{"id":118958,"date":"2021-11-08T13:26:53","date_gmt":"2021-11-08T13:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/2021\/11\/08\/in-memoriam\/"},"modified":"2023-10-03T13:56:24","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T17:56:24","slug":"in-memoriam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/2021\/11\/in-memoriam\/","title":{"rendered":"In memoriam"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church moved into its present location by the Hudson River in Lower Manhattan in 1919, renovating and occupying a small tavern built on the spot in 1832. For decades, it welcomed Greek immigrants and worshippers to its humble sanctuary. By the 1970s, the thirty-five-foot-tall structure had been dwarfed by the skyscrapers of the burgeoning Financial District, particularly the World Trade Center\u2019s Twin Towers which soared over 1,400 feet above from just across the street. On the morning of September 11, 2001, when the South Tower collapsed, it leveled the church, which was the only building outside the main World Trade Center complex to be destroyed in the attacks on New York of that day. Mingled among the debris and destruction were the ashes of lost relics of Sts. Nicholas, Catherine, and Sava, donated by Czar Nicholas II<\/small>.<\/p>\n

Those ashes were on the Estonian composer Arvo Pa\u0308rt\u2019s mind when he composed \u201cO Holy Father Nicholas,\u201d a piece written for the opening of the new St. Nicholas Church and National Shrine at Ground Zero. In a curious juxtaposition, the piece received its world premiere in the atrium of the first-century B.C.<\/small> Egyptian Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On the Monday night I was in attendance, a contingent of Orthodox bishops and priests sat in front of center stage, the grand doorway of Osiris\u2019s temple rising from just a few feet behind.<\/p>\n

As part of a concert billed as \u201cCelebrating Arvo Pa\u0308rt at The Met,\u201d preceding and following the premiere was a selection of many of Pa\u0308rt\u2019s most famous pieces from his nearly seventy-year career. Experiential Orchestra collaborated on these works with a newly formed choir, Artefact Ensemble, with conducting duties passed back and forth between EXO<\/span>\u2019s James Blachly and Artefact Ensemble\u2019s Benedict Sheehan.<\/p>\n

The performance began with \u201cFratres\u201d (1977), perhaps Pa\u0308rt\u2019s best-known work and an exemplar of his tintinnabuli<\/i> (\u201clittle bells\u201d) style. Pa\u0308rt\u2019s tintinnabuli<\/i> pieces are poised, elegant conversations between deceptively simple diatonic melodies and a strict choice of notes from a harmonic triad. While the melody is allowed to wander more freely, the harmonic grounding serves as the melody\u2019s \u201cguardian angel,\u201d as Pa\u0308rt puts it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFratres,\u201d though not written with any specific arrangement of instruments in mind, is usually taken up by a violinist and pianist or violinist and string orchestra; the latter arrangement was used here. Nine melodic segments are separated by ten so-called \u201crefuges\u201d of brief percussion and silence.<\/p>\n

\u201cFratres\u201d presents a particular challenge for the stamina of the violinist (in this case the concertmaster, Michelle Ross), whose arsenal must include a gymnastic array of harmonics, arpeggi, bounced bowing, col legno<\/i> (the stick of the bow bounced across the strings), and simultaneous bowing and pizzicato. Ross handled the harmonic passages well; in \u201cFratres,\u201d this is particularly nerve-wracking for the performer, on whom the spotlight is directly cast while she navigates the ephemeral and often dissonant overtones produced by harmonic playing.<\/p>\n

Advanced musical theorists can explain how \u201cFratres\u201d and Pa\u0308rt\u2019s other tintinnabuli<\/i> compositions have a highly mathematical, even algorithmical basis. Though \u201cFratres\u201d has no specific religious connotation, many of Pa\u0308rt\u2019s other works are overtly religious, in rebellion against the state-enforced atheism that Pa\u0308rt endured during his childhood and early career in Soviet Estonia.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Artefact Ensemble and Experiential Orchestra at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art\/Stephanie Berger.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Following \u201cFratres\u201d was one such piece, \u201cVater Unser\u201d (2005\/2011), a setting of the German text of the Lord\u2019s Prayer. Written, uncharacteristically for Pa\u0308rt, from a spontaneously created melody, it is scored for countertenor or boy soprano with piano or orchestral accompaniment. Here the countertenor Eric S. Brenner sang beautifully and with requisite power, accompanied by the strings of\u00a0EXO<\/span>. The countertenor stepped back to take his place in the ranks of the choir, which then launched into \u201cThe Deer\u2019s Cry\u201d (2007), a setting in English of the Old Irish \u201cBreastplate\u201d prayer traditionally attributed to St. Patrick. A swing and force to the rhythm and a breathy bite to the consonants in words such as \u201cChrist\u201d lent this a cappella<\/i> piece a decidedly gospel music\u2013like verve.<\/p>\n

\u201cSilouan\u2019s Song\u201d (1991) followed, an instrumental piece awash in ebbing and flowing waves of crescendi<\/i> in the strings. Despite being wordless, the music is inspired by a text written by St. Silouan, a Russian monk from Mount Athos. I detected slight tuning problems in the cellos; this was quickly addressed afterwards and was not noticeable for \u201cSalve Regina.\u201d This piece for orchestra and chorus was the emotional centerpiece of the evening, swelling to a gorgeous climax that reminded me of the effusiveness of Orthodox hymnody. At the same time, the piece seemed to fluctuate between Eastern and Western European flavors, favoring the latter toward the end. This speaks, I think, to Pa\u0308rt\u2019s origin in Estonia, a country of topsy-turvy religious complexity: the native Lutheranism having been almost eradicated under the Soviets, the Orthodox faith of the country\u2019s Russian minority constitutes the largest religious denomination.<\/p>\n

Witness, then, a product of Pa\u0308rt\u2019s earlier period when he still labored under the watchful eyes of the Soviet censors: \u201cSumma\u201d (1977), which Pa\u0308rt has called his most \u201cstrict and enigmatic\u201d tintinnabuli<\/i> work. Like \u201cSilouan\u2019s Song,\u201d it is an instrumental piece for orchestra inspired by a text, in this case the Latin Credo<\/i>\u2014a subtle act of protest against the atheist regime.<\/p>\n

Following this was the much-awaited world premiere of \u201cO Holy Father Nicholas\u201d (2021), based on the English text from a prayer in the Orthodox liturgy. Bookended by two short, contrastingly ebullient settings of the Trinitarian formula (\u201cIn the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit\u201d), the main section of the a cappella<\/i> hymn is a solemn outpouring of emotion, a repeated invocation of the words \u201cO Holy Saint Nicholas, pray unto God for us.\u201d Pa\u0308rt, whose compositional style can sometimes resemble theme and variation, paints this phrase in varying emotional shades, resolving the piece in a peaceful silence before the Trinity is sunnily invoked at the end. All sections of the choir shone in this performance, particularly the basses; smiles on the choir and conductor\u2019s faces at the end showed that all were pleased with the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cCantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten\u201d (1976) kept the emotional stakes high. An overtly personal expression of Pa\u0308rt\u2019s sorrow at the death of Britten in 1976, a composer whom he had just discovered but felt a deep affinity for, the piece was one of Pa\u0308rt\u2019s first to attract attention in the West. \u201cCantus\u201d steadily increases in intensity and volume as the entire orchestra, with spiral-like effect, approaches a mournful resolution on a single A<\/small>-minor chord. It was the most impressive instrumental showpiece of the evening.<\/p>\n

Bringing a close to the concert was \u201cDa Pacem Domine\u201d (2006) for choir and string orchestra, a hybrid between Pa\u0308rt\u2019s tintinnabuli<\/i> technique and the Renaissance cantus firmus<\/i> method. It was composed for a peace concert organized by the great viola da gambist and ensemble leader Jordi Savall, in memory of the victims of the 2004 terror attacks in Madrid. Of \u201cDa Pacem Domine\u201d I can only say that it contains Pa\u0308rt\u2019s loveliest writing for human voice, and was a pleasure to hear in care of the Artefact Ensemble.<\/p>\n

I felt ultimately that the concert\u2019s staging was a case of style distracting from substance, though one must give the organizers credit for effort: colored lights were shone at close range into the temple\u2019s reflecting pool, casting large, rippling shadows onto the walls; a set of powerful floodlights pointed at the stage burst alight at the most dramatic climaxes of the music; booming bass drums and tubular bells were mixed through a PA<\/small> system cleverly disguised within a pair of obelisks.<\/p>\n

My guess is that these dramatics were organized by the sound and light crew of Experiential Orchestra; their website promises that \u201call [our] concerts feature some experiential quality. [EXO<\/span>\u2019s] founder James Blachly says \u2018my sense is that in this age of technology and speed, we crave full-body experiences that sweep us up and where we are invited to hold nothing back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

I found this \u201cexperience\u201d at odds with the requested solemnity of the evening: silence was asked for between pieces, and no comments were given before or after the performance. Yet with the bombastics of the light show, the internal drama of the individual soul\u2019s search for meaning in God\u2014something Pa\u0308rt\u2019s music dramatizes beautifully\u2014risked replacement by a kind of scripted melodrama of collective emotional \u201cexperience,\u201d lights rising and falling on queue like a bizarre inversion of a television laugh track.<\/p>\n

The musicians and of course Pa\u0308rt deserve great credit. This is music that has the power to elicit profoundly people\u2019s deepest feelings on its own; my instinct would be to let it speak for itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On \u201cCelebrating Arvo Pa\u00cc\u02c6rt,\u201d at the Met\u2019s Temple of Dendur in New York.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2373,"featured_media":121242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[472],"tags":[994,739,637],"dispatch-city":[],"acf":{"participants":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":null,"value":null,"field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_65fb0bff29d65","label":"Participants","name":"participants","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"user","value":null,"menu_order":0,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_651c53615a3f7","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"role":"","return_format":"object","multiple":1,"allow_null":0,"bidirectional":0,"bidirectional_target":[],"_name":"participants","_valid":1}},"featured_image_credits":{"simple_value_formatted":"Artefact Ensemble and Experiential Orchestra at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art\/Stephanie Berger.<\/i>","value_formatted":"Artefact Ensemble and Experiential Orchestra at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art\/Stephanie Berger.<\/i>","value":"Artefact Ensemble and Experiential Orchestra at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art\/Stephanie Berger.<\/i>","field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_651c536113a8e","label":"Featured Image Credits","name":"featured_image_credits","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"wysiwyg","value":null,"menu_order":1,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_651c53615a3f7","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"default_value":"","tabs":"all","toolbar":"basic","media_upload":0,"delay":0,"_name":"featured_image_credits","_valid":1}},"enable_paywall":{"simple_value_formatted":"No","value_formatted":false,"value":0,"field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_66009169342f2","label":"Enable Paywall","name":"enable_paywall","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"true_false","value":null,"menu_order":2,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_651c53615a3f7","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"message":"","default_value":0,"ui":0,"ui_on_text":"","ui_off_text":"","_name":"enable_paywall","_valid":1}}},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Isaac Sligh","author_link":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/author\/isaac-sligh\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/ARVOPART_SBP00567-300x200.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/ARVOPART_SBP00567-scaled.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Dispatch<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Dispatch<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Choral music<\/a>","Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a>","Music<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Choral music<\/span>","Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/span>","Music<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 years ago","modified":"Updated 8 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on November 8, 2021","modified":"Updated on October 3, 2023"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on November 8, 2021 1:26 pm","modified":"Updated on October 3, 2023 1:56 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"Artefact Ensemble and Experiential Orchestra at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art\/Stephanie Berger.<\/i>","series_order":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"mfb_rest_fields":["author_meta","featured_img","jetpack_sharing_enabled","jetpack_featured_media_url","coauthors","tax_additional","comment_count","relative_dates","absolute_dates","absolute_dates_time","featured_img_caption","series_order","jetpack-related-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118958"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118959,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118958\/revisions\/118959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118958"},{"taxonomy":"dispatch-city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dispatch-city?post=118958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}