Arvo Pärt's Berliner Messe

Join us Sunday, April 7 for worship as we share in worship, featuring Arvo Pärt’s Berliner Messe.

Arvo Pärt is a deeply spiritual composer.  He is Eastern Orthodox, and finds God in the silence between sound, and the patterns that music makes. He also uses composing as a way to discover more about life, music, and work.  We invite you to use this piece as a part of your Lenten devotions;  finding the calming patterns of notes and the rhythmic ebb and flow as a way of meditation. 

 The Central Choir will be joined by other choral musicians as well as guest organist Liisa Keränen.

about the music

Reviewer Gerald Fisher writes:  Arvo Pärt's Berliner Messe is a masterpiece of the composer's tintinnabulation technique. Written originally for organ and chorus for the 1990 "German Catholic Day." The piece is short but liturgically complete and is particularly rich in Medieval and early Renaissance vocal textures which abound throughout but especially in the fourth movement  Veni Sancte Spiritus is the heart of the piece where the vocal lines dip, rise and hover around a simpler chordal, almost foreboding  string drone.  A more dynamic Credo precedes a long stretched-out Sanctus followed by an unearthly but brief Agnus Dei, which concludes the Mass on a note of expectancy.