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 What started as "Techniques of the 20th Century Composers", which was to focus on selected composers, their works and extracting information from their techniques to apply as frameworks for improvisers, made me realise that it is a relatively big task for masters research. I had to focus my direction towards one area. Although I am still and will be fascinated by the sounds created by composers such as Olivier Messiaen, Bela Bartok, Morton Feldman, Tōru Takemitsu just to name a few, with its connection to certain improvisers, a certain colour of sound and modern composers, I have chosen a specific path. This research will be primarily focused on the compositional school Holy Minimalism and works of Arvo Pärt. Altough the name tends to be disliked by the composers, for the sake of this research, I will be using it occasionally.


Arvo Pärt and his journey of finding a new voice through simplicity and well thought structures, taking inspiration from Renaissance Music and early church music has been very inspiring for this thesis. The first chapter will be dedicated understanding that new voice that he discovered. Leaving behind an already developed style of composition behind to find a new voice or style was what I have been looking for. I will be explaining this story in the corresponding chapter. At the end of this chapter, there will be brief mentions of related composers and their works of the era, such as Henryk Górecki and John Tavener, to have an overview of some of their approaches as well. The main reason that I have chosen primarily Pärt's work is that, without initially realising it, I have gone through a similar artistic crisis and search. What he discovered through medieval music, Notre Dame school and Renaissance Polyphony, I have discovered through his music. And purely, an intuitive connection to his music. The first chapter will be dedicated to his music and analysis of certain pieces, Tintinnabuli style and some realizations through his music. At the very end of this chapter, there will be presentations of my own compositions inspired by his methods, approach and music.


  The second is chapter dedicated to use of silence and space between the notes. As it was mentioned in the prologue, I believe that to understand this music, it is essential to understand the value of silence. How it emphasize what came before and what comes after. The beauty of a single note appearing out of that silence and expanding. And contemplating on the silence and that single note. Finding meaning in silence. Exploring Arvo Pärt's music with some additional philosophies and concepts that are either related to their creations or have had a huge impact on my creative output, has helped me find my own voice. I have labelled the chapters with a general title, divided into three groups, which was the keywords for the main inspiration of this research. I will be presenting my own compositions throughout the research which are inspired by the explained ideas.


  A special and the last part of this research for me is the brief introduction to some aesthetic philosophies and relative thoughts/concepts, which I discovered a personal connection between this music that I am doing my research on and is an interest of mine which had an impact on me throughout the years. I have been using these terms and ideas as a source of inspiration for composing the pieces that are going to be presented in this research, therefore I will introduce them briefly. I wanted to create a personal documentation in the form of a thesis of what inspires me, connecting the dots between them and create a collection of inspirations for other artists, improvisers and composers.

 

A last note and the reason why I have chosen these topics to research is that I believe there are very little examples, close to none existing, or discussions in academia regarding these inspirations that could be applied  to composition and improvisation. Being focused on what to play and when to play until now, I wanted to shine some light on to these other uncharted territories and with this research. I hope to gain new insights and approaches to apply on both performance and composition.


A brief overview of chapters are below:

Introduction 

Chapter II . Silence | Space


Although both words have definitive meanings in dictionaries, this chapter is primarily reflections on both words, trying to think deeper on them. As mentioned in the prologue, mainly focusing on the playing aspect over a decade, through this research I have shifted my focus on concepts such as:

- Distance between notes.

- Pauses, freezing the moments in music that arises from intuition.

- Space of the performance is intended to be in.

- Accentuating silence. There are various philosophical approaches that I have found regarding this concept.

- Constructed silence, a systematic approach to silence.

- The silence before everything starts and the silence after everything has ended. Treating these moments to contemplate what is about to happen and what has happened.

- Using a space and location as an influence for composition. A factory, holy site, frozen lake, howling woods, the north sea were some ideas regarding this,

 

The rituals and routines that I have experimented with regarding silence has helped me understand structure the music around the concept of silence and space, accentuating the gaps, letting some moments freeze in time to let them linger and long contemplative pauses that breathe a different sense of life into the music and improvisation.

 

A series of composition titled Mai, is inspired by various meanings of space. Exploring the distance between performers, the space that is being performed in and the space between ideas were some of the concepts that arose from contemplation on the word.


 Where things are happening during a piece, regarding within the time structure and where are they happening physically will be explored as a source of inspiration. Greatly influenced by the concept of Ma, the Japanese philosophy of negative space1, the power of a blank canvas, Tabula Rasa2, and using it as an active part of composition and improvisation and altering the space between things in an asymmetrical/irregular way, also known as Fukunsei, has been some of the inspirations for this chapter, which will be serving as elements of foundations for Chapter 3.

 

 The main focus of this research. Holy minimalism is a name for a compositional style that combines the principles of minimalism with Medieval or Renaissance influences and religious subject matter. Despite being grouped together, the composers tend to dislike the term, and are by no means a “school” of close-knit associates. Their widely differing nationalities, religious backgrounds, and compositional inspirations make the term problematic, but it is nonetheless in widespread use, sometimes critically, among musicologists and music critics, primarily because of the lack of a better term. For the sake of this thesis I have used the term Holy Minimalism. 


  My interest and focus is not only in the sense of the musical movement itself, but the concept of Minimalism in everything and its possible applications to music, life and art disciplines. Using of limited material, structuring and altering it in such a way that it lasts and a different way of thinking about information in this day and age of over-stimulation. A highly influential figure and one of the most performed contemporary composer, alive, Arvo Pärt from Estonia and his own developed style Tintinnabuli, will be the center of this section. I have listed his works in order of his earlier usage of Tintinnabulli style, gradually getting more intricate and detailed. I have also added additonal compositions which had a similar approach such as Henryk Gòrecky Symphony No. 3 and The Lamb by John Tavener for additonal inspiration, which they conceal very detailed structures within.


  One other main reason why I have chosen Arvo Pärt's compositions is also his connection to the record label ECM, his piece Tabula Rasa  being the starting point of New Series of the label. Coming from an improvised music background, I have always influenced by the distinct "sound" of the artists who are part of the label and through this research I have managed to create a personal connection between these worlds and my musical output. Most artists of this label have a unique approach to improvisation, mainly focused on texture, sound, timbre and other aspects of music, rather than what to play. With a combined study of Pärt's music, and listening to more and more ECM albums, I have discovered a more personal and a detached way of my older composing and improvising style.

Most of these philosophies that has inspired me are from more from Japanese aesthetic principle. One of the starting points of this chapter is one book that inspired me both in life and my artistic endeavors titled In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki and collection of experiences in the past 10 years after diving into these concepts, where I have used these ideas to create new works and approaches. I believe it would prove useful connecting them to the ethereal and meditative aspects of Arvo Pärt's music. To shine light from a different angle so to say. The more I read into it, parallel with my research, the more I realised aesthetic philosophies and other approaches are highly adaptable to any art form, especially music as a source of new inspiration. Throughout this research, I have made a personal connection between the music that I was analysing and these ideas, which I will be presenting within this thesis. Rooted and influenced by natural, minimal and thoughtful material, always giving something to think about, I believe these concepts could prove to be highly inspirational and relevant to the prior chapters.

 

This chapter is about some relative aesthetic philosophies that I have found out during my research that I have used as firestarters for my own works and to generate new approaches. One of the realisations that arose during this research was understanding that, without focusing on the thinking part of any art form, or getting inspiration from other philosophies and thinkers, everything stays only on the surface. This realisation came from listening to Arvo Pärt's own words and thoughts about music, silence and even peeling potates(Kimberly 2025), and understanding that there are different inspirations and thinking processes behind every single note and action.

 

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