Jazz Articles about Elora Festival Singers

Elora Festival Singers, Noel Edison: Arvo Part Berliner Messe

by C. Michael Bailey
November 15, 2004

While firmly established as one of the most important instrumental composers of the Twentieth Century, Estonian Arvo Part (born 1935) fully distinguished himself as a choral composer. Since 1976, Pä²' has employed a compositional technique he labeled tintinnabuli (from the Latin: “little bells"), where the composer uses bell-like resonances in triads, underscoring a melodic voice revolving around a central key. That is the technical description. The method takes on almost a religious connotation as used by Part. Berliner ...