Church

**** that, everyone can have a say. Let's not construct sacred cows here.

I never said it wasn't executed it well or that it was even bad, I said that I would enjoy it a lot more if it included percussion that was executed well. I do understand that it does exactly what Part was going for, I just don't find that aesthetic interesting enough to justify more than about 20 minutes of listening before it gets too monotonous.

Which is, of course, fine: and I agree that everyone can have a say. You did literally say, though, that it would have 'gotten it a 5 star rating from me if it was executed well.' I realise this is just annoying semantics though when I take in all your posts in the last page or so, and I personally have the same view: for me it overstays its welcome a bit after a certain point. On the other hand the composer tries to express religious concepts relevant to him in his music, and me, being an atheist, won't be the one who tries to comprehend this aspect: I just consider the sound. I can't embrace it completely because it attempts to express what I'm not interested in.

I was referring to the percussion being executed well and figured that the context was clear enough, my bad.

I get that. I think that I can connect to religious music as an atheist if the music is emphasizing religiosity through a relatable emotions like the elation in spiritual jazz or the angelic somberness in this album.

Great musicians usually believe kooky ****. I don't factor it in very much at all.

I can also, and I love a lot of 'religious music.' But some works emphasise this element more than others and a work like this seems to me, after a certain point, an invitation to contemplation rather than a purely musical (or crudely, secular) statement. The 'angelic somberness' is, of course, something I can connect to but not for the entire album, which seems (to me at least) to require something different from me as far as my beliefs go.

I factor it in if it clearly has a large impact on the proceedings, but I generally agree that the most important thing is (obviously) simply the musical choices and their effects.

Incoming necrobump of proportions here; but I expressed an interest in this comp on the first page of this thread, though didn't get around to listening to it 'til now (in fact, I explored some other albums of Pärt's music before getting on with this one). :)

Let me just say the title track definitely deserves the position of being one of Pärt's most well loved and critically acclaimed works, even with its relative brevity compared to much else on here. Great choice by OH this. I was already familiar with the "Salve Regina" prior to hearing this, and I find it to be a beautifully soul-crushing piece of music. It's given a wonderful rendition by the Estonian Philharmonic Choir, as is everything else on here.
Some in this thread have remarked that they don't find the music to be captivating or engaging and implied that it's best suited as background music. On the contrary, I find Pärt's music to be extremely emotionally intense and attention-demanding, even in its most calm and contemplative moments.
All in all, a great set of excerpts from Pärt's choral catalogue. I'll be listening to this again regularly, I suspect, as well as continuing to explore more of his other works.