Estonian’s Eternal Quest

It’s been called Holy Minimalism--the austere, ethereal tones of symphonies and masses, quartets and choral works, often bolstered by the close harmonies of throat singers, pure-sounding women’s choirs and solo voices. Seemingly a byproduct of the breakup of the Soviet bloc, it has poured out from behind the former Iron Curtain since the mid-’80s. The most famous examples are Poland’s Henryk Gorecki, with his best-selling Nonesuch-recorded Third Symphony, and Estonia’s Arvo Part, whose “Tabula Rasa” has had enormous impact on other composers. These are works that enrapt the listener in a mood of meditative attention.

Now the next generation of this devotional set is about to take a bow in the Southland. Erkki-Sven Tuur, another Estonian, has a new ECM New Series CD; three pieces to be performed on a contemporary, mostly Estonian program at the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Tuesday; and another at a Los Angeles Philharmonic concert at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in November. All the works are Southern California premieres.

Like Part, Tuur, 37, suspends time in his music by ruminating upon stark and beautiful harmonies that often build to ecstatic climaxes. Yet he offers more variety in style than do his Estonian predecessors.

Tuur doesn’t like to talk about his music: “It’s always somehow misleading,” he said in a recent phone interview from his native country. “But in general I can say for many years I’ve been interested in putting together those very different traditions that usually don’t find any contacting point--the Minimalist tradition, which comes from America, mostly, and the postwar European modern music.

“I’m very interested in the tensions if you juxtapose, for instance, atonal and tonal thinking and modal thinking, or use repetitive patterns that smoothly change into very complex rhythms. I believe it’s possible to find some new qualities by accepting both traditions and putting them together in one composition.”

For all that, he feels connected to Part and another Estonian composer, Lepo Sumera, with whom he studied privately after graduating. “I didn’t feel a necessity to ‘break away’ from them. I had done that, in a way, already. But some of their influences are still there, I can see. It’s something more general--an Estonian ‘school.’ I don’t like to describe it. But you can feel it.”

“It” is captured perhaps in the title of one of his works, “Searching for Roots,” on a recent Virgin Classics CD.

Tuur’s roots go back the town of Kardla on the island of Hiiumaa, one of Estonia’s 1,500 offshore islands in the Baltic Sea, where he was born in 1959. He first heard classical music at home through his father’s huge record collection and began improvising at the piano by the time he was 8. By his early teens, however, he had turned to pop and rock. “I bought a cheap electric guitar and started to make a band. Then I wrote pieces for this band.”

Soon the music of King Crimson, Yes and Frank Zappa unveiled deeper mysteries and more complicated musical textures. So he formed the progressive rock band In Spe (In Hope) when he was 20 and served as its composer, singer and flutist for four years.

“Then I just felt the possibilities of the rock band were quite limited and I’d like to use some other scorings. I realized that I had to study composition. I had to study different instruments and musical forms, analysis and things like this.”

He attended the music institute and later the conservatory in Tallinn, Estonia’s capital city. His parents were worried about his decision to make a career in music. “But I was so sure,” he said. “I must do this. All my life must be dedicated to music.”

The timing was not particularly auspicious because of the political situation, but that would soon improve.

“I started my activity in the beginning of the ‘80s, during a most serious stagnation period. But by 1986, perestroika had already started and already Estonia was in a different situation, a bit more free--compared to Moscow and Leningrad.”

But not completely free.

“I was not allowed to make religious pieces. I couldn’t make vocal music using liturgical texts. Some members of the composers union, of course, had to make this sort of music I call ‘Kaiser Kantate,’ praising the Communist Party, etc.”

Today, the problems facing composers aren’t political but economic. “It’s possible to be heard,” explains Tuur. “But Estonia is a very small country and there are not enough places to be played. One has to be definitely in the international arena to earn a living as a freelance composer.”

It helps, however, to be a star at home, and Tuur qualifies. Estonia awards an annual music prize, which he has won four times. And Tuur helps keep the pot boiling by writing music for local television, movies and the theater.

As for concert pieces, he prefers to work to his own muse. “I accept only those commissions that I feel have a real echo in me, a real adequate response, and I don’t accept commissions that don’t.”

Titles as well as proper inspiration are important to him. “Passion,” “Illusion” and “Inquietude de fine” will be on the Tuesday concert in Irvine. “Insula Deserta” will be played by the L.A. Philharmonic.

“I like the poetic space which goes with these titles,” the composer said. “They’re a not very direct gesture that means only one thing, but they express something very essential.

“For me, music touches some very deep points. It must drive me into this state of mind: I’m going to deal with questions of eternity. I think that music should deal with such deep qualities. Of course, every piece can’t do this, and not all my pieces reach so far. But to be an idealist, this is the best way, the best music can be.”

His compositions often come to him very quickly, but not always. “Sometimes you have to wait for quite a long time to listen inside and to search for the right mood and the right shape and the right gesture.”

Hence he often returns to the lonely island of his birth when he wants to compose, taking along his family, including a 17-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son.

“There is this quite lovely village, with only four families. There is quite a lot of space and big forests. It’s a matter of concentration and being in a silence and a special place where I can concentrate on looking for the image [I need] before I start to compose. This is the place I prefer to be.”

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MUSIC OF ERKKI-SVEN TUUR, part of a program by the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Hilliard Ensemble, led by Tonu Kaljuste. Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. Date: Tuesday, 8 p.m. Prices: $25-$38. Phone: (714) 854-4646.