Music Finland Core

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”The starting point for Moiré was the orchestral work Usvapatsas (Sculpted mist), which I wrote for the Finnish Rso in 2017. In Usvapatsas the french horns parts were written in just intonation and played as if the horns were natural horns with no valve mechanism. Tommi Hyytinen, the future commissioner of Moiré, was performing the piece in the horn section of rso, and soon after the premiere he approached me with a suggestion to write a concerto for him – a natural horn concerto.Moiré continues my exploration to combine microtonal elements with predominantly equally tempered instruments. In Moiré the natural horns in just intonation and the slightly tempered Baroque orchestra are put against each other, confronted and merged. In the piece the two temperament systems co-exist together and provide harmonic and melodic possibilities that neither of the temperament systems would do alone.The 20-minute concerto is in three separate movements with distinct characters. The first movement opens with solo horn introduction, leading to richly orchestrated tutti that introduces the key themes of the concerto: two different temperament systems, the extended harmonic possibilities made possible by the just temperament's microtonal deviations from equal temperament and the dense micro interval interference of frequencies that are very close to each other. These interferences are usually created by the natural horns with different fundaments, such as horn in G vs. horn in Eb, where a lot of very sharp dissonant opportunities arise as the number of exact unisonos may be very limited (in fact, with G and Eb horn scales there are zero unisonos within the first 20 partials of the G and Eb overtone scales!). In the concerto the interferences are harmonically treated as dissonances, which can – and will – be resolved to a consonant in a pretty much same manner than what is stated in the classical theory of functional harmony, where dissonances are resolved to consonant by (contrary) motion of voice(s). The sharp dissonant interferences that are an essential part of the concerto have also given concerto its title Moiré, – a term borrowed from visual sciences with obvious and immediate parallels in music.The second movement is a characteristic 'fast movement', where the solo horn (in G) and the orchestral horn (in C) get a chance to play rapid and flashy ascending and descending scales in parallel intervals (fifths). The peaceful co-existence of just and equal temperaments is the dominant feature of the second movement, as well as the presence of several sharp textural cuts – something that I rarely do, and which do not happen elsewhere in the concerto. The final movement is focused on interference, sound color and harmony. The solo horn interludes and solo cadenza bring melodic content to the movement, which is static and transparent in its nature." (Olli Virtaperko, 2021)

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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