Performing The Deer’s Cry

Abstract

In his choral work The Deer’s Cry Estonian composer Arvo Pärt explores contemporary resonances of an ancient existential practice for the protection of the self and the promotion of social cohesion. Through a series of incantations based on a Lorica attributed to the fifth century Irish saint St Patrick, the poetic text explores the human need for protection in the face of danger, and the place of both self- and sacrificial love in the ecology of everyday life. The formal and textural structure of the music hides a performative technique that spreads an enchantment over both performer and listener.

Keywords

• arvo pärt
• human self-protection
• lorica
• preparing for performance
• primacy of love
• resilience
• spiritual enchantment
• st patrik’s breastplate
• the deer’s cry
• theotokos