Arvo Pärt (born in Estonia in 1935) is one of the most prominent living composers of sacred music. Revered worldwide for his phenomenal contribution to contemporary classical music, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs a self-made compositional technique called tintinnabuli, and his work also takes deep inspiration and influence from Gregorian chant. Pärt’s wife, Nora, has said of his music, “The concept of tintinnabuli was born from a deeply rooted desire for an extremely reduced sound world which could not be measured, as it were, in kilometres, or even metres, but only in millimetres. By the end the listening, attention is utterly focused. At the point after the music has faded away it is particularly remarkable to hear your breath, your heartbeat, the lighting or the air conditioning system, for example.” One of Pärt’s biggest admirers is none other than Björk, who sat down with Arvo Pärt for a BBC interview for the program ‘Modern Minimalists’. After you enjoy his extraordinary composition “Spiegel Im Speigel” you can watch his interview with Björk in full below.
