FMQ - composers Articles

On my music and beyond: Opening up enclosed compositions in an enclosed space

"I am a composer of contemporary music, but also frequently an ordinary concertgoer – a music listener. My purpose here is to consider an art music concert event from the perspective of an audience member," writes Riikka Talvitie. This column is part of the series where composers and musicians write about their music.

Riikka Talvitie

June 30, 2022

Columns

On my music and beyond: A forever expanding sphere

"Musical evolution is not linear. Musical styles do not change all at once, and music does not develop – let alone ‘progress’ – in any single direction. Musical evolution is also spherical; we are living in a continuous Big Bang that is endlessly expanding our musical universe in all directions," writes composer Osmo Tapio Räihälä. This column is part of the series where composers and musicians write about their music.

Osmo Tapio Räihälä

January 26, 2022

Columns

On my music and beyond: About the anatomy of an artwork

"Art of time requires dramaturgical precision from its creator, and because of this a key tool for the creator is a stopwatch. If a particular section of a composition is too short, it is unable to effectively convey its narrative; if it is too long, it will bore the listener. The aim is always to get the texture to breathe at the appropriate pace, to give it natural motion and clarity," writes composer Aulis Sallinen. This column is part of the series where composers and musicians write about their music.

Aulis Sallinen

December 8, 2021

Columns

On my music and beyond: Composing must be rooted in integrity

"For me, the most important function of music is to convey and catalyse emotions. This is why rich textures and powerful melodies play such a central role in my music," writes Mari Sainio. This column is part of the series where composers and musicians write about their music.

Mari Sainio

December 8, 2021

Columns

On my music and beyond: The greatest achievement of humanity is art

“Composing is for me largely a matter of random meandering, and writing down the notes is only the tip of the iceberg in my process. My composing does not adapt to office hours, does not progress in a linear fashion and is not easily predictable; instead, it is variable and fragmented, and largely a complete mystery to me,” writes composer Sauli Zinovjev. This column is part of the series where composers and musicians write about their music.

Sauli Zinovjev

September 16, 2021

Columns

Nostalgia and rebellion at Time of Music 2021 - Thoughts on the concepts and practices of curating at festivals

"Could emphatic escapism in fact be the best reflection of the current time, where all of us wish that we were living in the past? Perhaps a symbolic farewell to that which is past is the best way to proceed to something new? Accordingly, the concerts at the Time of Music festival in summer 2021 will be memorial plaques of the future," writes artistic director, composer Johan Tallgren in his column.

Johan Tallgren

June 4, 2021

Reviews

The darkest recesses of the human heart

"Jutta Seppinen, versatile and vulnerable in the roles of both the victim and the abuser, manages to brilliantly express the emotional contradictions embedded in the situation."

Anna Pulkkis

May 6, 2021

Columns

On my music and beyond: Engawa, listening out

"During my three-month teaching period [in Japan], I learned greater respect for individuals who build bridges between cultures that are distant from each other, both geographically and mentally," writes composer Juha T. Koskinen. This column is part of the series where composers and musicians write about their music.

Juha T. Koskinen

April 30, 2021

Features

Relieving anxiety, questioning current practices – How can social activism manifest in contemporary music?

The relationship of art to society has always been complex. What is the role of music in a world of increasing crises and polarisation? How can art participate in social debate, and does it have a responsibility to do so? We asked three contemporary composers for their views.

Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen

March 29, 2021

Features

Composer Maija Hynninen found courage in California

Composer Maija Hynninen works extensively with new technology, but this does not diminish the importance of the traditional craft of a composer, quite the opposite. A composer’s work is about listening and processing, and that takes time, she says. For Hynninen, every work is a new process of exploration. She discovered a new kind of courage while studying in California.

Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen

March 11, 2021

Features

Finland is a paradise for composers - Today there are multiple ways to make your mark

The professional profile and operating environment of Finnish composers of classical music have become increasingly international at a rapid rate in the past three decades. Back in the day, few composers spent extensive periods of time abroad, and any trips they did take were mainly for study or for inspiration and did not necessarily involve immersion in the local music scene. This started to change in the 1990s, as the Finnish music industry began to integrate into the international music industry.

Pekka Hako

October 2, 2020

Features

Contemporary music can be political - Cecilia Damström’s Requiem is one of the key works at the Ung Nordisk Musik festival

The music of Cecilia Damström stems from expressiveness and the desire to make a difference. In music, the tiniest gestures can come across as political statements. At the Ung Nordisk Musik festival in Tampere in August 2020, Damström’s Requiem for our Earth puts the theme of this year’s event – Music Ecology – up front. “I was able to include an unusually large number of themes important for me in this Requiem,” says the composer.

Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen

August 20, 2020

Columns

On my music and beyond: The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny

“During the previous year of my studies in Utrecht I had added theory of music and composition to my curriculum. I knew I wanted to be a performer, but the traditional jazz piano wasn’t where my heart was. I had studied Clare Fischer’s harmonic concepts, which seemed to open windows towards the contemporary classical sounds I had heard in Donaueschingen,” writes composer and pianist Sid Hille. This column is part of the series where composers and other music makers write about their music.

Sid Hille

August 6, 2020

Reviews

Turriago’s retrospective solo journey

"Turriago plays energetically, and his booklet texts are disarmingly straightforward. [- -] The newest works – Da Lontano…, Somber, and the virtuoso etude Jitters – are the strongest ones, making one look forward to more."

Anna Pulkkis

June 4, 2020

Reviews

In the torrent of furious energy

"The experience is powerful yet also exhausting, and a feat of strength for the musicians, who perform it brilliantly."

Anna Pulkkis

June 4, 2020

Features

Music emerging from the coronavirus crisis – a view from Finland

The coronavirus pandemic has caused an abrupt and total dissolution of the work opportunities and income of music professionals. Freelance musicians, concert venues and festivals have been the hardest hit, but the long-term impacts of the crisis will reverberate throughout the sector. FMQ talked to representatives of organisations in the field of music in Finland to gauge how they feel about the current situation and outlook. What have we learned about the music sector in the light of the crisis so far? Are there any potential positive outcomes?

Anu Ahola

May 15, 2020

Columns

On my music and beyond – Over, past, thence and yonder

“A certain material, tone combination or chord is nothing on its own, but in the context of a work, it and its significance reaches beyond itself. And similarly, a musical entity can – when all pieces click together – reach over and beyond music as a phenomenon, to interpret humanity. To be available to others, to be recognised: as evidence of what it means to exist,” writes composer Lotta Wennäkoski. This column is part of the series, where composers and other music makers write about their music.

Lotta Wennäkoski

April 23, 2020

Features

A celebration of historical Finnish women who wrote music, Part 5: Alexandra Zheleznova-Armfelt

Composer Alexandra Zheleznova-Armfelt (1866–1933) was a member of the Finnish community in St Petersburg and created her career outside Finland itself. A review of her life and work adds to our understanding of the cosmopolitan nature of our musical history and also lends a perspective on cultural life in St Petersburg and in the Baltic Sea region in general around the turn of the 20th century.

Nuppu Koivisto-Kaasik

January 23, 2020

Features

A celebration of historical Finnish women who wrote music, Part 4: Ida Moberg

Ida Moberg (1859–1947) wished to command ensembles that produced a large sound while also touching human emotions: Most of her output is for orchestra or choir or both. The topics of her works largely has to do with individual’s spiritual metamorphosis.

Susanna Välimäki

October 11, 2019

Features

A celebration of historical Finnish women who wrote music, Part 3: Laura Netzel

Composer Laura Netzel (1839–1927) was celebrated in her lifetime as a notable musician and philanthropist. Born in Savo in eastern Finland, she spent her life in Stockholm, where she came to be known as a prolific composer and an active member of various charities.

Nuppu Koivisto-Kaasik

August 9, 2019

Features

A celebration of historical Finnish women who wrote music, Part 2: Agnes Tschetschulin

A pioneer of Finnish violin repertoire and a virtuoso of the school of Joseph Joachim – handsome epithets that apply to composer and violinist Agnes Tschetschulin (1859–1942). She was the first star student of the Helsinki Music Institute (now the Sibelius Academy) and went on to create a prominent international career.

Susanna Välimäki

May 2, 2019

Columns

On my music and beyond: Orchestration Balancer

"I am currently exploring ways of ensuring the audibility of a specific instrument in orchestral texture before rehearsals even begin." This column is part of the series "On my music and beyond", where composers and other music makers write about their music.

Uljas Pulkkis

March 31, 2019

Features

A celebration of historical Finnish women who wrote music, Part 1: Activists strive for gender equality

The history of Finnish music is unexpectedly rich in women who have written music. Nearly three dozen interesting personalities may be found in the 19th and early 20th centuries alone. The present series of articles discusses the lives and music of these women – an excellent opportunity for the reader to learn more about this largely unexplored group of Finnish classical composers. This first article serves as an introduction and also showcases a concert series given by violinist Mirka Malmi to give voice to this forgotten music.

Susanna Välimäki

February 8, 2019

Features

Probing the core of Magnus Lindberg’s orchestral oeuvre

Takemi Sosa completed a doctoral dissertation on the orchestral works of Magnus Lindberg at the University of Helsinki, uncovering the Aristotelian dramatic arc governing their structure. This is the first doctoral dissertation on Lindberg’s music completed in Europe.

Lasse Lehtonen

August 16, 2018

Features

The Great Finnish Music Swindle by Salonen, Lindberg and Hämeenniemi

In summer 1979, a number of Finnish composers and musicians attended a summer course in Siena, Italy. Three of them hit on an idea for a practical joke, and this led to a grand swindle that prompted hilarity on the music scene and had many authoritative figures ending up with egg on their face. The hoax was masterminded by three composers: Eero Hämeenniemi, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Magnus Lindberg. Both of the latter turned 60 in June 2018.

Pekka Hako

August 16, 2018

Features

The politics of apoliticism: Erik Bergman’s composition studies in Nazi Germany

Erik Bergman (1911–2006) was a pioneer in modern composition techniques in Finland. He was awarded practically every Finnish recognition and prize that it is possible for a creative artist to receive. It is a little-known fact that for his first studies abroad he went to Nazi Germany.

Juha Torvinen

April 19, 2018

Features

Composing is for everyone

Composing is acquiring an important role at Finland’s music institutes and schools. In the revised curricula, composing is identified as an activity that is – or at least should be – accessible to everyone and whose positive impacts extend far beyond the realm of music itself.

Anu Ahola

April 13, 2017

Columns

Give some get some

Art does not just magically appear in the world as a gift of grace that comes from divine inspiration. It is created through persistent and devoted work. This work is always funded by someone who has their own expectations of what to receive in return for their support.

Olli Virtaperko

January 10, 2015

Features

Finnish nature and dazzling sun

Matthew Whittall has risen to the elite of Finnish composers. He is inspired by nature and his personal experiences and is not ashamed to admit it. Last winter, his orchestral work Solen was given an interpretation in dance in Ulm, Germany. Next spring, it will be performed in Toronto.

Jaani Länsiö

December 1, 2013

Features

How Finnish classical music and musicians made it in America

In the summer of 1998, Americans watched the U.S. House of Representatives debate a proposal to eliminate all national arts funding - contentious issue that was wrapped up in the "controversial" art such funding supported as well as questions over the very idea of federal funding of the arts. Meanwhile, news reports began to tell how the government of Finland had an advanced system of supporting music through its school curriculum.

Brian Wise

January 12, 2006

Columns

From the Archives: Can women’s studies change the world of music? New perspectives on Finnish music and music research

Since the late 2010s, gender has finally become a widely debated and prominent topic in media discourses about classical music and composers. Contrary to what media discourses often suggest, however, the topic itself is far from new and has been a subject of academic debate for decades. This 1997 article, written by Pirkko Moisala, a pioneer of feminist music research in Finland, reflects on the situation in the late 1990s. While much has changed, there are still many critical issues that need to be addressed today.

Pirkko Moisala

December 1, 1997

Features

The two lives of Jaakko Kuusisto

At closer range, Jaakko and Pekka Kuusisto do not even look alike. But it's been hard to convince the media that one is Jaakko and the other is Pekka (see VMQ 3/96). To start with, they have both in turn taken first prize in the national Kuopio Violin Competition. Then in 1990 Jaakko came fourth in the Sibelius Violin Competition at the age of 16, to be followed five years later by Pekka, who hit the jackpot when he was 19.

Anu Karlson

January 6, 1997

Features

Reviewing the eighties – The rise of Finnish new music

“Finnish music in the 1980’s, as in any previous decade, has witnessed the arrival of yet another generation of composers. But this time, their debut has been particularly impressive and confident, and has contributed to fashioning a whole new image for Finnish music,” writes Kimmo Korhonen in his article, published in FMQ in 1991.

Kimmo Korhonen

March 3, 1991

Features

The String Quartet and a smell of warm buns

"Although I am not a string player myself, the string quartet is inextricably intertwined with my early musical life. Later on, my own string quartets, which appeared regularly at intervals of exactly 10 years, became milestones in my private and working life."

Jouni Kaipainen

January 8, 1985

Features

Magnus Lindberg – Changing style

Barely having finished Joy, the last part of his orchestral trilogy to which his earlier works Kinetics and Marea also belong, and also the Piano Concerto, which is a synthesis of the three, Magnus Lindberg is already planning an “opera spectacle” for Brussels. He is also in the process of writing a large scale orchestral work for the BBC which will be premièred in November.

Tomi Mäkelä

January 8, 1985

Features

Going strong, going forward

Composer Magnus Lindberg is constantly engaged in research and development to find new ideas. The passing of time does not make composing any easier – Lindberg intimates that he is more critical now at 50 than he was at the beginning of his career.

Takemi Sosa

January 8, 1985

Features

What’s been written for the kantele?

“Nowadays, a great variety of music is played on the kantele. Its repertoire includes neoclassical, minimalist, and modern music. The kantele is also a more international instrument than ever before”, writes Pekka Jalkanen in his article about contemporary music for kantele (FMQ 3/2008).

Pekka Jalkanen

January 8, 1985

Columns

The tone of the north in music

“If there is much room around a composer’s ‘self’ both in nature and culture, discreteness and the experience of space can probably be heard in her or his music.”

Tapio Tuomela

January 8, 1985

Features

Kalevi Aho: a composer of moods

"Art should be able to stir us, to wake us from our dreaming and our torpor, so that we should be forced to take a stand on the work and explain to ourselves what it means. If a composition is capable of this, then it has at the same time been able to activate the listener both emotionally and intellectually."

Kimmo Korhonen

January 8, 1985

Features

Reaching for a composer’s career

Being a freelance composer is much like being an entrepreneur – for one thing, your career development is entirely in your own hands. “You cannot wait and expect someone else to do it for you,” says composer Sebastian Hilli.

Merja Hottinen

January 8, 1985

Features

Kalevi Aho: “Music must communicate”

For Aho, composing music is an inevitable way of contemplating existential questions and of taking responsability for what is happening in the world.

Juha Torvinen

January 8, 1985