Pēteris Vasks’ “The Fruit Of Silence”: VOCES8

The Latvian composer, Pēteris Vasks (b. 1946), began as “a young, angry and avant-garde” modernist. Over time, his music evolved to embrace consonance, simplicity, spirituality, Latvian folk influences, and “echoes of bird songs.”

Composed in 2013, Vasks’ The Fruit of Silence is a choral setting of a prayer by Mother Teresa:

The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.

In the piano’s introduction, upward wandering arpeggios echo Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel. The Fruit of Silence is a serene meditation which celebrates the glowing purity of the harmonic series. Here, it is performed by the British a cappella octet, VOCES8 with pianist, Huw Watkins:

Recordings

• Vasks The Fruit Of Silence, VOCES8 voces8.com

This article first appeared on The Listeners’ Club.