Arvo Pärt's Journey | Hacker News Reader

Arvo Pärt's Journey

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Pärt! I may place him after Bach as one of the rare composers who really captures something about the Universe/Creation itself and not just “feelings” (happy/sad/etc). His music goes beyond just being human. I listen to him about once a month when I feel like imagining myself as a deer walking across an iced-over lake completely alone yet warm with the Presence of the Maker.

The organist/math teacher sat down with a few loose pipes, a pencil, and paper, and helped Lawrence figure out why. When Lawrence understood, it was as if the math teacher had suddenly played the good part of Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor on a pipe organ the size of the Spiral Nebula in Andromeda the part where Uncle Johann dissects the architecture of the Universe in one merciless descending ever mutating chord, as if his foot is thrusting through skidding layers of garbage until it finally strikes bedrock.

Cryptonomicon, in case people were wondering. The part where Lawrence figures out computation while listening to an organ performance is (to me) one of the best bits of Stephenson's entire written output.

[Edit] hprotagonist. Very apt.

Bach doesn’t do that for me at all ( I hear numbers and structure and can’t help so Bach is purely intellectual to me ), but I agree with you on Part : his music moves me in a way no other composer can. I hear both the peace and chaos of life and the universe in it while floating in a bubble, which sounds mildly ridiculous, but happens to be true.

Edit: maybe Bach captures the structure of the universe while Part gets the feeling of the universe …

I feel like this performance of his Fratres is worth watching. https://youtube.com/watch?v=7PS5QMsGaRw&si=444OowBPPp6uirkc

I like this one for cello better

https://youtube.com/watch?v=v4XMjsYeMig

Always loved this spellbinding string quartet version https://youtu.be/MSEIKRdevjs?si=k2tOSfX8XAyp2-P7

A few albums worth checking out:

* https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_npA46Rz1EzAoB8...

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YqF69HLkj8

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNxbT0MESTY

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epJ4N_y7038

Thanks! That's the best Fratres performance I've yet to see (the "wincing frisson" in her facial expressions) -- but this Gidon Kremer performance from 1984 is the best I've yet to hear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmUE8b5kAQ4

Gosh, Fratres still makes me feel the same way as the first time I heard it (from KQ's album Winter was Hard). Its gratifying to see so much Pärt love here and the article was a nice read to gain a better understanding of the theoretical and historical context of what I previously appreciated in a naive manner.

I would never have imagined to read something about him here. I absolutely love his 4th symphony "Los Angeles". And recently "In cantus memoriam Benjamin Britten" was used in a movie. He wrote that piece after learning about Benjamin Britten and being absolutely delighted by his work, only to then find out he passed away shortly before. What a fruitful friendship and cooperation this could have been....

Such a small world. I heard his Canto for Benjamin Britten on the radio the other day by chance. I occasionally listen to classical music, but am honestly not much of a music person and don't play an instrument.

That masterpiece was so emotionally moving that I was in near tears. I then spent an hour trying to figure out what song it was and eventually succeeded. I could almost hear the "ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED" for the entire human race.

> Canto for Benjamin Britten

Two pretty good renditions:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkG8pDbP3dU

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRk8lQ06ElI&t=14s

> That masterpiece was so emotionally moving that I was in near tears.

There is some music that I just won't listen to any more, or very, very rarely:

* the Cranberries ('90s rock) because there's just too much nostalgia involved

* Górecki's Symphony No. 3, especially the second movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miLV0o4AhE4

Fuck man. Didn't know about Gorecki's Symphony No. 3. I found a version with Beth Gibbons(Singer w. Portishead) singing in Polish?!?! Unbelievable goose bump symphony and performance. THANKS!

> Gorecki's Symphony No. 3. I found a version with Beth Gibbons(Singer w. Portishead)

* https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_klQTXcncoEMZYz...

Concert recording:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoaEEVMrL-g

(Second movement starts at around 25m30s; third at 33m40s.)

I have a CD with Dawn Upshaw that I purchased many, many years ago:

* https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lYhVxCPdkPwi2h...

90s rock and pop hits me in the feels as well. Such a different time.

Here’s a slooooooow performance of Spiegel im Spiegel, used to great effect in the trailer for Gravity (2013)

https://youtu.be/mKMivVduoQs?feature=shared

Bizarre that I can't save this to my watch later playlist because it's "content made for kids"

Other favorites: his setting of the Magnificat, "I am the true vine", "And one of the pharisees", "Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten", his O Antiphons.

Agreed that these are remarkable and moving pieces.

If anyone wants to hear some of these, I helped produce (and sang on) a recording of these several years ago, that I think turned out pretty well: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbeKTzt34VaHdBknPDELs...

I always make a point to listen to his Passio every Holy Week.

the antiphons and magnificat are, not surprisngly, very good advent music.

Pärt's speech at St. Vladimir's Seminary is worth watching [1]. Extraordinary figure. Greatest composer of our time and - I'm afraid - last great composer.

My second favourite Pärt-clip is Björk interviewing him. [2]

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh-kjp2hLCw 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfqEAZCYcHI

A deep interview with Arvo Pärt's wife Nora (for Estonian Televison, 40 minutes, with English subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zssKYgi-aHQ

Oh, and a documentary, "24 Preludes for a Fugue" by Dorian Supin. You'll maybe notice some of Arvo Pärt's quirky sense of humor there as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRwTgme1_KE

Thank you for the documentary link. I've been looking for a certain Pärt video I came across years and years ago without success. But now took a small peak to that and I think this is it!

I first heard his music in an excellent BBC documentary[1] about Auschwitz, that I thoroughly recommend. It offers a somewhat nuts and bolts window into the machinery of death, as it was built over time, with a lot of participation and even enthusiasm and "innovation" from many sector's of the German war effort that some have tried to falsely call "clean".

It's also where I first heard Górecki's harrowing Symphony No. 3 (aka Symphony of Sorrowful Songs).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz:_The_Nazis_and_%27Th...

> It's also where I first heard Górecki's harrowing Symphony No. 3 (aka Symphony of Sorrowful Songs).

A recording of the second movement that was allowed to shoot/record at Auschwitz for a documentary/memorial:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miLV0o4AhE4

The second movement had lyrics which were etched words found in an isolation cell.

The whole symphony:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpx2GjUHKB0&list=OLAK5uy_lYh...

Yes, I really cried a lot when I read about those lyrics and listened again.

“Spiegel im Spiegel” is awesome

https://youtu.be/TJ6Mzvh3XCc

His range is well illustrated by listening to Spiegel im Spiegel back to back with Ukuara valss.

I wish he had done more light music. His solemn stuff is great, but I can only handle very limited doses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMSSYc2S_Gw

Wow. What a treat! I clicked on the link not knowing what to expect, and puff what a lovely treat.

The graphic novella (?) is lovely, and so evocative! Beautifully done. Kudos, Joonas Sildre.

Arvo Pärt is new to me (my fault, really), but now I'm intrigued. Thanks for all the YT links. Must make amends, stat. (edit: sp)

My heart's in the highlands is just beautiful, can't stop listening to it

Great story and a great composer.

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