Between Two Sounds: Arvo Pärt’s Journey to his Musical Language by Joonas Sildre Translated by Adam Cullen reviewed by Klaudia Janek

This book is a graphic biography about Arvo Pärt’s life from 1935 – 1980. Pärt is a Estonian composer and musician, whose talent was noticed pretty early on in life. He might not have been gifted in a traditional school setting, but was extremely gifted musically. He spent a lot of time lisenting to music and working with his private instructor. He was admitted into the Tallin Music College, but his studies were interrupted with a military service draft. In 1957 he auditioned for the Tallinn State Conservatory, which was the top music school in Estonia. He is influenced by the musical greats and prefers classical composition to modern composition. However, during this period, a lot of creativity and expression is stifled by the USSR. The author made a reference to the idea that Estonian radio was the most progressive, but they were still under the communist thumb. Arvo had some health issues he was battling, along with criticism about his compositions. He also began to turn towards some religious influences in music, which was frowned upon by the government. He was later exiled by the USSR for being a dissident and welcomed by the Austrian government. The story ends in 1980, but the author’s note reveals that a lot happened between then and now. Arvo Pärt opened a music centre in Estonia and Tintinnabuli music is well known around the world. 

I will admit that I was not familiar with this composer and his works and this book made me do a deep dive into his music after I read it. The illustrator chose to use black, white, and shades of tan/brown – which evoke a sense of communist uniformity and a gloomy and oppressed society. Not only is there a lot of musical information in this book, but the communist setting gives the reader a sense of this time in history. I can see this text being used in an IB Music course (or a music theory class) at the high school level. It would be a good composer to study about how his religious beliefs and political situation infused his music. I also think that it makes for a great interdisciplinary read between music and history. One can get a sense of perspective from the illustrations and the historical perspective can include discussion of causation and consequences (perfect for an IB DP History classroom). I would also introduce this book to IB visual arts students so they can see how the author/illustrator conveyed musical ideas with unique imagery. As a viola player, I appreciate the desire to emulate the classical era of music as opposed to the modern movement. I can see where Pärt might have felt surrounded by other composers experimenting with atonal sounds, mixed time signatures and harmonic dissonance – while he embraced the more tried and true simplicity of music. I was also very excited for the local connection to Detroit in this book as Neeme Järvi was mentioned and he ended up conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for a very long time. This book comes out in September. I am going to add it to our high school reading challenge for music students. I think my music and history teachers will look forward to reading it. I would love to see a curated Spotify list highlighting the music from the book. I think students would really enjoy it. I would also appreciate a pronunciation guide to the names and locations mentioned in the book. Thank you to Plough for the ARC. I look forward to purchasing copies for my school library. It’s a great fit for any IB high school library.