Arvo Pärt
“The walls that divide us do not reach into heaven”. The words of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, whose ninetieth birthday was celebrated last week.
These are wise words indeed from someone who hardly ever said anything apart from what he expressed in his music. Unity and making bridges are the central theme of Pärt’s life’s composing work. His music bridges the worlds of popular, ambient and classical music, as well as the world between archaic and modern sounds.
The texts that he set to music are sourced from Eastern and Western traditions. When I commissioned a new work from him, setting to music words by John Henry Newman, it took me a whole year to persuade him that his work would contribute to Christian unity rather than to further division.
I did so with letters of support from Anglican, Roman Catholic and Orthodox bishops. When he started developing his new and distinctive musical style which is now most commonly called ‘spiritual minimalism’, he was thrown out of the Soviet Composers’ Society, which meant that his works were never performed again from that moment on.
He was forced into exile and thanks to his Jewish wife he was able to emigrate. Ever since this experience, his works have explored the unity of our common humanity under God. In his own words, he is searching for the place, “where all people – for me, all sounds – could live in love with each other. The doors there are open to everyone. But the journey towards it is difficult – to the point of despair.”
Bernhard Schunemann
14 September 2025
