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Works

Sarah Was Ninety Years Old

1989 / 1990

Scored for

3 voices (STT), percussion and organ

Duration

25 min

Short description

Sarah Was 90 Years Old has a unique story of creation. Pärt composed this music in spring 1976, the time that also marked the birth of his tintinnabuli style. However, Sarah… is not a work in tintinnabuli technique, but serves as an important step to arriving at the new style.

The piece is based on a story of Sarah, the infertile wife of Abraham in the Book of Genesis, who delivers a son at an old age, thus fulfilling God’s prophecy and promise to Abraham.

Arvo Pärt: „Sarah Was 90 Years Old was composed before I arrived at determining my tintinnabuli style, and it is probably my simplest and also most abstract work. It was born from the relations between numbers and is only based on four notes. The 48 possible com…

Sarah Was 90 Years Old has a unique story of creation. Pärt composed this music in spring 1976, the time that also marked the birth of his tintinnabuli style. However, Sarah… is not a work in tintinnabuli technique, but serves as an important step to arriving at the new style.

The piece is based on a story of Sarah, the infertile wife of Abraham in the Book of Genesis, who delivers a son at an old age, thus fulfilling God’s prophecy and promise to Abraham.

Arvo Pärt: „Sarah Was 90 Years Old was composed before I arrived at determining my tintinnabuli style, and it is probably my simplest and also most abstract work. It was born from the relations between numbers and is only based on four notes. The 48 possible combinations of these four sounds are complemented by different derivations of a simple rhythm, achieved by means of shifts in the scale. /--/ At the end of the various combinations one can indeed do nothing other than begin all over again and follow exactly the same path as before: the path of Sarah’s infertility. The result is always zero, an arid desert, until the angels sent by God appear and and everything comes to a close. In the finale of the work a melody arises spontaneously – a sort of lullaby for Isaac. As you see, this is a music based purely on numbers, and I may add that this concentration, this encapsulation within a mathematical formula was something that fascinated me from the beginning …”

The vocal part of the composition does not present a specific text, but is instead a vocalise. However, the composer already marked the sketches for the piece with the name Sarah in his musical diaries. Since it was not possible to reveal its actual message during the Soviet era, Arvo Pärt gave his work a modest title, Modus (Latin for “way, method”). The composition was premiered at a semi-secret event at the Student Club of the Riga Polytechnic Institute in April 1976, performed in its original instrumentation by the early music ensemble Hortus Musicus: soprano, percussion (tom-tom drum and tambourine), harpsichord, double bass (or bass guitar), violin (or electric guitar) and piano (or tam-tam).

In 1980s, after his emigration, Pärt repeatedly re-worked the composition by changing the orchestration (now sopran, 2 tenors, percussion and organ) and reinstated its original title, given in the English translation as Sarah Was 90 Years Old in the published scores.

Sarah Leonard (soprano), Rogers Covey-Crump (tenor), John Potter (tenor), Christopher Bowers-Broadbent (organ), Pierre Favre (percussion). CD Miserere. ECM New Series 1430

© ECM Records

World premiere

17.06.1989
Saint Georges de Boscherville abbey, Saint-Martin-de-Boscherville, Seine-Maritime, France

Concert: The Hilliard Ensemble

Sarah Leonard (soprano), Christopher Bowers-Broadbent (organ), Rogers Covey-Crump (tenor), Mark Padmore (tenor), Glyn Matthews (percussion), Martin Allen (percussion)

Other titles

Saara oli 90-aastane

Completion year

1989

Revision year

1990

Original version

1976

Scored for

3 voices (STT), percussion and organ

Duration

25 min

Publishers

Universal Edition

Vocal text

vocalise

Source text

Genesis 16:1-2; 17:1-5, 15-17; 18:2, 9-15; 21:1-3, 5-7

Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: /.../
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of he…
Genesis 16:1-2; 17:1-5, 15-17; 18:2, 9-15; 21:1-3, 5-7

Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: /.../
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.
Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, /.../
And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent.
And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him.
Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.
Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?
And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?
Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh.
And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken.
For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.
And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.
And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.
And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.
And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.

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