Fratres (Latin for “Brothers”) was composed in 1977 and belongs to the many works (Für Alina, Cantus, Tabula rasa etc.) that were created explosively after recognising the principles of tintinnabuli music.

Fratres was initially composed as three-part music without fixed instrumentation that can be performed with various instruments. This is possible using the basic principle of the tintinnabuli technique, where the musical material does not necessarily have to be tied to the timbre of a specific instrument. Such a practice was also used in Medieval and Renaissance music which Pärt intensively explored before the birth of his tintinnabuli style. The composition was premiered in 1977 by the composer’s like-minded friends from the early music group Hortus Musicus, and the original version of Fratres was also dedicated to them.

Structurally, Fratres consists of a set of variations separated by recurring percussion motifs (in the case of instrument settings without percussion, the drum-like sound is imitated). Throughout the composition we can hear a recurrent theme that starts each time in a different octave. We can clearly recognise three voices: two melodic lines mainly moving stepwise and the central tintinnabuli voice moving on the notes of minor triad. These are accompanied throughout the entire composition by a resounding low drone of fifth. Characteristically for Arvo Pärt, the apparent simplicity of the composition is governed by strict mathematical rules that determine the movement of voices, length of the melody and phrases, time signature alternations and so much more.

Fratres also exists as three-part music with added variations for the solo instrument. The first among these was written for violin and piano and was commissioned by the Salzburger Festspiele festival. It was premiered in 1980 at the festival, performed by Gidon Kremer and Elena Kremer. The technically demanding part of the solo instrument was added to the recurring three-part theme as a new layer, placing even more emphasis on the contrast between the changing and constant elements.

Fratres has become one of the best-known and most performed works by Arvo Pärt. It has been used in numerous movie soundtracks and dance shows.

Notes courtesy of the Arvo Pärdi Keskus

I chose this piece to be a central part of the Lachrymae concept because it reflects a very different side to how composers reflect the music of the past.
Engraving is not a pastiche of early music, nor does it directly quote a song from the renaissance. Yet, whenever I hear or play the opening few lines, I can’t help but hear the sounds of a Shakuhachi in the distance, or some ancient, ceremonial incandation.

The piece is very open for interpretation, and I hope you can appreciate it within the content of the other pieces presented this afternoon.

‘This work was written especially for a competition for viola players. This unique situation brought with it its own inspiration. So many contestants will need to learn the work and the judges will have to endure hearing the same piece played again and again. So I wanted to make sure that each player can distinguish his/her performance by more than just the interpretation of phrasing and tempo. So each player has the option of re-structuring the piece, making each performance unique.

The piece is structured in three macro sections:

Section 1 has 4 elements: A, B, C, D

Section 2 has just 1 element

Section 3 has 3 elements: E, F, G

In Section 1, the FOUR elements (A, B, C, D) can be played in any order. All elements must be used, but cannot be repeated.

Similarly, in Section 3, the THREE elements (E, F, G) can be played in any order. All elements must be used, but cannot be repeated.

Once the performer has chosen an order, all elements and sections should be played attacca and must be played as one piece of music, as if it were written out exactly from beginning to an end in traditional fashion.

Within the scope of these restrictions there are 144 possible permutations for the performer.

The premise of ‘Engraving” is that the player has more freedom to “shape” the piece and deliver a unique performance. The audience and judges have the opportunity appreciate how each musician’s mind works in building the musical structure in addition to enjoying each player’s phrasing and choice of tempi.’

-DF

In Britten’s Lachrymae, which you will hear after this, he quotes two songs by the British Rennaissance composer John Dowland; Flow my Tears, and If my complaints could passions move. He is, however, rather cryptic and unclear with his use of theme and variations, and so I thought I’d give you a head start by hearing both of these songs in their full glory, ahead of time. You are welcome.

Flow my teares fall from your springs,

Exilde for euer: Let mee morne

Where nights black bird hir sad infamy sings,

There let mee liue forlorne.

Downe vaine lights shine you no more,

No nights are dark enough for those

That in dispaire their last fortuns deplore,

Light doth but shame disclose.

Neuer may my woes be relieued,

Since pittie is fled,

And teares, and sighes, and grones my wearie dayes, my wearie dayes,

Of all ioyes haue depriued.

Frō the highest spire of contentment,

My fortune is throwne,

And feare, and griefe, and paine for my deserts, for my deserts,

Are my hopes since hope is gone.

Harke you shadowes that in darcknesse dwell,

Learne to contemne light,

Happie, happie they that in hell

Feele not the worlds despite.

If my complaints could passions move,

Or make Love see wherein I suffer wrong:

My passions were enough to prove,

That my despairs had govern'd me too long.

O Love, I live and die in thee,

Thy grief in my deep sighs still speaks:

Thy wounds do freshly bleed in me,

My heart for thy unkindness breaks:

Yet thou dost hope when I despair,

And when I hope, thou mak'st me hope in vain.

Thou say's thou canst my harms repair,

Yet for redress, thou let'st me still complain.

Can Love be rich, and yet I want?

Is Love my judge, and yet am I condemn'd?

Thou plenty hast, yet me dost scant:

Thou made a god, and yet thy pow'r contemn'd.

That I do live, it is thy pow'r:

That I desire it is thy worth:

If Love doth make men's lives too sour,

Let me not love, nor live henceforth.

Die shall my hopes, but not my faith,

That you that of my fall may hearers be

May here despair, which truly saith,

I was more true to Love than Love to me.

Britten began learning the viola aged around 9 or 10 and composed a number of early pieces for it, including a sonata in 1926. In later life, however, the only piece that exists for solo viola is the beautiful Lachrymae where it is accompanied by piano. It was composed for the Scottish violist William Primrose, whom Britten encountered during a visit to the USA In 1949. The story goes that Britten promised Primrose a new piece, partly to persuade the player to perform at the Aldeburgh Festival, forgot all about it then composed it overnight following a telephone reminder from Primrose. Such haste is scarcely evident in this haunting and cleverly worked-out piece.

Lachrymae is a series of variations on the first phrase of Dowland’s song ‘If my complaints could passions move’. Following a Lento introduction in which the song is quoted in the bass of the piano part, a sequence of contrasting ‘reflections’ ensues. In the sixth, Appassionato, Britten quotes from another Dowland song, ‘Flow my tears’. The last section returns by means of a slow crescendo to Dowland’s original melody and harmony, when it is heard complete for the first time. Britten’s exploration of the Dowland material is extremely thorough, and it generates not only the principal melodic material but the harmonic vocabulary as well. Such is its organic resourcefulness that the techniques used in Lachrymae are reminiscent of the exhaustive musical derivations to be found in the Church Parables of the subsequent decade.

06/04/24

Dominic stokes will be presenting LACHRYMAE again at St Brides’ Fleet Street, with pianist Stephen Gutman

14/04/24

Steven Neugarten will be the soloist in a rare London performance of the piano concerto by Antonín Dvořák on Sunday April 14th, details here: https://www.wegottickets.com/event/60265

05/05/24

Dominic will be performing Bruno Maderna’s epic solo work VIOLA in Milton Court concert hall, as part of the BBC SO Total Immersion

04/06/24

Dominic will be performing a wide range of music for viola and piano, including Rebecca Clarke’s sonata, and Dobrinka Tabakova’s Jazz Suite, as part of his final recital at GSMD