music. arvo pärt.

i just found him on spotify! so soothing.
arvo pärt is an interesting composer who started out with chaos and then developed into calm. against the laws of nature. ^^ i guess everything tends towards chaos except arvo pärt.

he is finnish (i think, or maybe he's estonian?) and i saw an interview with him done by björk, the islandic singer/song writer. björk is also wonderful btw and it turns out that she also is a big fan of him. anyway, from what i remember about the interview (and some scores that i've read) arvo pärt used to compose with a 12-tone scale. which sounds like hell before you get used to it, but once you know what to expect it is wonderful! he also liked clusters. there was one piece for symphony orchestra (i believe) where he wrote the same melody in all the parts at the same time and the only difference was that they were all on different notes, only sepperated by a half-step. it looked good on the paper, but it sounded like (excuse the word) crap.
then he had a crisis and didn't compose for a while and when he finally emerged again his pieces were so simple you almost start laughing. i would deffinately not appreciate his music at all if it weren't for the pieces he composed before (proving that he actually can compose complex things) and that björk and one of my most musically gifted friends worship him.

when listening to arvo pärt you have to have calm in your soul.
for example, when listening to the song spiegel im spiegel. there are very few pieces in the world that are simpler than this. it's a mantra on the piano of (simple) broken chords (like Fmajor, cminor) that repeats over and over again. and then he adds a simple, yet beautiful melody on the violin or the cello, depending on which version you're listening to. and this just goes on and on for 10 minutes.
he never stresses, he lets the music take it's time. and the result is magical...