Studies continued in 1954 at Rakvere Secondary School and Tallinn Music School, where he studied composition and music theory. Whilst at Secondary School in Rakvere he was able to hear classical orchestral music from recordings transmitted over the public loudspeaker system in the town square, extending his somewhat limited musical horizons by cycling round and round the square on these occasions. His composition teachers at the Tallinn Music School were Harri Otsa (b.1926) and Veljo Tormis (b.1930), study that was interrupted by two years of compulsory military service during which he worked as a snare drummer in an army band. It was not until autumn 1957 that he was finally able to enrol as a postgraduate student at the Tallinn Conservatory.His composition teacher there was Heino Eller (1887-1970), who had himself studied composition at the St Petersburg Conservatory under Glazunov (whom Pärt acknowledges as his musical grandfather) and who played a central role in the development of Estonian music both as composer and teacher.

Pärts first works, two piano Sonatinas and a Partita, were neoclassical student pieces. Then in 1960 he became the first Estonian composer to espouse serialism (Nekrolog) and, using other avant-garde techniques including pointillism and aleatoricism, explored its potential in a number of experimental works Perpetuum Mobile (1963), Symphony No.1 (1964), Diagrams (1964), Musica Sillabica (1964), and Solfeggio (1964). In an attempt to extricate himself from what soon became a musical impasse, his next works adopted (and played with) baroque and classical forms and incorporated borrowed tonal gestures the brief Quintettino (1964), Collage on B-A-C-H (1964) and the cello concerto Pro et Contra (1966). With the composition of Credo (1968), the quintessential work of the early period and the first to set a religious text, Pärt finally reached the impasse that had been threatening, created by the fact that his own compositional voice had effectively been eclipsed by that of Bach.



Orchestral Music

In 1976 Pärt wrote a moving tribute to Benjamin Britten, Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, for string orchestra and bell. His Cello Concerto, Pro et Contra and three symphonies reflect the course his music has taken.

Chamber Music

A wind Quintetino of 1965 has been followed by the interesting work Fratres, for violin and piano, and Spiegel im Spiegel ('Mirror in the Mirror') for cello and piano.

Vocal and Choral Music

Pärt has made a particularly strong impression with works such as his Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi secondum Johannem ('St John Passion'), his Stabat Mater, for three solo voices and string trio, his Miserere of 1989 and the Biblical Sarah was ninety-years old.

Instrumental Music

Music for smaller ensembles and solo instruments by Pärt includes his 1977 Fratres for violin and piano and Spiegel im Spiegel for cello and piano, together with his organ Pari intervalli.

---