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‘The bird sang in the darkness’: Rautavaara and the voice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2015

Ivan Moody
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Extract

The biographical facts about Einojuhani Rautavaara are quickly told, but are highly indicative of two important aspects of both his character and his music; namely his thoroughness of technique and his cosmopolitan outlook. He was born in 1928, the son of an opera singer. He studied composition initially with Aarre Merikanto at the Sibelius Academy, and then went to the United States in 1955 on a scholarship (awarded at Sibelius's recommendation) to study with Copland, Persichetti, and Sessions. Later he went to Switzerland and studied further with Wladimir Vogel, and in Cologne with Rudolf Petzold. In his turn Rautavaara has become much respected as a teacher, and was awarded the honorary title of Professor of Arts in 1971. Since 1976 he has himself taught composition at the Sibelius Academy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 181 , June 1992 , pp. 19 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

1 See Rautavaara, Einojuhani: Omakuva, Helsinki 1990 Google Scholar and review by Alio, Kalevi in Finnish Music Quarterly 1/1990, pp. 79–81 Google Scholar.

2 See Heiniö, Mikko: ‘A Portrait of the Artist at a Certain Moment’, in FMQ 2/1988, pp. 4–5 Google Scholar, and Rautavaara, Einojuhani: ‘On a Taste for the Infinite’, in Contemporary Sacred Music (Contemporary Music feview, forthcoming 1992)Google Scholar.

3 Though it is important to note that Rautavaara himself has said, in an analytical article he published on the work: ‘The way in which the materials were used is a process in itself. The idea of symbolizing the opera's different cultural elements by means of different tonal materials seemed both unnecessarily academic and at the same time an overly naīve approach.’ (‘Thomas – analysis of the tone material’, in FMQ 1/1985, pp. 47–53)Google Scholar.

4 Rautavaara has examined the way in which 12-note structures and ‘pandiatonic fields’ and other manifestations of tonal writing interact in the opera (ibid.).

5 See booklet accompanying the recording of Vincent on Ondine ODE 750–5.

6 See Tempo 177, 06 1991, p. 64 Google Scholar.

7 The chamber opera The House of the Sun was given its premiere by the Finnish National Opera in Lappeenranta in April 1991.