The narrative is a bit choppy, but the art more than makes up for it; Sildre's use of line to evoke music is exquisite.

Received via NetGalley. ( )

Between Two Sounds: A Graphic Novel about Arvo Pärt
A review of the Estonian language edition

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s music has become increasingly popular throughout the world since his forced emigration from then-Soviet Estonia in 1980. International performances and recordings became more frequent with the release of ECM Records’ Tabula Rasa (1984) to the point now in 2018 where there are over 500 professionally issued recordings with his works included. Online concert tracker Bachtrack has listed him as the world’s most performed living classical composer for the past seven years running (2011-2017) as of January 2018.

Pärt's music (and sometimes that of his imitators) has become ubiquitous in film and television, especially when a mood of yearning or of calm resignation is being evoked. Many will have heard his music through popular culture usage without perhaps knowing who the composer even was (e.g. in the music used in the teaser-trailer of Alfonso Cuarón’s film Gravity (2013) and then in the subsequent couch gag Gravity parody in the opening of TV's The Simpsons Season 25 Episode 4 “YOLO”, in a climactic scene of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) etc.).

Information about Arvo Pärt’s life prior to 1980 has been limited to snippets from print interviews or film documentaries and a few pages dedicated to biographical information in books such as Paul Hillier’s “Arvo Pärt” (1997), Enzo Restagno’s “Arvo Pärt in Conversation” (Italian original 2004) and Peter Bouteneff’s “Arvo Pärt: Out of Silence” (2015).

Joonas Sildre has expanded the knowledge of this previous time enormously with this non-fiction graphic novel that tells the story of Pärt’s life from his birth, through his youth and beginning love of music, his subsequent musical education and early years as a composer, his retreat while searching for his own musical voice, its realization in the birth of the tintinnabuli sound and the repression of his career under the Soviet system that eventually forced his emigration to the west.

The research that has gone into this book's production spanned a period of ten years and is evident in the detail of the various anecdotes of musical study, composition and performance that are recreated in this heartfelt tribute to a life dedicated to seeking a uniquely personal but also universal way of communication through musical sound.

Pärtophiles will sometimes recognize the recreation of various historical photographs, the wonderful characterizations of various associated musical performers and composers (a helpful List of Characters is provided in an Appendix) and will also be intrigued by what would have been limited knowledge in the past (e.g. the origin of the title of Pärt’s first tintinnabuli work Für Alina, the number of original tintinnabuli works (14, of which only 7 were actually performed publicly) etc.)

Joonas Sildre has done all of this in a clean and simple style utilizing only black, grey and white colours which are especially suited to this composer’s story (who has spoken often of his music’s parallels to white light). The use of black notes to symbolise Pärt’s early music, the discovery of the tintinnabuli sound symbolised by white notes and the harmonies between the melody lines and the tintinnabuli accompaniment in his compositions are all perfect visualisations. The adaptation of musical composition staves / bar-lines provide both ways to communicate types of sound e.g. jagged lines for atonal music, or as a symbolic path or road for a journey being travelled.

Further biographies of Pärt and his musical style are sure to be written, especially with the recent availability of his archives to researchers at the newly opened Arvo Pärt Centre in Estonia. None of them are likely to surpass the delightful entertaining value of this unique non-fiction graphic novel though.

Other Information and LInks

This is a review of the initial Estonian language edition of Kahe heli vahel. It is hoped that translated editions will be available in the future. Copies of the Estonian edition are available from the Arvo Pärt Centre online shop (see under the book's official url) and various Estonian online stores. If you order direct from the author at the book's Facebook page (payment via bank transfer) you will receive a personalized autographed copy with a bonus drawing of Arvo Pärt by artist/writer Joonas Sildre. ( )