VOLUME 25, NUMBER 4 APRIL, 1995 Q: Do you start with large structures and add details Arvo Part: Notes from Oregon or the reverse when you compose? by Jeremy Beck Part: Every time it's different. Everything starts with one simple ...gesture or stroke. The path to an uring the summer of 1994, Arvo Part was the idea goes downward to the bottom of ourselves. You D composer-in-resid~nce at th~ ?regon B~ch don't know anything; all you know is that you know Festival. The Festival comm1ss1oned a maJor nothing. You never know how it will grow; one is new work from Part which was premiered there by always oscillating between Heaven and Earth or, Helmuth Rilling, the Hilliard Ensemble and the Oregon better, Earth and Hell one's whole life. For example, Bach Festival Chorus and Orchestra. Notably, this work, in Tabula Rasa [for Two Violins, String Orchestra Litany , was the first U.S. commission Part had ever and Prepared Piano, c. 1976-77], the structure is a accepted. In addition to his activities associated with the vessel which is used to convey feelings and gestures. presentation of this premier, Part also met with the I don't trust my music to flow without mathematical composers attending the first annual Composers Sym­ structures. posium at the University of Oregon. This Symposium, under the direction of Robert Kyr, was being held in Q: Could you tell us some of your thoughts in conjunction with the Oregon Bach Festival. I was in general about composition? Do you have any advice attendance at this Symposium and took down notes to offer younger, less-experienced composers? during one ofthe meetings with Part; this article is drawn primarily from those notes. P: I am like you or worse as a composer; each time The image often presented of Arvo Part is that I must start anew. I never know how something will of an ascetic, a monk from another time outside of our grow - edible or a weed? One never knows how a own, composing music which recalls that of some kernel will sprout and grow; it is always different. earlier age. Part himself is not one to bear with such an Suffering gives one creative energy and power; if image without a sense of humor. At an open meeting one has the gift to suffer, one has great power. with the public before the premier of his Litany, in Composers can write with pencils, pens, tears, blood. answer to the rather serious question "Does your living Blood is not like ink. Every note must be considered in solitude contribute to the spiritual nature of your very carefully; none can be wasted. Different com­ music?", Part replied dryly, to the amusement of all posers have accompanied me at different times in my present, "I have a family: four children and a wife- what life - Schubert, Tchaikovsky. Schubert never heard solitude?" his symphonies; this constant rejection gave him The participants in the Symposium met with p~w er. There is a Jot of noise in our lives, in this Part privately in the School of Music at the University of world, all around us and inside of us. Some compos­ Oregon on the morning of June 28. We had been ers resort to cosmetic surgery; these masks may be cautioned by the directors of the Festival that Part was pretty now, but they will turn ugly later. Evil comes shy with strangers and uncomfortable with so much into our lives unknowingly, slowly. attention being thrust on him; he felt it was a distraction from his music, we were told. The directors had assured Q: How has the economic and political situation in him that we, his younger colleagues, had great respect Estonia affected you? for his music and his privacy and that this meeting wourd be one in which questions would be asked, not to disturb P: I am not interested in politics, but of course I that privacy, but rather to learn more about his approach cannot escape it. It was totally absurd, the misunder­ and philosophy, one which yielded music of such depth standing of my Credo [for Piano, Mixed Choir and and beauty. Once so assured, Part agreed to meet with Orchestra, 1968]. This is a religious and personal us. Our group, for its part in the bargain, did its best to piece, not a political protest against the Soviet Union. make him feel as comfortable as possible. It should be My 'Cello Concerto was a protest [Concerto for noted that while Part does speak English, it is his fourth Violoncello and Orchestra "Pro et Contra", 1966, language, after Estonian, Russian and German. There­ commissioned by Rostropovich] . It starts with a fore, for the purposes of our meeting, an Estonian major triad which is related to the national anthem of composer/pianist from Los Angeles (Rein Rannap, who the Soviet Union - the politically correct thing to do was also attending the Symposium and who had a - and then a chaos chord reacts against this, crashes performing relationship with Part) acted as a supporting against this. translator to facilitate the meeting. As well, Part's wife (a conductor) often participated in the ensuing discus­ Q: What was your first piece in the tintinnabuli style sions, primarily to help clarify certain points her hus­ [note: this is Part's description for his musical style band was trying to make. since 1976, a style which makes use of interchanging combinations of scales and triads in often more attention to this music. Its roots are Members' Activities Column shifting, yet stable patterns]? very deep, but I have no direct relationship to Please send information on your activities this myself. (for performances, include title of work, P: Fiir Alina [for Piano, 1976], although date(s), performers, location and if premiere) many pieces came in about the same time. Q: How do you view your place in history? ~ to the following address: Q: What is your concept of dissonance in the P: I don't think about this. SCI Newsletter tintinnabuli style? University of Iowa Q: What are your compositional plans for School of Music P: One must think first of two-voice po­ the future? Iowa City, IA 52242 lyphony, independent of and dependent on or each other. One part is unchanging [note: P: I normally don' t make plans, but, ifl did, [email protected] here, Part, to die hushed enjoyment of all I wouldn't share them. Like humans going present, went to the piano and loudly played too close to a bird's nest, the mother will a single line in quarter notes - f2, e2, d2 and abandon the eggs. As far as composing goes, Look at our record! then harmonized that line with a second line I am in a boat with oars and a sail; mostly I beneath it, in parallel quarter notes - d2, al, go on my own power, but sometimes a com­ •3997 member compositions performed c2]. One voice is fixed, one is totally free - mission provides a bit of wind ... •1305 member composers performed from this the entire score grows. Well, •274 member composers performed in perhaps not totally free, but with more free­ Frequently, there were questions at 1993-94 alone dom than the other, fixed voice. From this which Part demurred or shrugged off, either •661 concerts sponsored in 118 different cities combination comes unexpected sounds because he felt the music spoke for itself or •84 member composers published in the which even the composer doesn't expect. because he felt it was not possible to truly SCI Journal ofMusic Scores address certain compositional issues in the •64 member compositions recorded on Q: What guides you in your decision to make context of "small talk." Some examples of LPs and CDs new versions of different works [e .g.,Fratres, . these types of questions were: for String Quintet or String Orchestra and Percussion, 1977, rev. 1983; for Violin and Q: What is the meaning of silence for you? Why Not Go Online Piano, 1980; for 12 Violoncelli, 1980; for What is your compositional process? Does Violoncello and Piano, 1992; also, Summa the downward gesture in the Elegy for [sic] with SCION? for Voices, 1978; for Orchestra, 1991; for Benjamin Britten [ Cantus in memory ofB en­ String Quartet, 1991]? jamin Britten for String Orchestra and Bell, Membership in SCI includes regular informa­ 1977] reflect your feelings about him? tion through SCION. Please register with us P: The two lines are the most important by sending the message <SUBSCION> fol­ thing. Timbre and instrumentation are not During such moments Part clearly lowed by your e-mail address to: always the most important. As long as the showed his discomfort at being the center of sci@vaxa. weeg. uiowa.edu structure is maintained, it may be revealed attention. Yet he was alway polite and gra- by different timbres and instrumentations. I cious; even in trying to avoid as much as should say here that the best recording and possible the "cult of personality", he did not The SCI Newsletter performance of the violin and piano version wish to draw undue attention to himself by © The Society of Composers, Inc. of Fratres is the one by Gidon Kremer and being impatient or gruff. Part also demon­ Keith Jarrett. , strates in other ways that he is the antithesis David K. Gompper, Kirk Corey - editors of how one might "normally" conceive of a Jon Price, Laura Beech - production assist. Q: What are your thoughts about the influ­ senior, career composer.