Taiga

by Tomi Räisänen

for recorder quintet and tape

Description

In 2012 I travelled to the Sakhalin Island located in the far east of Russia. Following in the footsteps of the author Anton Chekhov, I familiarised myself with the island’s colourful history. Chekhov spent some time on Sakhalin in 1890, when the island was used as a penal colony, and published his experiences in an enthralling travel journal (Остров Сахалин, 1895). Sahalin is a large island and has been influenced very little by man. The scenery is dominated by taiga, fir forest typical to the far Northern Hemisphere, which gives this recorder quintet its title. For a long while Sahalin was ruled rather obscurely both by the Russians and the Japanese, but at the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 the island was split through the centre at 50°0’N. Japan ruled its southern half (Karafuto) until the end of World War II when the whole island became Soviet Union owned. The village Due (Дуэ), which used to house the first official Russian settlement on Sahalin, is currently in an incredibly dilapidated state. In the last movement the recorder parts are accompanied by a tape on which we hear two speeches from the time of WWII: In June 1941 the Soviet Union’s premier Molotov informs his citizens about the Nazi German attack and Soviet Union’s engagement in the war. The second voice on the tape belongs to emperor Hirohito who announces to his subjects Japan’s surrender in August 1945.

Tomi Räisänen, 2013 (translation: Katriina Boosey)

Instrumentation

5rec, tape

Category

Chamber Works

Premiere

Fontanella: Rebecca Austen-Brown, Katriina Boosey, Louise Bradbury, Sarah Humphrys, Annabel Knight, August 17, 2013, Binham, U.K.

Movements

I. Таига (Taiga), II. 50°0’N, III. Дуз (Due)

Commisioned by / dedications

Dedicated Fontanella. Commissioned with funds from the Arts Council of Finland & Teosto.

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More

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Archive number

MF34666

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