Res Musica 14 (2022)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10062/94929
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Item Tintinnabuli and the Sacred: A View from the Archives, 1976–77(Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia, 2022) Karnes, Kevin C.; Siitan, Toomas, koostaja; Arvo Pärdi Keskus; Kõrver, KristinaDrawing on Arvo Pärt’s musical diaries and other archival materials, this article examines three key discoveries that were crucial to the coalescence of the composer’s tintinnabuli style in 1976–77: (1) the two-voice contrapuntal structure of melodic and triadic lines, (2) algorithmic methods for generating musical structure, and (3) the so-called syllabic method of transforming poetic texts into melodic lines. The third of these discoveries, which occurred on the single day of 12 February 1977, culminated Pärt’s yearslong search for a musical language capable of accommodating his vision of the divine. The syllabic method, the article suggests, was uniquely capable of accommodating Pärt’s Orthodox Christian practice, by offering a way of setting sacred texts that required him to cede any urge to interpret, reflect, or express his own ideas about their meanings. Charting parallels between Pärt’s syllabic method and the working methods of the Orthodox Russian painter Eduard Steinberg (1937–2012), the article closesby suggesting that in both cases, the radical abstraction of the works they created opens spaces for the Orthodox notion of apophatic knowledge to take hold, through which a listener or an observer might feel themselves just a bit closer to the divine.Item Rikkaliku andmestikuga raamat vaskpilliõpetusest Eestis Tõnu Soosõrv. Ja pasunad hakkasivad hüüdma ... Eesti vaskpillimängu õpetamise lugu. Tallinn: Puhkpillimuusika Koda, 2019, 326 lk.(Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia, 2022) Ross, Jaan; Siitan, Toomas, koostaja; Arvo Pärdi Keskus; Kõrver, KristinaItem Kammerlauljad. Eesti Filharmoonia Kammerkoor 40. Autorid: Allan Vurma, Kristina Kõrver, Hele-Mai Poobus, Kersti Inno; toimetaja: Tiina Õun, [Tallinn]: Eesti Filharmoonia Kammerkoor, 2022, 246 lk.(Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia, 2022) Klooren, Äli-Ann; Siitan, Toomas, koostaja; Arvo Pärdi Keskus; Kõrver, KristinaItem Editor’s Preface(Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia, 2022) Siitan, Toomas; Siitan, Toomas, koostaja; Arvo Pärdi Keskus; Kõrver, KristinaItem The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed in the Works and Life of Arvo Pärt(Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia, 2022) Tölpt, Tauri; Siitan, Toomas, koostaja; Arvo Pärdi Keskus; Kõrver, KristinaArvo Pärt has composed music for a variety of texts belonging to the Christian tradition. Yet there is one text that has received more emphasis in his oeuvre than any other: the Niceno-Constantinopolitan (NC) Creed, which found its way into Missa syllabica (1977), Summa (1977), Berliner Messe (1990/2002) and Orient & Occident (1999/2000). The NC Creed, forged during alternating periods of ecclesiastical unity and conflict, fuses theological influences from both East and West and has remained for over 1600 years one of Christianity’s central documents. Even so, it is far from obvious how this text found its way into the life and work of Arvo Pärt, considering the anti-religious context from which he emerged. However, a close examination of the composer’s music diaries, as well as interviews conducted with Arvo and Nora Pärt, brings to light not only striking aspects of Pärt’s personal relationship with the NC Creed and with creedal statements in general, but also the potential role of this document in Pärt’s creative compositional process.Item Sounding Silence The Presence of the Inaudible in Arvo Pärt’s “Silentium”(Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia, 2022) Waczkat, Andreas; Siitan, Toomas, koostaja; Arvo Pärdi Keskus; Kõrver, Kristina“Silentium”, the second movement of Tabula rasa, is one of the compositions from the intensive creative period which marked the end of Arvo Pärt’s long, self-imposed silence. The apparent paradox of silence being broken with silence is inherent in the concept, since in the strict sense there is no silence at all but only sound below the audibility threshold. In this sense, in “Silentium” Pärt makes audible what is typically inaudible. In the philosophical concept of Tabula rasa, which can be traced back to Aristotle, the human soul resembles a blank slate. Perceptions lead to impressions on the slate. “Silentium” thus reflects the experience of silence.Item Heli Reimann. Tallinn ‘67 Jazz Festival. Myths and Memories. New York: Routledge, 2022, 194 lk.(Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia, 2022) Tool, Aare; Siitan, Toomas, koostaja; Arvo Pärdi Keskus; Kõrver, KristinaItem Kroonika(Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia, 2022) Klooren, Äli-Ann; Siitan, Toomas, koostaja; Arvo Pärdi Keskus; Kõrver, KristinaItem Characteristics of the Compositional Process in Arvo Pärt’s Tintinnabuli Technique(Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia, 2022) Brauneiss, Leopold; Siitan, Toomas, koostaja; Arvo Pärdi Keskus; Kõrver, KristinaMany of Pärt’s compositions in tintinnabuli technique are based on structural ideas which manifest themselves in a characteristic specification of common rules, very often in connection with a given text. As these rules remain valid for the whole or part of a composition, it follows that no details arising from them can be altered. Thus, the first step of the compositional process is to find a proper set of rules, very often in accordance with the formal structure of a given text, that guarantees satisfactory results at every moment. As the sketches for the Te Deum exemplarily reveal, this means that Pärt tries out different sets of rules and abandons them immediately if they are not suitable. Another peculiarity is that the compositional process does not end with the first performance but is a work in progress leading to many revisions in order to find the perfectly sounding formulation of the basic structural ideas.Item “Comrades in Misfortune”: Arvo Pärt and Valentyn Sylvestrov, from Experimentation to Mystery, Periphery to Center(Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia, 2022) Schmelz, Peter; Siitan, Toomas, koostaja; Arvo Pärdi Keskus; Kõrver, KristinaLike many young Soviet composers during the post-Stalin Thaw, Arvo Pärt and Valentyn Sylvestrov experimented with a range of musical techniques in the 1960s before turning in radically simplified directions during the next decades. Notably, both Pärt and Sylvestrov were among the only composers from their generation featured in the Soviet youth magazine Krugozor in the late 1960s, a time when Sylvestrov was more successful than Pärt on the global stage. But the Union of Composers of Ukraine was harsher than its Estonian counterpart, and Sylvestrov suffered severely from its policing in the 1970s. This paper explores for the first time the stylistic intersections and influences between Pärt and Sylvestrov. Focusing on the 1960s, and the appearance of music by both composers in Krugozor, it traces the parallel yet distinct paths of both composers, paying close attention to the compositions featured in the magazine: Sylvestrov’s Mystery and Pärt’s Pro et contra. The contacts and contrasts between Pärt and Sylvestrov tell a particularly potent story about musical experimentation and discovery from the 1960s through the present.Item Tacit Texts: Considerations on Pärt’s Settings of the Word(Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia, 2022) Bouteneff, Peter; Siitan, Toomas, koostaja; Arvo Pärdi Keskus; Kõrver, KristinaAs Arvo Pärt scholarship continues to deepen, considerable attention has been paid to the role of the text in Pärt’s compositions. Most of his tintinnabuli works are textual settings, and there are enough quotations from the composer to indicate that the texts are extremely important to him and his work. This essay investigates the compositions in which the text shapes the music but is not sung, and poses questions about why the composer chooses to leave certain texts unheard, how this music is received, and whether or not the text can be said to play a role in that reception.Item Insights From the Outside Kevin C. Karnes. Sounds Beyond. Arvo Pärt and the 1970s Soviet Underground. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2021, 193 pp.(Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia, 2021) Waczkat, Andreas; Siitan, Toomas, koostaja; Arvo Pärdi Keskus; Kõrver, KristinaItem Pärt, Bach and the Bees(Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia, 2022) Siitan, Toomas; Siitan, Toomas, koostaja; Arvo Pärdi Keskus; Kõrver, KristinaWenn Bach Bienen gezüchtet hätte … (If Bach Had Been a Beekeeper …, 1976) is the most enigmatic composition from the formative year of Arvo Pärt’s tintinnabuli style and creates an intriguing conflict with the common narrative depicting Pärt’s oeuvre. The piece combines Pärt’s compositional methods from contrasting stylistic periods and challenges the position of Credo (1968) as the watershed between avant-garde and tintinnabuli. The polarity of the opposing styles in this piece still resembles the aesthetics of his collages; Pärt’s last connection with Bach’s original music sheds new light on his earlier compositions as well as on the complexity of composer’s creative search of the year 1976. Until now Wenn Bach …, which could be considered a transitional work alongside Credo and Symphony No. 3, has not received the reception it merits.Item Autorid(Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia, 2022) Siitan, Toomas, koostaja; Arvo Pärdi Keskus; Kõrver, KristinaIn Estonian and in EnglishItem Saateks koostajalt(Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia, 2022) Siitan, Toomas; Siitan, Toomas, koostaja; Arvo Pärdi Keskus; Kõrver, Kristina