My newest favorite composer ( it takes a while for someone to be added to the list).
I have a fascination with the expression of spirituality. Its the concept of some noble, heavenly transcendence and all that. (i dont at all buy into that sillyness, but we can all dream) Mr. Pärt's music is surreal, as all spirituality is, and maybe that’s what I love about this type of religious expression. The organ section from The Beatitudes is sublime and this lil' painting o' mine i dedicate to the writer of such a thing. I can only hope it expresses what a second of that music says.
Homage à Pärt.
And im just glad that i can once again upload images onto my blog (blogger had a malfunction for a little while)... so im also exploiting this returned ability.
The other day I played out on the piano some fifths on the lower register of the (and E and B) and then mixed an irregular but quiet rhythm with the tones an octave above middle C- with the shift between the minor thirds B+D and A#+C#. I was just playing around, but there was a subtle yearning from those tones, I said to myself- what does that sound like? and then i realized Mr Arvo had left his mark on me. Funny how a composers style will pop up so suddenly.
4 comments:
I'm unfamiliar with his more recent works, but I had a similar reaction the first time I heard Pärt's Passio, which was released on a CD in the 80's when I was in college. Normally, I would have a problem listening to A minor for 70 minutes, but he pulls it off somehow. Must have something to do with his wonderful sense of voice leading.
Nice painting, by the way. I mean, I'm no Sister Wendy. But, nice painting.
I love his Stabat Mater.
I like Part too. It's a shame he's passed off as New Age spirtual incense music. There is some really startling stuff there.
And yes-Ginsberg read poetry at NAMBLA meetings in his late years. It's still a matter of controversy in the gay community and scholars of his work. I just find it a little kooky. It changes in no way my admiration for some of his work.
Oh no no no. Ya got me all wrong. Stravinsky is one of my favorite composers. Probably my favorite along with Mozart, Berg and Debussy.
That is an Ezra Pound poem titled "A Pact" I posted-but I changed Walt Whitman to Igor Stravinsky. Pound wrote it about Whitman who was such a commanding giant in American poetry. Like Pound and Whitman, I think lots of composers are still under Stravinsky's influence, as any genius artist, and have trouble trying to find our own paths under him and we feel smothered by the greatness.
If you read the archive of my bloggarooni you'll see I have posted lots about Stravinsky and his works. I love him like a bastard.
As a matter of fact today I was fumbling through a bit of his "Serenade in A" on the piano...very tricky for some reason despite not being virtuostic.
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