A Study Of Arvo Part's Tintinnabuli

Arvo Part (1935-), one of the renowned contemporary composers in the world, is undoubtedly worthy of our attention. This is Part who has utilized compositional technique called tintinnabuli since 1970s. He is known for his tintinnabuli. Based on the basic principles of the law of unity of opposites, this dissertation studies the two aspects of Part's tintinnabuli works:the ideas and the forms of techniques and of structures. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the interrelation between ideas and forms of tintinnabuli. The dissertation consists of six chapters, divided into two parts. In part 1, which consists of chapter 1 and chapter 2, Part's music ideas and the tintinnabuli style are discussed. In part 2, which consists of four chapters, the music forms that matched Part's music ideas, or the forms of techniques and the forms of structures, are analyzed in detail.Chapter 1 studies key factors for generating the tintinnabuli style, factors including region and music environment, social-political background and religious cultural background; explores the roots of muse and mystery characteristics exhibited in tintinnabuli works; analyzes the reasons why Part creates tintinnabuli technique; and further summarizes the main characteristics of tintinnabuli. This Chapter also briefly describes Part's tintinnabuli works in different periods. Chapter 2 concerns Part's aesthetic preference and philosophical ideas rooted in his tintinnabuli style and discusses them from three perspectives:the pursuit of composition, cognition of works and grasp of musical attributes. The idea is foundation of a work. Exploring the spiritual world of the composer provides a strong basis for formal analysis in Part 2. "writings are for conveying truth," this embodies the unity of ideas and forms. The form of music is specific perception of and full imagination of idea. Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 focus on the forms of tintinnabuli techniques. Chapter 3 defines tintinnabuli technique, explores the essence of such technique, and describes its formation and development. Chapter 4 analyzes the other compositional techniques shown in tintinnabuli works. Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 focus on the logic form of tintinnabuli, including mathematical logic and structure logic. These two Chapters explore the symbolic meanings of the numbers and series in the tintinnabuli works, analyze how the forms of structures of tintinnabuli match composer's ideas, discuss how the form of this kind of music and its formalized process are linked with Part's ideas, and interpret the idea and form of Part's tintinnabuli and its artistic value.