Arvo Pärt's Trivium from 1988, like his Pari intervallo from a dozen years earlier, was scored for organ only after being composed with different performance forces in mind. As it turns out, this is one of several similarities between the two works. They share a common central compositional procedure, which not only results in related sonorities but which carry the same kinds of religious symbolisms as well. Pari intervallo was one of the seven works performed in 1976 under the title Tintinnabuli. Trivium utilizes a compositional technique developed in those early pieces, which takes its onomatopoetic name from the sound of a struck bell. This so-named tintinnabular composition, as developed by Pärt, might be described as an exploration of tonality outside the bounds of harmonic functionality. That is, the tonic, or main key, area isn't a point of departure and return, but rather a field of exploration in and of itself. The technique involves the coordination of two kinds of lines that Paul Hillier, in his 1997 book on Pärt, conveniently identifies as M-lines and T-lines. M- (for melodic) lines undertake stepwise figures, usually within and across a diatonic (non-chromatic) scale. T- (for tintinnabular) lines confine themselves to notes within the tonic chord, often arppeggiating in patterns determined by the motion of the M-line. The voices are usually homophonically paired so that while the tonic is always being represented by the T-voice, it is the central thread within a broader and constantly changing harmonic landscape. The titles of both Pari intervallo and Trivium hint at the processes with which they are constructed. Pari intervallo maintains the same textural structure throughout of two M-voices in parallel motion, separated by a pair of tintinnabular lines. On the other hand, the title Trivium refers not to the stratified construction of the work, but rather to the work's tripartite formal structure (and perhaps, if only circumstantially, to the all-important triad). The tintinnabular structure varies over the course of the three sections. In the first, three voices are heard: a melodic voice in the middle range, its corresponding T-voice, and a sustained pedal tone. In the second section, the pedal drops an octave opening up space for a deluge of additional voice pairs. Finally, the added voices are silenced and the pedal tone completely disappears in the third section, leaving only a single pair of voices. While it is certainly possible to occupy yourself with a concrete analysis of the mechanisms at work in this piece, Pärt's personal and profound religious convictions beg a less formalistic reading. (Certainly a detailed interpretation is not possible here, but when listening to Trivium, you should at least be aware of the spiritual nature of the tintinnabular structure.) Himself a devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church, Pärt sees the combination of the M- and T-voices as an embodiment of embodiment; that is, of the spirit's inhabitation of the body. The melodic line is sin, mortality, carnality, and earth; the tintinnabular voice is redemption, immortality, godliness, and heaven. The impossible combination of T- and M-voices, of harmonic variation, and of tonic stability, finds company in the puzzling Christian paradoxes that Pärt's religious philosophies inevitably encounter: the unity of an eternal spirit with a mortal tabernacle, the cohabitation of good and evil, and the manhood and godhood of a messiah.

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