Arvo Pärt (11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of classical and sacr… Read Full Bio ↴Arvo Pärt (11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of classical and sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-invented compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music is in part inspired by Gregorian chant. Pärt has been the most performed living composer in the world for 5 consecutive years.
Arvo Pärt was born in Paide, Järva County, Estonia. His musical studies began in 1954 at the Tallinn Music Secondary School, interrupted less than a year later while he fulfilled his National Service obligation as oboist and side-drummer in an army band. He returned to Middle School for a year before joining the Tallinn Conservatory in 1957, where his composition teacher was Professor Heino Eller. Pärt started work as a recording engineer with Estonian Radio, wrote music for the stage and received numerous commissions for film scores so that, by the time he graduated from the Conservatory in 1963, he could already be considered a professional composer. A year before leaving, he won first prize in the All-Union Young Composers' Competition for a children's cantata, Our Garden, and an oratorio, Stride of the World.
Today Arvo Pärt is best known for his choral works, which he started to produce in the 1980s, after his emigration from the former Soviet Union to Germany, Berlin. Before that he had written his most recognised works from the 1970s, Fratres, Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, and Tabula Rasa. In 1978 Pärt composed Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in Mirror).
Pärt's oeuvre is generally divided into two periods. His early works ranged from rather severe neo-classical styles influenced by Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Bartók. He then began to compose using Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique and serialism. This, however, not only earned the ire of the Soviet establishment, but also proved to be a creative dead-end. When early works were banned by Soviet censors, Pärt entered the first of several periods of contemplative silence, during which he studied choral music from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries.
The spirit of early European polyphony informed the composition of Pärt's transitional third symphony (1971); thereafter he immersed himself in early music, re-investigating the roots of western music. He studied plainsong, Gregorian chant, and the emergence of polyphony in the Renaissance. The music that began to emerge after this period was radically different. This period of new compositions included Fratres, Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, and Tabula rasa.
Pärt describes it as tintinnabuli: like the ringing of bells. The music is characterised by simple harmonies, often single unadorned notes, or triad chords which form the basis of western harmony. These are reminiscent of ringing bells. Tintinnabuli works are rhythmically simple, and do not change tempo. The influence of early music is clear. Another characteristic of Pärt's later works is that they are frequently settings for sacred texts, although he mostly chooses Latin or the Church Slavonic language used in Orthodox liturgy instead of his native Estonian language. Large-scale works inspired by religious texts include St John Passion, Te Deum, and Litany. Choral works from this period include Magnificat and The Beatitudes.
A new composition, Für Lennart, written for the memory of the Estonian President Lennart Meri, was played at his funeral service on 2nd April 2006. In response to the murder of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow on 7th October 2006, Pärt declared that all his works performed in 2006-2007 would be in commemoration of her death.
Pärt was honoured as the featured composer of the 2008 RTÉ Living Music Festival in Dublin, Ireland. He was also recently commissioned by Louth Contemporary Music Society to compose a new choral work based on St Patrick's Breastplate, to be premiered in 2008 in Louth, Ireland.
Arvo Pärt was born in Paide, Järva County, Estonia. His musical studies began in 1954 at the Tallinn Music Secondary School, interrupted less than a year later while he fulfilled his National Service obligation as oboist and side-drummer in an army band. He returned to Middle School for a year before joining the Tallinn Conservatory in 1957, where his composition teacher was Professor Heino Eller. Pärt started work as a recording engineer with Estonian Radio, wrote music for the stage and received numerous commissions for film scores so that, by the time he graduated from the Conservatory in 1963, he could already be considered a professional composer. A year before leaving, he won first prize in the All-Union Young Composers' Competition for a children's cantata, Our Garden, and an oratorio, Stride of the World.
Today Arvo Pärt is best known for his choral works, which he started to produce in the 1980s, after his emigration from the former Soviet Union to Germany, Berlin. Before that he had written his most recognised works from the 1970s, Fratres, Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, and Tabula Rasa. In 1978 Pärt composed Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in Mirror).
Pärt's oeuvre is generally divided into two periods. His early works ranged from rather severe neo-classical styles influenced by Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Bartók. He then began to compose using Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique and serialism. This, however, not only earned the ire of the Soviet establishment, but also proved to be a creative dead-end. When early works were banned by Soviet censors, Pärt entered the first of several periods of contemplative silence, during which he studied choral music from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries.
The spirit of early European polyphony informed the composition of Pärt's transitional third symphony (1971); thereafter he immersed himself in early music, re-investigating the roots of western music. He studied plainsong, Gregorian chant, and the emergence of polyphony in the Renaissance. The music that began to emerge after this period was radically different. This period of new compositions included Fratres, Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, and Tabula rasa.
Pärt describes it as tintinnabuli: like the ringing of bells. The music is characterised by simple harmonies, often single unadorned notes, or triad chords which form the basis of western harmony. These are reminiscent of ringing bells. Tintinnabuli works are rhythmically simple, and do not change tempo. The influence of early music is clear. Another characteristic of Pärt's later works is that they are frequently settings for sacred texts, although he mostly chooses Latin or the Church Slavonic language used in Orthodox liturgy instead of his native Estonian language. Large-scale works inspired by religious texts include St John Passion, Te Deum, and Litany. Choral works from this period include Magnificat and The Beatitudes.
A new composition, Für Lennart, written for the memory of the Estonian President Lennart Meri, was played at his funeral service on 2nd April 2006. In response to the murder of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow on 7th October 2006, Pärt declared that all his works performed in 2006-2007 would be in commemoration of her death.
Pärt was honoured as the featured composer of the 2008 RTÉ Living Music Festival in Dublin, Ireland. He was also recently commissioned by Louth Contemporary Music Society to compose a new choral work based on St Patrick's Breastplate, to be premiered in 2008 in Louth, Ireland.
Christmas Lullaby
Arvo Pärt Lyrics
We have lyrics for 'Christmas Lullaby' by these artists:
Amy Grant Are you far away from home This dark and lonely night Tell…
Amy Grant Are you far away from home This dark and lonely night Tell…
Ashley Slater I can’t make you take it slow But…
Barbra Streisand This is a Christmas Lullaby To steal softly into dreaming A …
Barbra Streisand (Holiday) This is a Christmas Lullaby To steal softly into dreaming …
Belinda Carlisle It's Christmas time, It's Christmas time, Peace on earth, …
Cary Grant It′s Christmas Eve and you are asleep my little one This…
Fred Mollin This is a Christmas Lullaby To steal softly into dreaming …
Jason Robert Brown I'll never have the power to control the land Or…
Joliet4 Snow falls quietly On every home, touching lightly There's a…
Majesty Chorale And Orchestra Are you far away from home This dark and lonely night Tell…
Smokey Robinson The Miracles Go to sleep for it′s getting late Santa Claus is coming…
Songs for a New World I'll never have the power to control the land Or conquer…
Songs for a New World [Original Cast] I'll never have the power to control the land Or…
Weeping Willows It seems like a freeze out It seems like a freeze Stumbling…
We have lyrics for these tracks by Arvo Pärt:
Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten (Instrumental)…
Credo Credo Credo in unum deum, Patrem omnipotentem, Factorem cael…
De Profundis De profundis clamavi ad te Domine Domine exaudi vocem meam f…
Es sang vor langen Jahren Es sang vor langen Jahren (Clemens Maria Brentano) Es sang …
Magnificat Magnificat anima mea Dominum. My soul doth magnify the Lord,…
Nunc Dimittis Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, secundum verbum tuum in p…
Parce mihi domine Parce mihi Domine Parce mihi, Domine, nihil enim sunt dies…
Procedentem sponsum Procedentem sponsum Procedentem sponsum de thalamo; Laude di…
Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus. Dominus deus Sabaoth. P…
Summa Credo in unum Deum. Patrem omnipotentem, Factorem caeli et t…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
More Genres
No Artists Found
More Artists
Load All
No Albums Found
More Albums
Load All
No Tracks Found
Genre not found
Artist not found
Album not found
Search results not found
Song not found
Life, love, and literature Joyeux Noel
Thank you. Exceptionally beautiful. Happy Christmas, everyone ☃️🎄🦌
Shin-i-chi Kozima
Currently In Japan ,
Spring is in full swing
However
Vicissitudes are the lot of man
Splendid Christmas will soon come , after ７ months
I am looking forward to breathtaking Christmas while listening to her incomparable soprano
From
Tokyo of the Land of the Rising Sun 🇯🇵
Elysian Fields
This is beautiful Fredrik! I've included it on a YouTube playlist...love it. I've not met Aino but we've talked often on social media about her AER and UT projects. Jenny
Fredrik Hildebrand
@Elysian Fields Great initiative, Jenny! Thanks for adding my music to the list 🥰
Elysian Fields
Hi Fredrik, the playlist is here - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6IoGA47Obha-p7izeGgRBUIfQBvrRerW
Elysian Fields
@Fredrik Hildebrand Ha ha! I am part northern elf myself, my grandfather was Swedish. But thank you for your beautiful music, I always look foward to your videos...
Fredrik Hildebrand
Thanks Jenny! Aino is wonderful, she's like a northern elf that sometimes visits and sings something pretty and then disappears back into the Finnish woods ;)
Gilbert Martinez
Beautiful
NINARA
Wow Excellent 👌 😌
Corliss Crabtree
Thank you