Picturing Pärt: A Corpus Study of Tintinnabuli in Film

Abstract

This corpus study examines the use of Arvo Pärt's early tintinnabuli compositions in film and other media, with a specific focus on Für Alina (1976), Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten (1977), Fratres (1977), and Spiegel im Speigel (1978). While previous research by Kaire Maimets-Volt, Maria Cizmic, and others explore the relationship between Pärt's music and the audiovisual, this study substantially increases the number of works contained in the corpus, utilises a more explicit analytical methodology. This study identifies commonly recurring patterns in the use of Pärt's music for the screen and discusses the relationship of his music to onscreen action, sound diegesis, and setting. The study shows that Pärt's music has most frequently been used in scenes where characters stop and reflect, where more sombre, tender, and introspective moods prevail, and where our attention shifts from the diegetic world of sound to an inner world of quiet contemplation.