Arvo Pärt

Classical

Arvo Pärt, né à Paide (Estonie) le 11 septembre 1935, est un compositeur de musique contemporaine. Il est associé au mouvement de musique minimaliste qui s'est formé dans les années 1970. Sa musique est épurée, d'inspiration profondément religieuse, qualifiée par certains de postmoderne, Ses œuvres ont été jouées dans le monde entier et ont donné lieu à plus de 80 disques compact : « Je pourrais comparer ma musique à une lumière blanche dans laquelle sont contenues toutes les lumières. Seul un prisme peut dissocier ces couleurs et les rendre visibles : ce prisme pourrait être l'esprit de l'auditeur » - (Arvo PART). Arvo Pärt was born in Paide, Estonia, a small town near Tallinn, the country's capital, on 11 September 1935. In 1944, Estonia saw the occupation of the Soviet Union, which would last for over 50 years, and would have a profound effect on his life and music. His musical studies began in 1954 at the Tallinn Music Secondary School, interrupted less than a year later while he fulfilled his National Service obligation as oboist and side-drummer in an army band. He returned to Middle School for a year before joining the Tallinn Conservatory in 1957, where his composition teacher was Professor Heino Eller. Pärt started work as a recording engineer with Estonian Radio, wrote music for the stage and received numerous commissions for film scores so that, by the time he graduated from the Conservatory in 1963, he could already be considered a professional composer. A year before leaving, he won first prize in the All-Union Young Composers' Competition for a children's cantata, Our Garden, and an oratorio, Stride of the World. Living in the old Soviet Union, Pärt had little access to what was happening in contemporary Western music but, despite such isolation, the early 1960s in Estonia saw many new methods of composition being brought into use and Pärt was at the fore front. His Nekrolog was the first Estonian composition to employ serial technique. He continued with serialism through to the mid 60s in pieces such as the Symphony No. 1, Symphony No. 2 and Perpetuum Mobile, but ultimately tired of its rigours and moved on to experiment, in works such as Collage über BACH, with collage techniques. Official judgement of Pärt's music veered between extremes, with certain works being praised and others, like the Credo of 1968, being banned. This would prove to be the last of his collage pieces and after its composition, Pär...