Choir piece Which Was the Son of … was commissioned by the city of Reykjavík for their European Capital of Culture 2000 programme, Voices of Europe. The composition is dedicated to Þorgerður Ingólfsdóttir, principal conductor of the youth choir Raddir Evrópu (Voices of Europe), who conducted it during its premiere in Reykjavík in August 2000. The choir was composed of young singers between the ages of 18 and 23 ‒ ten singers from each of the nine cultural capitals from that year. Understandably, English was chosen as the language of the composition, being Europe’s actual lingua franca.

Iceland’s tradition of family names gave the composer an idea to use a passage from the Gospel of Luke, which provides a concrete order of Jesus’s descent and his lineage. Pärt resolved the monotonicity and repetitions of the text using two different elements in music: chord and melody. The latter leads to the multi-voiced polyphony at the end of the composition, where Jesus’ oldest patriarchs, the names of Adam and God are highlighted.

Transcription; score

Performed by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir.

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