Spiegel im Spiegel
Soul Music
BBC
4.7 • 831 Ratings
🗓️ 30 August 2011
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Exploring the impact that Estonian composer Arvo Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel has had on people's lives.
Written in 1978, just prior to his departure from Estonia, Arvo’s piece for piano and violin is musically minimal, yet produces a serene tranquillity.
It's in F major in 6/4 time, with the piano playing rising crotchet triads and the violin playing slow scales, alternately rising and falling, of increasing length, which all end on the note A.
The score of the piece looks deceptively simple, but as violinist, Tasmin Little explains, it's one of the most difficult pieces to perform because the playing has to simply be perfect, or the mood is lost.
"Spiegel im Spiegel" in German literally can mean both "mirror in the mirror" as well as "mirrors in the mirror", referring to the infinity of images produced by parallel plane mirrors.
The music inspired visual artist Mary Husted to produce a set of collages called "Spiegel im Spiegel" which in a roundabout way, led to her being traced by her long lost son.
Contributors:
Doreen Macfarlane Rhona Smith Mary Husted Tasmin Little Vicky Smith
Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.
Producer: Rosie Boulton
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2011.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others. |
| 0:05.1 | My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland. |
| 0:11.3 | It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here, |
| 0:16.2 | but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world. |
| 0:19.6 | And because the team is such a diverse range of skills and strengths, |
| 0:23.0 | we have trained journalists, people who love digging through archives, |
| 0:26.6 | we've got drama and even comedy experts. |
| 0:28.9 | We really can do those stories justice. |
| 0:31.5 | So if you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds |
| 0:34.2 | where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories from all around the UK. |
| 0:39.3 | You're listening to a download of soul music from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:44.8 | One week before, they owe my atrocity, Samantha came round to me in the kitchen and said to me, |
| 0:51.7 | Mum, will you please come around and listen to this music? |
| 0:55.6 | And I said, yeah, that's fine. |
| 0:57.2 | So I went around to the room with my apron on and sat down on the settee. |
| 1:02.8 | And Samantha then switched on, put on the music. |
| 1:06.0 | But she also told me how to listen to the music, let it float over my head. |
| 1:11.3 | And this is exactly what it was, Spiegel, M. Spiegel. |
| 1:21.3 | She was working on that day, I should say, with Oxfam, for Oxfam, I should say. |
| 1:26.5 | And she also worked for Bernardo's. |
| 1:29.1 | But she was also a wonderful girl at collecting in town. |
| 1:32.3 | She collected for many things, many, many things, in fact. |
... |
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