Fyra tolkningar av Claes Anderssons dikter

by Lauri Kilpiö

After the poems by Claes Andersson (1937–2019)

for cello and piano

Description

Programme note on Lauri Kilpiö’s suite Fyra tolkningar av Claes Anderssons dikter (2022–2025) for cello and piano

Claes Andersson (1937–2019) was a Fenno-Swedish writer, who also worked successfully as a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, politician, jazz-pianist and even as a professional football player. In 2020, after Andersson’s death, his widow, psychiatrist Katriina Kuusi, commissioned me to write a duo suite for cello and piano, whose movements would be inspired by Andersson’s poems. I chose four texts by him, representing different periods of the writer, leading into the suite Fyra tolkningar av Claes Anderssons dikter [Four Interpretations of Claes Andersson’s Poems].

The suite is divided, according to the titles of the poems, into the four following movements:

I Etude för sommarvind (Study for the Summer Wind; duration ca. 7 minutes)

II Rumskamrater (Room Mates; duration ca. 6 minutes)

III Andersson för ett jävla oljud (Andersson Makes a Damn Racket; duration ca. 8 minutes)

IV Jag saknar din mun, din hud och dina händer (I Long for Your Mouth, Your Skin and Your Hands; duration ca. 4 minutes)

Etude för sommarvind (1970) is a love poem rich in wordplay. Rumskamrater (1974) portrays the residents of a psychiatric hospital, while Andersson för ett jävla oljud (1984) reflects a period of crisis in life. The poem Jag saknar din mun, din hud och dina händer (2015), in turn, is marked by a sense of calm and feelings that foreshadow the end of life.

The relationship between text and music varies from movement to movement, gradually shifting from a loose to an increasingly close connection. The first movement is a free musical fantasy inspired by the poem’s exuberant mood. In the second movement, the music follows the poem’s stanzaic structure, though not the details of the text. The poem in the third movement consists of thirty-three self-accusatory statements; accordingly, the music is divided into thirty-three scenes that convey their dark emotional (albeit simultaneously even somewhat ironic) tone. This movement may also be performed as a melodrama, with spoken recitation. The fourth movement is, in effect, a lied in which every syllable of the text has been set to music—only the sung words themselves are absent.

The suite may be performed in its entirety, or only a single part / selected parts of it may be performed.

The audience should be made aware of the texts and their contents in one way or another. I am proposing the following manners for achieving this:

• The texts can be printed into a program leaflet or book. Outside Finland and Nordic countries, a translation into English and/or a local language should be provided, along with the original language version.
  


• The text(s) can be read aloud before the performance of the music. Outside Finland and Nordic countries, a translation into English and/or a local language should be provided.
  


• The text(s) can be projected into a screen during the performance. Outside Finland and Nordic countries, a translation into English and/or a local language should be provided, along with the original language version.
  


• As for the 3rd movement Andersson för ett jävla oljud, the text can be even recited aloud during the performance, making the work and its performance in effect a melodrama. Outside Finland and Nordic countries, a translation into English and/or a local language can then be used.
  

As a composer, I am not having a preference for any of these options over the others.

Instrumentation

vlc, pno

Category

Chamber Works

Lyricist

Claes Andersson

Premiere

Tatu Kauppinen, cello, Paavali Jumppanen, piano, at Katriina Kuusi's home concert August 24, 2025

Movements

I Etude för sommarvind, II Rumskamrater, III Andersson för ett jävla oljud, IV Jag saknar din mun, din hud och dina händer

Commissioned by / Dedicated to

Commissioned by Katriina Kuusi

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