All the Earth’s nations are unique, and each has contributed to world culture in its own way. Our contemporary, the Estonian Arvo Part is the pride of his nation and a true cosmopolitan. His music sounds on all continents. His creative work is well-known and appreciated in Ukraine as well, as proven once again by his solo concert, held in the National Philharmonic Society and dedicated to his 75th birthday.
People always complain about the weakness of the younger generation and of the major achievements of classical art falling into oblivion. And they are almost always wrong. Equally false is the stereotypical view that our cruel century of global cataclysms doesn’t need beauty, truth and confirmation of eternal values, realized through communication with God. No other art can touch the Divine mysteries the same way as music. The first musicians that glorified the Creator were the angels. Angelic singing was followed by music to accompany the mass. The great musical traditions of Christianity were created by medieval artists. The future of European professional music was based on their achievements. Part, who was keen on new technologies and started as an avant-gardist, began seriously studying medieval music during the period of his moral and creative crisis. He was also received into the Orthodox Church.
He developed his own mature style based on Western catholic traditions and orthodox culture — a style that is inseparably linked to sacral themes and religious genres.
The composer adopted a strict moral discipline and set his main task: to achieve modesty and clarity in musical expression. The evolution of the musical academic language has led to its increasing complexity. The convergence of fine methods and technical means reached its apogee under modernism and the avant-garde trends of the 20th century. Having learnt those lessons, Part revived the beauty of simple triads, the expressivity of separate sounds, and deepest words of prayer voiced in music. Humility became his musical creed, as well as the high responsibility required by his path.
Real artists are always on the move, they always set themselves new tasks. A creative anxiety could be seen in Part’s last works, presented at the concert in Kyiv by the conductor Roman Kofman, the Symphony Orchestra at the National Philharmonic Society, and the chamber choir Credo conducted by Bohdan Plish. It seems that in his Fourth Symphony, created in 2008 for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, the International Music Festival in Canberra/Ars Musica Australis and the Sydney Conservatory, the composer reassumed the leading genre of the classical-romantic era after a long hiatus. However, even in this work there’s a hidden link to the sacral texts and church genres — the Guardian Angel’s Canon. The canon has a rigid structure and comprises nine songs. The structure is reflected in the symphony as it unfolds as a chain of fragments, separated by pauses. They are united by the concentration, the birth of music in the silence and the linguistic character of the melodic pattern in the manner of one-voice echoes and chants. The separate episodes are organized by strict choral rhythm, and the thorough kettledrum leitmotif, while the percussion instruments imitate a remote peal. The drama is hidden. It reveals itself in reserved emotional surges, the general minor coloring, the anxious and alerted pizzicato of the strings and the separate moaning motifs. The symphony was created for a string orchestra, harp, kettledrum and percussion instruments.
In the second part of the concert they played a small work for string orchestra and percussion instruments The Silhouette, and The Lamentation of Adam for mixed choir and string orchestra, where the Russian version of Reverend Silvanus of Athos was voiced. The Silhouette, which was created in 2009, is built on a single line of dynamic accumulation and gradual filling of the sound space. In the bright culmination the loud peal filling the air is heard and the initial atmosphere of the anxious silence returns. In this silence, separate “sound dots” gradually appear and form the final accord.
The Lamentation of Adam was created in 2010 on the order of two European cultural capitals, Istanbul and Tallinn. It was presented at the 38th International Music Festival in Istanbul. This work is a confession of the sorrowful soul. It’s dominated by a reserved emotional tone, the male and female voices contrast and the dark and lighter colors are used. The text tells about the eternal sorrow of the humankind’s forefather for the lost paradise, which is conveyed in the music without external expression or breakdown. The deep internal feeling of compassion, remorse, and the sorrowful moan that move all of his sinful soul, is strongly expressed.
