Editing Arvo Pärt (section)

===Overview===
Familiar works by Pärt are ''[[Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten]]'' for [[string orchestra]] and bell (1977) and the [[string quintet]] ''[[Fratres]] I'' (1977, revised 1983), which he transcribed for string orchestra and percussion, the solo violin "Fratres II" and the cello ensemble "Fratres III" (both 1980).

Pärt is often identified with the school of [[Minimalist music|minimalism]] and, more specifically, that of mystic minimalism or [[holy minimalism]].<ref>For example, in an essay by Christopher Norris called "Post-modernism: a guide for the perplexed," found in Gary K. Browning, Abigail Halcli, Frank Webster, ''Understanding Contemporary Society: Theories of the Present'', 2000.</ref> He is considered a pioneer of the latter style, along with contemporaries [[Henryk Górecki]] and [[John Tavener]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Adrian |author-link=Adrian Thomas (composer) |title=Górecki |location=Oxford |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K81gRix2VAAC&pg=PA135 |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-19-816393-0 |page=135}}</ref> Although his fame initially rested on instrumental works such as ''[[Tabula Rasa (Pärt)|Tabula Rasa]]'' and ''[[Spiegel im Spiegel]]'', his [[choral]] works have also come to be widely appreciated.

In this period of Estonian history, Pärt was unable to encounter many musical influences from outside the Soviet Union except for a few illegal tapes and scores. Although Estonia had been an independent state at the time of Pärt's birth, the [[Soviet occupation of Estonia|Soviet Union occupied it in 1940]] as a result of the Soviet–[[Nazis|Nazi]] [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]; and the country would then remain under Soviet domination—except for the three-year period of German wartime occupation—for the next 51 years.