Fratres - composed by Arvo Pärt - performed by The Kronos Quartet
Unearthly, spooky playing here by the Kronos Quartet.
Arvo Pärt is a modern composer who has become enamored of the sounds and procedures of the earliest composers in the Western tradition. The English translation of the Latin title is "brothers" and is probably meant to evoke the sound and spirit of monastic times.
Fratres starts ultraquietly with a quiet low drone that lasts from the piece's beginning to it's end, which sounds along with three quiet flamenco-like strums repeated twice.
Then the violins enter whispering and shimmering in their highest register barely playing a slow medieval sounding theme that will repeat throughout the rest of the performance, each repetition punctuated by the the strums at the end.
Each time the theme plays, the tempo is unchanging, and it becomes slightly louder and is reorchestrated to play in a slightly lower register for the quartet's instruments.
Six minutes pass before the quartet finally uses it's full volume and traditional string quartet timbre, which persists for exactly one complete playthrough. Such a glorious sound!
From that peak, the theme repeats, quieter and quieter, and lower finally ending with a muttered performance in the lowest bass.
To appreciate this best, turn your sound system up.
Locating MOG account...
Comments (3)
It's a great piece of music and Paart is well worth exploring further. Hope you opened up some ears with this one.
Nice Dave, I will check 'er out!!
Hi Jared, when I posted this when I was last on MOG two years ago, I had to post the mp3 from my collection, which was allowed at that time. I had to do the mp3 because it wasn't available in MOG's library at that moment,
inevitably MOG has run run into trouble with the music industry, and has disabled the ability to play old mp3 posts.
They have gotten access to the track in a Kronos retrospective album. I've just reposted this as a review for that album. You should receive an email for that repost since you added me to your trusted list.