Arvo Part's White Light: Media, Culture, Politics

Description

One of the most frequently performed contemporary composers, Arvo Part has become a phenomenon whose unusual reach is felt well beyond the concert hall. This ground-breaking collection of essays investigates both the causes and the effects of this success. Beyond the rhetoric of 'holy minimalism' that has accompanied the composer's reception since the mid-1980s, each chapter takes a fresh approach toward understanding how Part's music has occupied social landscapes. The result is a dynamic conversation among filmgoers (who explore issues of empathy and resemblance), concertgoers (commerce and art), listeners (embodiment, healing and the role of technology), activists (legacies of resistance) and performers (performance practice). Collectively, these studies offer a bold and thoughtful engagement with Part as a major cultural figure and reflect on the unprecedented impact of his music.

Laura Dolp's interdisciplinary research explores the historical agency of music as a site of human transformation, including music and spirituality, the interrelation of music and social spaces, mapping and musical practices, and the poetics of the natural world. She is co-contributor to The Cambridge Companion to Arvo Part (Cambridge, 2012) and Artistic Citizenship: Artistry, Social Responsibility, and Ethical Praxis (2016). Her work also appears in altrelettere, 19th-Century Music, and the Journal of Musicological Research. She holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University, New York.

'This diverse collection of essays from a team of Part scholars, led by Laura Dolp, strongly advances the understanding of Part's music while filling gaps in current scholarship and grappling with the various, often erroneous, perceptions of the composer and his music.' Thomas Robinson, Notes