World-famous, Estonian-born composer Arvo Pärt is a unique voice in today's music. From his own extensive experience of working with Pärt, Paul Hiller here provides the first full-length study of the composer's music.

Estonian composer Arvo Part is a unique voice in today's music. Using a tonal idiom based on a mixture of scales and triads, Part created a style called "tintinnabuli." In this first full-length study, Paul Hillier draws on his own considerable experience working with Part and his music to explore the famous tintinnabuli works in depth. Hillier covers the music of Part's earlier, somewhat neglected serial period as well, and sheds valuable light on the development of Part's music by looking at Part's biography and at the influences of Russian Orthodox spirituality, minimalism, and early music.
With the increasing popularity of recording and performing Part's music, Hillier's own thoughts on performance issues will be especially welcome in the world of contemporary music.
The book includes appendices containing a discography, a bibliography, and a list of works.

a detailed work-by-work study by a leading expert who knows the composer, fleshed out with biographical details and useful appendices; there are copious music examples ... a highly detailed text which veers between analytical charts and more straightforward descriptive writing