The End of the Millennium
Composer Biographies
Arvo Pärt
Born: September 11, 1935. Paide, Estonia
Died:
Return to Just Listen: Era : Composer
Estonian composer. He creates music that combines Western, medieval, and Russian Orthodox elements in an individual blend.
Over the last few decades, many composers have infused their music with a distinctly spiritual quality. This is often accompanied by a style that stresses a relatively tonal framework and a retreat from the complexities that have marked art music in the twentieth century. Composers such as Henryk Gorecki, John Tavener, and, above all, Arvo Pärt have created a style that mixes modern musical ideas, ancient musical techniques, and a stark spirituality. This music has found a home in the complex world of the early twenty-first century.
Pärt began his music studies in 1954 and entered the conservatory at Tallinn in 1957. At the same time, he began work at the state radio station and composed for stage and films. His early career was conducted within the oppressive atmosphere of Soviet domination in art and culture. Nonetheless, Pärt helped to pioneer the use of serial techniques in Estonia and later added the technique of collage (making use of extensive quotation of material by baroque and classical composers). After his 1968 Credo was banned, he ceased composing for a time, turning to the study of medieval music and the works of the Franco-Flemish school. He returned to composition in 1971 with his Symphony #3, but soon retreated again into artistic silence. By 1976 he had developed a radically new style based on simple melodies in counterpoint with drones and arpeggiated triads—a style he named tintinabuli because of its bell-like qualities. Since finding this new compositional voice, Pärt has maintained an active and prolific compositional career. He has continued to explore this style, and since leaving Estonia in 1980 he has added the strong religious element that marks his most recent work.
Arvo Pärt's music has found a solid following in the last fifteen years. This is due in part to the clear tonal orientation of his music, which makes it easily accessible to the listener. At the same time, different qualities appeal to other audiences. The general static quality of the music, with slowly shifting harmonies and rich timbres, connects with the so-called New Age style, while his use of medieval techniques has made him popular with proponents (listeners and performers) of Early Music. Finally, the religious quality of his music, tinged with the exotic qualities of the Russian Orthodox church, has made his music attractive to various religious and spiritual movements. His is a popularity perfectly in sync with the eclecticism of his style.
Works
- Orchestral works, including Cantus in memorium Benjamin Britten (string orchestra and bells, 1977); concertos Pro et contra (for cello, 1966) and Tabula rasa (for 2 violins, 1977)
- Instrumental chamber works, including Collage sur B-A-C-H (1964) and Fratres (1977)
- Sacred choral works, including Credo (for piano, chorus, and orchestra, 1968), Cantate Domino canticum novum (1977, rev. 1996), St. John Passion (1982), Seven Magnificat Antiphons (1988), Magnificat (1989), and Kanon Pokajanen (on Russian Orthodox texts, 1997)
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Bright Sheng
Born: December 6, 1955, Shanghai, China
Died:
Return to Just Listen: Era : Composer
In his own words....
"Am I Chinese? Am I American? Am I Chinese-American? I have lived in the United States since my mid-twenties. The other part of me is Chinese, a person who grew up in China and whose outlook was formed there . . . I am a mixture. Identity cannot be decided by political boundaries. . . . I enjoy the fact that I can live in and appreciate two different cultures."
Chinese-American composer. His music integrates the style and instruments of his native country within the Western idiom.
China's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) created an atmosphere in which Western ideas were abandoned (often forcefully) in an attempt to return to a revolutionary purity. One of the victims of this political fundamentalism was the arts, including music. With the gradual reopening of China to the West in the later 70s, western-style conservatories began to reopen, leading to a flowering of Western classical music. The composer Bright Sheng's early life was shaped by the events of this period, and he is one of many in this generation to create an intriguing blend of Eastern and Western styles in his music.
Sheng was born in Shanghai, and at an early age began to study piano with his mother. During the Cultural Revolution he performed traditional Chinese music with a dance troupe in the northern province of Qinghai. With the reopening of western-style conservatories, Sheng began his music studies at the Shanghai Conservatory (receiving a BA). He came to America for graduate study at Queens College and Columbia, where he received is doctorate in 1993. His teachers included Chou Wen-chung and Leonard Bernstein.
Sheng's music freely mixes Chinese and Western elements, trying always to maintain the integrity of each. In his songs he has used texts as diverse as folk songs from the Qinghai province to poems of e. e. cummings. His music has explored important political and cultural aspects of his Chinese heritage including the Cultural Revolution (in his orchestral work H'un), Jiang Qing (Mao's widow and member of the so-called "Gang of Four," in the opera Madame Mao), and the cultural dynamics of the Tibetan region (The Song of Majnun). Most recently he as worked with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. His music incorporates the styles and techniques of traditional Chinese music—mostly with Western instruments, but sometimes with Chinese instruments such as the pipa (lute) and erhu (a two-stringed fiddle).
Works
- Symphonic works, including H'un (Lacerations: In Memoriam 1966–76, [1988]), China Dreams (1995), Tibetan Swing (2002); concertos for Western and Asian instruments, including Spring Dreams, for cello and Chinese orchestra (1997); Nanking! Nanking! A Threnody for Orchestra and Pipa (2000); Red Silk Dance, for piano and orchestra (2000); The Song and Dance of Tears, a quadruple concerto for cello, pipa, sheng, piano and orchestra (2003), Colors of Crimson, for percussion and orchestra (2004)
- Chamber music, including 4 string quartets and Seven Tunes Heard in China, for solo cello (1995)
- Operas, including The Song of Majnun (1992); The Silver River (1997), and Madame Mao (2003)
- Vocal works, including Two Poems from the Sung Dynasty (soprano and orchestra, 1985), Three Chinese Love Songs (soprano, viola, and piano, 1988), and Two Folk Songs from Qinghai, for chorus and orchestra (1989)
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