New Arvo Pärt Center exhibition features interactive book

A new permanent exhibition has opened at the Arvo Pärt Center, featuring what looks like a regular book about the Estonian composer — but that responds to touch, includes moving images, speaks and plays music.
"In essence, it's definitely a book," said Maarja Tyler, curator of "Tintinnabuli: A World on Music Paper" and Arvo Pärt's archive specialist. "But since we're dealing with a composer, music and compositions, we had to give this book other qualities as well."
The interactive work includes sound, video, images and speech. "It really is almost like a magic book," she noted.
Photographer Kaupo Kikkas had the opportunity to test out the book.
"I think it's incredibly special that we can coexist here on this small patch of homeland with a man like Arvo," Kikkas commented, adding that he learned quite a bit of new info from the book.
According to Tyler, there was no shortage of material to work with when compiling the book.
"It's actually a blessing for a researcher like us here at the Arvo Pärt Center, right by the archives, to have so much material," she acknowledged. "But indeed, every step along the way we had to think and decide what someone could even take in. I think it's deep and rich enough — but also compact."
The curator noted that the book largely serves as an overview of Pärt's body of work, starting with his early modernist compositions and leading up to the development of his tintinnabuli style following his creativity crisis and period of searching.

"We reveal what's happening musically, we explore [his] thought processes and moral framework, and we're hoping additional books will be added to this exhibition in the future," Tyler said.
"We could have taken the easy way out and created a screen-based exhibition, but we really wanted paper and ink there — that physical aspect," she explained. "The whole digital component is the cherry on top."
Visitors can explore the book in person at the Arvo Pärt Center in Laulasmaa.
"I definitely recommend taking the time to do so," Tyler said. "Here at the center, we're fans of the approach that good things need time to be savored."
Pärt in good health at 90
"I like to leaf through this book as though I were a visitor," said Michael Pärt, the composer's son and chair of the center's board. "And I am a visitor here, and I want to read this exhibition as an ordinary person."
Michael was born around the same time Pärt developed his signature tintinnabuli style, in the mid-1970s. He confirmed that his father is in good health, they had hugged last that morning, and that the maestro's grip is still strong.
"I'll be lucky to be as strong as he is at that age," he added.
World-renowned and award-winning Estonian contemporary classical music composer Arvo Pärt turns 90 this year.
Pärt's jubilee is being celebrated with a full calendar of events at the center, across Estonia and beyond.
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Editor: Rasmus Kuningas, Aili Vahtla