ESTONIAN SYMPHONIC MUSIC. THE FIRST CENTURY 1896-1996.
Novel
techniques of composition had become a part of Estonian symphonism.
In the middle of the decade, the first manifestations of collage technique became
noticeable. An example of this is Arvo Pärt’s Collage on B-A-C-H for string orchestra,
oboe, harpsichord and piano (1964), which has quotations from a Saraband by Bach
(The English Suite in D minor); also, in his Cello Concerto Pro et Contra (1966) with
Baroque cadenzas, and in Credo (1968) for mixed choir and symphony orchestra, the
basic material being the C major Prelude by Bach (from The Well-Tempered Clavier I).
1
Ivar Kosenkraius, Film ja aeg: esseid, etüüde, portreevisandeid (Film and Time. Essays.) (Tallinn: Eesti
Raamat, 1974) 98.
At the end of the Sixties, the symphonism of Jaan Koha (1929-1993) reached
maturity. The thematic material of the First Symphony (1960)2 is thoroughly national,