About Für Alina:
Für Alina is a work for piano composed by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. It can be considered as an essential work of his tintinnabuli style.Read the rest HERE.
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Für Alina was dedicated to a family friend's eighteen-year-old daughter. The family had broken up and the daughter went to England with her father. The work, dedicated to the daughter, was actually meant as a work of consolation for the girl's mother, missing her child. Its introspection calls to mind a vivid image of youth, off to explore the world....
Evokes an aura of distilled Loneliness and Desolation –– Haunting –– Eerie –– ultimately disturbing. I'm not sure I lke being alone in the house with this music in these early morn[ng hourst before the sun comes up, and the neighbors begin to stir.
ReplyDeleteDesite its essential tranquillity after five minutes it ceases to feel soothing, becomes disquieting –– almost like a lurkng GHOSTLY Presence –– yet it has made me feel ISOLATED.
Since there are so few notes to the work wth, no time signature, and an unvarying texture that is almost UNNERVING the piece is EXTREMELY demanding of the performer.
Because it allows for extreme latitude on the part of the pianist, it throws a tremendous burden into the player's lap.
Given "just the notes" the piece would make no sense at all if.It demands probing INSIGHT and vivid imagination and fierce cincentration on the part of the performer to brng it off successfully.
As always the expresssiv nature of music lies BETWEEN, OVER, UNDER and AROUND the notes. In other words what the pianist is thinking and feeling in the space surrounding the notes is the ONLY thing that brings LIFE to the music.
Interesting, yes, but I doubt it could ever beci]me a popular favorite on recital programs.
Franco,
DeleteThank you for your analysis.
This piece is apparently the most frequently performed of Pärt's compositions. Go figure.
I did find this clue as to why he composted pieces often restricted to the upper and lower registers:
Pärt was born in Paide, Järva County, Estonia and was raised by his mother and stepfather in Rakvere in northern Estonia. He began to experiment with the top and bottom notes of the family's piano as the middle register was damaged.
This is a first for me... I had not heard of him previously... interesting to say the least, and some story. Thanks.. :)
ReplyDelete