Spiegel im Spiegel

Sir John Tavener was an English composer born in 1944 who I first heard when his first recording was released on The Beatles Apple label. All of John Tavener's works conveyed a sense of the 'spiritual,' of something divine even though he didn't convert to the Russian Orthodox Church until he was in his early thirties. His composition 'The Protecting Veil' is probably my favourite piece of Taveners for it goes beyond being just Christian embracing a universal sense of peace found only in silence. Composer John Rutter said of Tavener that he had a "very rare gift" which was the ability to bring audiences to a deep silence.

"Go placidly among the noise and haste and remember what peace there is in silence." from Desiderata by Max  Ehrmann. 

Tavener was not alone. He said that he and the Estonian composer, Arvo Part, were kindred spirits. Arvo Part is the worlds most performed classical composer. The above is his work which, like Tavener, draws you into a deep sense of silence but, again like Tavener, Part's music speaks of something beyond words, beyond The Koran or the Upanishads or The Torah or The Bible and I think for very good reasons. Words, mighty than the sword maybe, can only convey a limited understanding of what the writer is trying to say but not so with music which has the ability to lift the spirit, bend the mind to tears or convey that deep-seated sense of being. This piece speaks of 'God' without needing to mention 'God,' it is a universal acclamation of our unity with each other and with all creation or, as Cara would say, our One Love.

Arvo Part was born in 1935. John Tavener died 2013.