The Cambridge Companion to Arvo Pärt

by Andrew Shenton (Editor)

Arvo Pärt is one of the most influential and widely performed contemporary composers. Around 1976 he developed an innovative new compositional technique called 'tintinnabuli' (Latin for 'sounding bells'), which has had an extraordinary degree of success. It is frequently performed around the world, has been used in award-winning films, and pieces such as Für Alina and Spiegel im Siegel have become standard repertoire. This collection of essays, written by a distinguished international group of scholars and performers, is the essential guide to Arvo Pärt and his music. The book begins with a general introduction to Pärt's life and works, covering important biographical details and outlining his most significant compositions. Two chapters analyze the tintinnabuli style and are complemented by essays which discuss Pärt's creative process. The book also examines the spiritual aspect of Pärt's music and contextualizes him in the cultural milieu of the twenty-first century and in the marketplace.

Genres: Music

272 pages, Paperback

First published May 17, 2012

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cambridge Companion to Arvo Pärt, edited by Andrew Shenton, contains 10 essays by various scholars on Pärt's music and its reception. Published in 2012, the book covers Pärt's output up to 2010. While some knowledge of music theory is necessary to get the most out of this book, it written for a fairly general, though educated, audience of classical music fans.

This book suffers from an enormous flaw, and that is its lack of coverage of Pärt's music prior to the advent of his "tintinnabuli" style in the mid-1970s. While the tintinnabulli style may have won Pärt the greatest acclaim and following, and his earlier modernist explorations appeal to a considerably smaller crowd, his works of the 1960s feature enormous riches that deserve exploration and commentary in a volume like this. It may well be that Pärt is discouraging discussion of these works, as he now refuses to speak of the Soviet era in interviews, and the ECM label that Pärt considers the source of definitive recordings is not touching these pieces. And the writers for this volume clearly want to stay on Pärt's good side, as the composer attended the conferences that led to this collection.

In the first paper, Immo Mihkelson does talk about Pärt's activity in the 1960s and 1970s. However, this is not a discussion of the music itself, but rather a biographical sketch that mentions only the names of those pieces that led to censure from the Soviet music authorities ("Nekrolog", "Credo"). The interesting revelation in Mihkelson's paper is that Pärt worked as a sound engineer for several years in the 1960s, which surely helped to shape the aesthetic of Pärt's ECM recordings in collaboration with Manfred Eicher.

Two essays here are rooted in music theory. Leopold Brauneiss's "Musical archetypes: the basic elements of the tintinnabuli style" presents the remarkably strict method that Pärt uses to generate works: two voices (a melody voice and a triadic voice) and rhythms based on the accentuation and punctuation of the religious texts he sets. Description of this technique have been published before, but tintinnabuli is still involving and Brauneiss covers some developments appearing in Pärt's recent pieces. Thomas Robinson's "Analysing Pärt" discusses competing ways of describing Pärt's music such as Schenkerian analysis, set theory, etc.

Laura Dolp's "Arvo Pärt in the marketplace" underscores how the worldwide popularity of Pärt's music is not due to the music alone, but to a marketing approach determined mainly by ECM and critics who lumped Pärt together with Gorecki and Tavener as "holy minimalists". Marguerite Bostonia's "Bells as inspiration for tintinnabulation" offers some interesting details on the survival of church bells under the Soviet Union and where Pärt could have heard the sonorities that led to his new musical style.

There are several appendices. One is a "performer's view" of Pärt's music by Andras Peer Kähler. This is followed by short pieces by Pärt on Alfred Schnittke, Heino Eller and the composer's acceptance speeches from prices in 2007 in 2010. Finally, there is a list of Pärt's works up to the date of publication.

Fans of the composer would learn a thing or two from this volume, but I must say that I expected more from a volume in the Cambridge Companion series.

[Dominic H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cambridge Companions are often a bit hit and miss. At least as far as the humanities are concerned I often wish Editors would have a clearer vision and ensure contributors are bought into it. This particular volume feels mostly like a missed opportunity where many of the essays struggle to articulate what it is that is special about Pärt. Musically speaking the ones that should be fundamental are just ineptly approached. Leopold Brauneiss unwisely decides not to include notated examples in his chapter on 'The Basic Elements of the Tintinnabuli Style' until a good way through when any musician will have been crying out for something tactile a long time before. Thomas Robinson in 'Analyzing Pärt' simply gives an unsatisfactory account of the various not wholly successful attempts of analysis that have been made. He goes all over the place (somewhat incongruously to Deryck Cooke at one stage) and attempts to make up for substance by unwarranted obscurity passing off as intellectual effort (the passage on 'Musical hermeneutics' is particularly indigestible). I did though derive something from Robert Scholl's piece on Pärt and Sprituality and very much enjoyed Laura Dolp's 'Arvo Pärt in the Marketplace'.
Overall, just about worthwhile.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This set of essays about Arvo Part and his music was quite enlightening. Part is one of my favorite contemporary composers, and this book provided a lot of great information and insights on the man and his music. This volume covers the music's technical aspects with great essays analyzing several of Part's works. These essays do a great job of explaining Part's techniques and providing analyses that are easily intelligible and illuminating. The book also covers the spiritual and historical aspects of his music with essays on the religious content and the ways Part and his music have been marketed and presented. However, this book does concentrate primarily on Parts tintinnabuli music and his post-Soviet career, so there is not very much information on Part's modernist works. Nonetheless, The Cambridge Companion to Arvo Pärt provides the reader with a deeper understanding of the man and his work.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only covers post-Tintinnabuli work - unfortunate because understanding how he came to this seems important.