Methis: Studia Humaniora Estonica (Jun 2025)
Loomeprotsessi semiootilisest uurimisest helilooja käsikirjade näitel. Arvo Pärdi „Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen“ lähivaates / Composer Manuscripts and the Semiotic Study of the Creative Process: A Close Reading of Arvo Pärt’s Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen
Abstract
Teesid: Artikkel käsitleb helilooja Arvo Pärdi loomeprotsessi, eelkõige selle tekstoloogilist ja intersemiootilist eripära. Analüüs keskendub kooritsükli „Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen“ (1988) loomisloole ning põhineb Arvo Pärdi Keskuse arhiivis leiduvatel käsikirjalistel ja suulistel allikatel, mida pole varasemalt põhjalikumalt uuritud. Vaatluse all on peamiselt Pärdi visandivihikud ehk nn muusikapäevikud – omapärased arhiividokumendid, mis sisaldavad muusikalise notatsiooni kõrval ka rikkalikku verbaalset ja pildilist materjali. Toetudes Võgotski, Lotmani, Žinkini, Toropi jt töödele, võib neid käsitleda kui autori sisekõnet helis, sõnas ja pildis ning detailselt dokumenteeritud materjali põhjal jälgida helilooja suhtlust iseendaga, sisekõnelist koodivahetust ning sellest lähtuvaid kunstilisi valikuid. This article examines the creative process of composer Arvo Pärt, focusing on textological and intersemiotic characteristics. Sketches, drafts and other handwritten materials are analysed within the framework of cultural semiotics, drawing primarily on the works of Lev Vygotsky, Roman Jakobson, Juri Lotman, and Peeter Torop. The case study centres on the genesis of the Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen choral cycle (1988) and is based on oral and written sources preserved in the archive at the Arvo Pärt Centre. While sketches and drafts (including musical ones) are typically studied to trace the developmental progression of a work, from a semiotic perspective they can also be understood as a form of inner speech offering a window into the artist’s creative psychology and world of thought. The theory of inner speech, developed in the works of Lev Vygotsky ([1934] 2014), has proven to be a fruitful research method in contemporary cultural semiotics. Its central concepts – inner and external speech – are applied here to examine the relationship between the visible and invisible dimensions of the creative process; that is, between the draft and the final composition. The semiotic analysis of the creative process also encompasses aspects of communication and autocommunication, linking outward-directed communication with the author’s external speech, specifically the finalised text of the work, and autocommunication with inner speech processes and the draft corpus. In this view, drafts can be interpreted as acts of intrapersonal communication, which, as Roman Jakobson observed, create a bridge not between spaces, but between times (Jakobson 1985). Juri Lotman conceptualised the same phenomenon in his ‘I–I’ type of communication, emphasizing that when the sender and the receiver merge into one person, new codes rather than new messages are introduced (Lotman [1970] 2010). This perspective is particularly relevant in the context of diaries and drafts, where artists frequently move back and forth between various stages of the creative process, repeatedly rereading messages addressed to themselves. In addition to musical notation, Arvo Pärt’s drafts include a wealth of verbal and pictorial material, representing the composer’s inner speech in sound, word, and image. This is documented in his notebooks, or musical diaries, which record not only the compositional process of completed works but also musical ideas that never developed into full pieces, for example everyday ‘musical exercises’ such as melodies and chord progressions. The sole, yet highly significant, function of these fragments is to serve as a channel for the composer’s autocommunication. Among the verbal entries are quotations from books (primarily theological texts), prayers, and Pärt’s own reflections on life, music, and spiritual and artistic ideals. The pictorial material includes tables, diagrams, sketches, calligraphy, and various graphic symbols. The analysis reveals that in Pärt’s creative process, the codes of sound, word, and image are closely intertwined. His thinking is marked by continuous translation between different sign systems, especially during the early stages of composition. Building on the work of Vygotsky, Nikolai Zhinkin has described such a dynamic process – movement from thought to word – as code transition, noting that inner speech is typically formed in a so-called mixed code in which pictorial and verbal elements are combined (Zhinkin 1964). In Pärt’s case, this code becomes even more complex with the addition of a sonic component. Since Pärt’s drafts and diaries document not only the formation of individual works and stylistic development, but also his broader philosophical and spiritual explorations, these archive documents are also examined from textological perspectives. The analysis draws primarily on Peeter Torop’s work on the study of literary drafts (Torop 1999, 2011). From a textological standpoint, the article considers the full lifespan of a work, from the earliest notation of an idea to the final manuscript, including post-publication revisions and arrangements for new ensembles. To describe the various stages of the creative process and their interrelations, the study examines both the micro-time of the draft (the chronology of a single draft page) and its macro-time (the chronology of the entire draft corpus of a work). The examples presented in the article demonstrate that, in the context of Pärt’s oeuvre, defining the temporal boundaries of a work’s genesis and thus the very concept of a draft is a particularly complex task. This complexity arises not only from the composer’s tendency to revise completed works, but also from his frequent practice of arranging existing compositions for different ensembles. The compositional history of the choral work Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen, for instance, spans several decades: based on the original 1988 version, Pärt later composed O-Antiphonen for cello ensemble (2008) and the orchestral work Greater Antiphons (2015). The case study underscores the highly dynamic and contextual nature of Pärt’s creative process, in which the boundaries between draft and final version – between pre-text and end text – are often fluid. Understanding this process requires a broad and nuanced approach to the very notion of the draft itself.
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