Arvo Pärt at 90

throw0101d 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Got worried for a moment: this is a profile on him, not an obituary.

Pärt leans towards a form of minimalism, which not everyone likes. Some of the works I personally lean towards are:

* "Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvfvO3dJqFY

* "De Profundis": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vOSKaKJ1QY

* "Te Deum"† (~30m): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNxbT0MESTY

* "Fratres" (for cello and piano): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4XMjsYeMig

* "Fratres" (for violin and piano): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PS5QMsGaRw

* "Fratres" (for violin, chambre orchestra, percussion): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9I-6QPT8Is

* the Tabula rasa album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YqF69HLkj8

If you're going to listen to a choral work, it's worth looking first for recordings by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, as Pärt often collaborates with them (sits in on performances, recordings; he's Estonian himself so there's a 'cultural collection').

† On a historical note, the "Te Deum" is one of the earliest Christians hymns we know about (and that is still used), apparently dating back to before 500 AD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te_Deum

▲

tgv 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

For me, "Pari Intervallo" is also a highlight. It's very simple in conception, just like his other works, and uses the tintinnabulli style in a slow canon with (as the title says) fixed intervals very effectively. It wasn't composed for a particular instrument. I like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjUBhXi-0aY

"Für Alina", same style, written for piano, here with score: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvXy69eF__Y, so you can see how simple it really is. Don't believe that simplicity is all there is to it, though. There are many composers of "simple" music nowadays, and most, like Einaudi, produce nothing but trite musical wall paper.

It wasn't mentioned in the article, but I think it's fair to say that Pärt has brought a small revolution to (classical) music.

	▲	PaulRobinson 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		I mostly agree but for the needless swipe at Einaudi. He writes popular classical, but I don't feel its trite, and has led more than a few people to classical in a wider sense. I personally find some of his compositions quite moving, and have seen him live before (and will see him again at the Royal Albert Hall next Spring), and I'll also be at the late night prom in celebration of Pärt this week, also at the Royal Albert Hall. But then, I can listen to Tallis and Metallica, I've got a wide taste. Perhaps I just have a broader palate than most, but I don't see any reason to be a snob about one genre, musician or composer over another...

▲

gsinclair 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Tabula Rasa is such a beautiful modern masterpiece.

	▲	pimeys 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		The performance of Fratres, for violin & piano with Gidon Kremer and Keith Jarret from the 80's is one of the best classical performances in my collection. It's so amazing, and with good headphones, the timbre of the violin and Kremer's high notes are absolutely gorgeous. I was lucky enough to see a performance by the Estonian Festival Orchestra in the Berlin Philharmonics a few years back. The whole full big room was dead quiet and listening, it was so good.

▲

airesQ 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There's a slower and arguably better version of Pärt's "De Profundis":

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twzmflIdYmw

▲

throw0101d 4 days ago | parent [-]

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twzmflIdYmw

I have a CD of Hillier's album (one of the first ways I was exposed to Pärt):

* https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lmpgHbTQHjWV6o...

See Summa (Credo) and perhaps Seven Magnificat Antiphons in it.

	▲	haberman 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Shameless plug, I helped produce and sang on this disc of Pärt by tbe Byrd Ensemble of Seattle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc96YWX4qAE&list=PLbeKTzt34V... Excerpts of it were later featured in a French movie called L'Apparition whose soundtrack features a lot of Pärt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apparition_(2018_film)

▲

4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

▲

4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

▲

hammock 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Check out Magnificat also

	▲	throw0101d 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		> Magnificat I have a few of Hillier's Pärt CDs: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04XKjal0grI

▲

antognini 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In addition to his more substantial pieces that others have mentioned, the real turning point in his music was a very small piece called Für Alina:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvXy69eF__Y

Prior to this he had composed in the dissonant, serialist style that was expected of "serious" art music in the middle of the 20th century. This was the first piece where he broke with the contemporary style and introduced his unique "tintinnabuli" style.

If you have even a basic familiarity with music theory it's worth taking a look at the structure of the piece because it's surprisingly simple for the effect. As the right hand plays the melody, the left hand simply plays notes from a b minor chord, with the particular note being whatever is just beyond one octave below the note that the right hand is playing. However there is one exception towards the end where the left hand plays a C# instead of a D as it would be expected to, and this marks the climax of the piece.

▲

kmarc 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I didn't expect this name showing up here.

There is no way I can start listening to Fratres without tears appearing in my eyes. It's a work of an impossible master mind, a piece that converts the performer's precision into the listener's frisson. A cathartic experience, every single time.

	▲	pimeys 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		I was not into classical _at all_. Until I heard Tabula Rasa for the first time. Since then I've been in many concerts and hunting down the best classical performances as SACD to my collection.

▲

sombragris 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

One of his most beautiful and well-known pieces is "Spiegel im Spiegel": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZe3mXlnfNc

	▲	medion 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		This piece always brings me to tears. I was lucky enough to meet Part, have a brief conversation and shake his hand after a performance in Hamburg… A moment I will never forget.

▲

lukeh 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If you are ever in Tallinn, it’s well worth the visit to the Arvo Pärt Centre.

▲

ziofill 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

“Sarah was ninety years old” is one of the most beautiful and haunting pieces of music ever written. If you don’t know it, check it out

▲

ofalkaed 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

https://youtu.be/PzSlmWQuHFw

https://youtu.be/T2WuzKeDx8U

▲

scop 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Bach and Part are the two composers who make music not just of man but of the glory of God Himself. IYKYK.

▲

tern 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Carnatic, Qawwali and many more central Asian musics as well, i.e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pran_Nath_(musician) to pick a particularly influential person to the Western canon

▲

lo_zamoyski 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Not a fan of Pärt myself, but Zelenka is a good one to pair with Bach (they were contemporaries and knew each other, holding each other in high esteem).

▲

qwertox 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

You mean "god", right?

	▲	tern 4 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		"God" is capitalized for the same reason "Earth" or "the Universe" is capitalized. What precisely is meant may differ, but it's rich even for a materialist to argue that the name for the personification of the ground of being shouldn't be capitalized (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptions_of_God)
	▲	smallerize 4 days ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Pärt a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture.
	▲	kaonwarb 4 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		These two composers certainly meant God.