JAVS Summer 2025

Featured Article

A Mirror of the Soul: The Viola in Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel by Xue Ding

Upon first hearing Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel , I was struck not only by its crystalline simplicity, but by how the viola—an instrument often associated with inner harmony and human vulnerability—emerged as a voice of profound stillness and clarity. Pärt’s composition, written in 1978, exemplifies his self-devised tintinnabuli style, a technique he developed after a long period of compositional silence and spiritual searching. 1 This style, derived from the Latin word for “little bells,” reflects not only a musical structure but a metaphysical worldview. 2 The piece juxtaposes a stepwise diatonic melody (the M-voice) with a triadic arpeggiation (the T-voice), a texture that evokes both the tolling of a bell and the dualism Pärt describes as “body and spirit, earth and heaven”—a twofold yet unified musical and spiritual reality. 3 Pärt’s artistic journey toward tintinnabuli was shaped by his early engagement with modernist and serialist techniques, and later, a transformative immersion in medieval chant and sacred polyphony. 4 After composing Credo in 1968, he withdrew from the public eye for nearly seven years, during which he not only studied early music in depth but also embraced the Russian Orthodox faith. 5 This spiritual and aesthetic reorientation led to a music that is rigorously ordered yet deeply devotional. In Spiegel im Spiegel , we hear this synthesis: a minimalist transparency underpinned by medieval modality, Orthodox theology, and symmetrical formal design. This article reexamines Spiegel im Spiegel through the lens of the violist, drawing connections between Pärt’s minimalist ethos, medieval inspirations, and spiritual convictions. In doing so, I argue that the viola is not merely a melodic participant but a contemplative agent within a metaphysical framework—a mirror for the soul. Far from being a vehicle for virtuosity, the viola in this context becomes a vessel of stillness and grace, embodying the work’s call for inwardness and unity.

Structure and Symmetry: Mirror Within Mirror The title Spiegel im Spiegel —often translated as “Mirror in the Mirror” or “Mirrors in Mirrors”—suggests an infinite reflection, an ever-repeating image that extends beyond itself. For the violist, this metaphor is more than conceptual; it is embodied in every phrase, every breath, every bow stroke. The music asks us not to project, but to reflect—sound as mirror, player as vessel. It is an invitation into a space of restraint, patience, and deep internal listening. At the heart of Spiegel im Spiegel is the idea of mirrored phrasing: every melodic gesture presented in the viola is paired with its inversion, creating a symmetrical whole. This is not mere mathematical play; it evokes the spiritual balance Pärt sought to express through tintinnabuli —a world where every ascent has its descent, every gesture its echo. The viola line, unhurried and chant-like, unfolds in carefully crafted two-part phrases, each resolving to a long, luminous A4. This is no ordinary A—it is the concert A, the pitch we tune to as a musical community. In this way, it becomes a symbol of unity, of centeredness, of home. Pärt’s consistent return to this tone lends the piece a kind of ritual gravity, drawing the listener—and the performer—into a circle of return. Remarkably, the first three measures of the viola line are silent. The piece begins not with a note, but with space. As violists, we are often told to count the rests, but here we are asked to inhabit them. This opening silence is not empty; it is preparatory, sacred—a breath before the utterance. As Paul Hillier once noted, “The source of music is silence, which is the ground of our musical being.” 6 Pärt, who himself withdrew from composition for nearly seven years before creating this work, understood silence not as absence but as presence. And for us, as interpreters, that silence demands presence as well.

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 41, Summer 2025 Online Issue

19