World-famous, Estonian-born composer Arvo P--auml--;rt is a unique voice in today's music. From his own extensive experience of working with P--auml--;rt, Paul Hiller here provides the first full-length study of the composer's music. - ;The music of the Estonian-born composer Arvo P--auml--;rt is a unique and powerful voice in the contemporary world. Using a tonal idiom based on a mixture of scales and triads, P--auml--;rt created a style that he calls `tintinnabuli'. Listening to it, one is reminded of the passionate tranquillity of some Russian icon, or of certain memorable scenes in the films of Andrei Tarkovsky. In this book, the first full-length study of P--auml--;rt, Paul Hillier explores the tintinnabuli works in considerable depth. He also examines the music of P--auml--;rt's earlier, somewhat neglected serial period, and charts the composer's steady evolution towards the `abstract tonality' of his later years. In addition, a biographical chapter and discussion of topics such as Russian Orthodox spirituality, minimalism, and the influence of early music, combine to make this a substantial introduction to P--auml--;rt's music. Hillier also draws on his own experience of working with the composer to offer thoughts on various performance issues. -

This collection of essays and interviews is an ideal guide to the work and thought of one of the world's greatest and most original living composers. In Enzo Restagno's extensive interview, P'rt gives an intimate description of his work and life in Soviet Estonia, his emigration, his artistic odyssey, and his worldview. Then, Arvo P'rt's compositional technique is the focus of a musicological essay by Leopold Brauneiss. Finally, Saale Kareda explores the spiritual aspects of the composer's approach to his works. Two acceptance speeches, delivered by P'rt on receiving major European prizes, complete this fascinating and illuminating portrait.

Winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism A New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book of the Year Time magazine Top Ten Nonfiction Book of 2007 Newsweek Favorite Books of 2007 A Washington Post Book World Best Book of 2007 In this sweeping and dramatic narrative, Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, weaves together the histories of the twentieth century and its music, from Vienna before the First World War to Paris in the twenties; from Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia to downtown New York in the sixties and seventies up to the present. Taking readers into the labyrinth of modern style, Ross draws revelatory connections between the century's most influential composers and the wider culture. The Rest Is Noise is an astonishing history of the twentieth century as told through its music.

Points of entry: Spirituality and religion - Part's spiritual reach - The role of text; Out of silence: Music lost to silence - Music found in silence - Excusus: silence in the tradition; Bright sadness: Bright sadness in the tradition - Bright sadness in the music of Arvo Part.

Arvo Pärt is one of the most influential and widely performed contemporary composers. Around 1976 he developed an innovative new compositional technique called 'tintinnabuli' (Latin for 'sounding bells'), which has had an extraordinary degree of success. It is frequently performed around the world, has been used in award-winning films, and pieces such as Für Alina and Spiegel im Siegel have become standard repertoire. This collection of essays, written by a distinguished international group of scholars and performers, is the essential guide to Arvo Pärt and his music. The book begins with a general introduction to Pärt's life and works, covering important biographical details and outlining his most significant compositions. Two chapters analyze the tintinnabuli style and are complemented by essays which discuss Pärt's creative process. The book also examines the spiritual aspect of Pärt's music and contextualizes him in the cultural milieu of the twenty-first century and in the marketplace.

Spaces beyond : an introduction -- A beginning : the Riga Polytechnic disco, 1974-76 -- Tintinnabuli and the sacred -- Ritual moments : the RPI festivals, 1976-77 -- Tallinn 1978 -- Aftersounds : Bolderāja, Sergiyev Posad, and a train to Brest-Litovsk.

A systematic and detailed analysis of the work of this extremely popular composer, providing description, context, examples, and commentary.