Music Finland Core

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My opus 36 is the result of a NOMUS (i.e. inter-nordic) commission concerning a work for an orchestra of moderate size. The title page of the score bears the growing figure pattern, which was my original identification (‘title’) for the work. So ‘Triangulus’ (as I called it until this sunmer) was only a verbalization, and Dia is simply my new verbalization of an unchanged pictorial ‘title’. I wanted first of all to eliminate the allusion to number three, because in many respects the number of this piece is five — often ‘my’ number in general. One connotation of the title-pattern is its wedge-form, which characterizes many sound-gestures of the music. But mainly, and verbalized as Dia, it refers to the idea of an arrow pointing through the multidimensional musical space of the piece — the beginning of a trajectory crossing through all of it, visiting every point, but a trajectory free of any preordained form or curvature.These trajectories were my main interest in this piece. Their relative freedom is based on my view of musical form and musical time as not a real flow, but only (?) a memory and an anticipation inside the present — a spatialized, pictorialized concept of the flow of time.Form for me is not so much a psychological process resembling an experiment or a provocation unfolding while the piece is being listened to for the first time, but rather an idea of time — when we have a score, a tape or a disc, or an accurate enough image of the piece in our memory. Anticipation, then, does not mean guessing what is to come; rather, past and future (i.e. what we know of the rest of the work) condition the present moment as different details of any ‘significant form’ or gestalt condition each other — and then of course you have the kind of dynamics of arranging different stimuli which govern the composition of a good dinner. And my refutation of time is not a refusation of the sensual aspect of mystery, the ever renewed re-cognition of each work’s timeless world — a potentially more positive isle of lotus-eaters. My ‘significant forms’ have a certain resemblance with film director’s technique of ever-moving camera — they are ‘super-melodies’ and their ‘intervals’ are shifts of interest from one parameter to another.An attentive listener may easily perceive fluctuations concerning the validity of this statement for different sections of the work. Generally I feel rather strongly about a number of musical taboos; so the fact that I am in some sections balancing on the dangerous fringes of some obvious taboos should not earn me the contempt of those who have still stronger taboos — nobody should be deceived about the density of the sieves after which I do have permitted those passages.Some friend may find disappointing my neglect of seeking ‘previously unheard sounds’. My decision in this piece is not altogether representative, because it was qualified by the commission to write music ‘of not more than moderate technical difficulty’. Still, music for me is not ‘organized sound’, but rather organizations of sound, or relationships, so that when only sounds have been heard, then the attempted criticism ‘deja entendu’ becomes an admission ‘pas encore entendu’. I seek, and would like you to hear, a new ‘tone of voice’ as constituted by the particular geometric laws of my multidimensional musical space.Dia is in one continuous movement but contains five distinct sections. The opening section is clearly the ‘main movement’ with its oen type of distribution of change and continuity. As descriptions of sections I might give the following two sets of titles (which of course may be replaced by a third one or altogether withdrawn after the premiere): I ...line to plane..., II triangles, III points, IV waves, V wedgesorI lambent, II labile, III mobile, IV haptile, V rampant.”© Paavo Heininen, 1979

Year of composing

Arranger

Movements

Availability

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

DIA