Celebrated as one of the greatest contemporary composers, Arvo Pärt (b. 1935,
Estonia) got off to a rocky start under Communist rule. Winner of the 1963 USSR
Young Composers' Competition, the neoclassical-influenced musician went through
various phases (dodecaphonism, serialism, collages), creating controversy with
his religiously-inspired Credo and Symphony No. 3. Despite censorship, he
pursued his research and developed a style that he himself called "tintinnabuli"
for the play of bells in his compositions. The series of medieval-inspired works
Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britt...