Arvo Pärt's Journey

"I don’t remember anything about what there was around me, I can only say that when that sound which became increasingly quieter and quieter and quieter as it faded away… That was it… that was where we were being transported to. And then, when you could no longer understand whether there was still any sound to be heard or not to be heard, the difference between them had disappeared. Then suddenly, I had to grasp firmly onto my chair as I had this sensation that this final sound was going to lift me into the air and simply carry me away." - audience member at the premiere performance of Arvo Pärt's "Tabula Rasa" September 30, 1977*.

Kevin C. Karnes' "Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa" is the first English language monograph on a single work in the Estonian composer's oeuvre. The only other such book publication is the German-language "Die Johannespassion von Arvo Pärt" (2015) on the composer's "Passio" aka "St. John Passion" by Michaela C. Hastetter & Beate Kowalski. These have joined the recent steady flow of Pärt-related publications (e.g. "The Cambridge Companion to Arvo Pärt" (2012), "Arvo Pärt: Out of Silence" (2015), "Arvo Pärt's White Light: Media, Culture, Politics" (2017), "Arvo Part's Resonant Texts: Choral and Organ Music 1956-2015" (2018) which have seen print in recent years while the composer has consistently been noted as the most performed living composer by the classical music event database Bachtrack**.

Karnes spent time in Estonia at the archives of the Arvo Pärt Centre, the Estonian Radio, the Estonian Academy of Music and the Estonian Theatre and Music Museum while also interviewing related Estonian musicians and music authorities. He has thus assembled as thorough a guide to Pärt's early music career in Estonia from the 1950's to the 1980 emigration as has ever been presented in English. Although the double-violin concerto Tabula Rasa is the main central topic there is a quite thorough overview of many of the early pre-tintinnabuli works. This is particularly to show Pärt's progression through various 20th century styles/techniques such as dodecaphony, serialism, collage, aleatoric, and graphic scores. This also serves to present a well-argued case that Pärt's tintinnabuli-style can be viewed as a logical conclusion to his search which actually incorporates more of the past than a simple conclusion of minimalist influences might think.

It is left unexplained why the September 30, 1977 premiere performance used a harpsichord in place of the score's prepared piano and why ECM's 1984 premiere recording has consistently been reissued with several clunkers of unedited audio errors in the final quiet passages of the concluding Silentium movement. Some mysteries must remain, even in as thorough a study as this one.

* Translation from the original Estonian in the radio documentary "Arvo Pärt at 70" by Immo Mihkelson:
"Mina ei tea ümbrusest mitte midagi, ma võin ainult öelda et see hääl mis ikka vaiksemaks ja vaiksemaks ja vaiksemaks niimoodi nagu hääbus... See oligi see… see kuhu meid viidi. Ja siis kui sa enam ei saanud aru kas veel on mingit häält mida sa kuuled või enam ei ole, kadus ära see vahe. Siis järsku, ma võtsin võpatades toolist kinni, sest mul oli tunne et see viimane hääl tõstab mu õhku ja viib mind lihtsalt ära."

** For six years running as of January 2017, see http://estonianworld.com/culture/arvo-part-worlds-performed-living-composer-sixt... ( )