D natural minor scales starting from A (the fifth scale degree of D minor). A major chord is the dominant of d minor with the C# borrowed from the harmonic minor of d.

In the seventh measure, which starts on the third page, the meter switches to 6/4 the piano enters with a forte chord of the pitches A and E and the violin comes in on beat three with pizzicato quintal harmonies which the piano responds to by playing an E and an A in a very low register of the piano. This is then repeated in the following measure and this two-measure figure is repeated throughout the piece a total of eight times. At measure nine the violin and the left hand of the piano part both drone on the same pitches A and E while the piano moves slowly through the chords based on a d harmonic minor mode. Measure fifteen switches back to 6/4 and repeats the same chords in the piano and pizzicato in the violin part. The two measures in 6/4 and the repeated motif that recurs every time the meter switches back to 6/4, serve as a separation between sections, signifying the end of one variation and the beginning of another.

At measure 17 the violin reintroduces an arpeggiated figure but this time with sixteenth notes instead of the 64th notes in triplets at the beginning. While the piano maintains the pedal A in the left hand, the violin part goes through various arpeggios, which highlight subtly different harmonies but still stay within the outlined D harmonic and natural minor scales that focus of the pitch A. The slight tonal shift between the two modes creates a melodic contrast the relationship between the C naturals and C# obscuring the sense of tonal center.

The form of the piece is based on eight variations of the initial material. After going through the 7/4 to 9/4 to 11/4 it is then followed by a rhythmically unaltered version of the same material with a few subtle melodic altercations. After one cycle of each variation, what follows is a variation where the top and bottom voices are the exact retrograde of the initial variation. While the addative rhythmic process, the phase shifting, the consonant and limited harmonies and the steady sense of pulse reflect the minimalist undercurrent of the piece, the use of exact retrograde inversions could reflect an influence of the 12-tone serialism Pärt had previously been experimenting with. The use of this technique throughout this piece beautifully complements the thematic content because it offers a subtle variation to the same material. While the retrograde is not aurally perceivable to the listener, it offers a sense of continuity while not seeming repetitive or trite.

Other than the melodic retrograde following the initial variation, Pärt uses many different techniques to alter the melodic material so that while maintaining a similar harmonic structure throughout the piece based on A and d harmonic minor, it seems to move somewhere and change. Shifting between slow legato chords and pedal notes and fast arpeggiated figures helps create a sense of contrast. The polymetric structure offers a strong sense of pulse but aurally obscures the downbeat. The switch 64th notes, 16th notes, 8th notes and the longer quarter and half notes that consist of most of the piano part, along with the switch between a triplet feel (such as at measure 30) and an 8th note feel, also offer a sense of contrast.


Harmonic contrast is offered by moving the second hexachord up or down an octave (measure 11 moved up, measure 14 moved down) as well as the general re-voicing of chords and pitch collections. The dynamic markings and dramatic juxtaposition of a really fast loud and intense variations followed by a soft and quiet variation creates a mood of spiritual elation and makes the melodic content seem much different while really it’s still based on the same harmonic structures. The double-stop passage which begins at measure 38 is extremely dramatic and intense because of it’s leaps in octave and also because of the double forte dynamic marking. The piece finally ends with the same two measure figure in 6/4 time, signifying the end of the final variation and the end of the piece.

Arvo Pärt’s “Fratres” is an astounding example of the principle concepts of minimalist music injected with his own experience with different musical idioms and his own spiritual beliefs. The chant inspired quality and bell-like characteristic that he searched for in his work offers a beautiful placid tone, which is then contrasted by fast arpeggios and intensity. While the harmonic structure of the piece is limited and mostly unchanging, the use of various rhythmic figures, polymetric changes, retrogade melodies, and re-voiced chords offer enough deviation from the initial material and keeps the audience engaged for the entire twelve minutes. The original version of “Fratres” was composed in 1977 for string quartet and wind quintet. Aside from the version for violin and piano analyzed in this paper, Pärt arranged five other versions of Fratres. The fact that it has been arranged for so many different instrumentations gives the piece a sort of ethereal quality that is also felt by the mood created in the piece. Through his process of tintinnabulation, Pärt tapped into some mystic bells that transport the listener into a contemplative place through the subtle changes and underlying stationary form and harmonic structure.


Works Cited:

Pinkerton, David E. (1996) “Tinntinabulation”. http://www.arvopart.org/tintinnabulation.html