Issue 190 - Music of Arvo Pärt
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January 2019
We have only recently discovered the marvelous music of
Arvo Pärt
. At the beginning of this new year, we want to share this haunting, beautiful music with you, and - as always - share some of the reflections it prompts in us.
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Over the past decade, according to
Wikipedia, Arvo Pärt has been the most-performed living composer of classical music in the world. Somehow, I missed out. Then I read Peter C. Bouteneff’s insightful
recent essay about Pärt’s music, Pärt’s faith, and the deep spirituality reflected in his music. Wow!
An Orthodox Christian, Pärt left his homeland (Estonia) after repeated conflicts with Soviet authorities. Many of his works are settings of scripture verses or other sacred texts. “Settings” may be too conventional a term: Pärt himself asserts that his music is “merely a translation” of the text into a different medium: “The words write my music.”
Yet his music is celebrated not just in religious circles. Wide audiences, including many who might be called “spiritual but not religious” are touched deeply. As Bouteneff puts it, by “taking explicity Christian words and disseminating them into the world in the form of the pure, the lovely, the gracious,” Pärt’s “musical translations of scriptural and liturgical words – about God, Christ, Mary, sin, and salvation – that normally would have bounced off his audience’s protective armor instead insinuate themselves into his listener’s spiritual lives.”
Bouteneff sees this reflected in many reviews of Pärt’s music. You can also find such evidence in the comments posted on YouTube videos of his work. To take just one
example: “I seriously think Arvo is tapping into the realm between Life and Death, some powerful field that somehow keeps Life and Death in an ebb and flow.”
Bouteneff sees this characteristic of Pärt’s music as an expression of “what Orthodox call the ‘bright sadness’ of Christianity: as much as joy is intertwined with sorrow, sin, and corruption, the final word will be stillness, forgiveness, redemption, hope.”
Bill
For an unconvential use of Pärt’s "Da Pacem Domine," check out this video:
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When I fasten my seat belt, then open the Waze GPS app to direct my driving path, I first hear iPod tunes shuffled by the music app: “Abba, Father” by John Michael Talbot, then “When God Opens the Eyes” by the Weston Priory monks, then, introduced by a raucous drum and guitar, “All my Rowdy Friends” by Hank Williams, Jr. I keep saying I’m going to better organize my iPod playlist! But then there’s that stack of papers in my office too that needs to be organized and filed. I seem to choose other ways to use my time.
Choices, for me, seem to fall into two categories: mindless and discernible. Becoming aware again of Arvo
Pärt’s music reminds me of how I allow myself to be annoyed by the cacophony of a once favorite musician. I have a choice between Williams and Pärt.
I first discovered Arvo Pärt’s music on YouTube when I was searching for a Vangelis soundtrack to a Creation video for a retreat I was presenting. The YouTube comments drew me to Pärt’s heavenly, mesmerizing melodies. As I recently learned more about Pärt, I love his music even more, and rely on it for uplifting moments that open the mind to deeper meditation.
As I write this, listening to “
Für Alina,” I hear his words in the silence between sounds, a common pattern of Pärt’s music, “where the word of hope and forgiveness is uttered from the depth of the soul that evidently knows its opposite. The word of hope is thus eminently more credible, true to life, and meaningful.” (
Bouteneff)
Listening to his music has become a prayer. A so much better choice than Rowdy Friends.
Jan
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Arvo Pärt shares prayerful thoughts, with his music in the background.
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A performance of Pärt's "Spiegel im Spiegel" [Mirror in the Mirror]
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Recent Issues
Issue 177 - Mr. Rogers
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Please share Reflection freely by forwarding any issue (forward in its entirety), but remember to respect copyright laws by not altering, copying, or reproducing Reflection, text or photos, whole or in part, without written permission.
Copyright (c) 2019 Soul Windows Ministries
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Sincerely,
Bill Howden and Jan Davis
Soul Windows Ministries
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