The Bible and Music

In class on Tuesday (3/21), we were visited by Dr. Robert Saler from CTS.  He discussed the life of Arvo Pärt and his journey to becoming the most performed living composer in the world six years running.

Pärt had an interesting path leading him to becoming a biblical composer.  He grew up in Estonia during the Soviet occupation and began his composition career using Soviet avant-garde techniques and influences.  Pärt’s first biblical composition was “Credo,” written in 1968.  This work is often used to benchmark Pärt’s crisis point, because, it was his last composition prior to his eight year dark period.  During this time of silence, Pärt married his second wife and became a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church.  His religion introduced him to the writings of the church fathers, which helped him overcome his internal struggles and motivated him to compose once again.  He made his debut once again with the invention of the tintinnabuli technique.  He used this technique in his composition “Für Alina” – one of his last non bilblical compositions.

We listened to “Für Alina” during class and the tintinnabuli technique really struck me.  As with most of Pärt’s work, “Für Alina” is minimalistic in nature.  It revolves around two notes – one higher and one lower.  The idea is that the lower note is there to anchor the higher note.  It’s almost like the lower note is the sound of reason and the high note is floating around in its own world and would be lost without its anchor.  The result is beautiful.