Arvo Pärt’s Popularity Exposes A Hunger For Beauty

Music is a balance of tension and resolution. A mentor once told me that the greatest composers are those who demonstrate mastery of this basic tenet. Dissonance, one form of musical tension, empowers harmony and resolution when used well. However, with few exceptions, today’s composers reject the natural order of tension and resolution. They opt instead to create sonic nightmares, soundscapes smeared upon a postmodern canvas in which tonality is subjective. There is never a true resolution, only growing ugliness.