Arvo Pärt is a heavily-bearded Estonian composer, who wrestled with his compositional style until landing on something he calls Tintinnabulation:
Tintinnabulation is an area I sometimes wander into when I am searching for answers–in my life, my music, my work. In my dark hours, I have the certain feeling that everything outside this one thing has no meaning. The complex and many-faceted only confuses me, and I must search for unity. What is it, this one thing, and how do I find my way to it? Traces of this perfect thing appear in many guises–and everything that is unimportant falls away.
Very often it is easily compared to the sounds of triads, of bells, of very simple counterpoint between two parts.
During the 1990s and early 2000s he was put together with John Tavener and Henryk Górecki as ‘holy’ or ‘spiritual minimalists’ in lazy advertising by the marketing departments of large record companies keen to tap into what seemed to be a wider public appreciation for relaxing, smooth classical music after the start of Classic FM in 1992, which in itself led to John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil and Song for Athene topping the charts.
Today’s choice was composed in 1990/91 for choir and organ, the choir takes the text of the Sermon on the Mount one at a time of a low pedal note. Each time the central pitch raises, eventually erupting into a loud Amen, followed by an organ toccata which descends back down to the original starting point.
The Listening Project Blog 