Arvo Pärt and the Tallis Scholars

The Tallis Scholars sing more than just Renaissance music. The world-renowned ensemble is equally praised for bringing fresh interpretations to music by contemporary composers, including Arvo Pärt.

About Arvo Pärt

Arvo Pärt (b.1935)

Born 11 September 1935, Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is perhaps one of the most widely recognized composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. His œuvre is classical and religious in scope. Since 1976, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-invented compositional technique, tintinnabuli (Read our article The Tintinnabuli of Arvo Pärt from last September).

REMEMBER THIS...? Luminous Voices kicked off its fifth anniversary last fall with a performance of of Pärt's Berliner Messe.

The Woman with the Alabaster Box

Though written many centuries later, the work of Arvo Pärt owes much to the Renaissance manner of musical expression. A number of his works set passages from the Gospels, in a narrative manner that eschews overt text expression in favour of lending the words a sort of gilded clarity. The Woman with the Alabaster Box is the story of is an almost trance-like recitation, beautiful in its restraint, condensing the texture for Jesus’ words before expanding it again for the climax.

The Woman with the Alabaster Box is a setting of a Biblical text (Matthew 26: 6-13). Alabaster is a strong, dense stone, similar to marble, that can be found in Israel and the surrounding areas. This beautiful, precious stone was used to add beauty to Solomon's Temple (1 Chronicles 29:2). Because of its beauty and strength, alabaster was often used for storing precious perfume. 

• VIDEO: A live recording of The Tallis Scholars singing The Woman with the Alabaster Box by Arvo Pärt at a concert in Amasterdam (01 May 2016). Scroll to 11:37 for the performance.

A few of Tim's favourite things

“This concert could be titled “Some of my favourite choral music”.”

— Tim Shantz

When you're as experienced a musician as Timothy Shantz, there's a lot of music you can put into a concert. So why did he choose these four pieces specifically -- works by Johannes Brahms, Frank Martin, Arvo Pärt and Tarik O'Regan -- to open Luminous Voices' fifth-anniversary season?

Tickets -- http://berlinermesse.bpt.me
Season subscriptions -- http://luminousvoices1718.bpt.me

The Tintinnabuli of Arvo Pärt

On 15 October 2017, Luminous Voices will open its 2017-18 season with four works, one of which is the Berliner Messe by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. Beginning in 1976, some of Arvo Pärt's compositions features a unique style known as tintinnabuli.

Arvo Pärt (courtesy Orthodox Arts Journal)

“Tintinnabulation is an area I sometimes wander into when I am searching for answers – in my life, my music, my work. In my dark hours, I have the certain feeling that everything outside this one thing has no meaning. The complex and many-faceted only confuses me, and I must search for unity. What is it, this one thing, and how do I find my way to it? Traces of this perfect thing appear in many guises – and everything that is unimportant falls away.”

— Arvo Pärt

Pärt developed tintinnabuli following his own research and experience with chant music. The word tintinnabuli itself derives from the Latin tintinnabulum, which means "bell". The use of tintinnabuli is quite effective with slow and meditative tempo, such as those used in his Berliner Messe.

Tintinnabuli features two musical voices.

1. An arpeggio of the tonic triad. For example, if the tonic key is C major, the first voice will feature the notes C, E, and G, which make up the tonic triad. The three notes of the triad, according to Pärt, represent the pealing of bells.
2. A diatonic movement in step-wise motion. For example, if the tonic key is C major, the second voice could include C, D, E and F (if the motion ascends), or C, B, A and G (if the motion descends).

In a four-voice context, listen for how one or two voices will sound only notes of a single triad, while the other voices move in a step-wise fashion. The triad is, in most cases, the tonal center of the piece from which Pärt rarely departs.

DID YOU KNOW... The "Kyrie" movement from Pärt's Berliner Messe is featured on the soundtrack of the hit movie Avengers: Age of Ultron. Listen for it toward the end of the movie, after the death of the character Quiksilver.

The Elora Festival Singers (Noel Edison, conductor) perform the Kyrie movement from Arvo Pärt's Berliner Messe.