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From: sliders23
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  • "A blade of gras has the status of a flower."

  • That sounds like Part touches some stars all around the sky

    Randomly & easily

  • This is sublime!! To hear the artist describe so poetically his thought process for a work of art.. I'm humbled, and grateful to YouTube for moments like this...thanks for posting!

  • He describes his music in such a beautiful way. Everything he said was so poetic.

  • i'm proud to live in the same country as this lehend!

  • @declice: It's legend, and I am proud to live in Estonia too :)

  • talent

  • Beautiful hands

  • How can you ask any artist to be so introspective? To be so aware of himself that he knows WHY he likes the sound of something? I find it bizarre that you have a masterclass for teaching how to create art. Get out there and create with your own instincts!!

  • @blackynth Concept is key. Understanding why one makes the art one does is vital to being an artist. Putting paint on a canvas with absolutely no idea why you did it is pointless in most circumstances. Obviously, Part has a very strong conceptual idea concerning his work, as he should. He's a brilliant artist. I don't see this interview as much as a "master class on how to create art" but rather a helpful and inspiring insight into just one artist's practice.

  • If an audience would listen to this music in a concert, they would hardly know when to applause

  • Comment removed

  • Arvo part spiegel

  • I love his voice

  • IS this Avro Part Himself?

  • @markaliis001 Cool! i love his song bogoroditse devo! its the best.

  • @summertimegirl44 I believe so. From all the photos I've seen. Even though I've heard that at the recording he did not play the song, someone else did.

  • @summertimegirl44 Absolutely. 

  • Our world famous composer.

    Greetings from Estonia:)

  • "I'd say that i had a need to... concentrate on each sound, so that every blade of grass would be as important as a flower."

    some of the most profound words i have ever heard.

  • GIVE ME SOME WEED AND BE LIKE THAT SHIT

  • Parece Fontanarrosa!

  • @felipezh jajajajaj!

  • Comment removed

  • i don't know why, but i love the way he speaks...

  • can you believe it, i know some people who really hate him.

  • GENIUS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    

  • Anyone know what piano he's using?

  • @TheReasonableLogic Just an old Yamaha Clavinova.

  • His comments sound great if you love this piece, but its hard to listen to if you don't.

  • God has plan for our life,it takes our willingness to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit,the little voice in our heart of which insights we were aware throughout our entire life,but it is precisely when we take notice and respond,allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us,that we ,the musicians folowing His lead create the Magnificent Symphony,just as God ,the composer had envisioned it .The people of the world are those in concert hall... The story of my life,living in His Will

  • And what's the second one?The first step is everything,decisive.This is a complicated story.I don't quite understand it myself.But I have an idea of what I want to say.I'm always looking for it Sometimes it comes easily,sometimes it doesn't comeat all.Every time I feel I have to start from the scratch." Arvo Part. - The conductor is the Holy Spirit,God is the composer; Alina, having free will is " I don't like this timbre.I will make it more sounding " - the raw wood that has to be honed by God

  • And the people in the concert hall don't know what's coming.Then the conductor makes the upbeat.The upbeat,the moment he raises his hand actually contains the formula of the entire work.It's character,dynamics,tempo and plenty of other things.The conductor and the musicians know it from practicing together.I quess the composer is in a similiar position before he starts writing.He must have the knowledge,or a perception of what's coming when the hand goes down.What is the first note ?

  • Or future,or past,or outside time. Like I said: a blade of grass has the status of a flower.To see in this tiny phrase something more than just the black and the white key.And further...Hold that note..-It is not the the tune that matters so much here.- It 's the combinationwith this triad.It makes such a heart- rending union.The soul yearns to sing it endlessly. Listen...And so on...I imagine the conductor having an upbeat when the whole thing starts.We can't hear anything yet.

  • Let's 've a look at Alina.I'll show the begining.Listen to this voice.Quite neutral...Also neutral.Both together.A bit more serious and complicated,like two people whose paths seem to cross and then they don't.There's some neutrality here.I 'd say that I had a need to concentrate...I wouldn't call it neutrality.A need to concentrate on each sound.So that every blade of grass would be as important as a flower.It'd be like a break on a radio.Such signals sometimes sound as if they lasted ent. life

  • Love the line about the 2 paths crossing, but then not.

  • @listenthinkspeak he is one of the nicest and warmest person ever..

  • @listenthinkspeak may have missed out the "think" part.

  • @listenthinkspeak He does seem quite pretentious in this video, I agree.

  • @tauwilltriumph I don't understand what you are talking about. He is talking about his music, what the hell do you expect?

  • @amatorynumber He reminds me of modern hipsters and avant-garde musicians when he speaks about it, it actually sounds quite funny to me.

  • @tauwilltriumph I believe that this is the only way of talking about music. Without wanting to sound overmetaphisical, it is a wordless art and it is quite hard to talk about it. So everyone is bound to sound a bit silly, but I don't think he comes across as particularly so.

  • @amatorynumber Yes, yes, I know, but I can't stop laughing when I look how the people with him are reacting to his playing.

  • @tauwilltriumph hipsters make avant-garde look/hear pathetic as hell, they make it look banal, amateur etc. As when a certain music or stance defines a whole generation as subcultural, the music loses all of it's charm (for me)

  • is like a tarkowski movie,or like the architecture of peter zumthor. simple and beautiful

  • What a fun way to think about music.

  • All the comments on this video use up the maximum comment length

  • best of all

  • "Beauty will save the world" - Dostoevsky

  • He eats sugar on his tomatoes

  • @ChiverMeTimberz Since I am estonian myself, I do not see anything wrong about that :) Tastes good

  • @ArvoAljaste There's nothing wrong with it, I just thought it was an interesting little fun fact :)

  • he seems like such a lovely man. and great music.

  • HORTUS MUSICUS [Estonia] [UK Premiere]

    75th anniversary celebration of Arvo Pärt and Giya Kancheli

    SUN, 07 NOVEMBER 10, 19:30, ST ETHELDREDA'S CHURCH, LONDON, UK

  • Is that Arvo Part himself?

  • @Tibbershet yes, it is

  • It's amazing how part explains how music is a spontaneous natural process.

  • I can perfectly appreciate why Arvo Part quit the atonal music for this

  • I'll go for: "I love that shit."

  • "The soul yearns to sing it endlessly...."

  • Hello everyone.

    In 2006 REGN made a piece of 3 movements entitled "Für Arvo Pärt" he has been a great influence for his music.

    This piece is now given away plus ambient works and another song in the album VASTUSTUS, get it here: divshare.com/download/12840733­-032

    If anyone want to upload it on YouTube don't need to ask for permission, it's free.

    Those interested please stay tuned at the channel, more material coming soon.

    -DW

  • It is so refreshing to hear contemporary music which speaks simply and directly to anyone. There is no gimmickry, reliance on artificial techniques to defy the past nor intellectual pretense. It seems as pure and as timeless as water.

  • such beautiful music

  • This is perhaps the closest we can get to hearing God's music

  • I saw this on tv last night :D

  • What philosophy! There is so much depth, breadth and height to music to discover that most of us in the worlds are morons who are happy skimming the surface and stop at tantalizing only our 5 senses without knowing how to use them. Part taps into the genius of understanding that is there for us to discover but never do. Music is so much more than beat and rhythm. There is a philosophy, a will, a dynamic of life there that we don't take the time to understand. How profound Part is here!

  • maravilhoso!

  • Es macht Gänsehaut ihm zuzuschauen. Wie inbrünstig und vertieft er an die Sache geht, ist bemerkenswert!

  • Over analyzation

  • @armadillosignshop

    Lesser minds might think so. Why do you think some music stands the test of time and is heads above others even in it's own genre? Because it 'sounds cool'? There is a deeper understanding of music that touches our soul but we can't explain it. We can't explain why something resonates so deeply on a level of our person while others barely get a casual listen. Part is trying to explain this and he himself says 'I don't understand myself'. I have felt this way many times.

  • It's as if performing it is more of a ritual than listening to it. It's as if in order to truly understand the meanings embedded in each note, one must fully immerse oneself in the music. And the only way to do that, and make it completely personal is to perform it. Yes... this piece seems quite introsepctive, as if written more for the performer than for the audience.

  • @miggtorr You misunderstand what he is saying completely. He is saying that even when a note ceases resonating after being struck, it still plays on during the silence in between. We the listeners carry on the composition in our minds until the next note is struck and we are redirected yet again. Music is like architecture, in that both involve the playing of space.

  • @BenNCM i see. i guess when you look at it from a spacial point of view it makes more sense. but still, as the composer is the architect, the performer is the builder. And he has more understanding of the structure than those who look upon the it, the audience.

  • i envy audiences...

  • Thank you so much for uploading this. Never seen him move and talk, yes he is one of those few who are living great art embodied.

  • Thank you for posting such a wonderful video:)!

  • @scottyschumann18: as someone said, democracy was a big mistake :D

  • bless him...a true master.

  • Thank you.

  • @MedicoreProductions Yes of course, Arvo Part travelled in time so he could rip off some 2006 game music for his 1976 composition. Imbecile.

  • The thought of the leaf having the significance of a flower is evocative but not clear enough. One would need a poet for translation, a poet with certain musical sensibility. In this specific case a darker poet, bred and fed in the forest. Frost comes to mind, maybe a little dafker.

  • What I like the most about this video is the struggle Arvo Part has in translating between mediums. There is a sense of poetic aphasia, an honest struggle to put into words what has come to him loud and clear in music. I lack the profound sensibility to fully grasp the significance of the voices he invokes, but it is not hard to get a glimpse of the invocations, and it is not hard to see how he is unable to express it in words. He knows it...

  • One of my favorite composers.

  • What's with all the awful comments... This is of a sort - classical music - not a hate video... Please, just enjoy the music.

  • beautiful. i love how he is completely unable to articulate what this piece means to him. thats probably why he is a composer. wonderful man, wonderful work

  • Arvo part! In times of despair or utter confusion this music is my hope that remnants of world remain pure, and truely good. All i can say is thankyou

  • "I need to concentrate on each sound, and that every blade of grass would be as important as the flower."

    ........

  • @Asmalashhab you have captured the essence of his music so well with that compliment...my compliments.

  • @Asmalashhab :) I just realized you were quoting him! :)

  • @theuniversebecoming hehehe.. No problem! As long as you enjoyed the video as much as I did... He's a true inspiration!

  • we're so proud, that we have a composer like this. he has brought estonia to the world. and his pieces .... there aren't any words to his music, it's beautiful, although, it's too less to say to his music. it's powerful. when somebody plays it, you just stop for a second, your heart misses a beat and you just listen to this and you are so into it and ... it can't be described. in my head, some weird things happen. i'm telling you, this music just conquers you and you are into it.

  • The notes of this piece are very simple, but the music is very hard to play...

  • A flower growing out of a dump. Priceless.

  • So deep.

  • i love how he explains his music. i cant play a lick but i get him. it feels nice.

  • extraordinary

  • he's my dad :- (

  • Very inspiring. Thank you so much for posting.

  • @donniecatalano For those of us who think he is creating a numinous world, rather than describing it, his music is a source of great fascination.

    You don't have to be a craven fanboy, or approve of everything he does and believes to appreciate its beauty.

  • ha. whats wrong with his beard? it suits him, no? :)

  • Mulle meeldib üha uuesti ja uuesti seda kuulata.

  • this man is a god courier

  • @Zuthecat

    :P so estonian music has reached the listeners from elswhere in the world

  • hermoso!!!!!

  • massive hands man

  • His from Estonia, so am I. He's probably the most famous Estonian ever.. Estonia always seems to want fame, but it's such a small country ( 1,3 million people) that even estonian songs being played in US dance shows make it into Estonian songs. :)

  • This is the first time I see him, or even heard about him...I really enjoyed to see this!

  • That beard. Oh dear god, that beard.

  • This man... No matter how many times I see him... My eyes always get wet and at the same time I smile. He really fills me up with the simple beauty of his being. Thank you.

  • Captivating :D

  • The elusive nature of his music is briefly discussed by David Hawkins in Power vs. Force. It's actually a mystical phenomenon arising out of advanced states of consciousness, but he doesn't seem to be so straightforward about it.

  • VÄGA HEA!!!!

  • Simple and beautiful.

  • :), I wish i knew to play piano.

    I wish i could play hes songs.

  • geenius..

  • Arvo Part de toutes façons, n'a pas à expliquer sa musique. C'est une expérience auditive qui ne s'explique que par l'écoute

  • It really feels like if our soul is indeed eternal and if we could still listen to something after we die, this would be it.

  • I love how he struggles to find the words some times

  • He is such a master. Notes like spaces of time, music like the breath of the soul. It's not musical, it's philosophical.

  • He makes sounds I wish I could live in and never leave.

  • @Jamierose140285 It's very musical. VERY!

  • @Jamierose140285 the new sokartes:) i like his music- and played it too you have to play it alone in the darkness listen the music and hoping an angel will answer your call . .. . .. . .

  • Wonderful !!!

  • Suurepärane

  • maybe but it's also noteworthy that all dissent has been buried, is this a cult of personality?

    I respect him for his humility, and he communicates this in his music, but all this waffle about what art should be, what we should create, shouldn't create etc. etc. who gives a shit, just do what you do, whatever it is, and believe in it, that's all this guy is doing.

  • exactly, he is a very popular, serious composer. people on here just nit pick for the sake of it, he has more musical ability in his little finger than us people

  • is this song suitable for a concert???

  • In that case, I do apologize.

    I've come to expect a lot of ignorance from the average commenter here in youtube though.

  • Dude, you think Oblivion's music came before this? This was composed before...

  • I agree his isn't a genius, but at the same time, there is something to be said about minimalism and his use of simple beauty. If you complicate something too much, you're ruining its intrinsic beauty, and for me, Part's music finds a beautiful sound and shows it for what it is, without unnecessary ornamentation or dissonant harmony.

  • when I heard pärt talk, first I thought he just was a intelectual extravagant, but now I see that it was far away from truth.

    when he tell that every grass has the potentiality as a flower as every tune has it, and show example, then I surrender.

    It is just a simple man like me.

  • Well, many German B and C movies have Arvo Pärt's music in them.

  • On the other hand, it appeared in many more mainstream movies (but mostly on festivals), and in some award winning documentaries. As for your hate, it is irrelevant.

  • @ip7778 + @justino111

    what're your definitions of 'failed' and 'genius'. part has not failed and he is a genius. let s/he who has ears to hear and eyes to see... you apparently have neither - ah well, your loss...

  • ...and fake.

    Now, if the tune is beautiful and joyful, or if brings emotions to some people, that's FINE. I am not in the position to judge people's inner emotions. What I cannot stand is the fake naivete. Arvo Part is not Dostoevsky's character Prince Myshkin from "The Idiot". But I guess he thinks he is...

  • I guess I wouldn't be so adamant against Arvo Part if people could stop the ultra-bold and ultra-distorted comments, specially the one who cluelessly call him a "genius". But you and I do agree on that. As far as the philosophical words, it's the whole attitude that sounds ultra-pretentious. We cannot forget that 20th century has produced great experimental music and there are lots of philosophical ideas about it. Arvo Part acts as if he were discovering a new universe, which is pretentious...

  • No.

  • No, I never said one needs a billion notes per sec. to be considered a genius.

    First and foremost, I am responding to those clueless comments that are blatant distortions of a composition process. Also, the composer's attitude is highly pretentious. We have had centuries of beautiful melodies being composed. Arvo Part acts as if he were discovering a new world (musically/spiritually) behind those melodies and that's NOT true. Quoting myself: "the whole atmosphere of naivete is quite irritating".

  • I am sorry I used some bad words in my original message.

    They don't mean to offend anyone. It's just that the whole atmosphere of naivete is quite irritating.

    We are in 2009, which means we can count a few centuries of great music being produced hitherto. I just favorite two Monteverdi clips of Zefiro Torna, a masterpiece that "looks" simple, but it's a fabulous work of art.

    Yes, Arvo Part likes those silences and it works. I cannot agree with the concept of a "genius", though.

  • People call all sorts of people "geniuses" I think we have to agree on the term first... Probably this term is derived from Emotions, as we cannot see in his brain to analyze how fast he perceives musical things and to scientifically prove that he is a genius. I find nothing annoying on his attitude in this video though. Ask any creative person how they do their art and you get only hazy and vague thoughts that are based on emotions. Of course we think what we do is important. That's only right.

  • He is asked and he tries to explain. The creative process is such an individual process, that you can't really trace your own thoughts in it. Let people call him genius if they want. After all, we've only got our emotions to base that opinion on and as you stated yourself - you have nothing to say on the subject of the emotions it gives.

  • I find the constant attitude of wanting New and more originality and more innovation in any aspect of art is getting tiresome to me.Also, quite paradoxically-it's getting old.Perhaps we need to take a break from the constant trend of needing New and focus a bit on creativity itself.I like Pärts music.Of course I understand that it's nothing New,but it's perfect in his own right.Not making any comparisons,but even Bach wasn't very innovatory-perfecting a genre rather than inventing a new one

  • Hyardacil: I guess thats what art is about. One has to try to invent things. Its risky, maybe even pretentious. Now, even in the 17th- century people would say they were tired of this constant attitude of wanting New. There was so many people experimenting with intonation, different instruments, etc. Its the nature of art. Youre right about Back. I dont think one needs to invent a genre. But Bachs music is pretty complex and rich. Its constantly feeding u with information.

  • Yes, but we're straying from the original point. I'll state it anew, I think it's ok to people call him a genius, because even if has not invented a new genre, he, as any artist, has an unique approach.

    Personally I find this whole "pretentious" labeling very strange. What is pretentious, what isn't. It all comes down to personal view, doesn't it? All of art tries to be something MORE and thus something more what it is already. All art should be pretentious. And yet... art is good, is it not?

  • Good point: I think we in the West have labelled our universe into neat compartments some think are the greatest forms of freedom yet even though this is just what stops originality and thinking. No layman is encouraged by her culture to think critically and without compartments, morals, etc.

    Things are problematised less, compartmentalised more, thereby thought about less, consumed more. Everyone is a copy of everyone else in the end, and some dare to call this the beneficial end of mankind!

  • @Hyardacil I couldn't agree more. I am constantly fighting this shtick. I'm a composer, as well, and what annoys me most is how people who are always scrambling for the newest idea constantly disparage other musical genres (which is hypocritical since any art form is subjective). I'm glad to finally hear someone who agrees with me!

  • @aNGLICANcHOIR92 Funny thing is, I don't even like Pärt that much. :P

    I'm more into Erkki-Sven Tüür from Estonian composers anyways. And he is what people consider very "new".

  • @Hyardacil i don't want to offend you in any way or rattle your assumptions so much, but you have a moot point here, based on a gross historical mistake (as regards Bach, this affirmation was deeply wrong). If we follow the same line of thought, the only innovation that wasn't just "perfecting a genre" was Pythagora's discovery of the harmonic series.

    But i get it from your reasoning that you have a grudge against neue-musik and it might be beyond human ability to reason about it ;)

  • @fescolfaro I have no grudge against neue-musik. I might not be the best in tune with whatever is going on at the classical music scene at the moment, or has gone on in the last few decades, but my favorite composers include several from the 20th century that are considered to be innovative or new. And most of my favorite music comes from innovative takes on the so called "popular music" genres.

    Bach was polyphony when most of the music in the latter period of his life was already homophonic.

  • @fescolfaro pt 2. Perhaps the word "innovation" was misused in regards to Bach, I admit. But most indeed considered him "old-fashioned" during the latter period of his life.I disagree with: "If we follow the same line of thought..:" There are plenty of examples when a composer consciously tried to alter the direction of music. Bach was not one of them.

    This comment on the top was made against one Justino, in an earlier argument, who argued that Pärts music has no merit, since it is not "new"

  • @Hyardacil well good, then since you got no grudge we can talk :)

    The thing with Bach that gets overlooked (probably for being too technical) is that his greatest contribution to the evolution of music and the tonal system weren't his fugues or unprecedented counterpoint language (that was later bashed as old fashioned, as you pointed out). It was his tuning temperament (proofed over "The well tempered Clavier").

  • @Hyardacil Up until that point, it was not possible to play in more than one key without retuning the instrument, which means that composers were limited to the confines of major/minor/modal systems with strict centers plus a few closest neighboring exceptions. Most quality pop music today spins around the tonal system, for example.

    Bach is the turning point between Renaissance and modern music (neue-musik and Arvo included, for opening up possibilities outside a "pure" tonal system).

  • @Hyardacil Lastly, your argument about "consciously willing to alter" is presumptuous. It's an invalid "engineering" approach to music, and while music might require technique and technology, it comes from a very different source in human creativity.

    Systems are discovered through an emotional need for fulfillment not achieved through what is already there. Messiaen's modes or Schönberg series, albeit technical, represent a search for new forms of "self expression", and are just that.

  • @fescolfaro I could comment that your idea that it is all a search for new forms of self expression is presumptuous. :P

    And yes, I am aware of Bach's history with the well-tempered system. He was a major propagator of this tuning temperament. He was a major propagator of this system, however not the inventor, as I understand, however.

  • @Hyardacil well, indeed you could, but it's a rather innocent assumption that they would do it for self satisfaction alone ;)

    In Bach's case, he wasn't the only one looking for it (i resist the notion of invention in music), but given that the proof of correctness of his tuning consisted of his own piece's execution, i think it's safe to say that his was just his. And as his body of work is permeated by it, it is fair to regard him as the "liberator" of the tonal system.

  • PEOPLE can recognize these NEW landscape of sounds and emotions. I know I can. At the same time, the auther NEVER tried to say he's better than anyone else. I believe Pärt himself listens to the music you like Justino.

  • 1PostPoMOMaN1: I was watching a clip where Bjork praises Arvo Part and criticizes "OTHER" classical composers. She says Arvo allows her to think, while the others are all over the place.Most of my reactions are against these sorts of silly remarks.

    And answering what u suggested: people are lazy. Only a handful of people are willing to accept NEW landscapes of sounds and emotions. I am not saying I'm not lazy myself. But that's how it is. People like to feel comfortable.

  • Cool answer. I mostly listen to baroque music myself, and some renaissance, and most of all Monteverdi, and Arvo Pärt definitely is radically different from all music I have ever heard. To me, Arvo Pärt gave me a new set of landscapes, and quite an addictive landscape, as addictive as Monteverdi. Both my parents like Monteverdi and Pärt, as do I. I am not about to compare these tow composers, each, though, created a new set of standards to follow.

  • PEOPLE: FUCKIN STOP to use the WORD GENIUS to describe simplistic things that you happen to enjoy.

    GET A LIFE and STOP DISTORTING reality.

  • genius genius genius genius genius genius geneus... does ur girlfiend call your dick a genius too?

  • my reply to you goes to sliders23.