Record of the day: Arvo Pärt, “Kanon Pokajanen”

Arvo Pärt, “Kanon Pokajanen” (2 CDs ECM New Series 1654/55)

After yesterday’s journey into darkness we completely change direction with a composition directly inspired by the theme of light; an immense musical icon of over eighty minutes composed by the Estonian musician Arvo Pärt, among the most popular and performed of our years. His production is almost exclusively aimed at the creation of sacred music with a reflective character capable of altering the normal perception of time, where compositional methods of antiquity that provide extremely severe contrapuntal rules are used to obtain a language completely devoid of spectacularity and absolutely contemporary, to which the influences of traditional liturgical music are not alien.

Pärt identifies with the Orthodox Church, and on the occasion of the celebrations for the 750th Anniversary of Cologne Cathedral in 1988 he decided to set to music a very important text for the faithful of that religious tradition, the “Kanon Pokajanen” (Canon of Penance ); written, according to tradition, by Saint Andrew of Crete, this text is sung at dawn in several monasteries, thus symbolizing the arrival of the Divine Light. If Pärt’s previous works such as “Passio” managed to articulate an extremely rarefied material along a large formal architecture, in “Kanon Pokajanen” the procedure is taken to the extreme, given that in this piece the composer does not use any instruments and relies solely on the choir.

As in almost all of his works, silence is an integral part of the music, it amplifies its most hidden vibrations, envelops and nuances it, highlights its details before welcoming it within itself.

The profoundly ritual character of the music means that Pärt accentuates, compared to the rest of his choral production, the iterative and static aspect of its becoming; very long harmonic pedals support extended chordal passages which sometimes recall organ writing alternating with extraordinarily suggestive antiphonal sections. The nine Odes into which the imposing score is divided, interspersed with the “Kondakion” and sealed by a “Final Prayer”, never propose a consolatory listening but express a religiosity with an austere character through an expressiveness that reaches even those who do not share the composer’s faith.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.