Arvo Pärt

爱沙尼亚作曲家。1935年9月11日出生于派德（Paide），成长于塔林（Tallinn）。1954年进入塔林音乐中学，一年后因服兵役中断学习，在军乐队中吹奏单簧管、打边鼓。1957年进入塔林音乐学院随埃勒（Heino Eller）学习作曲，同时成为爱沙尼亚广播电台的录音工程师，还为广播电台和电影作曲。在校时他即开始创作，早期作品如弦乐四重奏和一些非古典钢琴作品，显示了肖斯塔科维奇、普罗科菲耶夫等人的影响。1962年，他的两部合唱作品，获得了在莫斯科举办的全苏青年作曲家作品比赛大奖。1963年他从学院毕业。1960年代早期，他作品即开始体现出了十二音体系和偶然音乐的特征。他的第一部管弦乐作品 Necrolog，是爱沙尼亚作曲家的第一部基于十二音体系的新实验音乐作品。此间创作了不少实验音乐作品。这些作品受到截然不同的两个极端的评价。不久他停止创作，潜心于法国古典音乐和14-16世纪音乐的学习。1970年代初写了少量的基于欧洲早期复调音乐传统的作品。1976年后，他开始创作与先前绝然不同的作品，创造了一种他自己称之为 tintinnabuli (拉丁语：铃）的作曲法。他描述说：“我发现，一个音符演演得漂亮就足够了。这一个音符，或一个休止节拍，或者一个静止的瞬音，使我感到安慰。我使用很少的元素，一两个音符。我使用最原始的材料——三和音，一个特定的音调。三和音的三个音符就象铃声，所以我取名为‘ 铃声’。”这些原则下的作品在西方得到了很高的评价，但在国内却受到冲击。这使他全家于1980移民国外，先定居于维也纳，并取得了奥地利公民资格，后定居西柏林。离开爱沙尼亚后，他创作了许多宗教音乐，并在 ECM 录制了苏联以外的第一张唱片。希利尔（Paul Hillier）的希利亚德乐队（Hilliard Ensemble）和爱沙尼亚指挥家贾维，指挥演奏录制了他的许多作品。1996年成为美国文学艺术学会荣誉会员和瑞典皇家音乐学会会员。
Throughout Arvo Part's career, he has demonstrated a voracious musical curiosity and daring experimental spirit that has allowed him to move beyond a secure place as Estonia's premiere composer to become perhaps the best known choral and sacred music scorist of his time. 30 years of musical experimentation with influences as wide ranging as Russian neo-classicism, Western modernism, Schoenbergian dedecaphony, minimalism, polytonality, Gregorian chant and collage have led him to the creation of a distinctively sparse technique he calls "tintinnabulation." This method, which takes its name from the Latin word for bells, places unusual emphasis on individual notes and makes extensive use of silence. "I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played, " says Part. "This one note ... or a moment of silence, comforts me.... I build with the most primitive materials -- with the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of a triad are like bells. And that is why I call it tintinnabulation." Part, a 1963 graduate of the Tallin Conservatory, began his career writing music for Estonian radio, television, film and theater. His early work drew heavily from the music of the Soviet Union, where he took up residence in the early sixties. With Necrology in 1960, Part began to explore Schoenberg's 12-tone serial method. He continued with serialism through most of the sixties, but eventually grew weary of its rigidity and began to experiment with collage technique, incorporating elements of Bach and Tchaikosky into his original compositions. This approach alienated purists, and his Credo of 1968 was banned in Estonia. Part then abandoned pastiche and entered a period of studious hibernation during which he examined medieval and Renaissance choral music. In 1976, Part re-emerged from his self-imposed silence with a small piano composition, Fur Alina. The piece constituted a remarkable departure from his previous work, and introduced the "tintinnabulation" method that was to be the hallmark of subsequent compositions. The piece also marked the beginning of a very prolific period. 1977 saw the release of three of Part's most famous works: Fratres, Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten and Tabula Rasa, for which he won the Estonian Music Prize. The western success of these pieces created friction between Part and the Soviet government and in 1980 he moved to Vienna and became an Austrian citizen. A year later he moved to West Berlin, where he began to focus on choral settings of religious texts including St. John Passion (1982), Te Deum (1984-6), Litany (1994) and Kanon Pokajanen (1998). These works reflected his growing interest in the metaphysical, as well as his appreciation of Gregorian chant and composers like Obrecht, Ockeghem, and Josquin. His western following continued to expand in the nineties, when his music attracted the attention of numerous American film producers, popular recording artists like Michael Stipe, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, to which he was elected in 1996.