The Piano and the Performing Body in the Music of Arvo Pärt

This chapter examines references to the piano in existing literature on Pärt and articulates a perspective on the piano’s role in his music. Pärt’s compositional output for the piano is relatively small; but, as his primary instrument, the piano has played an important role in the development of his sonic world. Musicians’ physical relationships with their instruments over time generate an archive of embodied knowledge and memories; bodily performance then becomes an important way in which music creates meaning for composers and performers alike. Thus, this chapter draws on representations of Pärt composing at the piano as captured in cinema, analyzing the bodies of composer and instrument in dynamic engagement. It also features a close observational analysis of performing Für Alina, Pärt’s inaugural tintinnabuli work from 1976, and what a phenomenological experience of learning and performing this piece might tell us about the expressive nature of tintinnabuli music.