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Resonant Silence: Is Arvo Pärt's Music Orthodox?

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Resonant Silence: Is Arvo Pärt's Music Orthodox? EARS TO HEAR, EYES TO SEE Resonant Silence: Is Arvo Pärt’s Music Orthodox? Peter Bouteneff Arvo Pärt. Photo: Many factors led me to the deep- Kaupo Kikkas/ er study of Arvo Pärt’s music that I Arvo Pärt Centre. have undertaken during recent years. First among them was the music itself which has made an indelible mark on me for the past quarter-century. Another stemmed from my early en- counters with the composer himself during visits to an Orthodox monas- tery, where we forged an enduring connection. But in recent years my admiration for his art and my sense of a significant kinship were joined by a fascination with the nature and scope of his appeal in the wider world. I had experienced him as a fellow Ortho- dox pilgrim in a monastic setting, and later found that he had fervent ad- mirers from all walks of life: classical music buffs and hipsters, religious, atheist, “spiritual but not religious.” Perhaps most interesting to me was that people of all faiths and of no music of this Orthodox Christian has particular faith have used strikingly provoked in all kinds of people, reli- similar language to describe his mu- gious or not, what they have called “a sic’s effect on them—words like “an- spiritual experience.” gelic,” “oceanic,” “contemplative,” “reflective,” “mystical,” “ethereal,” I saw this as a fruitful paradox: uni- “transcendent.” Together these words versal spiritual resonance emanating describe music that brings people from a particular spiritual tradition. into an encounter with something or Yet both sides of this equation need someone immeasurably greater than exploring. As to the universality, they are, so that they are left hum- what is the nature of this “spiritual ble, speechless, reverent. In short, the resonance” experienced by such a va- 32 riety of listeners? What do they mean Composer Arvo Pärt,” for this would by “spiritual?” It would be too easy betray both the breadth of his reach for a seriously observant Christian to (making his music into something ex- trivialize people’s vaguely “spiritual” clusive), and the catholicity of his mu- aspirations, and I have no interest in sical influences. As to the latter, Pärt doing that here. consistently acknowledges that he has been steeped in the sacred music How, then, exactly does Pärt’s music of the West far more than that of the emanate from Orthodox Christian East. Complexities like this are wel- tradition? He converted to Ortho- come in that they help keep us from doxy, but does his work bear a pal- fetishizing Orthodoxy, as if it were a pable “Orthodox identity”? Although discrete and exclusive imprint. That that question has been at the core of being said, it remains of interest to ex- “It would be my own recent study of the compos- plore how his Orthodox faith and life er, there are some Pärt fans who are has affected his work (a) in his life’s too easy for decisively uninterested in probing odyssey, (b) in his choice of sacred a seriously this spirituality, especially its roots texts, and (c) in the “inner life” of his in “Traditional Christianity.” True, music. observant the vast majority of his pieces are set Christian to sacred texts, but to them the mu- Born of an Orthodox father and a to trivial- sic is spiritually potent despite those Lutheran mother, Pärt was raised religious underpinnings. A different in a Protestant tradition during Es- ize people’s set of listeners has been awaiting in- tonia’s Soviet period. What began vaguely sight from the Orthodox Christian leading him towards a genuine and world about what makes Pärt’s mu- adult faith was his study of mu- ‘spiritual’ sic tick. Some have written gropingly sic during his conservatory years, aspirations.” on the spiritual character of his work, music that had included Masses, but because his Orthodox Christian Requiems, Passions, and other de- affiliation is so well known—that votional works of Western classi- “mystical, Eastern faith” has been cal composers. The pivotal years mentioned in almost everything ever between 1968–1976, during which written about him—they either seize he composed almost nothing, were on Ortho-stereotypes like icons or years of turmoil and ferment involv- bells or they remain silent. ing personal, musical, and spiritual transition—sometimes all at once. Evidently, then, there is a void to be Western sacred music played a still filled. But addressing the connection more central role during this time: between Pärt’s Orthodoxy and the his immersion into medieval and re- spirituality of his music has been any- naissance music, and particularly his thing but straightforward. The com- discovery of Gregorian chant, was poser himself embodies the paradox for him a musical revelation of the of the particular and the universal: purity of the single line. But it was he is a committed, faithful Orthodox also a spiritual one, in that he came Christian who reads the scripture to realize that this music, which had and the fathers, prays the Liturgy, emanated from an ethos of prayer and cherishes his retreats at monas- and faith, could best be “received” in teries. Yet he is also adamant that he the listener who is him- or herself on not be pigeonholed as “The Orthodox a journey of prayer and faith. THE WHEEL 1 | Spring 2015 33 Through a series of personal encoun- the legacy of St. Silouan, particularly ters, and through a transformative as conveyed by Archimandrite So- engagement with the texts of the phrony (Sakharov) and his monas- Philokalia and other early Christian tic community in Essex, England. writings, Pärt’s journey to Orthodoxy More recently, his 2010 composition culminated in his reception into the Adam’s Lament, set to St. Silouan’s Church in 1972. It is important to note eponymous meditation, has become that he saw this as an entry into the one of Pärt’s most significant compo- life of the Church and its faith, rath- sitions. er than a renunciation of anything “Western,” nor an affiliation with Although the 1990s saw a prolifera- Russianness, nor a political statement tion of compositions set to Slavonic “For many of any kind. (and identifiably Orthodox) texts, this was not a period of Orthodox of his listen- His reemergence as a composer came exclusivity. Those above-mentioned ers, the texts in 1976, since which time his numer- works developed alongside others in ous compositions, in the style he has Latin, English, Italian, Spanish, and are not what called tintinnabuli, have nearly all German, with origins in Scripture as speaks spir- taken on explicitly sacred themes. well as in both the Eastern and West- itually. It is ern prayer traditions. His earliest tintinnabuli works, from the music.” 1976–77 include several of his most Text plays a critically important role enduring and well-known. These for Pärt’s compositions—he has spo- are among his very few composi- ken of his compositions as merely tions that are not set to any text: Für translations of the texts, their ul- Alina, Spiegel im Spiegel, Cantus in timate content and meaning. The Memory of Benjamin Britten, Fratres, texts and their languages would thus and Tabula Rasa. Concurrently with seem all the more to be a crucial way these, and then for the following of conveying spiritual content. For decade, there are works set either many of his listeners, however, the to scriptural passages or to Western texts are not what speaks spiritually. (Latin) liturgical texts and prayers. It is the music. They are not hearing These include major works like Christian music, whether “Eastern” the St. John Passio, and Miserere or “Western,” they are hearing music (Psalm 51), both in Latin. that evokes the transcendent. In the 1990s, there was a flourish- If not the texts, then, what enables ing of works using texts in Church the music to operate at that level? Slavonic taken from the Orthodox Since the sacred texts mean so much liturgical and prayer tradition (for to the composer, perhaps the music example, Bogoroditse Djevo [Rejoice, that so completely relies on them O Virgin Theotokos], Trisagion, Litany, somehow manages to breathe their Kanon Pokajanen [The Canon of Repen- inner meaning across the divides of tance to Our Lord Jesus Christ]), as well language and faith, so that the text as from the writings of St. Silouan itself somehow recedes in impor- the Athonite (Silouan’s Song). This tance. If this is the case, his music latter piece is one of two so far that has succeeded in its stated goal of testify to Pärt’s close relationship to translating the text. Orthodox listen- 34 ers will resonate in a particular way defeat of death by means of death, with the texts coming from their tra- the ethos of “bright sadness,” and dition, Western Christians likewise the great saying revealed to St. Si- from theirs, and those outside these louan: “Keep your mind in hell, and traditions will hear music that mys- despair not.” teriously bears the traces of a partic- ular, Christian tradition. As at Pen- Through their overarching ethos as tecost, each will hear it in their own well as through the texts that serve language. as their basis, Pärt’s compositions have embraced a catholicity of spir- But there is also something else itual and linguistic origins. Togeth- within Pärt’s music that speaks uni- er with the texts, the music itself is versally, something lodged deeply of a character that is unique to the within the tintinnabuli method that composer while bearing traces of he developed in 1976. Slavic and Western traditions.
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