Arvo Pärt, an internationally celebrated composer, enjoys extended stays at his second home near Colchester in Essex, United Kingdom, which has led to greater fluency with English.
Compositional Technique
While there is less strict 'tintinnabulation' in these pieces, there is enough austerity of structure and harmony to make them unmistakably 'Pärtian'.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Pärt insists that his increased number of English settings is not due to his fluency in the language, but rather a natural choice when commissioned by choirs or institutions in English-speaking countries.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Pärt's selection of texts has become more eclectic and intriguing, ranging from standard liturgical texts to extracts from a Russian church music encyclopedia, a Scottish poem, and Orthodox prayer book Odes.
Composer Biography
Pärt's first setting in English was a section from Saint Matthew's account of The Beatitudes in 1990; prior to that, all his sacred vocal works were in Latin or German.
Historical Context
Pärt's nearly 30-year journey from concealing religious derivations in Soviet-era Estonia to setting diverse texts has been a liberating experience.
Compositional Technique
The music on this album, written between 1996 and 2002, shows Pärt's return to the essential purity of the triad, with chord progressions that seem more diatonically conventional.
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