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.
Spiegel im Spiegel: 2. Spiegel im Spiegel
Arvo Pärt Lyrics
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
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@henrydenner5448
You know, I listen to this, and hating myself for being 40 years old but never having heard it.
I made up for it by listening to it 25 times since yesterday.
It is absolutely sublime in its sheer simplicity. Never have I come across such a perfect example of "less is more".
And to the cellist and pianist. Thank you 2 for your immaculate rendition of this incredible piece.
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
@davidsutcliffe9135
Spiegel im spiegel
Last night my darling I listened to that CD -
the one you bought me in Guildford.
It’s so thin - just piano and naked string
by an Estonian whose name I can’t pronounce,
the piano’s slow momentum in time with time itself;
the candour of the cello tones indecently
examining the wrinkling brow up close, mercilessly
scrutinising the creased secrets of the soul.
I am entranced and appalled by the way the tones
are left to resonate together - uncovered, leisurely.
It’s not a bland echo of electronic frequencies
but a host of tiny disagreements magnified
a thousand times and yet made purely beautiful
because they are organically true. And so now
I see you again as in a mirror in a mirror
infinitely far yet grasped in every movement
of my body. And today I know you’re here.
As I touch your maroon jacket hanging on my door -
the one I bought you in Leamington Spa -
the rain weeps in a shaft of afternoon sunlight.
David Sutcliffe
@vksarkisyan
My country is in the middle of a terrible war and genocide of my people and despite all we still take classes and go to uni. But during one of my classical music courses my professor canceled the scheduled lecture and introduced us to this piece and told us to react on paper. A huge amount of anger and grief spilled out into the writing and during the whole 10 minutes I would wait for an unexpected loud instrument or the whole orchestra stepping in as in many classical pieces but I’ve waited and there was nothing. It was quite a weird feeling that in all that noise and panic around there was something so constant, stable and without a jump scare.
The war is still going and one of those little islands where you can escape without being triggered it’s this piece.
Thank you.
#armeniaisunderattack
@tracysauvage1351
Peace to all those under attack....Gaza and Ukraine and the list goes on and on....what kind of species are we?... Tears from Ireland....to all the bombed people of the world.....
@sandraalmeida4088
@@tracysauvage1351😢
@claireford-hutchinson2841
My husband had Parkinson's disease for more than 20yrs and then was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour 5 weeks ago. Yesterday morning before he died in a Palliative care ward,where he had wonderful care for 12 days, I put radio 3 on and this wonderful piece of music was playing. It was so calming. Just about 2 and a half hours later I was with my darling husband when he died peacefully.
@JohnPaul-mj1we
Sorry for your loss x
@Yowzoe
Thank you for sharing your lovely memory, which you will always have. It’s beautiful, like this piece.
My good friend, who I took care of for 8 years, died at age 80 last February. I would play beautiful calming pieces such as this one for her every night as I slowly put her to bed. It was an act of love, and we both knew it. As I hear this piece, I feel her.
@augustinedennis4865
My dear wife died of a brain tumour,Glioblastoma ,20 years ago.i have spent all my professional life as a surgeon.i am long retired.i have never seen anyone die so painfully as my late ,dear wife Rosemary.RIP
@-cz6nl
plpl
@robertholt3996
So sorry for your loss. I hope he lives on in your heart—through this music and in many other ways. ❤️
@user-zz3xu1bi5c
The night before my mother died, this version of Spiegel im Spiegel came on the radio. For quite a while, her breathing had become more erratic, louder. Within seconds of this music playing, her breathing became quieter, calmer, more measured. She died the next morning and I was able to be with her at that moment. Spiegel im Spiegel (sadly not this recording) was played at the beginning and end of her funeral. Like so many others that have commented here, I cry, I smile, and I am so moved every time I listen to this utterly sublime, life affirming recording.