The development of Arvo Pärt's Tintinnabuli choral writing from 1977-1992

94 Pages·2010·4.9 MB·English

by  Farrell, Susan Jennifer, author

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in 2017 with funding from
University of Alberta Libraries
https://archive.org/details/farrell2010
University of Alberta
The Development of Arvo Part’s Tintinnabuli Choral Writing
from 1977-1992
by
Susan Jennifer Farrell
An essay submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Music
in
Choral Conducting
Department of Music
Edmonton, Alberta
Fall 2010
DEPARTMF-^^T OF MUSIC
ROOM 3-82. FINE ARTS BUILDINC
the university of alberta
EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA
T6G 209
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ABSTRACT
Known for his strong personal style, Estonian composer Arvo Part is an
active composer of choral and instrumental music. His sacred choral works alone
account for nearly half of his ninety-five compositions to this date. Over the past
thirty years, Part has developed a new tonal technique that he labels tintinnabuli.
This music is characterized by harmonic stasis and a two-part structure that
involves a ‘melodic voice’ and a 'tintinnabuli voice’. In this essay, I will trace some
of the political, social and musical influences that contributed to the development
of this style, and will discuss the main formal features of this technique as
exemplified in his choral work Summa (1977) and the Credo movement of the
1992 Berliner Mass. These two works provide excellent examples to compare and
contrast such elements as key, accompaniment, tonal stasis, motives, melodic
contours, and text setting, in order to show the development of the Estonian
composer’s compositional style within the context his original tintinnabuli
writing.
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