Briefly On Contemporary Expression

I am not sure there could be progress in art...Many art objects of the past appear to be more contemporary than our present art. How do we explain it? The secret to its contemporaneity resides in the question: How thoroughly has the author-composer perceived, not his own present, but the totality of life, its joys, worries and mysteries? ...Art has to deal with eternal questions, not just sorting out the issues of today.

/Arvo Pärt

These are the things I have been obsessed with lately as my undergraduate career draws to a close (and it is closing so quickly!). Who had it figured out? Did anybody have it figured out? I pray incessantly for disciplined faith.

Our culture is increasingly fragmented. Detached.

And from the beginning, the design of the universe was as a whole. We have broken it up physically, spiritually, and psychologically (that phrase itself is a measure of the fragmentation of our language and psyche). I wish there was one word to describe the oneness of the human being(s).

Serialism is a product of a fragmented society (one that might have even been less fragmented than ours). My problem with 12-tone serialism Pärt finally termed for me. I knew there was something inherently ineffective with serialism when we studied it in our advanced theory course but I haven't been able to put my thumb on it until now.

I think if the human has conflict in his soul and with everything, then this system of 12-tone music is exactly good for this. But if you have no more conflict with people, with the world, with God, then it is not necessary. You have no need to have a Browning in your pocket, or a dagger.