Arvo Pärt

Arvo Pärt (Estonian pronunciation: [ˈɑrvo ˈpært]; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of classical and sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-invented compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music is in part inspired by Gregorian chant. Pärt has been the most performed living composer in the world for 5 consecutive years.

Life

Pärt was born in Paide, Järva County, Estonia, and was raised by his mother and stepfather in Rakvere in northern Estonia. He began to experiment with the top and bottom notes as the family's piano's middle register was damaged. His first serious study came in 1954 at the Tallinn Music Middle School, but less than a year later he temporarily abandoned it to fulfill military service, playing oboe and percussion in the army band. While at the Tallinn Conservatory, he studied composition with Heino Eller. As a student, he produced music for film and the stage. During the 1950s, he also completed his first vocal composition, the cantata Meie aed ('Our Garden') for children's choir and orchestra. He graduated in 1963. From 1957 to 1967, he worked as a sound producer for Estonian radio.

Como

Como (Italian pronunciation: [ˈkɔːmo],locally: [ˈkoːmo];Lombard: Còmm; Latin: Novum Comum) is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como.

Its proximity to Lake Como and to the Alps has made Como a tourist destination and the city contains numerous works of art, churches, gardens, museums, theatres, parks and palaces: the Duomo (seat of Diocese of Como), the Basilica of Sant'Abbondio, the Villa Olmo, the public gardens with the Tempio Voltiano, the Teatro Sociale, the Broletto (the city's medieval town hall) and the 20th century Casa del Fascio.

With 215,320 arrivals, in 2013 Como was the fourth most visited city in Lombardy after Milan, Bergamo and Brescia.

Como was the birthplace of many historical figures, including the poet Caecilius mentioned by Catullus in the 1st century BCE, writers Pliny the Elder and the Younger, Pope Innocent XI, scientist Alessandro Volta, and Cosima Liszt, second wife of Richard Wagner and long-term director of the Bayreuth Festival.

Stabat Mater

Stabat Mater Dolorosa, often referred to as Stabat Mater, is a 13th-century Catholic hymn to Mary, variously attributed to the Franciscan Jacopone da Todi and to Innocent III. It is about the Sorrows of Mary.

The title of the sorrowful hymn is an incipit of the first line, Stabat mater dolorosa ("The sorrowful mother stood"). The Stabat Mater hymn, one of the most powerful and immediate of extant medieval poems, meditates on the suffering of Mary, Jesus Christ's mother, during his crucifixion. It is sung at the liturgy on the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. The Stabat Mater has been set to music by many composers, with the most famous settings being those by Palestrina (~1590), Domenico Scarlatti (1715), Alessandro Scarlatti (1723), Pergolesi (1736), Vivaldi (~1727), J.S.Bach (1748), Haydn (1767), Rossini (1832/42), Dvořák (1877), George Henschel, Karol Szymanowski (1925/26), Poulenc (195/51), Toivo Kuula and Arvo Pärt (1985).

Date

The Marian hymn Stabat mater is generally ascribed to Jacopo da Todi (ca. 1230-1306).

Da pacem Domine

Da pacem Domine (Give peace, Lord) is the incipit of two different Latin texts, a hymn and an introit. Both have been the base for compositions to be used in church liturgy, beginning with chant. Paraphrased versions of the hymn were created by Martin Luther in German in 1524, Verleih uns Frieden, also frequently set by composers. In English, the hymn entered the Book of Common Prayer, Give peace in our time, O Lord.

The hymn

Latin

The text is a 6th or 7th-century hymn based on biblical verses 2 Kings 20:19, 2 Chronicles 20:12,15 and Psalms 72:6-7.

Settings of the Latin hymn include Da pacem Domine by Arvo Pärt (2004).

German

Martin Luther wrote a paraphrase in German, "Verleih uns Frieden". Settings include a motet in the collection Geistliche Chormusik by Heinrich Schütz (published 1648).

English

A version in English, ""Give peace in our time, O Lord", is part of the Book of Common Prayer. The similar phrase Peace for our time has been used in political context.

The introit

A different text with the same first line is the Introit for Pentecost XVIII, based on Sirach 36:18 and Psalms 122:1 (Psalm 121 in the Vulgate)