Date of Award

Summer 2026

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

School of Music

First Advisor

Nicholas Susi

Abstract

This dissertation examines selected solo piano works by Arvo Pärt, Henryk Górecki, and John Tavener to explore how theological influences are reflected through their distinctive compositional languages. Current studies show that scholars primarily concentrate on their choral and orchestral repertoire, while their piano works have not received enough attention. This study argues that their solo piano works carry the same of theological influence found in their choral and orchestral compositions.

Through historical, analytical, and theological approaches, the dissertation explores how their compositional techniques convey spiritual meanings in selected solo piano pieces. Pärt’s Für Alina and Variations for the Healing of Arinushka demonstrate how tintinnabuli organizes the structure, melodic line, resonance, and silence, functioning as a metaphor for the relationship between the human and the divine. Górecki’s Intermezzo express moral restraint through the treatment of pitch, symmetry, interruption, and the non-developmental intention, reflecting postwar period Polish Catholic consciousness under Soviet Union’s political pressure. Tavener adopts a symbolic approach in Ypakoë. Each movement is based on a specific religious event during Easter in the Orthodox Church. The structure, repetition, chant-like passage, and religious text in this piece encourage the spiritual idea of contemplation and inward listening.

Pärt, Górecki, and Tavener use different compositional languages to show that spiritual minimalism is not a single style but a shared compositional intention. By analyzing reduced musical materials, simplified structural design, non-developmental intention and direct use of religious texts in their selected piano works, this dissertation clarifies how these pieces function as intimate, spiritual expressions.

Rights

© 2026, Boran Zhao

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