Contents

Music in the Late Twentieth Century

CLOSING THE SPIRITUAL CIRCLE

Chapter:
CHAPTER 8 A Harmonious Avant-Garde?
Source:
MUSIC IN THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Author(s):
Richard Taruskin

The ethical sensibility that informs Andriessen's intentions (as, to a more or less declared extent, it does the music of all the minimalists) is the link between his openly declared political activism and its seeming antithesis, exemplified by a group of composers who use minimalist techniques to evoke or induce a state of passive spiritual contemplation. The pioneer figure here is the Estonian-born Arvo Pärt (b. 1935), whose turn toward spirituality was especially self-conscious, since it took place in a country that, as a consequence of the 1939 Hitler-Stalin pact, had been incorporated into the militantly atheistic Soviet Union. (Estonia regained its independence in 1991, but by then Pärt had been living abroad for more than a decade.)

Citation (MLA):
Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 8 A Harmonious Avant-Garde?." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2025. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume5/actrade-9780195384857-div1-008013.xml>.
Citation (APA):
Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 8 A Harmonious Avant-Garde?. In Oxford University Press, Music in the Late Twentieth Century. New York, USA. Retrieved 7 Feb. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume5/actrade-9780195384857-div1-008013.xml
Citation (Chicago):
Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 8 A Harmonious Avant-Garde?." In Music in the Late Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 7 Feb. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume5/actrade-9780195384857-div1-008013.xml
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