Music Finland Core

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ad puram annihilationem meam ("to the purest annihilation of my self") came about as a highly specific request from Nils Schweckendiek and the Helsinki Chamber Choir for a solemn, spiritual piece using a French text, for inclusion on an Easter-time program of French music from the Middle Ages to the present. The performance would also include an original choreography drawing on the Japanese noh theater tradition, commissioned especially for the occasion from dancer-choreographer Nina Hyvärinen.Overwhelmed by the many demands and restrictions of the project, not to mention my own reluctance to set an explicitly Christian text, I initially despaired of ever finding words that would be both appropriate and, for me, an honest expression. After a little research, though, I rediscovered the Jesuit priest and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, whose writings I had studied in high school. Despite his occasionally dubious evolutionary theories, I'd remembered being intrigued by his attempts to reconcile his scientific learning with his deep faith, the rational and the mystical, as it were, which to me spoke of a very human need in the face of creation for both comprehension and awe. Reading through his 1923 tract La messe sur le monde ("The Mass on the World"), I realized that Teilhard's mystical personal closeness to the Divine was analogous in many ways to the Buddhist concept of dissolution of self, albeit expressed in Christian terms, creating a neat intersection between my Catholic upbringing and education and my later interest in Japanese religion and aesthetics. Teilhard was offering up a fervent prayer for self-immolation – not of a destructive, punitive nature, but one of quiet, radiant transcendence of affirmation and negation, self and "other" – a concept referred to in Zen texts as 'mu' (emptiness), through which 'satori' (enlightenment) is ultimately attained.The music juxtaposes facets of Christian liturgy, like plainchant, with a more spacious ritual atmosphere influenced by gagaku music. The Latin portion of the text, in which Teilhard repeats the prayer for annihilation in the language of Catholic ritual, was its most attractive feature: I've long been an admirer of the haunting, virtuosic and unconventional music of Hildegard of Bingen, and was thrilled to finally have the chance to write a sort of plainchant of my own. This music opens and closes the work, framing the central rite, which is more responsory in character. The percussion part, written to be performed by the vocalists, plays a minimal but central role, with tuned glasses providing a halo for the chant passages, and a bass drum and antique cymbals punctuating the starker middle section, marking time and shaping the silences, and providing the rhythmic impulse for the dancer. A large gong adds its weight to the penultimate section, in which the long-desired illumination is glimpsed.I am deeply grateful to the Sibelius Fund for making this commission possible, and to the Seaside Institute in Seaside, Florida, for the gift of time and space, both physical and mental, that enabled me to complete the work.© Matthew Whittall (2008)

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Abbreviation	Instrument
Woodwind
acl	alto clarinet
afl	alto flute
arec	alto recorder
asax	alto saxophone
barsax	baritone saxophone
barhn	baritone horn
bcl	bass clarinet
bfl	bass flute
bob	bass oboe
bsax	bass saxophone
bsn	bassoon
cbsn	contrabassoon
cl	clarinet
ehn	English horn
fl	flute
hn	French horn
ob	oboe
pic	piccolo
rec	recorder
sax	saxophone
srec	soprano recorder
ssax	soprano saxophone
trec	tenor recorder
tsax	tenor saxophone
Brass
ahn	alto horn
atrb	altotrombone
barhn	baritone horn
btrb	bass trombone
cornet	cornet
euph	euphonium
fhn	flugelhorn
hn	French horn
tba	tuuba
thn	tenor horn
trb	trombone
trp	trumpet
Percussion
dr	drums
glock	glockenspiel
mar	marimba
perc	percussion
timp	timpani
vibr	vibraphone
xyl	xylophone
Strings
db	double bass
gamba	viola da gamba
str	strings
vla	viola
vlc	cello
vln	violin
Other
acc	accordion
cel	celesta
cemb	harpsichord
chords	chords
elbas	electric bass
elg	electric guitar
elorg	electric organ
elpno	electric piano
guit	guitar
harm	harmonium
hca	harmonica
hp	harp
instr	instrument
kantele	kantele
keyb	keyboard
live electr	live electronics
mand	mandolin
mel	melody
org	organ
pno	piano
synth	synthesizer
tape	tape
Vocal
alto	alto
baryt	baritone
basso	bass voice
ch	choir
chc	childrens choir
chf	female choir
chm	male choir
chx	mixed choir
cten	countertenor
mezzo	mezzo-soprano
sopr	soprano
speaker	speaker
ten	tenor
voc	vocal

Symphony orchestra
2222 4331 11 1, str = 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 French horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, one other percussionist, harp and strings
Wind band
2252 3 423 21212 3 = 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 5 clarinets, 2 bassoons - 3 saxophones - 4 French horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones - 2 cornets, alto horn, 2 tenor horns, baritone horn, 2 tubas - 3 percussionists
Big band
221 4 4, pno, guit, db, dr = 2 alto saxophones, 2 tenor saxophones, baritone saxophone, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, piano, guitar, double bass, drums
Additional codes
+	fl+pic = flutist doubles on piccolo
/	pno/org = can be played on either piano or organ
lib	ad libitum
obl	obligato
str	str: 65432 = specified number of string players
str min	str min: 65432 = at least 65432
str max	str max: 65432 = not more than 65432
solo	vln solo = violin is the solo instrument in a work not obviously for solo violin