Einojuhani Rautavaara Stylistic Development - Essay Example

October 18, 2008. Living Composer Einojuhani Rautavaara Einojuhani Rautavaara is one of the renowned classical composers who has gone through various stages of stylistic development. He was born on October 9, 1928 in Helsinki, Finland and had graduated form the namesake university in 1952. He also serviced as a lecturer at Sibelius Academy from 1966 to 1971 and was then appointed as Professor in Arts at State position. But eventually bending towards his main field, he has devoted himself fully to composing music. "Since 1990 he has devoted himself exclusively to composition, his music having received numerous awards and been featured on many recordings." He made the marvelous beginning with "A Requiem in Our Time" in 1953 and won his first award in the Thor Johnson composition competition in U.S.A. in 1954. ....awards and been featured on many recordings." Naxos.com. Naxos-The World's Leading Classical Music Label. Most of Rautavaara's works have been recorded with his Symphony No. 7 been performed too. His works hint Modernism as well Romanticism and even show Constructivism and Mysticism. He can be well said to be a mediator in the creative process. In regard to the absence of history as Post-Modernist and being a Romantic he himself commented, "A Romantic has no coordinates. In time, he is yesterday or tomorrow, never today. In space, he is over there or over yonder, never here." He also demonstrated an extended approach in his Neo-Classical period. Among his early piano works, "Kolme symmetrist preludia (Three Symmetrical Preludes, 1949) was Constructivist; "Pelimannit" (Fiddlers, 1952) was folklorish; and "Ikonit" (Icons, 1955) stemmed from Orthodox mysticism." ...........from Orthodox mysticism." Fimic.fi. Einojuhani Rautavaara: A composer of Many Personas. Rautavaara has marked the field in various musical ensembles as orchestral music, works for string orchestra, solo instrumental works, chamber music and vocal music. He writes extremely melodious tunes with depth and without being artificial which is surly a great achievement in present music scenario. Einojuhani Rautavaara's works are clear influences of the most complex human emotions. The main characters are always tangled within their hopes and fears, memories and hallucinations etc. The characters are the inspirations of the actual people from history but the operas are not the mere depiction of real historical events. He has well experimented with his characters for example the title characters in "'Thomas', "Vincent" and "Aleksis Kivi", the title characters are exceptional (one might almost say deviant) individuals; in "Auringon talo", the main characters are misfits on the fringe of society..." "..misfits on the fringe of society." Fimic.fi. Einojuhani Rautavaara: A composer of Many Personas. In his works it has been seen that the layers of time form Czars to contemporary, from Romantic to Neo-Classical keep intermingling without any specific relevance but the memory plays vital role in Proustian manner. His first award winning work "A Requiem in Our Time" had clear influences of Nordic classicism of Sibelius and Nielsen as well as that of Bartok, Shostakovich and folk music. In his early career he experimented with serial technique but those didn't come out to be real series. He tried to work upon it in his Symphony No. 3 but it seemed more like Anton Bruckner than the traditional serialists as Pierre Boulez. His later works reflect mystical element having referencing to angels - a menacing figure than being cherubic for him. "A characteristic 'Rautavaara sound' might be a rhapsodic string theme of austere beauty, with whirling flute lines, gently dissonant bells, and perhaps the suggestion of a pastoral horn." ......... suggestion of a pastoral horn." Classicalcat.net. Classical Cat- The Free Classical Catalogue. Rautavaara has been greatly fascinated by metaphysical subjects. It is not any doctrine which held his belief in this nut the words of a German Philosopher, Friedrich Schleiermacher that "true religion is sense and taste for the infinite. He is a mystic and considers that his works are already live in some "another reality" and he only does the job of bringing them into this world via his works. He himself said, "I firmly believe that compositions have a will of their own, though some people smile at the concept." Symphony # 7 Einojuhani Rautavaara has gone through various stylistic phases one being greatly admired through his Symphony # 7, Angel of Light. The title itself depicts the beauty of the music and the spiritual touch which has attracted various international admirers too. He can been seen portrayed on numerous prestigious music magazines with awe after Symphony No. 7. In this work he has kept his original style intact using all the knowledge he has acquired in his career till date. He has been able to revive the interest in the contemporary music of all those who respect spiritual content but have abandoned the New Age music due to its continued deterioration. His other similar thematic works as "Angels and Visitations" and "Angel of Dusk: have also been regarded with respect and have been recorded too. His Symphony No. 7, Angel of Light was composed in 1994 and was preformed by Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Leif Segerstam on the Ondine Label. It reached the heights of success and was even recorded and nominated with several prestigious awards including Grammy. It belongs to his Angel series and is said to have inspired by his childhood dreams and revelations. Its wide popularity is due to the deep spiritual touch. Other recording companies in line were Naxos Records and BIS Records with orchestras of Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Lahti Symphony Orchestra respectively. The four tracks forming the Symphony, Angel of Light are Tranquillo, Molto allegro, Come un sogno and Pesante - Cantabile. Symphony No. 7 was composed in the vein of string-heavy Neo-Romanticism. It features "tuneful melodicism over consonant or mildly dissonant, sometimes polytonal harmonic structures." ......... polytonal harmonic structures." Richhorner.com. Rautavaara - Symphony 7. Edward Horner. Richard. April, 2007. Rautavaara says about the mystical element that, "It is probably down to the spirit of the times, the Zeitgeist. After all, angels are popular now. I felt self-conscious about putting angels in the titles of my works in the 1970s, when my colleagues were giving their works matter-of-fact titles such as Structures for Strings. Now, I feel self-conscious about the fact that angels have become popular in a banal sense with the New Age phenomenon." For these extra-mystical referencing Rautavaara himself quotes that, "the angels I had in mind were akin to the terrifying, masculine figures bursting with saintly fury." He quotes Rilke and refers that angels are terrible. He doesn't confide with believe that these are figures from children's fairy tales but are the archetype that were always present since the age old tradition of mankind. He recalls the Christian mythology saying that demons are angels too. The Symphony resembles the works of Bartok more theoretically and owes more to Sibelius aesthetically using the typical sonata-esque four movement framework and the exaggerated tonal techniques of diatonic and non diatonic referential structuralism. It is in no way conventional being Neo-Romanticism than Neo-Classicism. It has various thematic statements. The two main theme groups are "diatonic with the first having background harmonic interruptions in a different key." ............ in a different key." Richhorner.com. Rautavaara - Symphony 7. Edward Horner. Richard. April, 2007. Most of the music which has been used is diatonicism for its harmony and pentatonicism for its melody. This is what makes the piece so unique and adorable. The combination of the sound in terms of pitch usually seeming disparate and the instruments used is greatly remarkable. Rautavaara's Symphony No. 7, Angel of Light is in no way a medium to bring any revolutionary change but is infact a melodious romantic composition depicting outstanding musical knowledge combining various modern as well as traditional classical elements of music. Sources: 1. Fimic.com. Einojuhani Rautavaara: A composer of Many Personas. October 18, 2008. 2. Richhorner.com. Rautavaara - Symphony 7. Edward Horner. Richard. April, 2007. October 18, 2008. < http://richhorner.com/writings> 3. Classicalcat.net. Classical Cat- The Free Classical Catalogue. October 18, 2008. 4. Naxos.com. Naxos-The World's Leading Classical Music Label. October 18, 2008. 5. Virtual.finland. Virtual Finland - Your Window on Finland. November, 2001. October 18, 2008. Read More