Für Arvo

“I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener.”

-Arvo Pärt

I first discovered the music of Arvo Pärt in 1996 through a happy coincidence while living in Bloomington Indiana and attending Indiana University. A Russian friend of mine had off-handedly mentioned his name and thought I might enjoy his music. This friend had studied at the Moscow Music Conservatory and was currently engaged in graduate studies at the Indiana University School of Music. His opinion in this matter had some weight with me, but I did not follow up on the recommendation right away.

A week or two later I was in Roscoe’s, a used CD shop just off of Kirkwood Avenue and a favorite haunt of mine. I spent a good little amount of time going through the Classical music section without any sightings of Arvo Pärt. And that could have very well been the last of that, but then I moved over to the Jazz music section which was my usual hangout. Somewhere in the midst of music by John Coltrane (A Love Supreme, possibly?) I stumbled upon a misplaced CD… Arvo Pärt’s “Te Deum.” If that wasn’t an Augustine-like “take up and listen” command from God, then I wouldn’t know what would be!

Over the years I have acquired many CD’s of Pärt’s music. I cannot listen to it without being profoundly moved. I feel that I somehow acquire senses that transcend the five I was born with. Dostoevsky’s assertion that “beauty will save the world” resonates in my experience of listening to this music. When our son was born we listened to Pärt’s “Für Alina” over and over again those two days in the hospital. It was a precious experience seemingly outside of time and the cares of the world. It was the perfect soundtrack to the miracle of my son’s birth.