...tyttöjen kävely ruusulehdossa...

by Paavo Heininen

...flickorna gingo i rosendelund..., ...floral view with maidens singing...

for string orchestra

Empty sheet

Paavo Heininen

...tyttöjen kävely ruusulehdossa...

Fennica Gehrman

Description

This work was composed in late summer, 1982, during a pause in the composition of The Damask Drum and at around the time I began working on my first computer composition DICTA. This music needs even less explanation than any other: the Finnish folk melody ‘Det gingo två flickor i rosende lund’ is probably familiar to many listeners just as it is to me in the arrangement for string orchestra by Karl Ekman. The world of folk music as a whole is just as remote to me since ‘tyttöjen kävely’, as it was before; the next ‘trad’ melody to interest me is more likely to come from jazz than from folk music.

The manuscript of this work bears different variants on the name: ...floral view with maidens singing... in English, while the German text claims that the work is ‘harmonic-contrapuntal variations on a traditional melody’. Both are true, and I wish to stress both the importance of the clearly conscious approach and the vital affinity between this approach with a warm acceptance of the fullness of life. Before being transformed into action, clear consciousness must be clearly conceptualised: let not ‘rational argument’ mean a propensity for denying half the things reason does indeed know to be inherently human; let not ‘realism’ mean doing whatever is easy to execute with eyes closed to the future; let not the word ‘sin’ be used as a vexed code name for eroticism when it is unfashionable to call war a sin.

The floral view is thus a study in the technique of composition, including form and melody and not just harmony, but at the same time it is a little ‘symphonic poem’ about twilight and light, waiting, fulfilment and rest — for almost all music is a reflection of the patterns of our existence. The work was commissioned and first performed by the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra under its conductor Juha Kangas.

© Paavo Heininen

Paavo Heinisen ...tyttöjen kävely ruusulehdossa... on monitasoinen fantasia länsiuusimaalaisesta kansansävelmästä ”Det gingo två flickor i rosendelund”. Lainatakseni säveltäjän kommenttia ’tytöistään’ se on ”tutkielma sävellystekniikasta, myös muodosta ja melodiasta eikä vain harmoniasta, mutta samalla pieni ’sinfoninen runoelma’ hämärästä ja valosta, odotuksesta, täyttymyksestä ja levosta – melkein kaikki musiikkihan on tällaisten olemassaolomme voimakenttien kuvioiden rinnakkaiskuvia. Teos on sävelletty Keski-Pohjanmaan Kamariorkesterin tilauksesta, he sen myös kantaesittivät Juha Kankaan johdolla.

Paavo Heininens ...flickorna gingo i rosendelund... är en flerdimensionell fantasi över en västnyländsk folksång med samma namn. För att citera kompositörens kommentar om sina ’flickor’, är det här ”en forskning i kompositionsteknik, också i form och i melodi och inte bara i harmoni, men samtidigt ett litet ’symfoniskt poem’ om skymning och ljus, om förväntan, uppfyllelse och vila nästan all musik är ju en dylik parallellbild av kraftfälten i vår existens. Verket komponerades på beställning av Mellersta Österbottens Kammarorkester, och det uruppfördes av dem under ledning av Juha Kangas.


Instrumentation

str


Category

Works for Orchestra or Large Ensemble


Opus no.

op.47


Premiere

Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, cond. Juha Kangas, Kokkola, 8 April 1983


Commisioned by / dedications

Commissioned by the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra


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