Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten

If you have six minutes and want to feel the weight of grief made unbearably beautiful, press play on this. Pärt wrote it after hearing on the radio of Benjamin Britten's death in December 1976, reportedly overcome by the loss of a composer he had only just discovered and had always hoped to meet. The piece uses his signature 'tintinnabuli' technique, meaning bell-like, where the string orchestra plays only a descending minor scale overlapping at different speeds while a single bell tolls, and that bare simplicity somehow opens a space so vast it feels architectural rather than merely musical.

What to listen for

Notice how the strings enter almost imperceptibly high up, barely a whisper, and then each lower string section joins in at half the previous speed, so the music seems to slow and deepen as it descends, like watching something sink through very still water. The bell strikes in widely spaced groups of three throughout, and there is a moment near the end where it falls silent before returning one final time, which many listeners find the most quietly devastating instant in the whole piece.

Recommended recording

The Staatsorchester Stuttgart under Dennis Russell Davies, featured on ECM's landmark 'Tabula Rasa' album, is frequently cited for the transparency and spiritual stillness it brings to the score.

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