Finnish Music Research Articles

Jean Sibelius and Johan Ludvig Runeberg: the Marriage of Finnish Music and Poetry

Jean Sibelius and Johan Ludvig Runeberg: the Marriage of Finnish Music and Poetry

A Breath of Wind from Paris to Helsinki: The French Impact on Finnish Music at the Beginning of the 20th century

L’article est consacré à un sujet assez peu étudié, les relations musicales entre la Finlande et la France au tournant des xixe‑xxe siècles. Il est construit à la manière d’une suite, combinant différents thèmes : la réception de la musique de Sibelius par Pascal Dusapin, le reflet des images nationales en musique, les éléments français de la musique de Sibelius, l’art finlandais à Paris et l’art français à Helsinki. Le lien entre ces parties est assuré par la thèse centrale défendue par l’auteur : à l’époque considérée, l’art français n’était pas pour les Finlandais un objet d’imitation, mais une expérience musicale et artistique étrangère.

After Sibelius: Studies in Finnish Music. By Tim Howell.

After Sibelius: Studies in Finnish Music. By Tim Howell.

After Sibelius: Studies in Finnish Music (review)

Sibelius: Studies in Finnish Music. By Tim Howell. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006. [xii, 308 p. ISBN-10: 0754651770; ISBN-13: 9780754651772. $99.95.] Bibliography, index, illustrations, music examples. Back in the mid-1980s when I lived in Finland, I met an American expatriate who told me that he had come live in Helsinki largely because of its vibrant musical culture. Finland is a small country in the remotest corner of Europe, but it has had a disproportionately large impact in music. Finnish conductors occupy many of the major orchestral posts throughout the world. Like the other Nordic countries, Finland has been at the forefront in the production of contemporary music. Society of Finnish Composers recognizes some 143 active composers of art music in Finland today. In spite of this, the average person would be hard pressed name any Finnish beside purpose of the present book is to introduce a variety of music that might otherwise be unfamiliar, with a view encourage wider appreciation of its value and importance (p. ix). Tim Howell, senior lecturer in music at the University of York in England, looks at the recent generation of Finnish composers, those who came of age either during or just after the era of His book begins with an expose on Sibelius's impact on contemporary Finnish music. He then writes one chapter each for eight Finnish composers in chronological order by date of birth, and ends with a chapter showing how contemporary Finnish composers are advancing out of the shadow of Sibelius, but still continue create music recognized as Finnish. Each of the chapters is a self-contained unit and follows a similar pattern. There is a general overview and biography for each composer, followed by detailed analyses of three representative orchestral works, in chronological order show a of stylistic development. Howell has selected orchestral music because it permits an assessment that is intrinsic the music itself- and not swayed by the potentially distorting effect of setting Finnish texts (p.viii). book strives for a sense of connection between biography and composition and an approach, structure, language and content designed connect with as wide a readership as possible (p. ix). Each chapter begins with a general overview and increases in analytical detail as it progresses, allowing readers study whatever depth they desire. first chapter discusses The Shadow of Sibelius. A 1993 documentary film entitled Valaiseva varjo [The Shadow that Casts Light] points the fact that every Finnish of the twentieth century has been measured by Sibelius's accomplishments. At the same time Sibelius was personally very supportive of younger composers and encouraged them find their own voices. Sibelius stopped composing after 1926, perhaps because he felt he could not make meaningful contributions many of the new currents in the twentieth century. That contribution would be left the next generation. In the documentary, leading Finnish composers are asked which of Sibelius's works were most influential them. Several mentioned the Sixth Symphony and Tapiola as most influential, so Howell gives an analysis of each of these works. We tend think of Sibelius as a nineteenth-century romantic composer, but Howell makes a persuasive argument that he should also be considered a progressive composer of the twentieth century in a style of classicism (pp. 9-10). next eight chapters feature biographies and detailed analyses of works by eight composers who came After Sibelius. Aarre Merikanto (1893-1958) was one of the first Finnish modernist composers. He studied both in Leipzig and Moscow around the time of World War I. According Howell he was always out of step with the times, Too modern be understood at the time, his works were revived when it was too late appreciate their novelty (p. …

Sibelius, Bartók, and the “Anxiety of Influence” in Post World War II Finnish Music

Jean Sibelius and Béla Bartók, two composers from the fringe of Europe, had to create space for themselves in the midst of Austro-German dominance of turn-of-the-century music. Both encountered in the hitherto unknown folk music of their respective countries an “Other” that enabled them to develop an idiom different from the mainstream but equally coherent. Sibelius became in Finland's a national hero due to his patriotic music from the turn-of-the-century. As a consequence, his figure grew into mountainous dimensions, and many of his successors were doomed to live under his shadow. After World War II a new beginning was needed. Anxious of the influence of Sibelius and searching for a new starting point young composers encountered the music of Bartók, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, the otherness of which enabled them to “misread” the Sibelian tradition in a creative manner. Especially important was Bartók, notably for Joonas Kokkonen (1921-96). Some later composers, for whom Sibelius was not a problem anymore, were looking in Bartók's works for new patterns of misprision.

Historical dictionary of the music and musicians of Finland

Introduction Map of Finland and Key to Music Festivals Key to Finnish Pronounciation The Dictionary Appendix A: A Chronology of Finnish Music History Appendix B: A Chronology of Finnish History Selected Bibliography Index

Impressions of Finnish Music Research

I still regard Alan Merriam as my greatest teacher. Not to go into detail, but it is easy to accept his view by (1) replacing his word conceptualization with brain-functioning or thinking, and (2) accepting that what he called a product is anything between heaven and earth-such as, for example, the underlying culture behind the production of T-shirts with faces of Elvis and Mozart on them, or the advisory board of a city opera, or the system of copyright laws, or the international music business. But this leads us to a fundamental question of ethnomusicology. If a student does a very detailed study of the cultural functions behind a T-shirt business but knows nothing about how to make sense of musical syntax, what is she? If a linguist cannot analyze language, is he a linguist? He is not. If a sociologist does a study on music marketing or on discourse about music, this makes her neither an ethnomusicologist nor a linguist. She is neverthless conducting ethnomusicological research. I possess no skills for studying the syntax of dance but I am deeply interested in dancing as a mode of human communicative behavior. Yet my deepest interest certainly does not make me an ethnochoreologist. Hence, in my view, it is necessary to make a distinction between the history of a discipline (which usually is characterized by an accumulation of knowledge produced by researchers of separate disciplines) and an academic specialization. From my point of departure, an ethnomusicologist is a scholar who specializes in the study of music and areas around it which are related in one way or another to the music: for example, dance, soundscape, the nervous system or musical instruments. An ethnomusicologist does not always need to conduct ethnomusicological or any other kind of research. The main point is this: if a researcher understands that what she is dealing with is a part of human culture telling her facts or clues about the internal and invisible contents of human nature-then I consider her an ethnomusicologist. And then, the object of the actual study can be whatever the researcher considers worth researching.

Sibelius and the Development of Finnish Music

Sibelius and the Development of Finnish Music

"Inga-Play!" The Memoirs of Inga Hoegsbro Christensen, Pianist and Leading Exponent of Scandinavian and Finnish Music in America

"Inga-Play!" The Memoirs of Inga Hoegsbro Christensen, Pianist and Leading Exponent of Scandinavian and Finnish Music in America