“One aspect of Pӓrts’ music is its ‘complex simplicity.’  It feels akin to my experience with Russian composer Gregory Sviridov.  Sviridov had a disciplined process of praying or speaking the text over and over until it revealed the musical form around his cantations at which moment he is said to have written and not edited his work. Likewise, Mr. Pӓrt seems to allow his spiritual discipline to formulate the musical expression of the text – similarly tied to the chant study from which much of his later musical works sprung.

From his own words – each piece comes from silence and returns to silence – his awareness of sound from a lack of sound seems keen.  The complex simplicity of his harmonic language appears to bare this out.  He stays true to a fundamental pitch while allowing the illumination of the text through the evolving harmonies found above, around and within the text.  That fundamental pitch, although not silent, is simple – representing a spiritual peace, silence or stillness to me.  This stillness, in the midst of a harried world, appears key to the attraction of many.”