Tintinnabuli and the Sacred: A View from the Archives, 1976–77

dc.contributor.authorKarnes, Kevin C.
dc.contributor.otherSiitan, Toomas, koostaja
dc.contributor.otherArvo Pärdi Keskus
dc.contributor.otherKõrver, Kristina
dc.date.accessioned2024-01-31T13:42:16Z
dc.date.available2024-01-31T13:42:16Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.description.abstractDrawing 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.
dc.description.sponsorshipEuropean Regional Development Funden
dc.description.sponsorshipCenter of Excellence for Estonian Studiesen
dc.description.sponsorshipRepublic of Estonia, Ministry of Cultureen
dc.description.sponsorshipEesti Vabariik, Kultuuriministeeriumet
dc.identifier.issn2382-8080
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.58162/V9R8-J019
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10062/95113
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherEesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia
dc.publisherEesti Muusikateaduse Selts
dc.relation.ispartofRes Musica : Eesti Muusikateaduse Seltsi ja Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia muusikateaduslik aastaraamat
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Estoniaen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ee/
dc.titleTintinnabuli and the Sacred: A View from the Archives, 1976–77
dc.title.alternativeTintinnabuli ja pühalikkus: vaade arhiivist, 1976–1977
dc.typeArticleen

Files

Original bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Karnes.pdf
Size:
3.44 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format