Adam's Lament

Arvo Pärt’s haunting vision of the fall of Adam, the biblical story central to Christianity and common to the Abrahamic religions, sounds a stark warning to all mankind. Adam’s Lament reflects on the devastating universal consequences of that one moment of disobedience that led the original sinners, Adam and Eve, to fall from a state of innocence, free from fear and hatred, into a state of shameful self-awareness and enmity. It conveys a heartrending Russian text by Silouan the Athonite (1866-1938), the Eastern Orthodox monk and poet known for his deep humility and wisdom, which in turn draws on an ancient Russian Orthodox chant. Pärt’s composition, written in 2010 for mixed choir and string orchestra, distils the essence of Adam’s overwhelming despair and unconditional remorse with its simple melodic ideas, austere harmonies and intense choral incantations. The work’s words and music combine to reinforce the message, expressed by Adam yet representative of our shared human tragedy, that the loss of Paradise is as nothing compared to the pain of losing God’s love.