Arvo Pärt - ...which was the son of... (2000)

[chipman921]

Beautiful.... But in my opinion taken too fast. One of my favorite choral pieces though!

[hhistory]

Beautifully performed.

[miguelastor1]

With all respect, I don't think it is a "banal text" from the bible. Remember this book is not a poetry book, that is why I think judge it aestheticly maybe wrong.

Pärt is a great composer, but I think its greats contributions to contemporary music are absent in this work. It is so simple with elementary harmony. I admire so much his work and his style, but his last works are so far of his tintinabulli period. And these are less originals too.

[musikman12358]

@miguelastor1, perhaps I spoke to harshly of the text or used the wrong word. I was simply appealing to what I consider is a popular view of this genealogical text. Before hearing this work, I certainly would never have imagined a musical setting of the text particularly because it was never meant to be poetry. So I guess we understand each other a little in that sense.

[miguelastor1]

@musikman12358 I agree with you about the originality of choosing this text for this work. I apologize if my expresion looked so hard. My english is not so good.

I don't like so much this work in comparison of other of the same composer. Specially those of tintinabulli period. I think it has been difficult to him to move on, once he gave this big step in renewal of musical language after the prevalence of non-tonal styles during XXth century.

[musikman12358]

@miguelastor1, with reference to the style, I basically agree. I didn't even recognize the composer's style in most of the work although I feel the introduction is pretty unmistakable. The difference in my humble opinion is that the harmonies are actually more functional and complicated (probably just a difference of semantics from your statement). The static harmonic elements of his earlier works make them feel more "timeless" to me.

[miguelastor1]

@musikman12358 I agree, only the introduction is clearly "Part's"  When the harmony begin to have functions clearly perceived, tonic-dominant and so on, the "timeless" sense is lost. And this static sense of time may be the most important contribution of tintinabulli works. I think Part, as any live composer, is ever in a search of his own language. Thanks for answer.

[Shadow3329]

Very nice performance. I love this piece and my chorale is performing it soon. Its just so much fun to sing.

[musikman12358]

@Shadow3329, Thanks! Kick some butt up there wherever you perform!