Pablo Martnez Martnez

Seminar in Twentieth-Century Music

MUSI 5338.01
Composer Report
Arvo Prt (b Paide, 11 Sept 1935)
Arvo Prt is an Estonian composer. He studied in Tallinn, middle school and
Conservatory under Harri Otsa, Tormis and Eller. He graduated in 1963.
His Music
His earliest works, mostly for piano, are neo-classical in style. n 1962 his childrens
cantata Meie aed (Our Garden)
He studied serial composition from the few scores and textbooks that he found
into the Soviet Union, and composed works such as Nekrolog or Perpetuum Mobile.
This path earned him official rebuke, though he nevertheless continued to apply
serial procedures throughout the 1960s.
In 1964 Prt revealed his growing interest in J.S. Bach, employing rows that
incorporate the BACH motif and writing often in imitation of the Baroque style.
The works Pro et contra and the Second Symphony (both 1966) also make
significant use of collage and frequently set in opposition of Modernist dissonance
against the calm order of tonal (neo-Baroque) consonance. These processes
receive their most climactic treatment in Credo (1968), a pivotal work of Prts
career; here the tonal world of Bachs C major prelude from book 1 of Das
Wohltemperierte Klavier is slowly distorted through application of a chain of 5ths
used as a 12-note row. Ultimately, the tonal impression dominates, but this work
provoked an official scandal not for its musical language but for its avowal of
Christianity.
For several years (from 1968) he concentrated on exploring tonal monody and
simple two-part counterpoint in exercises inspired by his studies of early music
and Gregorian chant.
Tintinnabuli
Tintinnabuli was the name he called a tonal technique of his own creation. The first
piece to be written in this new style was the short piano solo Fr Alina.
A two-part homophonic texture forms the basis of tintinnabuli technique. A
melodic voice moves mostly by step around a central pitch (often but not always
the tonic), and the tintinnabuli voice sounds the notes of the tonic triad. The
relationship between these two voices follows a predetermined scheme (which
varies in detail from work to work) and is never haphazard. Furthermore, the
entire structure of a tintinnabuli work is predetermined either by some numerical
pattern or by the syntax and prosody of a chosen text. Very often these two ideals
are combined.
Typically, the melodic voice part can be reduced to ascending or descending
modes, to or from a central pitch. The tintinnabuli voice is fitted note by note,
either by providing the pitch in the triad that is nearest to the melodic voice pitch

(1st position), or the pitch that is nearest but one (2nd position). The tintinnabuli
pitches may be applied above or below the pitches of the melodic voice, or
alternated.
A Religious Composer
His position as a composer of overtly religious music in an austere and seemingly
simple tonal style endeared him neither to the Soviet authorities nor to the
academic establishment, and the development of his career as a composer inside
the Soviet Union was continuously being frustrated. In 1980 he and his family
emigrated, first to Vienna and then to Berlin. He took with him sketches of the St
John Passion, which was completed in 1982 and has become the quintessential
work of the tintinnabuli style. A strict, through-composed setting of the text, the
Passion employs the tintinnabuli techniques but using a number of interconnected
triads and pitch centres so that the whole work draws upon three sets of
overlapping 5ths: DAEB.
Genres
The majority of Prts works composed after 1980 are for chorus or small vocal
ensemble, such as Te Deum. He also composes camber music, such as Stabat mater,
a piece for double trio (three strings and three voices). Orchestral works can be
found into his catalog (4 symphonies), and also piano works such as Fur Alina,