Music Finland Core

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The title Rytyli is named after a rolling hill in Sotkamo, which rises 303 m above the sea level. It is located near our cottage and I see it every day in front of me in the Kainuu wilderness. Rytyli is a wild place. Lynxes, wolves and deer roam there. In the winter, owls rumor, in the summer the noise of various crickets, capercaillies and wildfowl is dizzying. Whooper swans nest at the foot of the Rytyli in a small lake. The place is important to me, not only as visually impressive spruce forest but also as a hiking and berry-picking grounds. It also evokes all sorts of images and stories that are processed in this orchestral work as well. Parts of it are of personal significance to me, but they equally describe the mythical states of Kainuu in the middle of this significant wilderness.The Guest can be any guest, perhaps uninvited or otherwise just uncomfortable. It can be a shadow above a spruce tree or a disease inside a person. It can be a mind-polluting fancy or character trait. It can be a virus gnawing at humanity or a global lust.The second part, the Bully, is playful, teasing, or rival in nature. The bully can tease because of his sheer need for intimacy but also to keep others on their toes. A glimpse of the Hunger Country Song composed by Oskar Merikanto ties part of it tightly to Kainuu and its wilderness.The third part, The Tomb, is the end of the story. Everyone will fall into the grave. The place can also be a home and haven where birds sing and paradise smells. From the top of Rytyli you can see the rolling hill of Vuokatti and Nuas-lake from afar. Snow piles on top of trees and the rocky slopes turn smooth and white shimmering in the winter. During the summer, the streams rumble and give their voice to the surroundings. The rolling hill thus tells a variety of stories and its hundreds of years old timber logs have seen much more than several generations combined in their lifetime. So the grave does not have to be the end of everything, but perhaps the beginning of something new.The work is built entirely on variations of small thematic / harmonic theme, as is usually the case in my works. The instrumentation is a Sinfonietta with two percussionists. The duration is about 12' + 6' + 10 '. The work was composed during 2019. The Guest set off in January, continued in March and was completed in the summer. The second part was born in the latter part of the year and the third part in the summer.Jan Lehtola, 2020

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