Arvo Pärt wrote Für Alina instead of going for a walk

There is a small surprise at the end of Für Alina. Its melody gains one note per bar until it reaches eight, then starts shrinking. In the final bar, where the pattern would leave a single note, Arvo Pärt adds three more. The composer’s Centre describes the rule and its exception together. Simplicity does not remove the possibility of a change of direction.

Nora Pärt recalled suggesting a forest walk on 7 February 1976. Arvo stayed at the piano; the walk never happened, and Für Alina did. It became his first tintinnabuli composition. The melody is paired with another voice drawn from a triad, but the resulting music need not be reduced to a reassuring label such as calm.

Advised to try an unfamiliar art, the Pärts painted flowerpots. Nora recalled the “courage to do poorly and fail”. A surviving pot dates from 1977, after Für Alina: no proof of what brought about the piece.

Alina was the daughter of the Pärts’ friend, Lithuanian theatre scholar Irena Veisaitė. The Centre connects the dedication with their separation by the Iron Curtain. The album bearing her name came later: ECM recorded Alina in Frankfurt in July 1995 and first released it in 1999.

Alexander Malter plays the linked performance, lasting 10 minutes and 47 seconds. ECM describes the composer and producer encouraging him to find fresh ways of phrasing the melody. Follow the ends of phrases and the time before the next one begins. A small number of notes still leaves the player with decisions to make.