The Bible and Music

I greatly appreciated Dr. Saler’s lecture about Arvo Part today in class. Prior to this course, like he predicted, I had never heard of Part. The part of his talk that I found most interesting was in his explanation of the use and symbolism of tintinnabuli. Listening to the piece ‘Fur Alina,’ I thought this composition sounded a bit like a music box to me. I was confused on how to feel during the piece because it has a great element of beauty, however there is a sense of overall melancholy mood to the work. Therefore, I liked his explanation of the technique of coupling symbolizing the combination of beauty and suffering in the world as well as the capacity for sin and forgiveness. This was very insightful to me, and it made me appreciate the compositions we listened to for class more knowing the depth behind the music.