  |
|
|
|
Biography of Arvo Pärt, composer famous for Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten and Bell, and known for the "tintinnabuli" style.
Arvo Pärt is considered one of the most inventive and instinctive mystical minimalist composers in the late 20th-century. His musical scores have been pervaded by bell-like sounds since the musical breakthrough to poetic expression called "tintinnabular" style. The work that brought him international attention was the six-minute poignant Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten for strings and Bell. Pärt's music has been featured in numerous films, for example, "Fratres for Cello and Piano" was used in the soundtrack of a 2007 film "There Will Be Blood." Life of Arvo PärtArvo Pärt was born on September 11, 1935 in Paide, Estonia, and is the most renowned composer in his homeland. He studied at the Tallinn Conservatory graduating in 1963 while working as a sound producer for an Estonian radio. In 1962 he won a prize for a children’s cantata Our Garden and an oratorio Stride of the World. The continuing upheavals with soviet officials led him to emigrate with his family. Pärt lived in Vienna first and became an Austrian citizen, then later relocated to West Berlin in 1982. His early works followed standard Soviet models and influenced by Dmitri Shostakovitch, but later he turned to strict serialism, and eventually to minimalism as revealed through his sacred music works. Serialist WorksAmong his known serialist works are Perpetuum mobile, Symphony No.2, and Pro et contra for cello and orchestra. Orthodox Church Music InfluenceIn the 1970s he came into contact with the music of the Orthodox Church which affected his music technically and spiritually, for example in Symphony no.3 and the cantata Song for the Beloved, as well as the concerto grosso Tabula rasa for three violins, strings and prepared piano. Minimalist WorksIn drawing on minimalist techniques of repetition, he has also evoked the music of other composers such as Leo Janacek, Igor Stravinsky and Benjamin Britten. Some of these minimalist works are Arbos for seven instruments, If Bach had been a Bee-Keeper, two versions for harpsichord and ensemble, and 80-minute St John Passion. Pärt also wrote Te Deum for chorus and strings, Stabat Mater and Miserere. Later WorksPari intervalli echoes J.S. Bach chorale preludes, calls on 13th-century music, and uses choral and intrumental sounds recalling ancient incantation which is ritualistic in effect. Of recent works, his music has been featured in numerous films including his famous Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten and Spiegel im Spiegel, Tabula Rasa, and many more. Pärt's List of Works
Sources:The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Press, 1994 The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Revised Edition, edited by Michael Kennedy, OUP, 1994
The copyright of the article Arvo Part, Life and Works in Classical Composers is owned by Tel Asiado. Permission to republish Arvo Part, Life and Works in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
