{"id":38128,"date":"2017-09-27T13:26:53","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T18:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=38128"},"modified":"2017-09-29T04:46:41","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T09:46:41","slug":"composer-arvo-part-wins-prestigious-ratzinger-prize-in-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/09\/27\/composer-arvo-part-wins-prestigious-ratzinger-prize-in-theology\/","title":{"rendered":"Composer Arvo P\u00e4rt Wins Prestigious Ratzinger Prize in Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"

The list of winners of the prestigious Ratzinger prize in theology now includes an artist\u2014composer Arvo P\u00e4rt. (You can read more about the award and its recipients here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Arvo P\u00e4rt is best-known in the U.S. for his sacred vocal\/choral music, though his instrumental works are beginning to receive more notice here as well. He is of the Eastern Orthodox tradition (which he joined in his late twenties, after having been raised in the Lutheran tradition), yet much of his sacred choral music features classic Roman rite Latin texts: The Mass, Te Deum, Stabat Mater, Nunc Dimittis, Magnificat, and so on. In his study and growth as a composer, Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony exerted a great influence on him.<\/p>\n

Though often classified with composers who write in a minimalist style\u2014Philip Glass and John Adams being the most familiar names of this school\u2014P\u00e4rt\u2019s music more often uses what he termed the \u201ctintinnabuli\u201d (little bells) technique. (Though the two styles or techniques share much: the repetition of brief melodic or rhythmic patterns, the layering of harmonies, the occasional effect of near-motionlessness).<\/p>\n