Born in Estonia in 1935, Arvo Part's music is highly underpinned by his faith but just like you don't have to share Bach's beliefs to enjoy his music, so, in the same way, you can enjoy the rapt, contemplative music of this fine contemporary composer.

His works include well known pieces such as "Spiegel in Spiegel" or "Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten" as well as other, lesser known ones such as "Annum Per Annum for organ" and "Fur Alina."
He wrote the first piece mentioned ("Spiegel in Spiegel") in 1978 for piano and either violin, cello or viola. "Time and timelessness" co-exst in this wonderful piece of utmost simplicity and gentleness. As in "Fur Alina," Part makes it "sparse and seductive." It "holds within its grasp the possibility of infinite repetition" and as both pieces gracefully fade away, an aftertaste of "seductivity" lingers in our heads long after their doleful end.

"Why did Benjamin Britten's death touch such a chord in me?" the composer once asked. "Because during this time I was at the point where I could recognise the magnitude of such a loss."
And so he wrote his "Cantus in Memoriam....."
The piece is scored for string orchestra and bell and consists of minor descending scale phrases repeated by different groups of strings (e.g cello, viola etc.) and different times (and also at different tempos and dynamic levels).
This creates mounting tension and gives the piece its feeling of loss. The bells chime and one can almost see the small English village where Britten's funeral was held.
This piece is "one of Part's most concentrated works" and though it lasts little over seven minutes it "hints a vastly longer span of life." Like in the two aforementioned works, "time and timelessness are connected."
To quote Part: "This instant and eternity are struggling within us, and this is the cause of all our contradictions."

Arvo Part's music is sincere, moving, and though many people criticize the sparsness of his works, it is true that as he once stated "......it is enough when a single note is beautifully played."