Spiegel im Spiegel

You may have seen New Beginnings, the short film released by New York City Ballet on September 12. It features a moving performance on the 57th floor terrace of 4 World Trade Center at dawn and is intended to be “a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, and a tribute to the future of the city that New York City Ballet calls home.”

The music is Spiegel im Spiegel (mirror in the mirror), written in 1978 by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (b.1935). Here is a recording of the piece by violinist Nicola Benedetti and pianist Alexei Grynyuk. As you listen, consider how the music is flowing and what effect it has on your sense of time. Is there a process unfolding throughout the piece? Why do you think it’s called Spiegel im Spiegel, or “mirror in the mirror”?

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/part-fratres-tabula-rasa-spiegel/id105482093″]Find on iTunes http://www.amazon.com/Fratres-Tasmin-Little/dp/B00006YX7L”]Find on Amazon

If you hold a mirror in front of another mirror the reflections become infinite. You probably noticed a similar process happening musically. The violin keeps returning to the pitch, “A.” The piece develops slowly as pitches are added, one at a time in perfect inversions below and above this “A”. Consider how this incremental development influences your sense of expectation.

Spiegel im Spiegel evolves outward, filling up musical “space” and giving us the sense of time flowing through music. This might remind you of the additive process we heard in Steve Reich’s Different Trains in the last “Listeners’ Club” post. In the late 1970’s a handful of American composers such as Reich and Philip Glass were experimenting with minimalism-circular, repetitive music which flowed in a fundamentally different way. Around the same time Arvo Pärt, trapped behind the Iron Curtain and cut off from most outside musical influences, discarded atonality and began writing similar music. Pärt’s meditative minimalism is rooted in mysticism and influenced by early music, especially Gregorian chant.

This episode of the BBC series, Soul Music explores Spiegel im Spiegel and its effect on listeners. Listen a few more times and share your thoughts on the music in the thread below.

I could compare my music to white light which contains all colors. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener.

-Arvo Pärt

About Timothy Judd

A native of Upstate New York, Timothy Judd has been a member of the Richmond Symphony violin section since 2001. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where he earned the degrees Bachelor of Music and Master of Music, studying with world renowned Ukrainian-American violinist Oleh Krysa.

The son of public school music educators, Timothy Judd began violin lessons at the age of four through Eastman’s Community Education Division. He was a student of Anastasia Jempelis, one of the earliest champions of the Suzuki method in the United States.

A passionate teacher, Mr. Judd has maintained a private violin studio in the Richmond area since 2002 and has been active coaching chamber music and numerous youth orchestra sectionals.

In his free time, Timothy Judd enjoys working out with Richmond’s popular SEAL Team Physical Training program.

4 thoughts on “Spiegel im Spiegel”

  1. questa di Arvo Part è sempre stata da circa 20 anni una delle mie musiche preferite, là dove il tempo si è fermato e si riflette in un ricordo struggente la cui bellezza è incomparabile…
    si intravvede, in questa preghiera solare di meditazione, la massima aspirazione al bello dove l’arte infinita diventa cosmica…

    carlo lamberti ( http://www.albabarozzi.it)

    Reply
    • Thank you, Carlo. Here is an English translation:

      Arvo Part of this has always been for 20 years one of my favorite music, where the time has stopped and is reflected in a poignant reminder whose beauty is incomparable …
      is barely visible in this prayer solar meditation, the highest aspiration to beauty where art becomes infinite cosmic …

      Reply
  2. I heard this piece a few years ago and was immediately transfixed… It has been a favourite ever since and transports me out of ‘the everyday’ into somewhere ethereal… JL

    Reply
  3. The most beautiful and haunting lullaby I’ve ever heard… It makes for a wonderful sleepy-time music for my baby who started out as a preemie… She falls asleep instantly as soon as she hears this beautiful song.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Malia Cancel reply