Arvo Pärt: 24 Preludes for a Fugue

Arvo Pärt is one of the most famous and performed living composers. In 24 short (occasionally ultra-short) chapters, this film gives an impression of the life of this introverted artist.

Pärt looks back on his youth in Estonia, where he began very early with composition, and recalls his first teachers. He talks about Credo, the composition that brought him in conflict with the Soviet regime in 1968, his migration to the West, and the peculiarities of his trade. In old scores, he discovers the genesis of his signature two-part compositional style tintinnabuli. In a monastery hallway, he admires the sound of dripping rainwater.

When he tries to verbally guide a group of students through his composition Für Alina, his clumsiness with words finally breaks down into poetry: “I felt the need...to concentrate on each sound, so that every blade of grass would have the status of a flower.”