What happens when you treat the simple C major scale as a diatonic tone row?
The answer can be heard in Solfeggio, the first a cappella choral work of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935). Composed in 1963, the same year as Pärt’s Symphony No. 1, Op. 9, “Polyphonic,” Solfeggio anticipates the composer’s later meditative tintinnabuli style.
Solfeggio unfolds with a sense of cosmic timelessness. Serene clusters of sound form and dissipate as each vocal line enters successively in different octaves. The text consists of the syllable names of the notes (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si). Dissonances give way magically to sudden unexpected triads. Conductor and early music scholar Paul Hillier comments that it is “as if the composer got caught up in a secret garden, but is not yet ready to understand its beauty, which is perfect unto itself.”
The structure of this sublime, haunting music emerges from strict adherence to formal rules and predetermined algorithms.
Recordings
- Pärt: Solfeggio, Polyphony, Stephen Layton Amazon
Featured Image: Solfège, preliminary cover design for Petit Solfège Illustré (c. 1891-1893), Pierre Bonnard