Tintinnabuli and the Sacred: A View from the Archives, 1976–1977

Kevin C. Karnes

This presentation draws on Pärt’s compositional diaries, sketches, and other archival materials to reveal the devotional underpinnings of nearly the entirety of his tintinnabuli project in its formative years, despite the fact that Pärt’s first public successes with the new style were with ostensibly secular works. Many of the materials I consider – preserved at the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa, the Estonian Theatre and Music Museum in Tallinn, and the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art in Riga – have never before been studied by researchers.