Arvo Pärt summary

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Arvo Pärt, (born Sept. 11, 1935, Paide, Est.), Estonian composer. After years of experimentation, he began in the late 1970s to produce his own distinctive music. A devoutly Orthodox Christian, he developed a style based on the slow modulation of sounds such as those produced by bells and pure voice tones, a technique reminiscent of the medieval Notre-Dame school and the sacred music of Eastern Orthodoxy. His major works include the violin concerto Tabula Rasa (1977), Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten (1977), Magnificat-Antiphones (1988), and The Beatitudes (1991).

cantata Summary

Cantata, (from Italian cantare, “to sing”), originally, a musical composition intended to be sung, as opposed to a sonata, a composition played instrumentally; now, loosely, any work for voices and instruments. The word cantata first appeared in the Italian composer Alessandro Grandi’s Cantade et

Square piano by Johann Christoph Zumpe, 1767; in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

piano Summary

Piano, a keyboard musical instrument having wire strings that sound when struck by felt-covered hammers operated from a keyboard. The standard modern piano contains 88 keys and has a compass of seven full octaves plus a few keys. The vibration of the strings is transmitted to a soundboard by means

symphony Summary

Symphony, a lengthy form of musical composition for orchestra, normally consisting of several large sections, or movements, at least one of which usually employs sonata form (also called first-movement form). Symphonies in this sense began to be composed during the so-called Classical period in