The importance of silence for Pärt is paramount:
“Before one says something, perhaps it is better to say nothing. My music has emerged only after I have been silent for quite some time, literally silent. For me, ‘silent’ means the ‘nothing’ from which God created the world. Ideally, a silent pause is something sacred…”
He relates this silence to love:
“If someone approaches silence with love, then this might give birth to music. A composer must often wait a long time for his music. This kind of sublime anticipation is exactly the kind of pause that I value so greatly.”
[…]
[and from the article’s conclusion:]
If the space one inhabits and draws inspiration and music from is an experience of the Divine in whom we live, move and have our being, then surely some of that breath of life and love passes through (as with all love experiences), in the most human-divine way possible, to those who listen? Or even further: revelation tells us that God is present, always; faith is the doorway that opens our eyes to discover and experience that presence. Perhaps the space that is opened by this music somehow draws or gathers people into that place inhabited by God’s Spirit, with whom, for a time, we amicably, even if unknowingly, make three tents and dwell for a while.
From Maeve Louise Heaney’s article
Can Music “Mirror” God?
A Theological-Hermeneutical Exploration of Music
in the Light of Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel
Listening to this is enough;
if you feel like humming along, an even more
wonderfully healing experience may be awaiting you.
💜🙏
