released 9/12/2025

The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt turned 90 years old on September 11, 2025. In honor of this milestone birthday, Ken Myers talks with Peter Bouteneff, editor of and contributor to Arvo Pärt: Sounding the Sacred (Fordham University Press, 2020), about the singular qualities of Pärt’s music. Bouteneff studies the experience of listening to Pärt’s compositions as sound, by which he means exploring the acoustics, the “sound scape,” of the music. Some compositions appear deceptively simple, but each contains complexities amid a strict adherence to principles Pärt establishes for each piece. Bouteneff describes how Pärt’s deep immersion in and reverence for sacred church texts comes through even in his instrumental works, to the point that many non-religious appreciators of his work describe being spiritually moved by the listening experience.

Bouteneff is Professor of Systematic Theology at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary and founding director of the Institute of Sacred Arts. He is also the author of Arvo Pärt: Out of Silence (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2015), about which Ken interviewed him for Volume 144 of the Journal. A stand-alone Archive Feature of that conversation is also available to members.

Listeners who love Pärt’s music may appreciate the following links in celebration of his life and work:

Video of Pärt’s birthday surprise (ERR News, Estonia)

Photos of Arvo Pärt’s birthday surprise (Estonian World)

“Arvo Pärt: A Visual Retrospective” (Estonian World)

This post from Ken Myers’s Cantica Sacra website that offers a recording of all seven movements of Arvo Pärt’s Sieben Magnificat Antiphonen. The performance recording is by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conducted by Tönu Kaljuste, Pärt’s fellow country-man and widely regarded as one of the composer’s closest and most faithful interpreters. From the Arvo Pärt Centre’s website, here is the “official” summary of the work:

Arvo Pärt has assembled these prayers into one comprehensive concert piece based on the German text of the antiphons. The work is composed in rigorous tintinnabuli style, but each part has its own complete form and individual character, which is why they are sometimes performed as separate miniatures at concerts. Consecutive antiphons often contrast with each other: a new key, a new dynamic, a changed texture, or direction of the movement of the voices draws the listener’s attention to the important image in the text, highlighting its essence.

19 minutes

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